The new world of leadership - the ego is out

Employees and members used to maybe know just your name, your face, your reputation.

Now they can know your salary, your hometown, your connections on LinkedIn, how much your house is worth. They know more than ever, and you’re under pressure to share more than ever, too – 76% of global executives think it’s a good idea for their CEO to be on social media.

What’s the impact on you personally as you step into this social media spotlight? What’s the impact on your organisation, your sport?

Good leaders have always stepped out of their comfort zones, but converging global megatrends are putting more pressure on those at the top to navigate a faster, more complex, more integrated, and more transparent world.

In my recent book, Leadership 2030: The six megatrends you need to understand to lead your company into the future, my colleague and I examined the repercussions of the convergence of major forces like globalisation, climate change, increased individualism, and accelerating digitisation.

Among our findings is that leadership in the future will involve increased personal and business-level discomfort.

Leaders will have to cope with the blurring of private and public life – and they will have to forge new relationships with a multitude of stakeholders and reach out through a variety of media. This requires new skills and mindsets. Ego is on its way out.

Technology alone offers several sources of discomfort. Leaders will increasingly be called to evaluate and implement new technologies they don’t always understand and can’t control, for example data mining opportunities to find new ways to attract members or add value to sponsors and the commercial value of bitcoin.

As connectivity-enabling technology and increasing individualisation change how people interact, leaders must think broader about who their stakeholders are and engage with them through new media.

Leaders must acquire digital wisdom, even if they lack digital knowledge.

The combination of digitization with globalisation and increasing demands for choice will complicate the usual processes and relationships between members and organisations. Everyone wants something just that little bit different and unique.

But possibly the biggest adjustment for leaders of today is a power shift that is requiring major changes to how they think and work. Many are accustomed to command-and-control, to fear over love, and to “lead, follow, or get out of the way.”

But hierarchies in most organisations – of all sorts – are flattening as power moves away from the top and toward the proliferation of external stakeholders.

Even within the UK, markets are splintering and different groups have distinctive attitudes and desires.

Leaders motivated by power over others will not thrive in this new world.

We will see more “altrocentric” leaders, who understand that leadership is a relationship and will therefore primarily focus on others rather than themselves.

Adept at engaging rather than commanding, they see themselves as just one integral part of the whole. Altrocentric leaders will be capable of long-term vision encompassing both global and local perspectives.

David McClelland points out that both emotionally intelligent leaders and their egocentric counterparts tend to be motivated by power; they enjoy having an impact on others.

The difference is in the type of power driving them: Egocentric leaders tend to be concerned only with personalised power – power that gets them ahead. Altrocentric leaders, on the other hand, derive power from motivating, not controlling, others.

The altrocentric leader who is intrinsically motivated by socialised power, and who draws strength and satisfaction from teaching, teambuilding, and empowering others, will be able to handle the increased pressure of tomorrow’s business environment.

They understand that they need not “have all the answers” themselves, and this mindset and willingness to turn to others for help better equips them to handle the stress of the uneasy chair.

All leaders will see life become more chaotic and overwhelming, and their struggles and management will be more visible than ever.

Egocentric leaders will have a difficult time evolving, if they even can, and will be unable to thrive in such discomfort. Organisations need to develop leaders who are motivated by altrocentric leadership.

They will be better prepared to succeed in 2030 and beyond.

A version of this was originally posted at www.hbr.org

Yvonne Sell is the Director of the Hay Group, originally from Canada. She has worked with numerous local and global organisations in the leadership and talent areas, helping define strategies and processes to drive performance. She is co-author of Leadership 2030, listed in the top 30 books of 2014.