We are creating the 21st century every day.
Tom Friedman has penned a thought-provoking oped, “One Country, Two Revolutions.”
In discussing the ongoing social media revolution underway in Silicon Valley, Friedman turns to 21st century leadership:
Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce.com, a cloud-based software provider, describes this phase of the I.T. revolution with the acronym SOCIAL. S, he says, is for speed — everything is now happening faster. O, he says, stands for open. If you don’t have an open environment inside your company or country, these new tools will blow you wide open. C is for collaboration because this revolution enables people to organize themselves within companies and societies into loosely coupled teams to take on any kind of challenges — from designing a new product to taking down a government. I is for individuals, who are able to reach around the globe to start something or collaborate on something farther, faster, deeper, cheaper than ever before — as individuals.
A is for alignment. “There has never been a more important time to have all your ships sailing in the same direction,” said Benioff. “The power of social media is that it is easier than ever to both articulate, and reinforce, the vision and values that create and inspire alignment.” And L is for the leadership that does that. Leadership in a SOCIAL world has to be a mix of bottom-up and top-down. Leaders need to inspire, enable and empower everything coming up from below in a company or a social movement and then edit and sculpt it with a vision from above into a final product.
Are you equipped to serve–and lead–effectively in today’s rapidly evolving environment?
Serve to Lead offers the following principles for your consideration:
The 10 Principles of 21st Century Leadership
1. Everyone Can Lead, Because Everyone Can Serve.
2. The Most Valuable Resource of Any Enterprise is its People.
3. We Are in Transition from a Transaction-Based World to a Relationship-Based World.
4. Leadership is a Relationship Between Empowered, Consenting Adults.
5. Leadership is a Dynamic Relationship.
6. There is No Universal Leadership Style.
7. Leadership Roles Are Converging.
8. A Leader’s Unique Task is to Imagine and Advance a Vision.
9. Love is the Highest Level of Leadership Relationship.
10. Character is a Competitive Advantage.
What do you think? In the coming weeks and months this blog will examine these principles and their implications for how we all live and work today.
For an excellent discussion of these principles–and a generous mention from one of my leadership heroes–please see Tom Peters’ blog and the stimulating comments engendered.
adapted from Serve to Lead.
One of the things I appreciated most about Serve To Lead was the blatant and unembarrassed use of the word “love.”
I recently conducted a seminar for coaches designed to provide strategies to inspire and not only motivate.
When discussing the need to demonstrate caring as a competence – a skill that could be improved through self-awareness, strategic intent and practice, I pushed the envelope to express the need to love those one coaches.
At least one person verbalized their discomfort and expressed their opinion that love was reserved for a special few, no for those at work.
I asked if I could share some thoughts from someone ESPN voted as the greatest coach in all U.S. sports history – John Wooden.
From his book Wooden On Leadership he wrote this:
“A leader in sports, business, or any other field of endeavor should possess and provide the same qualities inherent in a good parent: character, consistency, dependability, accountability, knowledge, good judgement, selflessness, respect, courage, discipline, fairness, and structure.
And while all these will make you a good leader, they will not make you a great leader. For that, one additional quality – perhaps the most important of all – is necessary. Although it may sound out of place in the tough -and-tumble context of sports or corporate competition, I believe you must have love in your heart for the people under your leadership. I did.”
Jim Strock’s leadership principle #9 is indispensable to the kind of leadership the world needs today.
Thanks so much, John, for your thoughtful and kind comment. You express such an important idea so well. And your quote from John Wooden is wonderful. Hard to dismiss him on the power of love in management and leadership!