D1W8

LEADERSHIP • POWER

New Sources of Power W e n e e d a n e w m o d e l o f l e a d e r s h i p .

by Sally Helgesen

VER THE LAST 15 years, three forces

have transformed the nature of organizations, rendering tra- ditional models of leadership obsolete. By examining these forces, we can bet- ter see what leadership we need.

First, the nature of our economy has shifted. In this knowledge era, primary value is vested in the knowledge and expertise of those who comprise and serve if. Human knowledge—not land, capital, or machines—has become the essential asset, shifting the balance of power azvay from organizations and toward individuals.

The shift to a knowledge economy has three implications for leaders:

3. Individuals noiv own tbe primary means of all production. The knowledge economy offers more freedom, choices, and scope for acfion to those whose skills and talents have real value. In a knowledge economy, talent can't be compelled, but must be encouraged and coaxed. Leaders must attract and inspire people to use their best talents.

2. Knowledge must be broadly z>ested. In the industrial world, knowledge was often prized only at the top of the pyra- mid or chain of command. Dedsioas were made by "heads" at the top; implementation was done by "hands" in the ranks. By contrast, in a knowl- edge economy, knowledge musf be distributed broadly fo be effectively leveraged. Leaders must build colle- giality and spread decision-making.

3. Since a great idea has greater worth than costly machines or even access to cap- ital, competition can come from anyiohere. A 100-year investment can be trumped overnight by a smarter vision of how to offer a product or perform a service. This puts a premium on innovation, continually adapt to changing condi- tions. Since new ideas are paramount, leaders must be skilled in creating a culture in which innovation flourishes.

Second, a new architecture of tech- nology is reshaping organizations. Today's networked systems are fast, flexible, interactive, and non-hierarchi- cal in shape and structure, facilitating direct communication. Those who are comfortable communicating directly.

M a y 2 0 0 8

rather than up and down a chain of command, have a distinct advantage.

This has two primary implications: First, technology distributes informa-

tion more broadly. Information and power are being pushed down to those on fhe front lines, no longer isolated at the top. This undermines hierarchies and the status of those at the top, as they rely primarily upon fhe mystique of their position. Leadership is becoming de- coupled from fhe power of position; if must be constantly earned, not assumed.

Second, using the technologies of work to manage private lives breaks down barriers betioeen public and private, work and home. As technology becomes ubiquitous, zones of privacy erode. Public and pri- vate concerns can no longer be separat- ed. Private issues are resolved in public; privafe behaviors fhaf were in the past tolerated have become fhe subject of

public debate; public and political mat- ters are increasingly viewed as matters of privafe concern; and private and work- ing hours encroach upon each other.

Leaders must negotiate the frontier between public and privafe, aligning their private actions wifh their public face and respecting privacy that their stakeholders value. Failure to do so brings rapid and severe public response, even for fhose whose position made them unassailable in the past.

The third change is demographic. This is manifest in fhe inclusion of women info positions of aufhority and influ- ence. Women bring witb them many of fhe talents, atfifudes, and presump- tions that were formerly honored in fhe domestic sphere info the public realm. This has had a profound impact upon whaf is required of leaders. Relation- ship skills, intuifiveness, inclusiveness, coaching, fhe capacity fo listen—these were considered "soft" skills, antitheti- cal fo heroic conceptions of charge-

ahead leadership. Recently, these skills have moved front and center.

Women tend fo evince a healfhy skepticism about the perks and privi- leges that define high position, in part because they have long been excluded from traditional hierarchies. But this skepticism is also the result of fhe fact thaf women, as the Harvard psycholo- gist Carol Gilligan argued in A Different Voice, are comfortable being at the center of things rather than at the top, and making moral judgments on a contextual rather than abstract basis. Such attitudes undermine fhe pre- sumptions and disciplines by which hierarchies have been maintained

Diversity is the order of fhe day. In every organization, people of diver- gent backgrounds are working side-by- side. This is the result of greater movement across borders; direct immi- gration to non-gafeway cities; the assimilation of African-Americans into the mainstream of American life; and fhe fact thaf members of subcultures no longer necessarily find value in sub- merging efhnic, nafional and religious identify in order to adjust to notions of a fasf-fragmenting "mainstream/'

Thus leaders must show nimbleness and sensitivity to cultural difference to balance the needs of their diverse con- stifuency. They must also see that diver- sity is not simply openness to race or gender, buf to different values as well.

Power and Influence The economic, technological and

demographic changes work together, resulting in a rapidly shifting landscape in which the power and influence of those in the ranks becomes integral fo how organizations function. This turns traditional notions of leadership upside down. For if people in the ranks are empowered, if their knowledge consti- tutes a primary value, if they can com- municate directly, and if they prize diversity, they will not be led by my- way-or-fhe-highway autocrats.

To the extent that leadership is equat- ed with and derived from posifion, if will be less potent. New concepts of leadership will be vesfed less in posi- tion than in the power of connections, relationships, individual expertise, per- sonal qualities, aspirations, and earned personal authority. Leaders need to make the mental shift away from tradi- tional models and sources of pwwer and exercise flexibility and sensitivity to meef the challenge of the new model, LE

Sally Helgesen is a leadership devetopmeni consultant and coadi. Visit wtmo.satlylielgesen.cam or call 51S-392-1998.

ACTION: Tap into new sources of power.

Copyright of Leadership Excellence Essentials is the property of HR.com, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.