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Personal
leadership to give cos competitive advantage
Skilled Staff Will Help In Vital `Speed To Market' Decisions
Technology
has come to play a vital role in the lives of any and has significantly
shaped consumer perceptions, behaviours, and preferences. Technology is
driving a host of disruptive innovations lately, also aided by the
interesting demographic changes witnessed globally. Initially, driven by the
younger populations of the world, the uptake of digitisation is slowly
spreading far and wide -sans boundaries, sans demographic or age barriers. On
the other hand, evolving geopolitical equations are also shaping the world
significantly, giving rise to newer opportunities. Yet also, in some cases,
raising unforeseen barriers.
These are just a few things adding to
the complexity of the environment businesses function in. It demands leaders
to be nimble in evaluating the emergent situations and making prompt
decisions. `Speed to market' is critical to the success of organisations
today. It allows them to reach their clients faster with better products,
offers and services ahead of their competition and also being able to stay on
their toes to constantly evolve these very products and services, sometimes
even on the go, to give business as well as the stakeholders an edge.
Previously , major changes or
transformations have been led by the executive teams of the organisation. The
new realities, however, require organisations to be more agile by adopting
the concept of distributed leadership. In order to deftly respond to market
changes and exceed customer expectations, organisations need employees across
locations to promptly make important decisions that impact `speed to market'.
This calls for organisations to
leverage `individual leadership' which, simply put, means individuals who are
ready to take decisions and hold the courage and integrity to not only stand
by them but also bring with it the conviction to drive others to rally and
succeed.No longer is leadership confined to the traditional definition of
`people management'. The `individual leadership' concept inspires
organisations to develop the leadership ability of its employees regardless
of their work location, or position in the hierarchy . It aims to build the
capabilities of employees across levels through the levers of empowerment and
engagement.
At Citi, we realised the importance
of this early on. Our programme on `individual leadership (IL)' provides
individual contributors an opportunity to acquire leadership and influencing
skills needed to successfully lead without having direct authority. With a
high emphasis on peer interaction and discussion, “IL“ curriculum utilises a
dynamic and convenient delivery mode with modules conducted virtually via
teleconference format and the tech-enabled learning platform.
The programme strengthens awareness
around the impact of emotions in building personal effectiveness and
reciprocal relationships. It focuses on building influencing skills to
progress current work priorities, developing capabilities to navigate the
organisation and deepening relationships with key stakeholders. The various
modules within the programme also help the participants identify actions that
reinforce learning, and increase the ability to deliver current and future
goals.
In a VUCA (volatile, uncertain,
complex, ambiguous) world, employees face a variety of challenges in their
day-to-day work. The ambiguity & uncertainty surrounding business
situations require them to work with limited information and yet make timely
decisions. Organisations will find it increasingly difficult to maintain
elaborate management structures to facilitate decision making. It is
imperative, therefore, to consistently develop and equip leaders on the
ground with individual leadership skills that will help them maximise their
potential and stay ahead in a competitive environment.
The writer is chief human resources
officer, Citi South Asia.
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Aug
23 2017 : The Times of India (Mumbai)
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