The ultimate goal for any corporate career is the position of Director. With that position comes a truck load of benefits – you have the authority and position to play your part in determining the strategic direction of the company, you get to engage with your fellow directors in the boardroom as well as socially if so desired, you enjoy a level of prestige as a result of the position you occupy, and you get a top rate salary along with all sorts of benefits like shares in the company.
What’s not to like?
But not just anyone gets to be a Director. In most cases, you require some professional and/or academic qualification. For example, Financial Directors are typically chartered accountants and CEOs usually have a financial or other qualification, while Marketing Directors and HR Directors have qualifications in their particular fields.
And rightly so. When you put people in positions of authority, you want to ensure they have the competence and capacity to perform their functions in a highly effective manner.
But what about that matter of, well, er … actually leading the employees in the organisation?
While the command and control model of leadership – inherited from military leaders in the Second World War – has been in vogue ever since the end of that particular war, the pandemic has provided a tipping point that has resulted in a need for a different leadership model, one that is based on qualities that are in many ways completely the opposite of the command and control model which relied on position and power. No need for compassion and empathy when it comes to command and control leadership. Just do your job and leave your personal problems at home!
With the home having been the workplace for the past two years, that approach just doesn’t cut it any more. And that’s put many Directors on the back foot as they’ve come under pressure to change the way they lead people.
Now, many Directors have been in their positions for a number of years so they feel they’re above leadership development – after all, when you’ve been leading a company for a number of years, it’s considered a little infra dig to return to the classroom – virtual or live – to be taught how to lead people.
But the big lesson here is that being a Director who uses a command and control approach doesn’t necessarily make you an effective leader of people. Leading people by relying on the authority of your position is no longer going to work when what’s now required is for leaders to lead from the authority of their person.
So, do Directors really need leadership development? Damn right, they do. Thinking you know everything about what’s required for your position and being reluctant to learn new ways of leading people smacks of arrogance, ignorance and insecurity, and increases the risk of leading everyone down a cul-de-sac.
Former UCLA basketball player and much loved coach, John Wooden, put it like this. He said, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
So, Directors who know it all (in a good way) – who are experts in their fields – would do well to make a career decision to return to the classroom to learn what’s required to lead people in this new world of work. It’s no longer a case of giving instructions and expecting them to be carried out. That worked when Directors had control over people. Now they have to have influence in people’s lives to ensure they do what you want them to do. And that requires a whole new approach to leadership.
Are you up for it?
Alan Hosking is the Publisher of HR Future magazine, www.hrfuture.net and @HRFuturemag. He is an internationally recognised authority on leadership competencies for the future and teaches experienced and younger business leaders how to lead with empathy, compassion, integrity, purpose and agility. He has been an Age Management Coach for two decades. In 2018, he was named by US-based web site Disruptordaily.com as one of the “Top 25 Future of Work Influencers to Follow on Twitter“. In 2020, he was named one of the “Top 200 Global Power Thought Leaders to watch in 2021” by peopleHum in India. In 2022, he has been named on the Power List of the “Top 200 Biggest Voices in Leadership in 2022” by LeaderHum.
