Rita: Based on your experience working in the international banking, energy, and insurance sectors, what do you see as three common leadership challenges facing large organizations today?

Bernardus: I would say there is a shift in what kind of leadership people get motivated by. I think in the last decade and definitely for the next decade to come, leadership will come down to the ability to inspire, to tell stories with personal presence, to provide meaning to people in their work. Typically, for a leader, that means finding meaning in their own life, and in their own work life, and starting from there.

Twenty or thirty years ago, leaders could depend on positions of power—right now, they need to inspire differently. We have a generation in the workforce that is less motivated by achievement—which was a core value up until fairly recently. They are more motivated by having a meaningful contribution to the workplace and to society at large. That’s a set of trends that are providing quite a challenge for our leaders currently.

You are based out of the Netherlands–tell us more about the leadership culture in your market…

Even though the approach to leadership development is similar globally—particularly for larger, multinational companies—you will always see local differences. There are different standards based on the differences in how the society is built and the norms in society. If you look at the Netherlands, it is and has been for the last 400 years a Calvinistic society—it revolves around values of purity, honesty, and hard work, with no need for anything more than what we needed—no-frills. At the same time, there is a big value of equality and certainly there is a big value of consensus.

Let me elaborate a bit on what that means for being a leader in The Netherlands. The no-frills attitude really helps companies not spend money. There is a strongly ingrained value of not spending anything more than you really need to, so it is easy as a leader to be cost-conscious.

The value of equality poses interesting challenges. Because this value is so deeply ingrained in The Netherlands, it is harder to stand out and be really distinctive at something. When you are really good at something in cultures like in the U.S., you are celebrated and promoted, whereas in Netherlands, if you are really good at something and you stand out, you have a little bit of a risk that your head will get chopped off because the culture does not promote being anything better or worse than anyone else. That is something you need to really be aware of when working in another culture. If you want to groom top performance or top performers, you can, but you have to have a really good eye on all of the other people in your organization so that they don’t feel mistreated according to the cultural norms.

Lastly, the culture of consensus. People in The Netherlands don’t really care about authority. They will give in to authority if they really need to but they are not inspired by it nor do they easily live by authority. The first thing to know is that people in The Netherlands that are being led need to fully understand what they are doing and if they disagree, as a leader, you have a problem.

Leadership in The Netherlands is all about creating consensus by gathering input from anybody who has something to say—which is typically everybody—and then having a process for everybody to feel heard, getting the best input together, and incorporating it in whatever direction you want to go. On the one hand, that creates a slightly slower decision-making processes, but on the other hand, incorporating that many inputs helps ensure that you have both the best chance on a good solution and collective commitment to the process and outcome.

This is fairly different from other cultures. For example, you only have to go next door to Germany to find a completely different culture. In Germany, the society is much more hierarchical and people tend to defer more readily to authority. People address each other quite differently. In the Netherlands, board members use each other’s first names and leaders use first names at work in the organization, whereas in Germany, they are more likely to address each other as Herr Doctor or Frau Professor—according to their title, which is very different.

Join us on Monday for Bernardus’ perspective on Leadership in a Global Workplace.

Bernardus Holtrop is Principal Consultant at Linkage. He coaches executives, senior managers and teams on their most complex challenges. As both a group facilitator and an executive coach, Bernardus designs leadership development programs and personalized strategies that foster bottom line results, improved work relationships, and organizational transformation. He works with organizations large and small, including many Fortune 100 companies.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV88pzTwdhQ

About Harley Ostis:

Harley is President, Professional Services at Linkage where he leads the Professional Services business with responsibility for the development and delivery of consulting services and client solutions worldwide. Experience is the best teacher, and he is a 30 year veteran in creating strategies for producing the changes needed to achieve the vision of an organization. To build on team dynamics and move organizations forward, Harley engages executives and up and coming talent with the understanding that the application of leadership is necessary at all levels to ensure a healthy and successful organization.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

According to the Catalyst report, The Bottom Line, Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation on boards, Fortune 500 companies that had at least three women boards of directors saw on average:

• Return on equity increase by at least 53%.
• Return on sales increase by at least 42%.
• Return on invested capital increase by at least 66%. Diversifying boards also brings different perspectives to companies’ big picture objectives, product development, and problem solving. Companies can’t continue to innovate without diverse leaders at the table.

To read the full article, click here>>

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

The working woman is often faced with the paradox of her desire to lead at work and her choice/desire to start and grow her family.  For the women who are already mothers, they experience the complexities of managing their professional self and their mothering self, all the while “trying to make it work.” In Susan and Gabriella’s chapter, they note the act of “balancing”; balancing one’s time in the office and at home. They state: “not only did the notion of ‘balance’ seem empty, but the very thought of trying to equalize our work lives and our home and mothering lives seemed unrealistic.  We don’t lead two lives; we lead one.  We don’t have two selves; we have one. We can’t (as of yet) figure out how to check our professional desires at the door nor our personal desires at the office such that we can experience this thing called ‘balance.’ In fact, compartmentalizing our lives into discrete parts only lead us to feelings of guilt and inadequacy. It seems a rare moment when we are doing any one thing well.”

Susan and Gabriella asked: “Is this all there is? Is the notion of ‘seeking a balanced life’ the only language we have for working mothers?” And with that, they determined this discussion of working mothers deserved a new paradigm. They coined the term continual intergration to replace “balance”—opening the doors for more complex conversations on this matter facing so many women today.

“Continual integration is an alternative to what is too often (and unfairly) seen as a binary choice between work and family. Indeed, it is not enough to offer women the right to their career at the expense of their children and families. Nor is it enough to offer women the gift of their families for the price of their ambition and drive for achievement. If we are to acknowledge the tension in our hearts as we manage life between work and home, we need a vision that moves us beyond the notion of ‘balance.’ We cannot in fact strive for balance because there is no such perfectly equalized state to which we can arrive. The concept of continual integration assumes that there are challenges; it assumes that the rewards make those challenges worthwhile; and it assumes you can’t get it wrong because there is no one right way. There is only constant evaluation and innovation in the face of the current needs of your family and job. Continual integration is about giving women a window to understand better why they might have chosen what they chose—and the challenges, rewards, and further choices they have as they seek a fulfilling life. With such understanding, we can embark on a journey of integration that breathes new life into the concept of ‘having it all.’”

About Susan Brady:
Susan Brady, Senior Vice President, Global Programs is an expert in driving revenue for organizations through the implementation and execution of strategic business development and marketing activities. She is an engaging speaker, coach and teacher, and has deep experience working with executives in a variety of contexts. Prior to re-joining Linkage as Senior Vice President, Susan worked with Mobius Executive Leadership, a premier leadership development consultancy and spinoff of the Harvard Negotiation Project where she coached executives, and led strategic marketing and business development activities. Formally, Susan served as the CEO of the Relational Life Institute, an educational services organization, where during her tenure she led the growth of the customer base by 50%, oversaw the development of 5 new products, and ultimately increased revenues by 250%.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

For a preview of Noel and his work on making good leaders great, view the short clip below from our Thought Leader Series broadcast on How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls.

Noel has long been regarded as a staple of management literacy as noted by his rating as one of the “Top 10 Management Gurus” by Business Week and Business 2.0. He is also the author of numerous books and articles, including Cycle of Leadership and The Leadership Engine. His book Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls is coauthored with GILD co-chair Warren Bennis.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

In this short clip, Jill Ihsanullah, Linkage Principal Consultant and featured presenter at the 2012 ASTD Conference & Exposition in Denver this week, discusses metrics and measures to assess the effectiveness of leadership development programs in organizations. Dr. Ihsanullah is presenting on Measuring the Bottom-line Results of Leadership Development.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1s-1TATNvA

Interested in using metrics to drive improved performance and results? Click here.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bmC7vvH7PE

Don’t miss next week’s video clip with Rich Rosier on how to use strategic thinking to drive your business forward.

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDEN5vJS2qA

Kolditz is the author of In Extremis Leadership: Leading As If Your Life Depended On It (J-B Leader to Leader Institute/PF Drucker Foundation). He will be the featured presenter of our next Thought Leader Series broadcast on May 15^th entitled In Extremis Leadership (in so doing replacing Robert Knowling previously scheduled to present on Leading a Successful Organizational Transformation.)

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email

According to Glenn, “women are naturally wired to think, act and innovate like immigrants.  Women, more than men, have the ability to see what others don’t, do what others won’t and keep pushing their ideas and ideals when prudence says quit.” Here’s a snapshot of his breakdown on the female’s advantage from his article.

Women are:

Opportunity Experts
Women see opportunity in everything and everyone–their neighbors, friends, family, business associates, strategic partners, etc. Women have the ability to see opportunity and give their ideas life and inspire others to do the same. Women, when given the opportunity to be themselves, are natural leaders!

Networking Professionals
Women are masters of navigation and putting their ideas to the test is their gift. They do this through networking. They follow-up and make sure they sow their seeds of ideas in the most fertile networking  ground. Additionally, their inherent ability to be creative allows for the discovery of opportunities that most miss.

Relationship Specialists
Women are specialists at cultivating relationships that are purposeful, genuine, and meaningful. They focus on growing healthy, long-lasting relationships. Women don’t quit. They thrive at creating and sustaining momentum for both themselves and others.

Natural Givers
Women seek to give to others but also to their communities. Why do you think most non-profits are run by women? Women enjoy living their lives through a cause that serves the advancement and acceleration of societal needs. This is why in the workplace, women are great at inspiring and lifting those around them. This is why most women leaders are such excellent long-term strategic thinkers. They are less inclined to rally behind a short-term strategy if a more sustainable approach can be executed.

To read the full article, click here>>

del.icio.us

Facebook

Twitter

email