Leadership: The One
Skill Needed at All Levels
of Your Organization
White Paper
White Paper > Leadership: The One Skill Needed at All Levels of Your Organization
What companies need to compete and win are leaders at all levels, which
means employees who are informed (data), enabled (tools) and empowered
(authority) to move the company toward its goals.
The business world is accelerating forward and changing
more quickly every day. Companies and their employees
are running as fast as they can just to keep up. Yet, in many
ways, they are sprinting down an old, outdated track while
the real race is underway elsewhere.
In order to remain competitive, companies need to
understand how the fast-changing business environment
is affecting their workforce, and then focus on becoming
more agile and innovative than ever before. The top-down
information sharing, decision-making and development
models are simply not working anymore.
What companies need to compete and win are leaders at
all levels, which means employees who are informed (data),
enabled (tools) and empowered (authority) to move the
company toward its goals.
To make this happen, HR and talent management
professionals need to rethink everything — starting with what
defines a leader in an organization.
The Forces at Work
Two powerful forces — one external, the other internal — are
largely driving the push toward a leaders-at-all-levels mindset
that empowers employees throughout an organization.
The external driver has emerged in the form of increasingly
competitive market dynamics and economic realities that
require companies to be more nimble, efficient and creative
in order to out-think and out-maneuver the competition. In a
world in which a game-changing technology can emerge at
any time, or a new innovative process can create dramatic
efficiency gains overnight, companies still organized in a
traditional top-down manner are simply becoming too sluggish
and bureaucratic to respond quickly — and ultimately, to
compete effectively.
How fast and far-reaching are these changes? Well, consider
the rate at which machines are now doing the work previously
conducted primarily or solely by humans. Amazon had 15,000
robots working with 15,000 employees packing and moving
packages last holiday season.1 The University of Toronto
2
developed a sophisticated app capable of searching legal
documents and databases to achieve in a few minutes what
it would take a legal assistant or lawyer hours to do.2 Multiply
the examples such as these across the global business
landscape and it’s little surprise that a University of Oxford
analysis projects that half of the jobs in the U.S. are at risk
of being lost to computer automation within 20 years.3 A
significant part of the fallout from this change will be that
task-driven employees will become increasingly dispensable,
while those empowered to think, create, strategize and lead
will add value that is difficult to duplicate through automation.
Further, some researchers such as Andrew McAfee, co-author
of “The Second Machine Age,” emphasize the vast potential
of humans working in harmony with machines for the optimum
outcomes. As an example, McAfee points to elite “freestyle”
chess competitions in which teams of humans and computers
outperform computers or humans playing alone.4
If the market pressures weren’t enough, the internal driver of
workforce change adds a potent double-whammy to the old
ways of doing business. A revolution is under way in which
employees are rejecting the hierarchal top-down model.
Rather, people are showing up on the job with expectations
of a more democratized workplace in which everyone has
the opportunity to develop and deploy his or her talents
and strengths. Employees want the opportunity to exhibit
leadership, whether that is in the form of guiding a project
team, or using social media tools to develop an internal
network for learning new skills or technology.
A Change for the Ages
The transformation is being accelerated by unprecedented
diversity and changing demographics in the global workforce.
Consider that by 2020, for the first time ever there will be five
different generations working together — each bringing their
own unique expectations, experiences and perspectives on
work and their careers. The most powerful force within this
demographic shift is the growing presence and influence of
the Millennial Generation, which by 2015 will represent more
than 75% of the workforce.5 As digital natives who adeptly
navigated keyboards in elementary school, millennials bring
Hyperspecialists Need to Lead
in the Near Future
Expertise, unique knowledge and highly
specialized skills will rule in the fast-evolving
workplace of the near future.
to the office a deeply ingrained relationship with technology
and social media. That millennial mindset influences their
expectations about the best ways to interact while working,
while also driving innovation and change. Through their
experiences and attitudes, millennials also bring with them to
work non-traditional views on leadership.
According to the Millennial Compass Report, which surveyed
1,293 employees in the U.S., India, China, the U.K., France
and Brazil, millennials have an expectation that they will
be viewed in a leadership capacity early in their careers,
with more than 40% anticipating being in a management
position within two years.6 However, the report further
states that millennials are not concerned with titles or
traditional leadership. Rather, they strongly admire those
with experience or knowledge over position or power. In
fact, a Harris Poll conducted on behalf of Saba found that
68% of employed U.S. adults think they are leaders for their
participation in their company, regardless of their job title.
In the face of these changing dynamics, most employers
seem ill-equipped to effectively navigate the new
environment. Consider that the need for “leaders at all levels”
is one of the 10 critical issues identified in the Global Human
Capital Trends 2015 survey published by Deloitte.7 The
survey of 3,300 HR and business leaders from 106 countries
found that leadership is the second most pressing talent
issue facing organizations around the world, coming in just
behind employee engagement. Nine out of 10 respondents
said this talent challenge was “important” or “very important.”
In the 2014 report, leadership was the No. 1 global talent
issue. Despite it being eclipsed by culture and engagement
a year later, data suggests that few organizations have made
a dent in the problem. “The capability gap for building great
leaders has widened in every region of the world,” the report
We are entering an era of “hyperspecialization,”
according to Thomas Malone and Robert
Laubacher, researchers at MIT Sloan School
of Management who are on the leading edge
of tracking the trend, which projects that as
workplace and market complexity increases,
many workers will be required to develop and
hone highly specialized skills rather than
be generalists.14
In addition, there is the growing need for
those with specialized skills and insights
to exert “on-the-fly” leadership to teach,
effectively inform others, or make decisions
based on their unique perspective.
So leadership skills — and the freedom and
ability to utilize them when needed — will be
even more critical as hyperspecialization takes
hold. Hyperspecialists will need to take the
initiative to share their insights and integrate their
work with others to effectively handle complex
issues or projects.
These hyperspecialists will need a baseline
understanding of other areas and specialties in
the increasingly networked and connected world
of work. And companies will need to understand
the importance of providing these key players
with the platform to show leadership through
their expertise and ability to connect their work
with that of others.
Working toward developing a leaders-at-alllevels culture now will lay the groundwork for a
more effective and competitive organization as
hyperspecialization grows.
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White Paper > Leadership: The One Skill Needed at All Levels of Your Organization
states. And only 7% of organizations have programs focused
on developing millennials to lead.
Further, many organizations concede that they are lagging
behind when it comes to engaging and empowering workers.
According to Workforce 2020, a majority of executives say
workforce development is a key differentiator for their firm,
yet they lack the tools and capabilities to back it up.8 Just
39% say they use quantifiable metrics and benchmarking as
part of their workforce development strategy. And only 42%
say they know how to extract meaningful insights from the
data available to them.
The disconnect calls for new thinking and approaches aimed
at developing a workplace culture that encourages and
facilitates a leaders-at-all-levels environment. To
make that happen requires redefining leadership and a plan
aimed at empowering and engaging leaders across your
entire organization.
Leadership Needs to Be Redefined
In the new world of work, good leadership will still be critically
important. But it will be markedly different.
Certainly, there will still be a need for big picture leadership —
yet even that role is evolving dramatically. The most effective
leaders are those who can inspire and engage employees to
assume leadership roles — in the form of influence and action
throughout the organization, as opposed to waiting for topdown command and control. There are several key pillars to
this new way of thinking about leadership:
Leadership = the ability to have impact
Since people are spending less and less time in each job
or company, it’s critical that they have the opportunity to
make an impact quickly, or they may be on to the next job
before they’ve had any positive influence on the business.
Traditionally, businesses had time to identify, train and
groom the next generation of leaders — or leaders were
simply anointed based on time spent with the company
or through effectively navigating office politics. Today, that
expectation of a pool of leaders-in-waiting is vanishing as
more employees move from job to job and companies more
aggressively manage their workforces. The new approach
focuses on impact rather than length of tenure or politics.
For instance, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman advocates
that employer and employee agree to a four-year “tour of
duty” that “acknowledges the probable impermanence of
4
the relationship yet seeks to build trust and investment
anyway.”9 Under what Hoffman describes as an
“alliance,” both sides focus on adding value to one
another. Such an arrangement opens the opportunity
for a new brand of leadership in which employees can
lead and have the potential to make an immediate
or short-term impact based on the fact that they are
informed, enabled and empowered.
Leaders are more productive
In the past, the high performance of some leaders
was in many ways a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Empowered by a title, many leaders had the
confidence and motivation to perform at a high
level. A leaders-at-every-level approach leverages
that motivation and distributes it throughout the
organization. It opens the door for recognition of
employees taking ownership or advancing ideas,
regardless of title or position. As more organizations
flatten traditional hierarchies, establishing this deeper
engagement and a leaders-at-every-level culture will
be a strategic imperative in attracting and retaining
top talent — a point affirmed by the Deloitte Global
Human Capital Trends report that ranks employee
engagement and leadership as the top two concerns
of HR and business leaders.
The Gallup State of the American Workplace survey
found work units in the top quartile in employee
engagement outperformed bottom-quartile units by
10% on customer ratings, 22% in profitability and
21% in productivity.10 Organizations that successfully
engaged their employees and customers saw a 240%
increase in performance-related business outcomes.
Companies still organized in a
traditional top-down manner are
simply becoming too sluggish
and bureaucratic to respond
quickly — and ultimately, to
compete effectively.
Beyond those numbers, common sense dictates that
employees who are empowered to lead, take initiative, and
share ideas and insights are going to be more engaged
and productive, making more significant contributions to
the business.
Leaders are more engaged
Employees that are empowered to “lead” and make
autonomous decisions have a greater sense of purpose,
which also creates engagement. Research into the drivers
of employee engagement consistently supports the
idea that when employees are empowered to perform
at the highest levels, improved engagement occurs as a
byproduct of individual or team success.
In one study, Gallup investigated whether leaders are
more likely to engage employees by building close
relationships and attending to their well-being, or simply
focusing on their performance.11 Gallup’s findings suggest
that the most effective leaders don’t just motivate people
by focusing on engagement; they are also focused on
enhancing employees’ performance.
For example, employees are seven times more likely to
be engaged when they report that their managers are
aware of the tasks and projects that they are working on,
which suggests that when bosses make their employees
accountable, their employees are more engaged.
Conversely, when employees perceive that their
managers are unaware of what they are working on,
they are 15 times more likely to be disengaged than
engaged.
How to Make It Happen: Enabling Leaders Across
Your Organization
Establishing a culture of leaders at all levels takes
proactive steps to achieve change. Among the ways to
make it happen:
•
Create shared ownership/autonomy: Kevin
Sheridan, author of “Building a Magnetic Culture,”
advocates engaging employees in a “shared
ownership” approach in which both parties are
vested in the success of the organization.12 And,
as such, employees are provided considerable
autonomy and allowed to assume leadership
regardless of job title. Sheridan highlights in his
book a compelling example: trash collectors in
Minneapolis who show strong engagement largely
because they are connected to the larger purpose
of their work, and are encouraged to innovate and
come up with creative solutions.
Mark Bonchek, founder of thinkORBIT, a firm
that helps companies deepen engagement with
employees and other stakeholders, advocates that
leaders develop a “shared purpose” that employees
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White Paper > Leadership: The One Skill Needed at All Levels of Your Organization
When bosses make their
employees accountable, their
employees are more engaged.
can believe in and act on. “People no longer want to be
a passive audience,” Bonchek says. “They expect to
be an active participant and co-creators of what your
organization is trying to achieve.”
•
•
Train managers to coach: Certainly, senior management
needs to buy in to a leaders-at-all-levels culture, but the
lynchpin to making it happen is the mid-level manager.
Yet leadership experts such as Herminia Ibarra, author
of the book “Think Like a Leader, Act Like a Leader,”
point out that businesses are forcing managers to take
on new responsibilities such as leadership development,
but not providing the tools and training to get the job
done effectively.13 Ibarra advocates for HR providing
continual training for managers to help them understand
and embrace the new thinking and then provide the
ongoing coaching and mentorship to their direct reports
by encouraging more autonomy and the opportunity
to strategically exert leadership when needed. Gallup
research has found that managers are primarily
responsible for their employees’ engagement levels.
To that end, Gallup recommends companies coach
managers to take an active role in building engagement
plans with their employees, hold managers accountable,
track their progress and ensure that they continuously
focus on emotionally engaging their employees.
Create clarity: Leadership expert Esther Derby
talked about leaders at all levels at the Lean Kanban
Central Europe 2014 Conference. She emphasized
the creation of a more flexible, responsive organization
with improved communication and decision-making
by improving opportunities for leaders at all levels.
To achieve that requires: clarity for people to know
what to work on and how their work fits into the big
picture; conditions enabling people to do the work,
supported by organization structures and policies;
and constraints too, so employees always have a
clear understanding of what work needs to be done
and what is off-limits or lower priority.
•
Build personalized development programs:
To exercise effective leadership first requires the
requisite skills. Re-skilling is essential and ongoing
as technologies, demands and expectations rapidly
evolve. Many companies are utilizing new intelligent
technologies and social collaboration tools that can
help effectively identify competencies, as well as
skills gaps, and then offer more intuitive, self-directed
and collaborative training and learning opportunities
to allow for continual and dynamic re-skilling. With
intelligent technology, employees can take ownership
and a leadership role in charting their own careers —
a powerful step toward building a culture of leaders
at all levels.
Developing an organization that values and promotes
leaders at all levels won’t happen overnight. No doubt,
determining the pace and magnitude of change that can
be effectively executed will vary from company to company.
The change can start with you — recognizing the leader
within, and your potential to serve as a positive example by
developing and exerting your leadership skills. From there,
the key is to recognize and promote the need for a new
view on leadership, and then start taking action toward
building an environment that engages and empowers
employees based on performance and results, rather
than title or history. Organizations that ignore or dismiss
the changing workforce dynamics do so at their own risk.
Those that don’t adapt will ultimately lose their best people
— and their competitive edge along with them.
6
References
1.
USA Today, “15,000 Robots usher in Amazon’s Cyber Monday,” Elizabeth Weise, Dec. 2, 2014. http://www.usatoday.com/
story/tech/2014/12/01/robots-amazon-kiva-fulfillment-centers-cyber-monday/19725229/
2.
The Varsity, “U of T students place second at IBM Watson University Competition,” Jeremy Li, Jan. 25, 2015. http://
thevarsity.ca/2015/01/25/u-of-t-students-place-second-at-ibm-watson-university-competition/
3.
“The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerization?” Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne,
Sept. 17, 2013. http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf
4.
“The Second Machine Age” (book), Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, Norton, 2013.
5.
Brookings Now, “Brookings Data Now: 75 Percent of 2025 Workforce Will Be Millennials,” July 17, 2014. http://www.
brookings.edu/blogs/brookings-now/posts/2014/07/millennials-will-be-75-percent-of-2025-workforce-brookings-data-now
6.
“The Millennial Compass: The Millennial Generation in the Workplace,” MSL Group, 2014. http://www.scribd.com/
doc/211602632/The-Millennial-Compass-The-Millennial-Generation-In-The-Workplace
7.
Global Human Capital Trends 2014: Engaging the 21st-century workforce, Deloitte Consulting LLP and Bersin by Deloitte,
Deloitte University Press, April 2014. http://www.slideshare.net/DeloitteUS/global-human-capital-trends-2014-plot-yourstrategy-for-the-trends-shaping-the-talent-agenda
http://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/human-capital/articles/human-capital-trends-2014.html.
8.
“Top 10 Strategic Workforce Trends for 2020 from Oxford Economics,” SAP Newscenter, Susan Galer, 2014. http://www.
news-sap.com/top-10-strategic-trends-workforce-2020-oxford-economics/#sthash.P8uA6B3b.dpuf
9.
Harvard Business Review, “Tours of Duty: The New Employer-Employee Compact,” Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, Chris
Yeh, June 2013. https://hbr.org/2013/06/tours-of-duty-the-new-employer-employee-compact
10. Gallup State of the American Workplace, Gallup, 2013. http://employeeengagement.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/
Gallup-2013-State-of-the-American-Workplace-Report.pdf
11. Harvard Business Review, “To Motivate Employees, Help Them Do Their Jobs Better,” Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Nov.
12, 2014. https://hbr.org/2014/11/to-motivate-employees-help-them-do-their-jobs-better
12. “Building a Magnetic Culture” (book), Kevin Sheridan, McGraw-Hill, 2012.
13. “Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader” (book), Herminia Ibarra, Harvard Business School Press, 2015.
14. Harvard Business Review, “The Big Idea: The Age of Hyperspecialization,” Thomas W. Malone, Robert Laubacher, Tammy
Johns, July 2011. https://hbr.org/2011/07/the-big-idea-the-age-of-hyperspecialization/ar/1
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