‘Leaders Must Learn to Relinquish Control’

In our interview, Professor Slocum shares his thoughts on what makes a great leader in the face of challenges like remote work, the rise of artificial intelligence, and the pandemic. He also shares how his course at Laba Business School will help participants master the C-Suite by applying the concepts of “personal leadership” and “situational leadership.”

Professor Slocum, what are the key characteristics of good leadership?

The first trait that leaders should possess is the ability to adapt : ​​to adapt to prevailing conditions and to the constantly changing needs of the people they lead. This is a stepping stone on the way to acquiring other key traits.

Another important aspect is the ability to learn . In order to respond appropriately to changing conditions, one must constantly learn. Both adaptation and learning require a certain level of self-awareness kuwait telephone number data awareness of interactions with others, and understanding of dynamically changing situations and the factors that define them.

A particularly difficult challenge today is the ability to skillfully “scan” the broader environment and determine what is important in the sea of ​​information.

Since you mentioned self-awareness, part of your course at Lab will focus on personal leadership. What is it about?

Self – leadership is one of the most debated areas in the field of contemporary management science. It asks how authentic and aware of their own tendencies, actions, principles and values ​​leaders should be.

In the course I teach at Lab, we’ll begin by exploring the ideas of Daniel Goleman , the godfather of emotional intelligence. About a decade ago, Goleman published an article in which he argued that a key element of effective leadership is the ability to focus.

According to Goleman, it is worth it for leaders to focus on :

1. yourself: it allows you to better understand your strengths and weaknesses, feelings and behaviors;
2. others: this helps develop relationships and create shared stories and the symbols on which they are based;
3. the broader environment: This enables leaders to better identify the factors that matter in organizations and markets, and in the communities and societies built around them.

So how do you focus Must Learn on what’s important?

Time, energy, and attention are the three most valuable resources we have. Every day we should determine what we will spend them on in order to move in the right direction. Without personal leadership how to check website traffic we cannot interact effectively with others.

We also need to define what our priorities , values , and core principles are . We are driven by our character, so to be the most effective and fulfilled leader, it is worth developing self-understanding. However, we must also remember that self-knowledge changes and evolves every day. Personal leadership is important not only for those in high positions, but also for employees at every level.

Another key concept you mention is “situational leadership.” What are its main characteristics?

Situational leadership has its roots in one of the main (from a historical perspective) approaches to management, which was particularly popular in the second half of the last century. We are talking about the contingent theory of leadership benin lists which broadly assumes that the behavior of leaders depends on the various situations in which we find ourselves.

The term “situational leadership” came about in the 1970s, when a team of psychologists, including Hersey and Blanchard , created a model that showed where a leader is in the life cycle of team management. They argued that the way you interact with your team on your first day on the job—how supportive or directive you can be—is different from how you’ll be a year later. Over time, you develop an understanding of how everyone works and build trust.

I am a supporter of situational leadership, but not necessarily only in the schematic model of Hersey and Blanchard, which assumes that leaders define themselves according to established stages of situational and team development.

For me, situational leadership is a constant interaction between the leader’s values ​​and relationships with others and external factors that arise. It’s about the leader’s character, their core principles and beliefs, and defining how those values ​​can guide the leader and the team. This type of leadership therefore requires a constant presence of mind and awareness of our position as leaders in a larger system that includes other people and many situational factors.

What is your opinion on “horizontal management”, of which cooperation is seen as its most important element?

I discuss this question in the book I’m working on, which will be called The History of Creative Leadership . When we look at the history of creativity in business management, we see a vacillation between an emphasis on people-centered management and a management focused on processes or tasks.

In the last 20 years, we have made Must Learn a step towards more people-oriented, humane management . The greater emphasis on horizontality of behavior and structures of teams or organizations is one manifestation of this trend. I believe that this is a good direction, but it also has its limits.

In my experience at Google, one of the challenges of horizontal leadership that is particularly evident in the technology sector is when engineers become adept at solving technical problems. They like to have control over those problems—which can be positive because it gives them a sense of engagement and purpose.

Yes, increasing the sense of ownership in work is exactly what we want from employees. But the problem in this situation was that engineers often did not understand the broader scope or implications of the project they were working on.