BUS603: Managing People

As already demonstrated, the VUCA world demands a particular style of leadership - agile leadership that fosters collaboration and unbiased communication between generations. This kind of collaborative leadership allows organizations to be more innovative, flexible, and fluid, and enables them to make sound decisions in an ambiguous world. In addition, the Millennials' preferred leadership style can be characterized as a polite relationship with authority, based on personality. Leaders who pull people together are appreciated, since this generation believes in collective action. Responsible leadership is a relatively new field of research and seems to meet the demands of Millennials within an organizational environment. According to Doh and Quigley, the focus of responsible leadership is a leader's exchange with followers, team, organization, and society at large. Leadership in a global, complex, uncertain, and interconnected environment results in a need "to reduce complexity and uncertainty for people and provide a desirable future, which is shared by the people they lead. Leaders need to have a sense of purpose and a guiding vision, which help bundle individual and ‘organizational energy'". The new context, according to Maak and Pless, should affect the mindset, the roles and responsibilities of leaders, which "simultaneously change, become more complex and multi-faceted, expand from an internal leadership perspective to a broader world view, from a shareholder mindset to a stakeholder orientation with respect to the leadership role". Contemporary leaders need to win the mandate to lead by using a relational leadership approach based on inclusion, collaboration, and co-operation with all stakeholder groups, including employees, clients and customers, business partners, the social and natural environment, and shareholders. Responsible leadership may be best understood by using the metaphor of a weaver, where the responsible leader acts from the center, not the top, focusing more on building relationships than developing power. Maak and Pless show that a responsible leadership has these central value-based roles:

• Visionary: involving stakeholders in the process of future thinking,
• Steward: acting as a defender of the organization's most precious resources, including vision and relationships,
• Servant: developing a vision that aligns with stakeholder needs and goals,
• Citizen: acting as integral part of the community which is committed not only to business matters but to civic matters,
• Coach: facilitating the relational process, development and learning,
• Architect: building a culture where diverse people find meaning, feel respected, recognized, and included,
• Storyteller and Meaning Enabler: creating shared systems of meaning, through sense making and dialogue,
• Change Agent: initiating change that will establish a value-conscious and sustainable business.
  

As Sarkar sums it up, responsible leadership combines the essential qualities of three well known leadership styles: transformational, servant, and authentic leadership. The transformational aspect of responsible leadership relates to encouraging teamwork, setting high performance targets, and encouraging out-of-the-box thinking among followers. As servants, responsible leaders "put the interests of subordinates first, over and above their own self interests. This creates an empowering experience for followers". Empowerment leads to increased creativity at work, which is one of the most important factors of success in a VUCA world. Authenticity in a leader ensures learning agility, flexibility, and the participation of others, because the leader integrates diverse perspectives in decision making. Finally, Sarkar argues that the "all-inclusive leadership approach of responsible leadership is bound to make change management seamless", and that building relationships can enhance employee performance and promote a democratic community for the benefit of an organization. The author finishes with a strong statement: