The Leadership Paradigm Shift

For managers and leaders to be successful in today's environment, it's critical that they make the shift from command and control or carrots and sticks management to a new practice. The old paradigm focused on and valued stability, control, competition, and uniformity where the leader was considered the hero and expert.

In today's environment where the pace of change is so frenetic and the scope so great, even the change management conversation has shifted. Just managing change isn't good enough as we've seen by so many failed change attempts. Leaders as change agents are starting to see critical the human factor is in the equation. Many leaders knew that the human factor was important, however to survive in today's environment, these change agents are moving from knowing it to getting it.

To be successful in today's environment, leaders need to focus on and value agility (not just resilience), employee empowerment, collaboration, and diversity. The leaders much become more humble in their approach and practice the tenets of servant leadership by instilling purpose, exhibiting transparency and looking at a longer range vision that will be sustainable.

This paradigm shift will help move an organization past the accountability conversation to a conversation that promotes and fosters individual ownership.