Throughout the last decade there was a considerable investment made in executive training. A poll conducted by researchers from Harvard University showed 70 percent of Americans considers leadership crisis a significant factor in the national economic decline. This is a very confusing situation – on the one hand, we see a rising demand for leadership skills; on the other, many leadership development programs seem to fail to deliver their promised results. What will be the future of leadership?

Flexibility and agility

A research study from the Institute of Leadership and Management suggests the single most important feature of future leaders will be flexibility. For future success, managers will need to become more agile, responsive and adaptable to different needs generated by changing workplaces.

Those managers will also need to be open to cultural and technological changes that will impact the core of enterprise operations. Their job will be to ensure key management and leadership practices are adapted to the transforming context and carried out successfully.

Going global

Business globalization is no longer a simple idea but a fact. In an increasingly globalized world, it is still an issue for an organization of almost any size. Businesses will become aware that leaders who operate outside their home markets or are part of a team that stretches beyond borders require a host of specific skills – from coping with ambiguity to having effective interactions or making decisions in unfamiliar environments. All those become increasingly challenging in new surroundings.

Increased demand for core competencies

A report published by the Institute of Leadership and Management unveils another important future leadership trend to be an increase of interest in core skills such as motivating direct reports, communicating effectively, setting goals and delegating tasks.

The changing settings are likely to impact the performance of those core tasks – managers will be operating with less time on their hands and in a much more complex working environment. In short, basic management tasks will become increasingly difficult to perform and managers might require additional training to help them adapt.

Sustainability

The U.S. Human Capital Effectiveness Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests that next to agility and talent, one of the most important values in future leadership will be sustainability, understood in terms of demonstrating social responsibility by balancing achievable business results with a concern for the greater good.

Sustainability is much more than environmental issues – focusing on sustainability, managers will be looking toward the long-term consequences of their decisions relating to the environment but also to health and safety. Social responsibility will become embedded in business processes and managers will be increasingly responsible for delivering insights about how their decisions impact the workforce and business climate. Maybe this is something your marketing professional has been trying to tell you?

Collective leadership

Another strong trend for the future is collective leadership. It’s likely in a few years we won’t see any heroic leaders anymore but a brand-new form of leadership that will perfectly match the requirements posed by new working environments, where adaptive challenges cannot be tackled by an individual but by a group of people.

Many organizations are already embracing this leadership style to drive innovation, which is understood as a process initiated by an entire social network. Once Millennials take hold of leadership positions, you’ll see collective leadership styles flourish all over the place – but this new approach will require a radical transition in thinking.

Generational difference management

Finally, trend-watchers are acknowledging a major generational transformation that is taking place in the leadership sector – the arrival of Millennials on the global leadership scene. Companies will need to learn how to mitigate the generational differences, which are guaranteed once Millennials get hold of executive jobs. Companies will also have to develop a host of new strategies to make the most from the unique qualities of this generation.

Millennials are generally considered team players and high achievers. They’re independent but tend to follow rules. They’re confident but they also trust authority. Technological innovation is their natural world. All this can be expected to impact their leadership styles.

The future of leadership

All-in-all, leadership is destined to change radically. With many leaders feeling unprepared for the economy around them, leadership development programs should flourish and strive to provide training aimed at developing skills for addressing problems arising from globalization and current leadership gaps.

Expect to see more management policies promoting sustainability and witness a transition from the repressive, control-and-command management style to its democratic assortment. When it comes to leadership of the future, we’ll finally see its human face working as a growing factor in business success by many (global) brands.

In a more democratic workplace, how do you build policies that help build real accountability?

In a global economy, it is increasingly more important to understand the wants and needs of those we serve; that is, the internal and external stakeholders. Having awareness of this means leaders must be able to shape the culture of their organizations to address changing needs.

Accountability is a word that gets tossed around a lot in many organizations.  Unfortunately, the reasons typically evolve around the lack of accountability rather than how an organization is winning by holding each other accountable.

At the organizational level, accountability is all about creating a culture where the right things get done, on time, consistently. In cultures with real accountability, people say they’re going to get something done and they do.  Employees expect each other to uphold their commitments and expect managers to follow up on actions promised with themselves, colleagues and customers.

Making Accountability Work

When attempting to restore or enhance accountability, most leaders mistakenly start by defining the tasks people need to be held accountable for. Instead, the first step should always be defining (with specificity) the expectations for individuals, teams and the company. This requires defining the target or objective so clearly it minimizes the interpretation of the outcome or result.

Start by defining the desired outcome or result as clearly as possible.

• What does your organization’s destination need to be?
• Where are you going and what will it look like when you get there (defined in ways that matter and mean something to everyone – well beyond just the financials)?
• Get your team focused on achieving the right outcomes and using their brains to ponder, explore and determine the necessary actions or tasks.

Next, decide who will do what, by when, with what resources. As a leader, you should question yourself, “How does this get us closer to winning as a company or a team?” Make sure someone has clear ownership of every significant initiative or task. Even when a team is involved, you still need one person to be individually accountable to create the necessary line of sight, peer pressure and follow-up.

When identifying the target, clarify the current state as well as the end state, as this creates a critical baseline that enables measurement of progress or achievement of milestones. Then assign the necessary resources to get it done.

Closing the Accountability Disconnects

One of the biggest disconnects in accountability management involves assigning resources and responsibilities when you don’t have clarity around the outcome. Without carefully assessing the gap between where you are now and where you want to go, it’s impossible to accurately allocate the right amount of time, money and resources to get things done. When the outcome isn’t clear, organizations often discount what it will take to get there. When things don’t go as planned, they tend to give up, stop following up and start behaving in a manner adverse to accountability.

Accountability also requires ongoing feedback. Employees need to hear what they’re doing well, not so well and how they can improve. This rarely happens unless there are formal systems and processes in place for making it happen.

To nurture accountability, feedback must become a way of working every day versus a seldom used and often-awkward management responsibility. Additionally, effective feedback always compares actual performance to excellence or the desired state, thus reinforcing the importance of defining winning from the beginning.

No Secrets!

Keeping your definition of winning a secret – either on purpose or by default – does not support a culture of accountability.  Instead, clarify and constantly communicate it, so people never lose sight of it. Make it visual, make it transparent and regularly post progress made toward the destination. This ignites the competitive spirit and desire to win in most people. And it is one of the fastest ways to prompt brains to think about something.

Finally, measure results using both qualitative and quantitative data. This helps to lessen uncertainty while keeping focused and engaged. It also helps minimize employees going rogue, which frequently results in a negative outcome. Providing ongoing feedback reflects reality rather than different interpretations of it.

Every successful organization wants a culture of accountability. The difference is, winning organizations don’t just make accountability a priority, they make it a way of life.

Chrissey Breault’s article originally appeared in Private Lender magazine: January/February 2017.