06
What's Next?
seamless,
collective
or
ethical
What’s the latest in leadership styles – and what’s coming up?
Leading for the zeitgeist doesn’t have to mean re-
inventing the wheel; a plethora of excellent business
theorists have identified the latest leadership styles
that resonate most effectively in today’s high-tech
business climate.
Seamless Leadership
Global futurist and business author Anders Sörman-
Nilsson heads up strategic think-tank Thinque in
Sydney. His latest book, Seamless, argues that digital
disruption can be turned into business growth and
innovation.
“Seamless leadership refers to the ability of leaders to
be able to not just show up in person and be present
and lead people face to face - in the analogue world,
but also to have great digital leadership skills,” says
Sörman-Nilsson.
That’s a challenge when leaders aren’t comfortable
in today’s digital world, he adds. “And even though
we are living in an era of digital disruption, only
three percent of Australian C-level executives have
an IT or tech background.”
Sörman-Nilsson says that ‘seamless’ leaders
recognise the technology trends likely to impact
their business, then paint a relevant picture of the
future.
“They can also use the best of technology to make
their workforce much more effective, productive,
and collaborative,” he says.
Examples include Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos
of Amazon – both strong and technically capable
entrepreneurs who empower and connect with
their employees.
Collective or Distributed
Leadership
“Mounting complexity and rapid change create
strategic challenges that even a souped-up hierarchy
can’t handle,” writes leadership author John Kotter
in Harvard Business Review.
Kotter’s book, Accelerate, advocates a blended model
where an agile network structure allows companies
to capitalise swiftly on strategic challenges. “In
“collective” or “distributed” leadership, management-
driven hierarchy works in concert with a strategy
network,” he writes.
That’s a strategy that has taken Tony Hsieh, CEO
of Zappos, to rising success – he hates the word
‘leader’ telling Business Insider, “It’s more about
getting people do what they’re passionate about and
putting them in the right context or setting. They’re
the ones doing the hard work.”
Ethical Leadership
An IBM survey of over 5,000 C-suite executives in 70
countries found key challenges for leaders included
‘the sustainability imperative’.
Ethical leaders need to lead by example, empowering
employees to make fair decisions, says study co-
author Dr David Reibstein.
Examples include Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments
(who, in 2015, raised his employees’ minimum wage
to $70,000, dropping his own million-dollar salary
to help fund it) – and Ben and Jerry’s head Jostein
Solheim, who wants to turn the ice-cream leader
into a ‘social justice company.’
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