Leadership Agility: Developing Your Repertoire of Leadership Styles

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Short Description

With disruptive innovation and rapidly changing business models happening all around, it should come as no surprise that leadership agility is emerging as a key competency. Leaders who understand their default leadership styles are better able to respond with the most suitable style given the situation, leading to increased effectiveness. The session will begin with an overview of the leadership agility framework, ten sets of opposite leadership styles that help leaders understand the strengths and weaknesses of both sides and identify their own current preference. Workshop participants will be challenged to reflect on how they would approach a number of cases and will be provided with a framework to draw up their own leadership development plans.

Detailed Abstract

Relevance

With disruptive innovation and rapidly changing business models happening all around, it should come as no surprise that organizational agility has become an enormously popular topic, both in academic research and in the practitioner-oriented literature. There is no organizational agility without leadership agility, and this topic too has received much attention in the past few years, but no book has offered more than a simple wish list of characteristics (“you need to be technologically savvy and fast and open-minded and…”). The Leadership Agility Framework offers a robust conceptual body, a comprehensive navigation map.

Presentation Summary
Leadership is about influencing others to move in a certain direction and there are many ways of achieving and exercising this influence. Each of these leadership styles has its inherent qualities and pitfalls, and will be more suited to specific people and different circumstances. The more leaders understand their default leadership styles and are able to respond with the most suitable style given the situation, the more effective they will be. The Leadership Agility Framework maps out 10 sets of opposite leadership styles, giving leaders the possibility to understand the strengths and weaknesses of both sides, and to identify their own current preference.
The 10 leadership style dimensions cover the full range of key leadership roles, from the leader as coach (inter-personal leadership), to the leader as organizer (organizational leadership), as strategist (strategic leadership), as sense-maker (leadership & mission) and as role model (leadership & self). Leaders are encouraged to draw up their own leadership development plans (supported by an interactive App). Leaders are also challenged to reflect on how they would approach a number of cases, after which they can go to an interactive web-forum to read how others have responded and engage in a discussion with them.

Author Details

The book was written by two authors:


Ron Meyer Ronald Meijers

Ron Meyer PhD is Managing Director of the Center for Strategy & Leadership and Professor of Corporate Strategy at Tias Business School, Tilburg University in the Netherlands. For years, Ron has been combining boardroom consulting with in-house management trainings and applied management research. Besides that Ron gives speeches and presentations on topics such as corporate strategy, business innovation, change management, strategic thinking, leadership and organizational development. He has (co-)authored numerous articles and books, among which the internationally leading textbook Strategy - Process, Content, Context: An International Perspective.

Ronald Meijers is senior partner Leadership, Transformation and Governance at Deloitte a firm dedicated to making an impact that matters. He was member of the executive committee of Deloitte, member of the global talent executive and is also supervisory board member at Dunamare, an education group. Prior to joining Deloitte in 2011, Ronald was co-chairman of the executive board of Krauthammer. Besides that he has extensive experience as an executive, he is a sparring partner, facilitator and coach for leaders from Fortune 500 to small enterprises, as well as the public sector.

As team, they span a number of divides:
• North America – Europe. Ron is a Canadian, with extensive experience in North America and Europe, while Ronald is Dutch, with extensive experience in Europe and Asia.
• Academic – Practice. Ron is a university professor, with extensive experience in practice, while Ronald is an executive, with extensive experience in academia.
• Organizational – Individual. As a strategy professor, Ron looks from the organization towards the role of the leader, while Ronald as a leadership practitioner and coach looks from the individual to their role in the organization.
• Opposite Styles. On almost all of the leadership dimensions identified in this book, Ron and Ronald have opposite styles.
Structure
Leadership
1 The Nature of Leadership
What is leadership and what is it not? What are the five most common Leadership Misconceptions? What is the essence of leadership?
2 The Practice of Leadership
What is a Leadership Style? And what is Leadership Agility? The five
leadership misconceptions are turned into the five leadership roles and within
each role the various leadership styles are introduced. The Leadership Agility Framework is introduced.

Interpersonal Leadership
3 Interpersonal Steering
How do leaders direct others in a certain direction? Do they focus on directing
activities or creating conditions? The opposite styles are the supervisory
leadership style and the facilitative leadership style.
4 Interpersonal Feedback
How do leaders give feedback to those they wish to influence? Do they give challenging feedback or do they focus more on showing appreciation? The opposite styles are the demanding leadership style and the encouraging leadership style.

Organizational Leadership
5 Organizational Composition
How do leaders pull together teams and units? Do they emphasize unity or
diversity? The opposite leadership styles are the integrative leadership style and the federative leadership style.
6 Organizational Decision-Making
How do leaders approach decision-making in teams and units? Do they focus
on clarity of direction or on broad participation? The opposite leadership styles are the autocratic leadership style and the democratic leadership style.

Strategic Leadership
7 Strategic Goal-Setting
How do leaders set strategic goals for the organization? Do they emphasize
idealistic long-term goals or realistic short-term ones? The opposite leadership styles are the visionary leadership style and the pragmatic leadership style.
8 Strategic Priority-Setting
What type of priorities do leaders set for the organization? Do they emphasize
exploitation or exploration? The opposite leadership styles are the executive
leadership style and the entrepreneurial leadership style.

Leadership & Purpose
9 Core Values
What are the central values used by leaders to give meaning to people’s
work? Do they emphasize economic wealth or encompassing health? The
opposite leadership styles are the value-driven leadership style and the virtue-
driven leadership style.
10 Core Interests
In whose interest is the organization being lead? Do leaders emphasize their
own self-actualization or are they in service of others? The opposite styles are
the sovereign leadership style and the servant leadership style.

Leadership & Self
11 Leadership Problem-Solving
How do leaders react to leadership challenges in the environment? Do they
first think and then act or the other way around? The opposite leadership
styles are the reflective leadership style and the proactive leadership style.
12 Leadership Attunement
How do leaders react to the variety of leadership challenges in the
environment? Do they remain authentically close to themselves or do they
adapt to the circumstances as necessary? The opposite styles are the
consistent leadership style and the responsive leadership style.

Leadership Development
13 Developing Leadership Agility
What does it mean to be agile as a leader, why is agility so
important and how is agility typically achieved.
14 Mastering Leadership Agility
Leaders are challenged to draw up their own leadership profile. It is discussed which factors should determine the type of agility sought and attention is paid to the personal change process.

Sub Unit

• Leadership Development

Presenters

• Ronald Meijers, Deloitte

• Ron Meyer, Tias Business School, Tilburg University