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What Middle East Protestors and The Best Companies for Leaders Have in Common January 28 2011
My guess is you weren’t expecting to see the two topics in the title of this post strung together. Here’s the back story.
As I was scanning the headlines this morning, I read the New York Times report about tens of thousands of Egyptians flooding into the streets to protest their government. This follows similar scenes in Tunisia a couple of weeks ago and it looks like Yemen is next up. All of these protests have been stimulated by a flood of information being shared through satellite news channels and by the citizens themselves through Twitter, You Tube and Facebook. The information flow allows the protestors to learn the latest, take inspiration from it, connect with each other, collaborate and coordinate their efforts.
Earlier this week, I received an email from the Hay Group about their newly released study on the world’s best companies for developing leaders. Reading over the results, it seems to me that the leaders of these companies understand that the dynamics that are facilitating the protests in the Middle East can be leveraged for competitive advantage. To take advantage of today’s internet-enabled communications environment, the best companies are developing leaders who connect, collaborate and coordinate.
Here are a few headlines from the Hay study that illustrate that:
- 90% of the Best Companies expect employees to lead, regardless if they have a formal position of authority.
- 100% of the Best have programs to develop leaders who can bring together resources across the organization.
- 100% of the Best get local leaders to participate in decisions made at HQ to share ideas and best practices.
When you read the Best Companies for Leaders data in the context of what’s going on in the rest of the world, you realize pretty quickly that we’re in the midst of a structural shift about how organizational leadership is practiced. As the protests in the Middle East show, people want to be heard. The data on the Best Companies suggests that they’re working to make sure people get heard and that the best ideas surface. We’re moving further and further away from hundreds of years of practice of hierarchical leadership structures and towards flatter, more participative models.
At least that’s what I think. What do you think about the practice of leadership? Are we in the midst of a structural shift? Where do you think things are headed?
Scott Eblin is an executive coach, speaker and author of 
We are exactly where should be – demanding and getting more transparency. Leadership is not sustainable without followers. And followers demand transparency and participation.
Scott-I think you are spot on. My experience tells me that economics is driving the need to optimize the use of our resources, including human and knowledge resources. A collaborative structure within and across organizations allows us to tap into resources as needed rather than develop them all internally-just-in-time resources if you will. The motto that drives our organizational strategy is "Quality People, Quality Service". Our leadership development program (LDP) is open to all staff members and is an ongoing program with an annual open enrollment opportunity. A number of years ago when our program was rolled out, it was clear that we did not have an effective way to transfer institutional knowledge in the organization. Because the LDP program is open to all staff members, the program has become a conduit for collaboration and knowledge transfer.
I was not surprised .. I'm a big fan of "Leadership Secrets of Attila The Hun by Wess Roberts" .. He also harnessed the ability to bring vast groups together and focus them towards a single purpose. Imagine the difficulties of accomplishing that without You Tube, Twitter, or for that matter anything more than a runner or a horseman? Ah the good old days !!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Peter, Gayle and JF. I'm guessing that Attila the Hun was pretty big on coordination but not so much on collaboration. I would imagine his version of connection probably left a lasting impression. What do you think?
Great post Scott! King Abdullah of Jordan must have read this as he just fired his PM as requested by demonstrations now taking place in Jordan.
Thanks Mediagofer. Yes, I pride myself on the impact this blog has on global geopolitics.
Cheers –
Scott