As businesses wait to reopen after the prolonged shutdown, they know it won’t be business as usual. Everyone agrees that Transformative Leadership will be required to re-engage the customers, sustain the competitive advantage and long-term growth. But what is Transformative Leadership?
In leadership literature, transformative leadership is broadly defined as a leadership approach to create positive change in individuals and organizations.I have had the privilege of leading large-scale business transformation programs as an executive at Boehringer Ingelheim and Siemens Healthineers and as a consultant to the world’s leading healthcare companies. This is what I have learned about Transformative Leadership:
You need to start with the clarity of organizational purpose: Irrespective of the level of organization one operates in, the clarity of and alignment to the organization’s purpose is most critical. Because the absence of alignment causes individual agendas, politics, and conflict.
You need a pragmatic vision, and measurable milestones: Aligned with the purpose is the need for a pragmatic vision and measurable milestones. I say a pragmatic vision because if it is not pragmatic, it will be difficult to gain organizational momentum behind it. And measurable, declared milestones, because humans are natively trained to go after targets, and nothing succeeds like success.
You need to stay innovative: Most mature organizations stay focused on driving their core business leveraging the process machinery they have perfected over time. In the long run, that becomes the reason for obsolescence. As is posited in innovation literature and also discussed in our book, Redefining Innovation: Embracing the 80–80 Rule to Ignite Growth in the Biopharmaceutical Industry, organizations should methodically allocate allocations to drive their core business (85–90%), build adjacent businesses (7–10%) and innovate for the future (3–5%). Yes, wall street expectations will come in the way, but its large organizations that have the highest ability to operationalize such investment philosophy.
You need to be agile, but not rushed: Leading transformation needs agility, but don’t confuse that with rushing to adopt every best new idea since sliced bread. That creates confusion, panic, and mistrust.
You need to be a leader-coach: People will find it difficult to embrace change. You need to operate as a leader-coach to empower teams and enable change. Leader-coach is one who leads with the coaching mindset. A leader-coach operates and enables organizations to operate from the position of creativity, not reaction. Leader-coach frames and re-frames perspectives but remains true to organizational purpose. And a leader-coach can operate from any level in the organization — and coach up, and coach down.
You should lead with Courage: Change is difficult. Uncertainty will be high. Resistance will come from multiple directions. A lot of times there will be no playbook to refer to — you will have to create the playbook. That is where the 80–80 Rule comes in: “Being 80% confident that you will only be 80% right the first time should feel normal.”
You should not lose sight of the forest among the trees: While it is extremely important to execute on different initiatives that are part of the transformation program, it is equally important not to lose sight of the big picture. As they say, don’t lose sight of the forest among the trees! Another way to say it, don’t forget the organizational purpose as you get deep into divisions, functions and rest of the organizational labyrinth.
The costs of failed transformation journeys will be high. As your organization gets ready to launch its transformation journey, look for leaders who exhibit the above traits.