Leadership: Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation
The previous article introduced the concept of leadership development and the steps that organizations can take to ensure that leaders are groomed by identifying potential leaders and then fast tracking them. This article looks at one trait of potential leaders that goes a long way in determining the success or otherwise of the leaders. This […]
Personality and Personality Development – An Overview
Every individual has his own characteristic way of behaving, responding to emotions, perceiving things and looking at the world. No two individuals are similar. You might like going out for parties but your friend might prefer staying back at home reading his/her favourite book. It is really not necessary that if you like partying around, […]
Models of Transformational Change
An extensive review of the literature details would reveal that both practitioners and academics have explained transformational models with varied perspectives and focus on different points of views. Practitioner Models The Practitioner Models focus on senior management in an organization (Kanter, 1983 and Kotter, 1995). These models rely on opinions and also on illustrative anecdotes […]
Freuds Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality Development
Personality development refers to enhancing an individual’s personality for him to stand apart from the rest and make a mark of own. An individual with a pleasing personality is respected and appreciated by all. Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory of Personality Development According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality development, there are two basic factors which drive […]
Management Style – Meaning and Different Types of Styles
The art of getting employees together on a common platform and extracting the best out of them refers to effective organization management. Management plays an important role in strengthening the bond amongst the employees and making them work together as a single unit. It is the management’s responsibility to ensure that employees are satisfied with […]
Business leaders in the 21st century operate in a vastly different terrain than those who led their companies to success in the earlier decades. The landscape that confronts the business leaders of today is characterized by what is known as the VUCA principle or the Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity characteristics.
This term has been coined by the noted futurist and member of the Institute for the Future, Robert Johansen, who points to the increasingly unstable and unpredictable world that the business leaders have to navigate.
If we take volatility first, it is clear that consumer preferences and trends are ever changing and the rapid turnover in brands, products, and companies is proof that business leaders cannot take their leadership position for granted anymore.
For example, the Finnish Mobile maker, Nokia that used to be the market leader a few years ago is now nowhere in the reckoning because astute and agile players like Samsung and Apple saw the emerging trend of Smartphones and quickly launched their products.
As many people who watch cricket attest, one has to see the ball early and only then, one can hope to succeed.
Similarly, the business landscape that is characterized by extreme volatility means that business leaders have to focus on getting there early and staying there for the future.
In other words, business leaders have to channelize their energies so that they know the future to compete in the present.
The next aspect of uncertainty is closely tied with the points made in the previous paragraph. Therefore, the next feature that is discussed here is complexity, which means that business leaders have to adopt a non-linear approach to solving problems and must think out of the box.
Further, they would have to ensure that they not only solve the problems but the business dilemmas brought on due to too much complexity which means that they would have to choose between several competing alternatives that are all attractive but cannot be actualized together.
The world has become so complex even for the layperson that the complexity in the business world is of much higher magnitude and is multilayered meaning that the landscape is now no longer a simple equation where profits mean success.
In other words, the business leaders would have to ensure that they take into account the laws, regulations, and policies as well as social and environmental costs of doing business in an increasingly interconnected world where conditions in one region are markedly different from conditions in other regions.
The fourth and the final aspect that business leaders must confront is ambiguity, which means that the business landscape presents problems and dilemmas that cannot be reduced to simple yes and no type of solutions and black and white approach to problem solving.
Instead, most of the problems that business leaders face now are of the type where the complete information is lacking, where there are no clear solutions in sight, and where the reality of the marketplace is multilayered and multidimensional meaning that leaders would have to resort to unconventional ways of solving problems and confronting situations.
Ambiguity also manifests in conjunction with the other features like uncertainty and complexity and as discussed next, each of these features feed into each other creating a melange that is tough to handle for many firms.
Taken together, the VUCA Paradigm is an apt metaphor for leaders who have to lead from the front and have to steer their companies through turbulent and choppy waters.
As mentioned above, each of the features in the VUCA paradigm are interrelated and feed into each other with the result that the overall picture one gets is a business landscape that is chaotic, fluid, and ever changing.
Indeed, this is where the true and great leaders can distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack through their vision and sense of mission.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
