A new leadership model: how can business leaders inspire more and earn trust?
The world around us is changing at an exponential rate. The way we live and work has been hugely impacted by advancements in technology and we have moved from a limited choice system to a multiple choice system, with people being able to work from anywhere they want. We are now working more collaboratively and inter-connected than ever before and this change in the workforce has encouraged many entrepreneurs, business leaders and educators to rethink the way they lead and retain staff.
Stephen M.R. Covey, an expert in leadership and creator of The Trust & Inspire Microschool, believes the old-school style of leadership cannot work in this changing landscape, and that entrepreneurs must abandon the traditional ‘Command & Control’ way of leading their staff and instead adopt the concept and mindset of ‘Trust & Inspire.’
Covey states: “One of the biggest challenges for scale-up entrepreneurs is ensuring that their culture, team and leadership reflect the speed of growth and meet the challenges that arise from this abundance of change.
“The traditional ‘Command & Control’ style of leadership that continues to dominate 92% of organisations today is incapable of inspiring the level of commitment, innovation, collaboration and performance needed for growth in today’s ever-changing, disruptive world. The antidote to Command & Control is Trust & Inspire.”
With so much change and new opportunity, people no longer just want to be motivated and incentivised at work through bonus schemes and performance rewards, they want to feel inspired by those that lead them. Being an inspirational leader is a learnable skill and ultimately benefits the company.
For an organisation to truly win in the workplace and in the marketplace, leaders must be willing to look at how they interact, operate and communicate with the people that work within their company. Entrepreneurs must first accept that trust goes way beyond the leadership team, it is also about potential business partners, investors and customers. Offering a service is deep-rooted in a transactional way of doing business and we are used to working this way. However, if we choose to start a business relationship by considering what can be done together, it becomes collaborative and forward-thinking. This is a non-prescriptive way of doing business, people that feel included will essentially work harder which ultimately means better turnover for an organisation and better relationships. It is also very exciting as ‘what can we do together?’ can lead to co-creations and a new way of thinking.
If leaders instil an open working environment, where everyone’s opinions are heard, and ideas become conversations that we can learn from, everyone in that environment feels an intrinsic sense of belonging.
Taking this further and looking at how this mindset could positively impact educators is important, as there are huge things happening within the education crisis right now, not just at the school/university level but right up to the corporate training level. The old prescription of, ‘Here is what we would like you to learn’ could be turned on its head to ‘What would you like to learn?’.
This shift would be immense to the education system as a whole. Whether it is educators in the traditional school system, or educators and coaches within corporations that lead and train people, it all comes down to identifying the greatness in people, and leading to unleash it.
This movement is all about implementing an intrinsic mindset and enabling entrepreneurs to learn how to build trust in their company, and how to inspire their people which will result in a rise in productivity. Essentially, the more a team are trusted and inspired, the more they will connect to the organisation, and this will ultimately have a positive impact on the company’s financial results.
It’s time to turn the great disruption into your greatest opportunity for growth.
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