It goes without saying that we are in the midst of what futurist Alvin Toffler called “the rattling and shaking.” And, with no let-up in sight, and no end to the cultural and economic upheaval, interspersed with the COVID-19 scourge, or ‘earthquake,’ we are witnessing a fundamental ‘shift’ in our lives at work and home. If our age is in a wobbly period of transition, also transformation — something that has consistently occurred all through time, or history — the forces driving such a change are numerous and varied, including human ingenuity, the incredible information boom, among other scintillating scientific and technological advances.
It’s precisely here that the story takes a turn. A twist to a new reality — one which is booming and, in turn, transforming organisations and work. As Albert Einstein put it so succinctly, “The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” This explains why companies across every business horizon — also a handful of responsible governments — have increasingly woken up to the fact, practically every day, and realised that their most underutilised resources are the minds and hearts of their people. Because, it’s people — people closest to ground reality, closest to work, or business with the customer — who have the answers and solutions to problems, big or small, that confront us.
Ed Oakley and Doug Krug, authors of Enlightened Leadership, and internationally recognised leaders in implementation, corroborate why such efforts at change could plummet too, notwithstanding our best efforts. They contend that leaders should have a ‘smorgasbord’ of practical, hands-on, proven strategies to be in control of things — especially in getting their people to moving right ahead. This isn’t all. Enlightened leadership, they evidence, has to be viable, also proactive, to breaking through the barriers of developmental and organisational change — a vista based on maximising the contribution of all, including people from all walks of life, employees, employers, companies, businesses, and governments, by sharing information, re-engineering decisions, planning goals and methods and getting into and propelling the ‘heart of change’ for a better, also equitable, world.
Our epoch is in a period of fundamental change and the forces driving such a ‘makeover’ are juxtaposed with a host of new and pressing realities of transition. Being able to change and/or keep pace with our rapidly changing ecosystem holds the keynote to success in our chaotic, yet progressive, world. This is the fulcrum that initiates people, who would also be the change agents, with the wherewithal to augment, or amplify, their organisation, or country’s greatest asset — the underutilised talent, know-how and the energy of its existing workforce.
What does all this mean? Nothing complex. We are, quite simply, at the cusp of transforming work and the workplace. This is, indeed, the most important paradigm in the context. Pivotal to its core, or nucleus, is a new kind of leader, not the individual in a hurry, but one who is endowed with creativity and courage to bear the problems of the organisation, or country — with logical, step-by-step processes for empowerment alongside ‘standards’ that would help create a vision of what is possible for teams, or groups. Enlightened leadership is geared to provide the actual, also virtual, toolkit for such leaders — to taking us into the future of work, or a more competitive environment around us.
If there has been much talk in the business community about the need for such visionary leadership — a leader with a prescience of the future — most leaders have been amused, also vexed, with the implied limitations of such a terminology. Merely having the vision is no panacea to bringing about successful change. What is really needed is enlightened leadership — leaders who not only have the vision, but also the ability to get workers, organisations, and governments, to accept ownership for that vision as their own, thus developing the commitment to carrying it through to completion.
Such leaders, as a matter of fact, need not have the vision themselves, but possess the willingness and ability to derive and inspire the vision for their people — and, empower them to foster this vision into reality. In other words, enlightened leaders are leaders who nurture and encourage their people to be open, creative, innovative and expand upon what it takes to achieve their shared objectives — to bring the best in them. In simple terms, enlightened leadership is not so much about things to do, but getting them done in the best manner possible — without publicity blitz, or ballyhoo.
— First published in First India
