Competencies for 21st Century Leaders - Literature review Example

Competencies for 21st Century Leaders Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Name & Number Date of Submission Competencies for 21st Century Leaders Introduction Leadership is one of the most critical factors for the success of an organization (Harvey & Buckley 2002, p. 368). Although the role of leadership in the success of an organization has been recognized since time immemorial, the value of leadership in organizational success has received increased attention in the 21st century. The increased focus on leadership in the 21st century is attributed to the fact that business in the modern day society operates in a more complex environment (Rowe 2007, p. 9). Leaders of the 21st century not only have to manage economic crisis, and environmental issues, but also have to address the challenges of inequality and poverty. Besides, in the modern day globalized and interconnected world, businesses operates in a complex environment characterized by extraordinary political, social, technological, economic, environment and legal issues that they have to tackle to ensure success of the businesses they manage (Prentice 2013, p. 17). Additionally, the workers and consumer expectations have changed significantly over the years, meaning that a 21st century leader must have the right competencies to respond to these emerging issues in the business world (Greer 2013, p. 31). This paper seeks to highlight the predicted key competencies of the 21st century leaders and compare them with the classical leadership capabilities while also explaining the causes of the changes in leadership competencies. The Concept of Leadership Leadership is one of the most studied topics in the recent years. However, the concept of leadership has no single agreeable definition as the concept is defined differently in literatures. According to the U.S. military, leadership is the process by which an individual uses the authority bestowed on him/her to influence others to ensure the achievement of a goal (U.S. Army 1983, p. 2). Kruse (2003, p. 4) defines leadership differently as the process of social influence to increase the efforts of the subordinates to ensure the accomplishment of a mission. Zeitchik (2012), however, defines leadership as the process of inspiring followers to work towards the achievement of the visions set by the leader to the extent that it becomes a shared vision and success. According to Northouse (2007, p. 1), leadership is the process where an individual influences subordinates to accomplish a common objective. From the four definitions, the common denominator for the concept of leadership is that leadership refers to the ability of a person to influence followers towards the realization of goals. A good leader, therefore, is that person with the ability to exert positive influence on the group to work towards the achievement of goals. Key Leadership Competencies for 21st Century It is acknowledged that the 21st century leaders operate in a complex and challenging business environment. Because of these, there are certain core competencies that have been found to be necessary for the 21st century leaders to succeed as highlighted hereunder. Developing Strategic Vision According to transformational leadership principle, the 21st century leaders must have the ability to create a strategic vision in order to succeed (Boyatzis 2008, p. 5). Because of the nature of today’s business environment, the 21st century leader must be able to define where they want to see their organization go. However, the vision must not just be developed; rather the leader must ensure that the vision is communicated to all the concerned stakeholders to ensure the building of a shared purpose and turned into a strategy. It is noted that with the existence of a clear vision, a leader is able to provide the framework that gives the direction, promotes collaboration and inspiring people (Aggarwa 2011, p. 57). Richard Branson has been cited in most literatures as one of the 21st century leaders that have the competencies critical for the modern business environment. Branson has succeeded in propelling Virgin Group to become one of the most successful companies in the world because of the fact that he is a visionary leader. When Branson started Virgin, his vision was to see the company grow to become a global brand like Coca-Cola (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner 2001, p. 32). Accordingly, Branson pursued this vision by setting strategies to achieve this vision that involves working together with his team and inspiring them towards the achievement of virgin’s vision. Accordingly, Branson’ s ability to develop a strategic vision and using it to lead his company, effectively makes strategic vision development a core competency for the 21st century leaders. Focus for Result It is predicted that the nature of the modern business environment requires a leader with relentless focus on result. In this respect, most bodies of literature point that the 21st century leaders need to focused on getting things done regardless of the challenges that the business might be facing. In the modern day digital business environment, the speed with which things are executed is a critical success factor in businesses. This, therefore, means that a leader of today must seek the achievement of result by rallying the subordinates. The late Steve Jobs is regarded as one of the 21st century leaders whose success as a leader is linked to the fact that he had a strong focus for result (Boyatzis 2008, p. 7). Commonly described as a transactional leader, he influenced his followers as CEO of Apple by rallying them to ensure the achievement of result. In fact, Jobs was sometimes forced to use threats and punishment to ensure the achievement of Apple goals (Prentice 2013, p. 106). Greer (2013, p. 126) notes that Jobs was a leader who had no tolerance for mistakes and did everything within his ability as a leader to ensure that result is achieved. Ability to Manage Diverse Workforce The world has become increasingly diverse following the globalization and technological advancements that have occurred in the recent past (Carr-Ruffino 2005, p. 21). Because of this, companies are increasingly becoming diverse as employers meaning that employers now have to deal with the challenge of having to deal with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures with diverse opinions and views (Chuang 2013, p. 3). A study conducted in the United States recently paints the picture of the extent to which the 21st century workforce has become more diverse. A 2012 study conducted in the U.S. workforce found that about 36% of the labor force is made of the people of color. In terms of race, and ethnicity, about 99,945 (64%) of America’s labor force are non-Hispanic whites, 24,679,000 (16%) are Hispanics, 18,758,000 (12%) are Blacks and 8,202,000 (5%) are Asians (Burns et al. 2012). The study also found that up to 4,801,000 people in the labor force do not identify in the above racial and ethnic groups. Similar diverse nature of workforce is reflected across the globe and this calls for a leader with the ability and competence to manage a diverse workforce. Boyatzis (2008, p. 9) demonstrates that, in order to realize result, leaders of the modern businesses needs to understand what each member of the team can do best and what they are passionate about in life. Consequently, the leader must provide each team member the freedom to perform their duties and to advance in their areas of competence (Chuang 2013, p. 6). Therefore, in the modern business environment, a leader cannot succeed if they lack the competence to manage a diverse workforce. Effective Communication Effective communication is another core competence that is required of the 21st century leaders. The 21st century businesses operate in a global and IT-driven world where information can be exchanged in a matter of milliseconds. Because of these, the leaders of the present day business must ensure that they keep up with the technological developments in order to succeed in managing their organizations (Sandmann & Vandenberg 1995, p. 1). For instance, the Internet is one of the major technological developments that have greatly transformed the 21st century business environment. The internet has resulted in the development of other communication platforms, such as the social media that are used for information exchange. The social media and other technological developments, such as apps and social intranets allow information to flow very fast. Accordingly, they provide leaders with the platform to communicate quickly with their customers and employees and other stakeholders. Therefore, it a leader of the 21st century requires the competency to utilize these communication technologies to ensure that employees, customers and suppliers are kept informed on time. Caligiuri and Tarique (2012, p. 612) observe that in the modern digitized world, where transparency is important, the speed and quality of communication has become a critical business driver. It is for this reason that it is predicted that effective communication, and in particular the ability to utilize digital communication tools to communicate with stakeholders is a core competency required of the 21st century leaders. Embracing Innovation Innovation is regarded as a critical factor to the success of a business in the present day business environment. As the business environment increasingly becomes competitive, this has created an environment where innovation is necessary for a business to succeed. Accordingly, this implies that the 21st century leaders must be those that are willing to embrace innovation; otherwise they might not succeed. Embracing technology means that the 21st century leaders needs to provide an environment where employees are free to exploit their talents by following the principles of authentic leadership. According to Boyatzis (2008, p. 11), innovation cannot thrive in an environment characterized by bossiness and where people are made to work under constant pressure and fear of making mistakes. As such, the 21st century leaders are expected to have the competency to promote innovation by cultivating a culture of openness, learning, team work and innovative thinking (Aggarwa 2011, p. 56). The need for leaders to promote innovation has been demonstrated by some of the top performing companies, such as Samsung and Apple. These companies have remained top of the park in their industries because they are let by people who embrace innovation and are working with the subordinates to ensure that the companies develop innovative products that meet the consumer needs in the market all the time. Maintaining high standards of Ethics, Integrity and Professionalism Ethics, professionalism and integrity have become a critical part of doing business. In the recent times, a number of companies have collapsed because of ethics, professionalism and integrity issues (Heames & Harvey 2006, p. 2). For instance, former American giant companies, such as Adelphia, Enron and WorldCom were reduced from riches to rags because their leaders engaged in unethical business practices. Companies, such as British Petroleum and Rio Tinto have also faced criticism from the public for unethical and unprofessional behavior. This implies that the society now puts a lot of emphasis on the ethics, professionalism and integrity of the leaders of organizations. In this respect, stakeholders and the society expects leaders to ensure the maintenance of high standards of ethics, integrity and professionalism (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner 2001, p. 61). This implies that the 21st century leaders must meet the societal and stakeholder expectations by demonstrating these competencies in the organizations they lead. Global Mindset The 21st century leaders are expected to have global business acumen. Considering that the world has become a global community, the leaders of the 21st century need to have a global mindset in order to succeed (Chuang 2013, p.123). Mo so, Aggarwa (2011, p. 52) suggests that they need to the leaders need not only to be open minded, but also to embrace diversity by understanding the cultural differences. Having strong global acumen and embracing diversity is an invaluable competency for the 21st century leaders as these competencies enables them to not only be able to work with people from diverse cultural backgrounds and nationalities, but also to communicate effectively with customers, workers, suppliers and partners from foreign countries (Caligiuri & Tarique 2012, p. 613). Living Agile Because of the complex and fast-changing business environment, the present day leaders are expected to be agile so as to be able to effectively respond to the changing needs of customer, employees and the market. Over the past years, the globalization and technological advancements has caused radical changes to the markets (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner 2001, p. 44). Additionally, the employee needs and expectations have also been changing and the same applies to the customer needs and wants that have been changing constantly (Sandmann & Vandenberg 1995, p. 1). Accordingly, this implies that modern leaders must have the ability to respond to the changes in order to succeed. Being agile here means that the 21st century leaders need to be flexible, innovating and willing to learn from their mistakes, as well as being open enough to avoid unsuccessful strategies, techniques, products or processes. Comparison of Competencies for 21st Century Leaders and Classical Leadership Capabilities The competencies for the 21st leaders as described above differ from the classical leadership capabilities in some ways. The first notable difference is that, classical leadership capability put a lot of emphasis on passion and optimism, a competency that does not necessarily apply to the 21st century leaders (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner 2001, p. 69). The classical leadership principle holds that a good leader must exude positive energy in order to exert positive influence on followers. Contrastingly, 21st century leaders only need to be agile and have good emotional intelligence to effectively lead the people under them. Secondly, whereas the 21st century leaders need to be innovative by thinking creatively, classical leadership theory emphasizes more on people development and team building. In this respect, the classical leadership model maintains that a good leader must ensure that they hire the best talents in order to achieve result (Kouzes & Posner 1987, p. 41). This differs with the present day leadership that emphasizes more on innovation and creativity on the part of the leadership to deliver results. Additionally, unlike the classical leadership that does not emphasize on global acumen on the part of leaders, the 21st century leaders needs to be global minded in order to succeed in the present day globalized business environment. Moreover, it is notable that classical leadership did not consider diverse workforce management ability as a critical capability required of leaders (Chuang 2013, p. 13). However, because the present workplace increasingly become diverse with people from different cultural backgrounds and nationalities, the 21st century leaders must have the ability to effectively manage a diverse workforce to succeed. Despite the differences, it is acknowledged that classical leadership capabilities also share a lot in common with the 21st century competencies required of leaders. To begin with, there is an agreement that both the classical and 21st century leaders needs to be visionary. This means that they must ensure that they create a vision that defines where they want their organizations to go and develop strategies to achieve the goals (Harvey & Buckley 2002, p. 368). Second, there is agreement in literature that both classical and 21st century leaders need to have integrity, ethics and professionalism which forms the foundation of leadership (Heames & Harvey 2006, p. 4). In other words, leaders, regardless of past or present must ensure that they tell the truth and do that which is right to ensure the protection of stakeholder interests. Third, there is a consensus that both classical and present leaders need to be result focus. Being result focus implies that leaders both present and classical must be relentless about ensuring that things get done. Lastly, both classical and present leadership requires that leaders cultivate a culture of accountability Conclusion There is a consensus that effective leadership is critical to the success of an organization. However, as described in the literature, leadership competencies have undergone radical changes in the past years, especially in the 21st century because of many things that include globalization, technological advancements, and increased diversity of the workplaces. As such, it has become increasingly necessary for the 21st century leaders to move away from the classical leadership by acquiring the leadership competencies that suits today’s business environment. Accordingly, the core leadership competencies for the 21st century leaders include ability to develop strategic visions, being result focus, diversity management ability, effective communication, innovativeness, global mindset and being agile so as to ensure quick and effective response to changes. Nonetheless, the literature has also indicated that 21st century leadership also shares a lot in common with classical leadership capabilities. References Aggarwa, R 2011, “Developing a global mindset: Integrating demographics, sustainability, technology, and globalization,” Journal of Teaching in International Business, vol. 22, no.1, pp. 51-69. doi:10.1080/08975930.2011.585920 Boyatzis, R. 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