Guiding the Tide: The Call for Agency in 21st Century Business Leaders

Description

In a world increasingly driven by artificial intelligence, leadership needs to move beyond the "agile" approach that dominated organizational leadership practices at the end of the 20th century. What is required now for successful leaders is a skillful juxtaposition of proactivity and humility, which we call "guiding the tide." Successful leaders of today must demonstrate personal agency in... Read more

In a world increasingly driven by artificial intelligence, leadership needs to move beyond the "agile" approach that dominated organizational leadership practices at the end of the 20th century. What is required now for successful leaders is a skillful juxtaposition of proactivity and humility, which we call "guiding the tide."

Successful leaders of today must demonstrate personal agency in order to guide the tide of events around them rather than have the tide of events sweep them along. The "tide," like a river within an ocean akin to a gulf stream, is a unique, ever-changing stream of business systems, technology, consumers, and competitors.

This book uses storytelling, examples, and clear, everyday language to blend leading-edge psychological research and leadership practices with the authors’ own work in coaching, assessing, and developing leaders for three decades around the world. The book takes the reader on a journey through three major learnings:

First, the authors describe the nature of the tide and the demands on leaders to move beyond a reactionary, agile approach toward the forward-leaning, active stance of personal agency.

Second, they describe three critical practices to successfully lead with agency and guide the tide:

Honest Engagement – the practice of dealing with others from a place of openness, honesty, and a willingness to be vulnerable.

Addressing Reality – the practice of seeing the world as it is rather than as we wish it to be, the ability to separate fact from fiction and data from desire.

Adaptive Impact – the practice of driving the organization, team, and oneself forward in a way that creates results-beyond- results, that is, delivering goals while building followership, sustainability and "Humanocity" – the integration of human creativity and judgment with the efficiency of digital automation.

Third, they offer leaders a practical path to achieving the personal agency to successfully guide their organization through the tide that shapes their world.

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Author(s)

Biography

Jonathan Donner is an internationally recognized expert in senior leadership development, Jonathan Donner has led leadership development efforts at some of the world’s most successful global enterprises including Amazon, the UN World Food Programme, Unilever, Altria, and Marks & Spencer.

Frank Guglielmo is an award-winning educator, consultant, and coach. He has created and led executive development programs around the world for over two decades. Currently, he is Managing Director of Park Consulting, a firm he founded, focusing on helping organizations deal with the leadership and talent management requirements of the “post-information age” – a competitive environment defined by connections driven through digital media and socially created information.

Prior to this, Frank was Senior Vice President of leadership and Organizational Development at the Interpublic Group of Companies, a Fortune 500 company and one of the world's leading marketing and advertising firms. In this role Frank was accountable for internal development and talent management strategies across Interpublic’s global agency networks and was directly accountable for the company’s executive development and succession management efforts.

Frank has also been Director of Management and Organizational Development at Altria Corporate Services Inc. and Vice President, Branch Management Selection and Development at Prudential Securities. In both of these roles, Frank was accountable for leading efforts in management selection and development, high-potential development, and succession management. He began his career as a Senior Consultant at Applied Research Corp., a consulting firm specializing in management assessment and development.  Frank holds both an MS and a Ph.D. in organizational psychology. He has conducted training programs and organizational interventions in Europe and Latin America as well as the U.S. He is a member of the American Psychological Association and the Metropolitan New York Association for Applied Psychology. Specialties: Leadership Development, Succession Planning, Change Management, Executive Coaching, HR Strategy.

Sudhanshu Palsule is an award-winning educator, CEO advisor, and leadership coach, Sudhanshu Palsule is regarded as one of the leading thinkers in the field of transformative leadership. He teaches at Duke Corporate Education and is a Fellow at Cambridge University. His clients include several Fortune 100 companies, governments, and the UN.

Critics' Reviews

A timely rethinking of the role of agency in leadership. This book provides meaningful, thoughtful advice for every modern leader.

-- Paul Polman - Business Leader, Campaigner and co-author of Net Positive

The timing for this book couldn't be better. This meaningful playbook serves as a guide and call to action for leaders to embrace their personal agency, manage the deep paradoxes of our polarized and chaotic world, lead with purpose and humility and create sustainable, meaningful value.

-- Angela Cretu - Ex-Global CEO, Avon; Board Director; Women Empowerment Advocate; Angel Investor in Female Founders

This book is a transformative book that empowers leaders to navigate the complexities of the 21st century with personal agency. In the face of digitalization, environmental challenges, and a polarized world, this book serves as a guiding light and call to action for leaders to proactively shape their own stories and make a meaningful impact in a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. Highly recommended!

-- Dr Marc Kahn - Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer, Investec Plc, London

In this era of polarization and activism, this book’ makes a brilliant case for why and how leaders can proactively manage complexity by approaching situations with a mindset of humility, inquiry, and curiosity.

-- Jeanne Meister - Best Selling Author and Founder of Future Workplace

This book will help leaders find their grip on the rudder, read the winds, and proactively chart a path through the storm to a new and promising future.

-- Sheila Heen – Best Selling Author, Founder of Triad Consulting, Professor Harvard Law School

The authors really know what they are talking about. Their real-world experience is unparalleled. They unfold how you can learn to “guide the tide” with precision, humility, empathy, and deep knowledge and know-how.

-- Carol Kauffman PhD - Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School; Founder, Institute of Coaching, Senior Leadership Advisor; Egon Zehnder, Author, Real-Time Leadership

The book’s lessons are rooted in honesty – skillful honesty with ourselves and others, even when it is challenging; honesty in assessing the truth of our operating context, even when we tend to self-delude; and finally, honesty about what we cannot control but also – and here is the real gift of this book – honesty about what we can and must control, even when it is tempting to abdicate responsibility.

-- Mary Gentile - Creator/Director, Giving Voice To Values, Author, Giving Voice to Values; Formerly Richard M. Waitzer Bicentennial Professor of Ethics, University of Virginia Darden School of Business

The authors set out to write this book with the goal of challenging the narrative of successful leadership in the ever-changing context of our times and they have done that in a very compelling way. At its core is an invitation- that there is a need to both ‘deconstruct’ the past while one finds a way to ‘construct’ one’s personal agency – the need to be proactive, to create that forward momentum; and yet take people with you while you’re on that journey. Anchoring the proposition in the three practices of honest engagement, addressing reality, and adaptive impact makes it a very compelling playbook indeed, inspiring for those who are waiting to author their story while it unfolds around them. Thank you, Jonathan, Frank, and Sudhanshu for leading us into this very important conversation

-- Adi Sengupta – Group Chief Executive, Common Purpose Charitable Trust

The authors show us how we can find the pivot point that allows each of us to deliver results beyond results. The invitation is to deliver powerful results with the real gift of followership, sustainability, and human creativity in a digital world.

-- Nick Craig – President of Core Leadership Institute, Author of Leading from Purpose

For those seeking to lead with significance, foster growth, and sustainable impact, this book is must-read.

-- Tswelo Kodisang - Group Chief People Officer, FirstRand

Guiding the Tide The Call for Agency in 21st Century Business Leaders

Description

Table of Contents

Author(s)

Biography

Critics' Reviews

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