Seeking Inclusivity

South Africa has rightly become obsessed with finding the best person for the job – no matter what their ethnicity, faith or gender. This has been a huge and necessary step forward, but it might be time to be as inclusive about the next generation – this more than anything will help break the current deadlock on productivity.

The most progressive leaders have started to realise it is no longer appropriate to focus solely on the best person for the job – this must move to a focus on the best person for the team. This is the biggest driver of productivity and will take them in a completely different direction – bringing new thinking and new attitudes to the business.

This approach means having less of an obsession with academic qualifications and longterm experience; an approach of being fixated with only the ‘past’ of potential candidates is outdated. This has led to the executive team doors being slammed shut to a new generation of younger, more travelled, more broadly aware potential executives that are technology literate and far better equipped to deal with disruptive times.

There is still a place for the more careful, judicious and heavily risk adverse executive that has seen it all before. Their learned focus of only taking cautious and small incremental steps forward is often way too slow and measured for this fast-paced world. However, when the leader is brave enough to bring in those from a new generation, with big audacious new ideas and fresh collaborative instincts, the heady combination starts to create magic and faster results.

Leaving the corporate world 15 years ago to go solo as a business speaker, author and broadcaster, presented me with the opportunity and privilege to work closely with some of the world’s leading ‘blue chip’ multinational businesses, and far more importantly, some of the world’s best leaders.

The Queen said I shouldn’t name drop, so I won’t, but I have worked with the likes of Richard Branson, Mikael Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, Jack Welch and quite a few prominent leaders in South Africa, including Maria Ramos and Dr Anna Mokgokong.

Today’s leaders have to be self-aware enough to know precisely what their own inherent strengths are, but they also need to have the humility to be as clear of their own limitations.

Instead of the age-old practice of becoming fixated with working hard to improve their shortcomings, they focus more on the deployment of their strengths.

The real leap forward in terms of productivity is to identify executives for the team whose strengths balance out the weaknesses of the leader.

There was a time not so long ago when the leader could and would be expected to introduce every new business initiative and to solve every business problem. Those days are long gone. The business world has become way too rapid and complex for one person to be able to ‘call all the shots’ on their own anymore.

Whilst it is no longer feasible for any individual, no matter how brilliant they are, to be that broad, it is entirely feasible for the team to be that broad.

But even the best executive teams with individuals chosen for their ‘fit’ are not enough on their own – they also need ideas, suggestions and solutions coming from everyone else in the business.

Therefore, another secret of these special leaders, is to abandon the old-fashioned approach of having cultures that ‘challenge down and support up’, but to foster the opposite approach of ‘challenging up and supporting down’, so that every voice is heard and valued.”

René’s top tips for progressive leaders:

Be more realistic about what you can and can’t do. Cultivate a culture of curiosity.

Ensure that every voice is heard.

Push all your tasks and activities down to your team – freeing yourself up for conversations with all your people.

Catch people doing things right It will take courage to appoint and embrace those who behave and think completely different to you. You must hold your nerve and look for those who are able to bring ‘new age’ thinking, and maybe a completely different way of getting things done.

Create an environment of psychological safety, where every voice is heard and everyone feels safe and confident.

There was a time not so long ago when the leader could and would be expected to introduce every new business initiative and to solve every business problem. Those days are long gone.

BY RENÉ CARAYOL

PHOTOGRAPH BY AMIT AMIN & NAROOP JHOOTHI