Are You Ready to Lead? Tomorrow’s Leadership for Change and Transformation

Leadership has always been more difficult in challenging times, but the unique stressors facing organisations throughout the world today call for a renewed focus on what constitutes genuine leadership. Current inquiries into corruption, fraud and other acts of deception and misappropriation in organisations in a number of countries questioned business leaders’ ability to build sustainable institutions instead of serving themselves and short-term shareholders. Not surprisingly, the significant and very public ethical failures of leaders in business (and other organisations) over the past few years point to the need for a new approach to leadership to respond to the crisis.

News headlines continue with tales of public and private sector scandals - and malfeasance, involving leaders at the highest level. Shahied Daniels, CEO of The South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA) – one of South Africa’s largest accounting bodies said, “Clearly, not enough was learned from these corporate scandals. We therefore deemed it necessary to place the topic of leadership firmly on the agenda of our National Conference held recently as part of its 30th Anniversary Celebrations.”

Addressing the SAIPA conference on the subject, Tomorrow’s Leadership for Change and Transformation in the Accounting Profession, Karl Smith - an expert on the value of trust in business and founder of Business Networking South Africa, emphasized that one of the chief reasons that it has become difficult to trust the leaders of today is that too many have been shown to be disingenuous. Promises made and not kept, fiduciary oaths taken but later broken, and multiple accounts of deceit have all led to this decline in trust. In order to regain this trust, leaders will need to show that they can be counted on to carry out their responsibilities with integrity.

“In these challenging and turbulent times, there is a growing recognition for the urgent need for more authentic leadership” stressed Smith. He pointed out that the concept of authenticity has its roots in Greek philosophy (To thine own self be true). So how can tomorrow’s leaders fill today’s global leadership gap? “True, authentic leadership always starts at the individual level”, said Smith who had joined a number of growing scholars and practitioners in advocating authentic leadership and its development.

The pressure is now on to find answers to the question: ‘What qualities do we need in tomorrow’s leaders?' Here are 8 things that authentic leaders do on a regular basis:

• Know your authentic self: As this self-knowledge increases, authentic leaders become more effective because they better understand/ know how they can affect others.
• Lead with integrity: Integrity means “that a person’s behaviour is consistent with espoused values and that the person is honest and trustworthy”. It means to behave in ways consistent with one’s moral beliefs.
• Communicate without pretense: This means listening to what others are saying without filters or pre-judgment and expressing oneself openly and honestly. Such leaders say a great deal with a few words, and there is no communication gap between their internal vision of the world and its outward expression. There is directness in their language.
• Honour your promises: Don’t make hasty promises you are unable to keep. Honour small promises as well as the big, visible commitments. When you see a leader who keeps commitments few people know about, often regarding small matters, you gain confidence that person will also live up to big promises. In short, your word is your honour.
• Speak the truth: Don’t say things to please others and to look good in front of The Crowd. Consistently talk truth. Don’t betray yourself by using words that are not aligned with who you are. This does not give anyone a license to say things that are hurtful to people. Speaking truth is simply about being clear, being honest and being candid without being insensitive.
• Develop Courage: It takes a lot of courage to go against the crowd. It takes a lot of courage to be a visionary. It takes a lot of inner strength to do what you think is right even though it may not be easy. It is all about taking the road less travelled and doing, not what is easy, but what is right.
• Establish a culture that values openness: Much has been written about 'CEO disease' – a term that describes the isolation that surrounds a leader when constituents are reluctant to bring bad news or worst-case scenarios to them, for fear that such disclosure might trigger a shoot-the-messenger reaction. Follow a literal, not only figurative, open-door policy. Make it safe for staff to stick their neck out. Consider instituting 'Giraffe Awards' to encourage people to stick their necks out for the overall good of the company and its stakeholders.
• Be real: Resolve to stop all false display or attempts to exhibit what is not natural or real. Simply put, please don’t put on a show, and be someone you’re not just to make an impression on others. Be your authentic self.

“Authentic Leaders will be the hope of our futures”, Smith said. The inevitable question: is authentic leadership sustainable and does it make a difference? After all, the memory of the leadership of self involvement, from Wall Street and other sectors fueling the economic meltdown, is still so vivid. Is it possible that tomorrow’s leadership can emerge that involves authenticity?

“What saves ‘authenticity’ from death by posers is that it isn’t about what leaders say about themselves; it is what the stories told about them demonstrate, about their actions, conversations, connecting, how they handle mistakes, their openness to feedback and disagreement in creating solutions, and their capacity to inspire followers,” Smith concluded.

As a high stakes conference and key speaker, trainer, coach and consultant, Karl Smith has worked with thousands of senior executives, business developers and entrepreneurs in South Africa, challenging their traditional notions about business relationships and excellence.

This article may be copied or republished with the following credit: "By Karl Smith: author, speaker and founder of Business Networking South Africa” Cape Town,

Leadership has always been more difficult in challenging times, but the unique stressors facing organisations throughout the world today call for a renewed focus on what constitutes genuine leadership. Current inquiries into corruption, fraud and other acts of deception and misappropriation in organisations in a number of countries questioned business leaders’ ability to build sustainable institutions instead of serving themselves and short-term shareholders. Not surprisingly, the significant and very public ethical failures of leaders in business (and other organisations) over the past few years point to the need for a new approach to leadership to respond to the crisis.

News headlines continue with tales of public and private sector scandals - and malfeasance, involving leaders at the highest level. Shahied Daniels, CEO of The South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA) – one of South Africa’s largest accounting bodies said, “Clearly, not enough was learned from these corporate scandals. We therefore deemed it necessary to place the topic of leadership firmly on the agenda of our National Conference as part of its 30th Anniversary Celebrations.”

Addressing the recent SAIPA conference on the subject, Tomorrow’s Leadership for Change and Transformation in the Accounting Profession, Karl Smith - an expert on the value of trust in business and founder of Business Networking South Africa, emphasized that one of the chief reasons that it has become difficult to trust the leaders of today is that too many have been shown to be disingenuous. Promises made and not kept, fiduciary oaths taken but later broken, and multiple accounts of deceit have all led to this decline in trust. In order to regain this trust, leaders will need to show that they can be counted on to carry out their responsibilities with integrity.

“In these challenging and turbulent times, there is a growing recognition for the urgent need for more authentic leadership” stressed Smith. He pointed out that the concept of authenticity has its roots in Greek philosophy (To thine own self be true). So how can tomorrow’s leaders fill today’s global leadership gap? “True, authentic leadership always starts at the individual level”, said Smith who had joined a number of growing scholars and practitioners in advocating authentic leadership and its development.

The pressure is now on to find answers to the question: ‘What qualities do we need in tomorrow’s leaders?' Here are 8 things that authentic leaders do on a regular basis:

• Know your authentic self: As this self-knowledge increases, authentic leaders become more effective because they better understand/ know how they can affect others.
• Lead with integrity: Integrity means “that a person’s behaviour is consistent with espoused values and that the person is honest and trustworthy”. It means to behave in ways consistent with one’s moral beliefs.
• Communicate without pretense: This means listening to what others are saying without filters or pre-judgment and expressing oneself openly and honestly. Such leaders say a great deal with a few words, and there is no communication gap between their internal vision of the world and its outward expression. There is directness in their language.
• Honour your promises: Don’t make hasty promises you are unable to keep. Honour small promises as well as the big, visible commitments. When you see a leader who keeps commitments few people know about, often regarding small matters, you gain confidence that person will also live up to big promises. In short, your word is your honour.
• Speak the truth: Don’t say things to please others and to look good in front of The Crowd. Consistently talk truth. Don’t betray yourself by using words that are not aligned with who you are. This does not give anyone a license to say things that are hurtful to people. Speaking truth is simply about being clear, being honest and being candid without being insensitive.
• Develop Courage: It takes a lot of courage to go against the crowd. It takes a lot of courage to be a visionary. It takes a lot of inner strength to do what you think is right even though it may not be easy. It is all about taking the road less travelled and doing, not what is easy, but what is right.
• Establish a culture that values openness: Much has been written about 'CEO disease' – a term that describes the isolation that surrounds a leader when constituents are reluctant to bring bad news or worst-case scenarios to them, for fear that such disclosure might trigger a shoot-the-messenger reaction. Follow a literal, not only figurative, open-door policy. Make it safe for staff to stick their neck out. Consider instituting 'Giraffe Awards' to encourage people to stick their necks out for the overall good of the company and its stakeholders.
• Be real: Resolve to stop all false display or attempts to exhibit what is not natural or real. Simply put, please don’t put on a show, and be someone you’re not just to make an impression on others. Be your authentic self.

“Authentic Leaders will be the hope of our futures”, Smith said. The inevitable question: is authentic leadership sustainable and does it make a difference? After all, the memory of the leadership of self involvement, from Wall Street and other sectors fueling the economic meltdown, is still so vivid. Is it possible that tomorrow’s leadership can emerge that involves authenticity?

“What saves ‘authenticity’ from death by posers is that it isn’t about what leaders say about themselves; it is what the stories told about them demonstrate, about their actions, conversations, connecting, how they handle mistakes, their openness to feedback and disagreement in creating solutions, and their capacity to inspire followers,” Smith concluded.

As a high stakes conference and key speaker, trainer, coach and consultant, Karl Smith has worked with thousands of senior executives, business developers and entrepreneurs in South Africa, challenging their traditional notions about business relationships and excellence.

This article may be copied or republished with the following credit: "By Karl Smith: author, speaker and founder of Business Networking South Africa” Cape Town.