The New Leadership Challenge: Removing the Emotional Barriers to Sustainable Performance in a Flat World

Summary

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Leaders need to model the kind of communication that they view as critical to the success of their organization. The Center for Advanced Emotional Intelligence's (AEI) model of effective leadership connects the five critical elements required for a company's sustainable high performance: personality, leadership, collaboration, culture, and commitment. The model is summarized as follows: 1. removing barriers to self-knowledge and authenticity, 2. developing an authentic leadership style and applying it for effective decision-making, 3. communicating to create unity without consensus, 4. helping the leader create an environment that enhances openness, candor and dissent as essential characteristics of communication, and 5. committing to a Level 5 environment for sustainably good results. At AEI, they are gratified that their approach, using the 5-step model, has been effective in helping leaders make step-changes in their self-knowledge and as a result, positively impact their careers and their companies' performance.

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The New Leadership Challenge: Removing the Emotional Barriers to Sustainable Performance in a Flat World

It may be overly simplistic to say that a company's success depends on the quality of its communication and internal dialogue. But look at the top and you'll see that a leader who is authentic is a leader who has inspired clear and honest communication.

It is critical that leaders understand who they are and how their identity affects their capacity to communicate (and to collaborate). Leaders need to model the kind of communication that they view as critical to the success of their organization. Once a leader has addressed his or her own communication challenges and shortcomings, he or she can begin to systematically address the barriers to effective, highly collaborative communication within the organization. Ultimately, it is the quality of the company's dialogue that will determine how it receives the incoming flow of rapidly changing information. Whether the information confuses and overwhelms, or informs and inspires will have a direct impact on the decision-making process, and by extension, on the performance of the company.

The new leadership challenge

The dictum "Adapt or die" has never been more true. The complexity of globalization and technology are putting demands on leaders that render old models of leadership woefully inadequate. Leaders today must be highly flexible, comfortable with fast-changing environments and capable of utilizing multiple leadership styles.

These far-reaching developments have created unique challenges for leaders. The rapidity of change and subsequent increas...

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