Beyond Leadership From Below

Trond Arne Undheim, Ph.D. Leuven, 28 October 2010twitter.com/trondau

The opinions expressed here are the author’s only and do not necessarily represent those of his employers past or present.

Which theory is best?

• Trait Theory?• Great Man Theory?• Behavioral Theory?• Participative

Leadership?• Situational

Leadership?

• Contingency Theories?

• Transactional Leadership?

• Transformational Leadership?

Which trends are important?

• Consumers?• Home/work fusion• Diversity• Networks?• Globalization

• Technology shifts?

• Internet• Smartphones• Social media• Tweetonomics

Power?

ManageDecide

Influence Push

Leadership from below

• A perspective on leadership: No need for a position in a hierarchy to have influence.

• A perspective on life: lead when you need.

LFB is not a trend

• Leadership from below is not just a trend• In fact it is a stable feature of any society• but it has recently become trendy

© Global Nomad Group

My daughter's principles

1. Takes a role: small, powerful, equal2. Builds deep relationships3. Negotiates well 4. Convincing

However: she operates in a larger structure

Lessons Learned:1. Hierarchy buy-in2. User always involved

Huge track record of sharing – 100 speeches across Europe – 10 visits a year from foreign dignitaries

Public procurement case (France)

Domain: Health and Transport services

Origin: France, Interior Ministry http://www.pp.fr

A great solution for all public procurement in France. Pilot results from Health and Transport show €90 m savings and 10 tons of paper eliminated yearly on a €1m/year operation.

Discuss

About us SearchPersonalizeIn-depth

eHealtheInclusioneGovernmentEuropean Awards

Share good practice

Find a product

Find a speaker

Find an expert

Trying to innovate

Persuasion

• Don't take no for an answer– Find new arguments. – Make yourself relevant.– Create urgency.

• Get people behind you one by one. – Use goodwill. Let others lead

Result: ePractice.eu

• World's largest: 80 K. • 700% growth 1st year• 1461 cases (€ 1 mrd). • 35 countries.• Recapitalized: €10 M.

However: such success does not last forever.

Automatic Authority

1. Traditional – Church, Monarchy

1. Charismatic – Jesus, Gandhi, Hitler,

Elvis, Lady Gaga

1. Bureaucratic – Governments– Institutions – Corporations

Sovereignty

• "Listen then, kings, and understand; rulers of remotest lands, take warning; hear this, you who govern great populations, taking pride in your hosts of subject nations! For sovereignty is given to you by the Lord and power by the Most High, who will himself probe your acts and scrutinize your intentions." Wisdom 6:1-3

Negotiated Authority

1. Energy– Drive, self-confidence, flow

1. Lifestyle– Nature, family, friends

1. Technology– Master only what you need– Ignore the rest

Power: Who you are. Who others think you are.

# 1.1 Energy

Western thinking• Individual drive • Killer instinct

Entrepreneurial spirit• See opportunities• Take risk• Work hard

# 1.2 Energy

Eastern tenkning• Collektive drive (Ba)• Balance (Ki)

Aikido • Use other's aggression (Ki)• Care for the other (Ba)

# 2 Lifestyle

Scandinavian thinking• Ecosystem• Equality• Being likable

Collaboration NHO-LO • Friendly, nice leaders• Flat hierarchy

Over 2200 work at McDonald’s HQ. In Danish ISS only 80. Both have

500 thousand employees.

# 3 Technology

Global trends• Constantly learning• Digital identity

Internet• Standardized platform• Innovation happens

when we do not follow the instructions

Business from Below

• Opentech—a Scandinavian IT company– Customers and offices across the globe. – Hundreds of employees

• Oracle—US multinational IT company– Customers, partners, offices globally– 100 thousand employees

Opentech

• No visible leadership• No meetings• No interruptions

Influence without LEADER in the spotlight

Meetings at Opentech

“Deep conversation between a few people over a beer combined with written proposals via email is of course more effective than meetings. A meeting is a bad way of getting something done.”

--Opentech CTO

Oracle

• The Matrix (field, product, geography)• Customer meetings at centre• Interruptions ok as long as $ flows

Network support (customers, partners, competitors more important than support from your hierarchy

Opentech v. Oracle

• Process v. Results• Programmers v. Salesmen• Principles v. Pragmatism

• Leadership from below AND hierarchy• A question of scale, time and maturity

Peer Power

• Convince by personality not position.• Take criticism. Create confidence. • Carpe Diem. All leadership is short lived.

• Gain authority by giving, not taking.

Power?

PlacePositioning

SituationConvincing

Who wins? Fisherman or Fish?

© Chris Martinez

Should a CEO share power?

1. Top-down is rude. Smart people do not use their power overtly.

2. Get to know people. Show weakness. 3. Grow peer relationships.4. Let workers fail and still prevail.

If all else fails, simply pay more

Scenarios for 2030

1. Lottery: CEO/worker share authority and power.2. Majority works from home.3. Results Only Business Environment (ROBE).4. Without digital identity you do not exist. 5. A few social media dominate all communication.6. Your kids will be in jobs providing all of Maslow's

hierarchy of needs: fra air, water, food, lodging, sex, self-actualization.

Who will gain power in 2030?

IndividualAgencyNetworksInitiative

SocietyStructureHierarchy

Delegation

Beyond Leadership From Below

• Despite disruptive tech...hierarchy remains systemic part of society– Complexity.– Delegation.

• People love to delegate. Flickr image by

carrotcreative

Power of individuals

• Despite hype, hard to measure increase.– Consumer networks are vulnerable.– Initiative is finite resource. Reaches saturation.– Bottom-up action is exception.– Internet (1995): did not change everything,

and what it changed is elastic, it changes, too.

• Ultimately, network effects favor elites.

• Hierarchy will still be seen as valid principle• Only situations and moments give rise to

authority, be it automatic or negotiated.• Emergent forms of organizational

governance must take this into account.

Re-legitimation of hierarchy

• Pendulum swings back. Regression towards the mean. But...

• Hierarchy will need re-legitimation – Each organization will need to re-build trust.– Leaders will be replaced by other leaders.– Transparency might increase

• Not necessarily a dystopian society.

Entrepreneurship/Bureaucracy

• Entrepreneurship is indeed fully dependent on having a persuasive founder, team, board, investor, and first customer.

• Bureaucracy is dependent on having a rational structure that makes sense to most of its participants, and one capable of organizing actions beyond the whims of individuals.

Crazy Simple→

• Getting something done is always difficult.• Recruiting believers is essential. • You cannot skip it regardless how good

your idea is, what existing power base you may believe you possess.

• Initially, all initiatives appear to be without structure, but inevitably a structure forms.

True organizational change

• Innovate incrementally.

• If you can, operate within existing frameworks.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, David Marchal

“Entreprenocracy” still crazy

• Currently is not descriptive of any organization I know of.

• However, all enterprises that survive the 21st century, will have entrepenocracy as its dominant logic.

Conclusion

• We need to look beyond leadership from below, but not past it.

• Follow when you can.• Lead when you need.