Synchronous Leadership
By: Miguel Galván
Synchronous Leadership in business transformation.
Perhaps one of the most frequently mentioned words in business management literature is leadership from very different perspectives; including leadership styles, the impact that leadership has on the management and culture of the company, observable behaviors in the different leadership styles, among others. Leadership styles have also been characterized by different names, including collaborative leadership and leadership in service.
At Business Transformation Consortium we propose to approach leadership from an additional perspective which we have found necessary for an overall good operation of the company, and essential for Transforming and Managing the company as a whole: Synchronous Leadership.
Synchronous leadership goes beyond leadership in service and collaborative leadership; though it goes through both of them. The qualities of humility, service, genuine interest in the common good, pro-activity and personal responsibility are necessary to reach synchronicity.
Synchronous leadership, or reaching synchronicity in the Executive Committee, means that each and every one of its members has CONSISTENTLY absolute clarity about the following:
- Strategic Architecture: Vision, Purpose, Game Plan, Differentiating Capabilities, Strategic Priorities and Portfolio of Projects
- Management Architecture: Processes, Governance, Forums, Indicators
- Cultural Architecture: Cultural DNA, Leadership, Recognition and Consequence, Communication
- The Transformation Roadmap
- The objective and role that each one plays in all of the above mentioned.
- What each one requires from the rest of the Team and what each one can contribute, both for their professional and personal skills
This clarity causes the Executive Committee to act as one entity and one voice in the following:
- Focus on Differentiating Capabilities: in its daily management, the filter for investment decisions (time or effort), are the differentiating capacities defined in the strategic Architecture, and not the functional priorities.
- The resources belong to the Company: the management of human, financial and infrastructure resources are by accompanying; they are assigned where they generate the most value.
- Process-based operation: without losing agility or generating extra costs, processes are respected, measured, reviewed and improved.
- They are an Example: they constitute examples of discipline in the application of the management model tools.
- They are a Team: they are constituted as a real Team of Work in which members support each other and are committed to the higher good (strategy) and the common benefit (by accompanying).
Getting here takes time, and it is necessary to go through several stages of the Transformation Route. It is important to go through these stages with consistency, discipline and full leadership from the CEO, accompanied by his Transformation Architect:
- It is key that the Alignment and Strategic Architecture Workshop of the Executive Committee happens. This workshop not only sets the course and becomes the compass of Transformation and Management, but also marks the beginning of an integration of the Executive Committee as members of a Team. It marks the beginning of the end of being the sum of functional heads, to become members of the highest governing body in the operation of the Company, to be a Management Forum and a Work Team.
- There must be a clear definition of the Cultural DNA and the desired Evolution of Leadership in the Company. It must be a definition made precisely by this Team Work with full conviction and appropriation.
- Finally, there must be an intentional and scheduled work of integration sessions of the Executive Committee as a Team. These sessions have a particular design, a cadence and a deliberate facilitation to bring this sum of highly competitive Executives and great leaders of the organization into Synchrony.
This scenario may seem ideal but unreal. However, it is quite real and plausible to reach synchronicity; We have accompanied Management Teams that have developed Synchronous Leadership in each of its members and the results for the Company, Employees and the Community in general have been spectacular. This should be the necessary ambition for the Executive Committee and there must be awareness that arriving here is not by declaration, but by traveling the path of Transformation of the Executive Committee itself.