Personal leadership to give cos competitive advantage – Times of India

By Anuranjita Kumar

Technology has come to play a vital role in the lives of many and has significantly shaped consumer perceptions, behaviours, and preferences. Technology is driving a host of disruptive innovations lately, also aided by the interesting demographic changes witnessed globally. Initially, driven by the younger populations of the world, the uptake of digitisation is slowly spreading far and wide sans boundaries, sans demographic or age barriers. On the other hand, evolving geopolitical equations are also shaping the world significantly, giving rise to newer opportunities. Yet also, in some cases, raising unforeseen barriers.

These are just a few things adding to the complexity of the environment businesses function in. It demands leaders to be nimble in evaluating the emergent situations and making prompt decisions. 'Speed to market' is critical to the success of organisations today. It allows them to reach their clients faster with better products, offers and services ahead of their competition and also being able to stay on their toes to constantly evolve these very products and services, sometimes even on the go, to give business as well as the stakeholders an edge.

Previously, major changes or transformations have been led by the executive teams of the organisation. The new realities, however, require organisations to be more agile by adopting the concept of distributed leadership. In order to deftly respond to market changes and exceed customer expectations, organisations need employees across locations to promptly make important decisions that impact 'speed to market'.

This calls for organisations to leverage 'individual leadership' which, simply put, means individuals who are ready to take decisions and hold the courage and integrity to not only stand by them but also bring with it the conviction to drive others to rally and succeed. No longer is leadership confined to the traditional definition of 'people management'. The 'individual leadership' concept inspires organisations to develop the leadership ability of its employees regardless of their work location, or position in the hierarchy. It aims to build the capabilities of employees across levels through the levers of empowerment and engagement.

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Personal leadership to give cos competitive advantage - Times of India