Great Leaders Are Ambidextrous, Are You?

November 17, 2014 / G C Network / Comments Off on Great Leaders Are Ambidextrous, Are You?

Quantum Computing Delivered From The Cloud

By G C Network | March 6, 2017

Photo credit: Shutterstock IBM Cloud is now providing developers with the infrastructure and portal to a 5 qubit quantum computer. This equips them with the ability to build interfaces between…

Connections Redefining the Enterprise Network

By G C Network | February 23, 2017

Photo credit: Shutterstock The computer and the network that connects them are both inextricably linked to the success of any business.  This truth is at the heart of our contemporary…

Business Chatbots Taking Over

By G C Network | February 9, 2017

Chat apps characteristics make them very appealing to businesses and marketers. Prominent ones include their size, user retention, usage rates, and user demographics. In fact, the combined user base of…

NCTA CloudMASTER®: The Path To Your Future

By G C Network | January 31, 2017

In 2016, cloud computing started to dominate many IT market segments. As a business, Synergy Research Group reported that industry revenue for the four quarters ended Sept. 30 grew 25%.…

Cybersecurity in the President Trump Administration

By G C Network | January 29, 2017

From the rise of increasingly capable nation-states—like Iran and North Korea—conducting destructive attacks against American private sector companies, to the continuing pace of IP theft by China striking at the…

Creating Your Digital Strategy

By G C Network | January 20, 2017

Photo credit: Shutterstock For many corporations, welcoming the New Year also heralds the season of strategy development and budget distribution. This year, however, companies of all sizes are struggling with…

CloudMASTER® Pays Well In The US Great Northwest

By G C Network | January 17, 2017

The City of Beaverton is located seven miles west of Portland, Oregon, in the Tualatin River Valley, It encompasses 19.6 square miles, and is home to more than 95,000 residents.…

NATO ACT “Art of the Possible” Interoperability Demonstration

By G C Network | January 7, 2017

GovCloud Network is proud to have served as the Program Manager for the NATO Allied Command Transformation, “Art of the Possible” Interoperability Demonstration on December 16, 2016. supporting the The…

Olisipo Can Make You A CloudMASTER®

By G C Network | December 29, 2016

Olisipo Learning in Portugal has a culture that is based on the constant search for new challenges. Recognized by their clients as the “Best HR Supplier”, they have placed more…

What is Your 2017 Business Strategy?

By G C Network | December 26, 2016

Photo credit: Shutterstock End of year predictions in December are as predictable as tomorrow’s sunrise, but a recent video on 2017 Technology Trends helped me really understand how important a…


By:
Melvin Greer
Managing Director, Greer Institute


https://www.greerinstitute.org/
 There are many important characteristics of great leaders. Team players, good listeners and visionary are clear hallmarks. But being ambidextrous is required now more than ever. Ambidextrous leadership is a balanced approach where flexible leadership behaviors that lead to better business outcomes are the rule. 
Ambidexterity is the ability to engage in innovation (exploration) and operation (exploitation) equally well. But these are two very different yet complementary leadership behaviors.
  • Exploitation: Reducing variance, adherence to rules, alignment and risk avoidance  
  • Exploration: Increasing variance, experimentation and failure, value alternatives and risk taking

And why is ambidextrous leadership required now more than ever? Leadership is in crises and leaders are facing an increasing set of complex issues. This crisis manifests itself in a lack of employee engagement and retention along with lower market share and business performance. According to 2013 Ketchum Leadership study there is an unambiguous crisis of confidence in leaders.
According to the survey, just 24 percent of people around the world believe leaders overall are providing effective leadership. Poor leadership directly hits sales, and in 2012, 60 percent of people boycotted or bought less from a company due to poor leadership behavior. This assessment indicates that we are experiencing an innovation gap where today’s leaders have neglected leadership behavior that fosters innovation in favor of operational performance.
What makes ambidextrous leadership hard is that innovation is a complex and non-linear activity. There is a dynamic lifecycle and pace of innovation, combined with situational variability. This requires leaders to develop temporal flexibility—the ability to know when to do what for maximum business impact. Given the focus on innovation, today’s leaders are encouraged to develop a 21st Century Leadership model, which emphasizes ambidextrous leadership.
So what does it take to become an ambidextrous leader? Here are some key first steps:
1.     Develop an ability to harness disruptive innovations. I’ve identified four disruptive innovations that are impacting leaders and leadership. IT knowledge has traditionally been confined to the IT department, but not anymore. Today any leader should be able to read a P&L or interpret and operate a balance sheet; they should be able to understand how technology will impact the business strategy of their organization.
2.     Drive innovation via workforce and talent. Innovative leadership requires systematic innovation; a tight linkage to the development of a strong workforce and the development of future leaders, students via a robust science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) pipeline. 

https://www.greerinstitute.org/21st-century-leadership/
The book, 21st Century Leadership, drills down to illuminate what makes leaders so good at innovation and talent, and describes how to move an innovation strategy from “chasing shiny objects” to a powerful, sustainable cultural change and create a magnet for great talent. The goal is to mature new leaders and inspire future innovators. This is how we, as leaders, turn this disruption from a challenge into an opportunity for business growth via innovation.
By taking these steps we can close the innovation gap and avoid leadership behavior that atrophies innovation in favor of operational performance. We can truly have ambidexterity leadership and engage in innovation and operational activities equally well.

The Boston Consulting Group in its top 20 most innovative companies for 2014 (https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/interactive/innovation_growth_most_innovative_companies_interactive_guide/) listed firms like Samsung, Tesla Motors, Dell and Intel.  These companies are working to drive operational performance and innovation to their clients benefit.

 

( This post was written as part of the Dell Content Partners program, which provides news and analysis on technology, business and gadget-geek culture. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies.)

Bookmark and Share

Cloud Musings

( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS – © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2012)

Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson
Posted in

G C Network

Cloud Computing

Cybersecurity