Great Leaders Are Ambidextrous, Are You?

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

Robert Duffner Interviews Chris Kemp, NASA, and Kevin Jackson, NJVC, on GovCloud

By G C Network | November 7, 2010

Recently, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Mr. Robert Duffner, director of Product Management for Windows Azure, as part of his “Thought Leaders in the Cloud” series. In this interview,…

NJVC, Invertix Announce Cloud Computing Demonstration at GEOINT 2010

By G C Network | November 2, 2010

VIENNA, Va. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — NJVC®, one of the largest providers of information technology (IT) solutions to the U.S. Department of Defense, and Invertix Corporation, a proven technology company…

On The Frontlines: Cloud Computing in Government

By G C Network | October 27, 2010

Today, Trezza Media Group released the latest installment of it’s “On The Frontlines” series of government technology reports. The “On The Frontlines” Publications are dedicated to showcasing the positive progress…

GSA Awards Eleven US Federal IaaS Contracts

By G C Network | October 20, 2010

According to Federal News Radio, GSA awarded eleven vendor spots in the first Federal cloud infrastructure-as-a-service award. The winners were: * Apptis Inc. partnered with Amazon Web Services* AT&T* Autonomic…

NIST To Hold 2nd Cloud Computing Forum & Workshop

By G C Network | October 15, 2010

On November 4-5, 2010, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will hold their second Cloud Computing Forum & Workshop. During this event, NIST will report on the status of federal…

“On The Frontlines” Interview

By G C Network | October 5, 2010

Look out for  “On The Frontlines: The Government Cloud” scheduled for release in November 2010! Trezza Media Group provides high-quality thought leadership media and marketing services to help companies connect…

Yongsan Army Garrison Does Cloud Computing!!

By G C Network | September 24, 2010

First Signal is ready for the cloud ! Even with the time constraints of the Chusok holiday and the onslaught of a 100-year flood, the class soldiered on with five…

Army Cloud Computing in Korea!

By G C Network | September 19, 2010

After a long uneventful flight, I’ve arrived at Yongsan Army Garrison in Soeul Korea. After enjoying the economy accomodation on a Boeing 777 for over 14 hours, my room and…

The Taiwan GovCloud

By G C Network | September 11, 2010

Last week, Henry Kenyon of Federal Computer Week reported that the Taiwanese government is planning to spend $744M to develop cloud computing technology. Premier Den-yih Wu sees this as a…

Geospatial Cloud Computing In Support Of National Policy

By G C Network | August 29, 2010

A few weeks ago I once again had the pleasure of participating in a private discussion on cloud computing with Mr. Vivek Kundra.  What struck me in this most recent meeting was his views…


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.)

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