What is Leadership in the 21st Century?
21st Century Leadership is a perspective of leadership intended to respond to the unique challenges and opportunities of today's world. Through shared purposes and aspirations, leadership brings forward new ways of being, knowing, and doing, while respecting the developmental nature of the human life.
While people use the terms leadership and management interchangeably they are actually different, but interrelated practices that lie at the heart of successful organizations.
Management involves three tasks:
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Planning and budgeting, the steps necessary to get results
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Organizing and staffing
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Controlling performance by tracking it against a company’s plans, while problem-solving to correct performance issues.
These activities, if done right, will hopefully lead to results that are on time and on budget. However, even after proper planning the unexpected happens often happens.
Leadership stands apart for three reasons:
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Leadership is about establishing direction, creating a vision of the future, and designing the strategies around how to get there. Leaders think long-term; they think big.
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Leadership galvanizes the people of the organization to action. Leaders communicate the vision and all its supporting strategies in a way that people truly understand, believe in, and own. They put their people together in healthy and productive ways. They put a lid on turf wars that slow tear down a company, and break down functional silos that keep smart people apart.
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Day in and day out, leadership is about motivating, inspiring, and energizing individuals and teams, so that employees understand what their roles are and what success looks like if they do their jobs properly. Leaders give the work meaning and purpose. They make it make sense.
Our leadership program offers a unique set of skillsets to prepare leaders for the ever-evolving landscape within the 21st century workforce.
