Note from Art: I am excited to feature the leadership ideas of John Blakey here in his post, “The Executive Leader of the Future.” The post is timed with the recent availability of his excellent and timely new book, “The Trusted Executive: Nine Leadership Habits That Inspire Results, Relationships and Reputation.” Trust in our leaders is something that is indeed in short supply at this time. I am excited that John is working hard to bring trust back! You can follow John on Twitter at: @blakeyjs and read more at his blog: The Trusted Executive.
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The Executive Leader of the Future
By John Blakey
Do you have the DNA of a future executive leader? Or do you have the DNA of the leaders that I first encountered in 1985 as a graduate trainee in utility giant, British Gas? In the business environment of those days, the white western male ruled the roost with an iron rod; emotional intelligence was a dim and distant dream. What we now call bullying was an accepted rite of passage and none of us had really grasped the full implications of the Sirius micro-computer that sat in the corner of the office winking at us in black and green.
Traditionally, life was simple. The purpose of a commercial business was to maximize profits and this was the singular measure of success. The concept of profit has given us a barometer of success that has some advantages and some disadvantages. On the one hand, it is a readily understood concept in the business world and it is a consistent measure of the added financial value of our activities. On the other hand, it breeds a myopic fascination with one particular assessment of business contribution that can blind business leaders to the wider context in which they operate. The world has changed profoundly since the 80s and it keeps changing. If business continues to worship profit within a societal context that has decided it no longer worships profit then this will progressively undermine trust in business institutions and those who lead them.
The world of business requires a new, broader sense of purpose that meets the expectations of diverse, global 21st century stakeholders. The imperative and the opportunity is for organizations to reach beyond profit as the single bottom-line measure of success and embrace the triple bottom-line of great financial results, inspiring relationships and a positive reputation in society as a whole. As Peter Drucker said, ‘Profit for a company is like oxygen for a person. If you don’t have enough of it, you’re out of the game. But if you think your life is about breathing, you’re really missing something.’ The triple bottom-line is a term that was first popularized by John Elkington in his book Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom-Line of 21st Century Business. It is a new measure of success that creates a need for a different type of executive leader.
Tomorrow’s executive leader will not be driven to produce a singular measure of success. He or she will balance the diverse and constantly changing expectations of a slew of stakeholders. Tomorrow’s leader will be a steward. A steward inspires trust by changing the purpose of the organization to deliver triple bottom-line goals.
What do triple bottom-line goals look like in practice? As an example, I chair an advisory board on behalf of Vistage International; the world’s largest CEO membership organization. When CEOs join my Vistage advisory group they are challenged to set goals for the triple bottom-line. If they cannot commit to this breadth of vision then they will not be accepted as members of the group. Examples of goals that members have set at each of the three levels are as follows:
Financial Results
* We will increase the share price of our company by 20 percent over the next five years.
* We will reduce our inventory costs by $1 million in the next 12 months.
* We will become a Fortune 100 company by the year 2020.
Inspiring Relationships
* We will become listed as one of the top 100 employers by the Great Place to Work Institute.
* We will reduce our staff turnover from 17 to 12 percent in the next 12 months.
* As CEO, I will personally hold bi-weekly 1-to-1 meetings with my immediate management team members.
Wider Contribution
* We will raise $50,000 for a local charity and involve over 20 percent of our staff in this project over the next three years.
* We will launch and sponsor a global industry award for the most eco-friendly business in our sector.
* As a global pharmaceutical company, we will eradicate the disease malaria from the world within five years.
We are not machines. Single bottom-line financial goals tick boxes in our heads, but they are not the sort of goals that get us to spring out of bed on a cold winter morning shouting ‘Hot damn – let me at it!’ That’s because they are yesterday’s story and no one can get too excited about living in the past. Managers manage. Leaders anticipate. Tomorrow’s trusted executive will set goals for the triple bottom-line; results, relationships and reputation. They will wire these goals deeply into their organizations and through this they will engage the head, heart, and spirit of the modern workforce.
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John Blakey is the author of The Trusted Executive: Nine Leadership Habits That Inspire Results, Relationships, and Reputation (Kogan Page; 2016) and was named one of the top thought leaders on organizational trust at the Trust Across America awards in 2016. This accolade reflects his prize-winning doctoral research on trust at Aston Business School, as well as his practical experience as a highly successful business leader and pioneer in the executive coaching profession. He is the coaching subject matter expert at the Chartered Management Institute and a member of the CEO coaching faculty at Manchester Business School, Vistage International, the Institute of Directors, UK Sport and the NHS. Blakey is the author of Challenging Coaching and regularly blogs at http://johnblakey.co.uk/trusted-executive-blog/.
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