The Connected Leader: Creating Agile Organizations for People, Performance and Profits

237 Pages·2006·1.62 MB·English

by  Emmanuel Gobillot

THE
CONNECTED
LEADER
Creating agile organizations
for people, performance and profit
Emmanuel Gobillot
i
THE
CONNECTED
LEADER
ii
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iii
THE
CONNECTED
LEADER
Creating agile organizations
for people, performance and profit
Emmanuel Gobillot
London and Philadelphia
iv
Publisher’s note
Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in
this book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and authors
cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No
responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining
from action, as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the
editor, the publisher or the author.
First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2007 by Kogan Page
Limited.
Reprinted in 2007
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or crit-
icism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or
by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the
case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences
issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms
should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses:
120 Pentonville Road 525 South 4th Street, #241
London N1 9JN Philadelphia PA 19147
United Kingdom USA
www.kogan-page.co.uk
© Emmanuel Gobillot, 2007
The right of Emmanuel Gobillot to be identified as the author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
ISBN-10 0 7494 4830 X
ISBN-13 978 0 7494 4830 1
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gobillot, Emmanuel.
The connected leader: creating agile organizations for people, performance and
profit/Emmanuel Gobillot.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-7494-4830-X
1. Leadership. 2. Self-actualization (Psychology) I. Title.
HM1261.G63 2006
303.3‘4--dc22
2006013362
Typeset by Datamatics Technologies Ltd., Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Creative Print and Design (Wales),
Ebbw Vale
v
To Charlotte and George

vii
Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Part One: The case for connections 11
1. What do people want? 13
What drives engagement and why does it matter? 14;
How is the nature of engagement changing? 17; What are
the new rules of engagement? 20; The 30-second recap 26;
The leadership takeaway 28
2. How do organizations respond? 31
How do organizations and individuals become
disconnected? 32; What does an organization designed
for engagement look like? 43; The 30-second recap 48;
The leadership takeaway 51
Diagnostic tools 1: Do you know what people want? 53
viii Contents
Part Two: The case for connected leadership 61
3. What must leaders do? 63
What do leaders do? 64; What impact do leaders
create? 69; The 30-second recap 77; The leadership
takeaway 78
4 How can leaders succeed? 81
How do leaders achieve high performance in the
people economy? 82; What is different about the new
high-performing leadership recipe? 86; The 30-second
recap 96; The leadership takeaway 98
Diagnostic tools 2: Are you ready to respond? 99
Part Three: The levers of connected leadership 109
5. How to connect through trust 111
Why is trust critical to connected leaders? 112; How do
connected leaders create and sustain trust? 117; Becoming
a trusted channel 118; Exercising thoughtful influence 121;
Having concern for impact 123; The 30-second recap 125;
The leadership takeaway 127
6. How to engage through meaning 129
Why is meaning critical to performance? 130; How do
connected leaders co-create meaning? 137; Having no
boundaries 138; Doing the groundwork 140; Being
tenacious 142; The 30-second recap 144; The leadership
takeaway 146
7. How to sustain performance through dialogue 147
Why does real dialogue matter to performance? 148;
How do connected leaders sustain dialogue? 154;
Listening first 154; Humility 156; Infectious passion 158;
The 30-second recap 160; The leadership takeaway 162
Diagnostic tools 3: How connected are you? 163
Contents ix
Part Four: Developing connected leadership 169
Step 1: Understand the ‘real’ 171
Mapping your ‘real’ organization 172; Patterns of ‘real’
organizations 173; Creating a ‘real’ map 176
Step 2: Map out the ‘formal’/‘real’ gap 179
The gap matters 180; The key questions 181
Step 3: Evaluate your impact 183
iPod leadership 184; Developing strategies 186
Step 4: Develop connected leadership characteristics 189
Integrated versus sequential development 190;
Developing characteristics 194; Developing trust 194;
Developing meaning 195; Developing dialogue 197;
Development tactics 198
Step 5: Build a supporting context 201
Contextual improvement 202; Impact as the key to
unlocking connections 204; The leadership takeaway 206
Concluding thoughts 209
Notes 211
Index 215