Working Wider

Leadership and business practices are overun by realitites on the ground

When the playing field changes, we need to as well.

Every familiar boundary has sprung a leak.  Markets are converging as fast as technologies.  Companies are racing to access what used to be personal social networks.  Governments and sovereign wealth funds replace banks as the source of survival capital.  Firms that initially reached abroad for cheaper labor, now search for customers and new ideas.

Managing across time zones, cultures and language injects risk and requires more effort.  Having responsibility but not authority or even anyone on your team within 500 miles is no longer unusual.  Technology helps you stay connected, but it won’t let you disconnect.

As important is what’s not happening.  We really haven’t changed our leadership models or organization thinking to address working wider. Most adjustments are little more than real-time adaptations to cope with issues as they emerge.

This is a very different world than pictured in most leadership books or executive education programs.  Just as the Internet expanded the boundaries of networking beyond the local corporate network, leadership has expanded from a local responsibility to a wide responsibility.

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