Changing Nature of Leadership
A CCL Research White Paper
The Changing Nature of Leadership
By: André Martin Contributors: Phil Willburn Paula Morrow Kris Downing Corey Criswell
C E N T E R F O R C R E AT I V E L E A D E R S H I P
The Changing Nature of Leadership
CONTENTS
Executive summary Background Who participated in the research? What are the major challenges? What is the current state of leadership? Are organizations investing in the right areas? Has leadership changed in the last 10 years? Triggers & responses to the changing nature of leadership Is academia seeing shifts in leadership? Reflection questions Acknowledgments About the author
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Center for Creative Leadership, CCL®, and its logo are registered trademarks owned by the Center for Creative Leadership. © 2007 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved.
The Changing Nature of Leadership
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Connected leadership is an emerging view of leadership as an inclusive and collective networked activity occurring throughout organizations. Out of this project grew the Changing Nature of Leadership (CNL) research. Its focus: to explore the current field of leadership and forecast future trends. CNL relied on several interdependent streams of research, including academic literature, surveys, benchmarking and classroom research. More than 500 respondents completed one or more aspects of the research. Of these respondents, 84 percent believe that the definition of effective leadership has changed in the last five years – indicating some interesting trends in leadership. But the question remains: How has leadership changed and will it look different in the future? The results across our numerous data points to one conclusion: Leadership is changing and approaches focusing on flexibility, collaboration, crossing boundaries and collective leadership are expected to become a high priority.
CHALLENGES ARE BECOMING MORE COMPLEX Prior to examining leadership
The Changing Nature of Leadership
By: André Martin Contributors: Phil Willburn Paula Morrow Kris Downing Corey Criswell
C E N T E R F O R C R E AT I V E L E A D E R S H I P
The Changing Nature of Leadership
CONTENTS
Executive summary Background Who participated in the research? What are the major challenges? What is the current state of leadership? Are organizations investing in the right areas? Has leadership changed in the last 10 years? Triggers & responses to the changing nature of leadership Is academia seeing shifts in leadership? Reflection questions Acknowledgments About the author
3 4 4 7 10 11 13 18 21 22 22 23
Center for Creative Leadership, CCL®, and its logo are registered trademarks owned by the Center for Creative Leadership. © 2007 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved.
The Changing Nature of Leadership
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Connected leadership is an emerging view of leadership as an inclusive and collective networked activity occurring throughout organizations. Out of this project grew the Changing Nature of Leadership (CNL) research. Its focus: to explore the current field of leadership and forecast future trends. CNL relied on several interdependent streams of research, including academic literature, surveys, benchmarking and classroom research. More than 500 respondents completed one or more aspects of the research. Of these respondents, 84 percent believe that the definition of effective leadership has changed in the last five years – indicating some interesting trends in leadership. But the question remains: How has leadership changed and will it look different in the future? The results across our numerous data points to one conclusion: Leadership is changing and approaches focusing on flexibility, collaboration, crossing boundaries and collective leadership are expected to become a high priority.
CHALLENGES ARE BECOMING MORE COMPLEX Prior to examining leadership