As a follow up on the last posting about Situational Leadership I want to make an observation. I recently spoke at national conference on the subject of Leadership for 21st Century. The major point of the presentation was the need to shift from a positional leadership model to a participative one.
The feedback after both of my sessions confirmed everything I have been reading on this subject. There is very little honest and clear communication taking place between key leaders and their teams on an ongoing basis.
The challenge for most corporations today is that the majority of senior management positions are filled by baby boomer age leaders who know nothing but a positional model. They were trained that way academically and that is the only system that has been a part of their entire career.
The new workforce is made up of generation x employees that have an entirely different world view that impacts how they view their career. They are highly motivated and want to be a part of interactive team where they can actively be a part of the process.
If we do not provide the critical situational leadership skills that both generations need then we are creating unnecessary leadership cultural wars that destroy moral and diminish productivity. The result of any lack of relevant training is that the older generation think the younger are too aggressive and the younger are convinced that the old guard will simply not let go and delegate.