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The future is uncertain. Here are five ways that British business can survive and thrive
We asked some of London Business School’s (LBS) faculty what the future looks like for British business. What are the challenges facing today’s business leaders and what can we do now to protect Britain’s interests as we head at ever-increasing speed into tomorrow’s world?
1. Adapt your leadership to the new environment
The old top-down model of leadership is dead. Carry on that way and you’re surely on the path to extinction also. Research funded by the Leadership Institute at LBS is yielding some clear indicators of what type of leaders are more successful in an era of instability and fast change, says Randall S Peterson, Academic Director of the Leadership Institute and Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School (LBS).
“First and foremost, research by my colleagues Niro Sivanathan and Hemant Kakkar shows that people prefer strong and dominant leaders in times of uncertainty and economic difficulty. Importantly, though, this does not mean authoritarian. My own research on strong leaders shows that, in an era where social media gives customers an incredible voice, the strong leaders are those who listen well and tolerate criticism.
“Richard Jolly [Adjunct Professor of Organisational Behaviour] and myself have also shown that leaders tend to fail nowadays mostly because they do not develop their social capital. As organisations reduce hierarchy, when the gig economy becomes more pervasive and the knowledge economy dominates growth, leaders need to develop their network of relationships and be able to create action without the benefit of hierarchical authority over others.
“So the future of leadership is about leaders who are dominant and deliver change, but not through traditional hierarchical means. Rather, they will listen carefully to their critics and mobilise their networks to create social movements, influencing without formal power. This suggests that the most successful leaders of tomorrow will be those who can build and maintain diverse networks and coalitions of people to take action.”
