E*LEADER - Robert Hargrove

This is an interesting perspective on corporate leadership. The traditional company has everyone working in one location. Ok, maybe that isn't exactly true. These companies often have offices in several locations but, everyone working for them lives near and works in that location. More and more companies are employing people without much consideration to their geographic location. When you are managing a team of people who don't commute to the office, there are some unique challenges you will encounter. Hargrove argues that in order to be an effective leader in this environment there are some fundamental changes to the leadership philosophy that must be embraced.

One of the key changes I took away and am recognizing in my own job has to do with how the leader approaches decision making. Successful leaders in an e-economy need to be "sourcing" leaders rather than "reactive" leaders. Basically, in the traditional leadership profile there is a significant emphasis on understanding what is working, what has worked and how to keep it working. This is reactive. Letting history guide your decision making and influence your creativity. A sourcing leader envisions the future with no concern for history. Often these ideas are initially considered impossible. They have little to no resemblance to traditional processes or models.

In this sourcing style of leadership, the team has a more important role. The team must have more decision making ability. To create the future requires the team to be able to not only think outside the box but be empowered to blow the box up. With this emphasis on changing the culture of the team and the leader, Hargrove envisions companies becoming embattled in "talent wars."

The survival of companies in the e-economy will be more dependant on individual contributors. Getting and keeping the top talent is a critical key to success. Once you have the talent, the real test of the leader begins. Your talent must be able to effectively work together. Your talent must gain shared vision on where they are going. Your talent must trust each other and their ideas. Your talent must be willing to admit that someone else may have a better idea and abandon their competing concept.

This is a very interesting perspective of the leadership role in an evolving 21st century economy. I am employed in a tech firm and we have recently taken action to blow up a support model that has been very effective for 25 years. The new support model we are using has very little recognizable from 6 months ago. It is quite an adventure as we are tweaking and refining it.

I found this book very helpful personally. I have a better understanding of why our company is changing in the manner it is. If you are in a company that is making changes that seem to make absolutely no sense, you might give this book a read. It may not apply but, it just might. And even if it doesn't, the concepts will really make you think.