Center for Creative Leadership- CCL
The perspectives that we uncovered from senior executives reveal that as today’s business challenges span across boundaries, so too must leadership. The ever-increasing complexity and interdependence of today’s world calls for a critical transformation in leadership from managing and protecting boundaries to boundary spanning-the capability to create direction, alignment and commitment across boundaries in service of a higher vision or goal.
The senior executives who took part in the survey recognized that the solutions to today’s most pressing business challenges, ranging from the global economic crisis to energy constraints to the drive for innovation, rest at the intersection between vertical, horizontal, stakeholder, demographic, and geographic boundaries.
86% of the senior executives in this study believe it is “extremely important” for them to work effectively across boundaries in their current leadership role. Yet, only 7% of these executives believe they are currently “very effective” at doing so. Closing this gap is both a critical challenge and a transformative opportunity for leaders and organisations to survive and ultimately thrive in today’s business environment.
We define boundary spanning leadership as the capability to establish direction, alignment, and commitment across boundaries in service of a higher vision or goal (Ernst and Chrobot-Mason, 2010; Ernst and Yip, 2009). This capability resides within and across individuals, groups and teams, and larger organisations and systems. In this paper, we examine boundary spanning leadership through the perspectives of the executive suite.
In terms of key findings, here’s what you need to know........
- Boundary spanning is an important capability across all levels of leadership. When asked about the importance of working across boundaries at different levels of the organisation, 97% of leaders cited it as important at the senior executive level, 91% at the middle management level, and 43% at the entry level.
- There is a mission of critical gap in the ability of leadership to work across boundaries. When asked to rate managers in their organisations, only 53% agreed that their peer group of senior executives were effective in working across boundaries. This percentage dropped to 19% for middle managers and fell to just 8% for entry level managers.
- Horizontal boundaries pose the greatest challenge to senior executives. When respondents described their challenge in working across boundaries (of function and expertise) proved the most frequent challenge, followed by geographic, demographic, stakeholder, and vertical boundaries.
Here‘s why these findings matter.........
- A bottleneck is created when middle managers fail to make the shift from a bounded, within-group mindset to a boundary spanning, cross-group mindset. 92% of senior executives believe that the ability to collaborate across boundaries became more important as they moved from middle-to senior-level management. Failure to make this shift can be the difference between success and derailment as managers progress in their careers.
- The drive for Innovation described as the top strategic driver for organisations. Among a list of societal trends, 92% of senior executives described the drive for innovation as the trend having the most important impact on their organisational strategy for the next 5 years. This requires leaders to become more effective at spanning multiple boundaries- tapping into diverse expertise and cultural insights to achieve breakthrough results.
- When contrasting where their organisation is now against where it needs to be, executives are calling for a mission critical transformation toward greater interdependent, boundary spanning capabilities. The largest shifts can be found in movement toward more cross-functional organisations, with expanded global mindsets, and an open networked environment that accelerates cross-generational learning, partnership across levels, and enhanced cross-regional coordination.
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