Way of the Leader , livre ebook

Marshall Cavendish International - BH Tan

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124 pages

English

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As a leadership consultant, author BH Tan has spent the last few decades working alongside leaders around the world. Many flounder when faced with tough judgment calls. But there are those who learn and emerge wiser than before. What accounts for this difference? We are witnessing the ascendancy of humble, inclusive, curious and adaptive leaders. Such leaders embrace the power of the paradox in the way they think, feel and behave. In today's pressure-cooker environment of 24/7 work and meetings, they take guidance from the timeless wisdom of thinkers through the ages. As the Chinese sage Lao Zi said in the Dao De Jing: A wise traveler adapts her plans according to the terrain. A good dancer silences her thoughts and goes with the music. An astute leader considers the data and trusts her instinct. This new book brings together 25 insights and strategies for leaders preparing for the future. In his lively and conversational style, the author engages readers through an interesting combination of principles, anecdotes and real-life stories. Travel well. Travel far.

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Gestion et management

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Publié par	Marshall Cavendish International
Date de parution	11 juin 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9789814974431
Langue	English

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A must-have on every leader s bookshelf! BH Tan weaves together the key essentials of global leadership today. In the digital age, leaders are most effective when they embrace a paradoxical mindset. This lies at the intersection of Eastern and Western thinking.
- Trishia S. Lichauco, PCC
Leadership Development Coach
A book whose time has come. Through 25 critical perspectives, it powerfully awakens in us an opportunity to examine the way we habitually think, decide and act. In the digital age, leaders can impact and transform the world through adopting and applying a wholistic East-West resonance code.
- Marjorie J. Woo, PhD, MCC
Director, ICF Professional Coaches Global Board
By far one of the most compelling books on leadership written. Modern leadership styles will be more effective by integrating Asian wisdom with Western thinking. The chapter Humble Leadership exemplifies leadership that people, teams and corporations will rally behind.
- Don Huang
Business Development Director (China),
L Oreal Travel Retail
BH Tan never fails to impress with his ability to highlight simple values that we tend to forget in our hectic working lives. Trust , Humble and Listen are core when we are leading high-performing teams regardless of which side of the world we are working in.
- Aida Mohamed
Human Resources Director, Malaysia Brunei
Zuellig Pharma Sdn Bhd

2021 BH Tan
Published in 2021 by Marshall Cavendish Business
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International

All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Requests for permission should be addressed to the Publisher, Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited, 1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196.
Tel: (65) 6213 9300 E-mail: genref@sg.marshallcavendish.com
Website: www.marshallcavendish.com
The publisher makes no representation or warranties with respect to the contents of this book, and specifically disclaims any implied warranties or merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose, and shall in no event be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
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Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 800 Westchester Ave, Suite N-641, Rye Brook, NY 10573, USA Marshall Cavendish International (Thailand) Co Ltd, 253 Asoke, 16th Floor, Sukhumvit 21 Road, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand Marshall Cavendish (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Times Subang, Lot 46, Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park, Batu Tiga, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Marshall Cavendish is a registered trademark of Times Publishing Limited
National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Name(s): Tan, B. H. (Boon Hock), 1953-
Title: The way of the leader : 25 ideas for leading wisely in the digital age / BH Tan. Description: Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Business, 2021. | Includes index. Identifier(s): OCN 1245250041 | e-ISBN: 978 981 4974 43 1
Subject(s): LCSH: Leadership. | Management.
Classification: DDC 658.409--dc23
Printed in Singapore
To my granddaughters, Charlotte and Eleanor, future women leaders
CONTENTS
Introduction
1 Leadership Paradoxes
2 Systemic Thinking
3 Resolving Conflict Systemically
4 Influencing Without Authority
5 The Necessary Art of Positive Politics
6 Fewer, Smarter and Better Meetings
7 Making Time Management an Organizational Priority 61
8 Be Wary of Quick Consensus
9 The High-Performing Leadership Team
10 Why We Need to Unlearn
11 Psychological Safety
12 Doing Less, Achieving More
13 We Need Stress, Just Not Too Much
14 In Search of a Great Idea
15 Understanding Your Company s Culture
16 Leading Across Cultures
17 Leading in the Digital Age
18 Listening and Questioning
19 We Need More Women Leaders
20 Are You Ready for a Larger Role?
21 Seeking Your True Self
22 Cultivating the Unexpected
23 In Praise of the Indirect Approach
24 Perspective-Taking
25 Humble Leadership
Index
About the Author
INTRODUCTION
Asia is on the rise in the global economy. After centuries of Western economic dominance, China, India, and the rest of the East, alongside emerging economies, are beginning to challenge the West for positions of global industry leadership. According to the UK-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), China will leapfrog the US to become the world s largest economy by 2028, five years earlier than the previous forecast due to the contrasting recovery of the two countries from the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, India is tipped to become the third-largest economy by 2030.
A question that begs an answer is, Henceforth, how will the underlying managerial philosophies and traditions of the various cultures in Asia be positioned on the world stage?
This is an important topic to address. For many decades now, the West has been the unchallenged leader in thinking about business and leadership. As the pace of globalization quickened, Western multinationals set up subsidiaries around the world. Along with transferring their technologies, bringing jobs to millions, they also exported their managerial philosophy and processes. These Western ideas have been adopted with enthusiasm and applied diligently in both emerging and developed markets worldwide.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Japanese success in manufacturing won the admiration of the West. This led to a global adoption of Japanese concepts such as quality control circles, teamwork and JIT (Just-In-Time) manufacturing.
Will the rise of China and India bring an infusion of Eastern perspectives to the field of leadership?
All ideas are good, especially if they are diverse. In the history of human experience, the most fruitful developments take place at the intersection of different lines of thought. We can t get anything in starker contrast than the ideas and traditions of the East and West.
The world has entered the digital economy. In 2016, Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF), coined the term the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0. Schwab argued a technological revolution is underway that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres. Increasingly AI (Artificial Intelligence) will supplant many aspects of the hard elements of leadership - those responsible for the raw cognitive processing of facts. This will lead to a greater emphasis on the soft aspects of leadership - the behaviors, relationships and attitudes that encourage and motivate people to bring the best versions of themselves to work.
How then should leadership be defined? A recent study by the MIT Sloan School of Management concluded that organizations can no longer lead the way they have been used to in the past. Top-down, bureaucratic, bottomline-driven hierarchies have no place in the new era. More lateral, collaborative, purpose-driven teamwork will be the norm. Leaders will act as facilitators and coaches, and must be ready to empower their teams to come up with solutions on their own. Being able to build trust will be a key attribute, and they must have a healthy dose of humility. Having a passion for technology will be a must.
In the last few decades, there has been a lot of research that points to different thinking styles between Westerners (primarily Europeans, Americans, and citizens of the British Commonwealth) and East Asians (principally the people of China, Korea and Japan). This is reported by psychologist Richard Nisbett in his seminal book entitled The Geography of Thoughts: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently and Why . Kaiping Peng, Nisbett s colleague from China, summarizes the differences very precisely: You know, the difference between you and me is that I think the world is a circle, and you think it s a line.
Western linearity is displayed in the general belief that the universe is divided into two opposites with a clear-cut demarcation between them: man and nature, subject and object, mind and matter, the divine and the secular. Though the coexistence of opposites is recognized, they are viewed as separate and opposing, resulting in an either-or orientation. Linear thinking proceeds by breaking the world into manageable chunks and tackling them in isolation from each other.
From this mechanistic and fragmented worldview, problems are solved through an analytical, rational and logical process, proceeding in a straight line, making connections in a sequential order. Westerners have a compelling need to find out who is right in an argument. Their form of argumentation is to proceed from thesis to antithesis, and on to synthesis. It focuses the mind wonderfully but may cause tension as the reason for a critique may not be to understand another s viewpoint but to disprove it.
The either-or mindset leads to dualistic thinking. It assumes a universe where there are only two contrasting, mutually exclusive choices or realities: right versus wrong, white versus black, good versus bad, winners versus losers. This becomes a zero-sum game. Nonetheless, this relentless search for the truth underpins the West s undisputed superiority in scientific discoveries. Westerners possess a remarkable sense of personal agency that they are in charge of their own lives and are free to act as they choose. In a word, they believe in individualism.
Chinese circularity takes a more organic and ecological worldview. It sees all things in the universe as constantly changing in a cyclical motion. Nature (and hence organizations) is a self-organizing system in perpetual interaction of yin and yang forces or energies. Asians attend to objects in their broader context. The world seems more c