Here’s the struggle: How do we get things done? Why do some companies get things done and others struggle? As a leader, you can be in a car or on a plane. The car has to travel on a road, with boundaries and roadblocks. Planes, however, travel in multi-dimensional lanes, with coordinates and altitudes, and speeds. Sometimes we grow attached to the “vehicle” we are used too, which for many of us has been the car. We’ve been there for a long time and we struggle to understand how to pilot a “plane”.
4.0 organizations, and even subgroups in those organizations, are highly relational. Things do not get done apart from relationships. 2.0 Organizations, and people within subgroups who function at a 2.0 level, are task oriented. It’s efficiency at work. Neither are bad, and there are times when a 2.0 leadership framework may be best. But in a new era of the millennial invasion of workers, relationships will still be key.
The approach of a 4.0 leader is not just relationships, but curiosity. Questions are key to their leadership. They want to know and understand, and build relationships with those who can provide the answers. They see problems as challenges, not as changes. And they can tell the mindset of the people they are working with by the reaction to the questions they ask. Do they get defensive or motivated? Are they challenged, or worried?
On this episode of the Innovative Leader podcast, we compare the 4.0 organization and the 2.0 organization, looking specifically at how they execute and get things done.
