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Ethos Issue 5, Nov 2008
Accelerating the Growth of the Asian Leader
Bruce J. Avolio and Peter Ong
These anticipated changes suggest that things will be more challenging for an Asian leader moving forward, especially in terms of their developmental role. Strategic and smart adaptations at the individual leader level will enable Asian leaders to triumph over these cultural transformations. Organisations and cities in Asia must act now, so that they can proactively win the war for leadership talent, and continue to thrive and succeed well into the future.
Simply ask yourself this question: "How long does it take to produce a top Asian leader?" Once you can answer that question, you will realise that you ought to start today on transforming the way future leaders will be developed, and by whom and when.
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LEADING THE NEW WORKFORCE
The new generation of Asian employees will make the job of being a leader in this region even more challenging.
The CEOs interviewed in the study saw big differences between their own generational cohort and that of the current one entering the workforce.
In their view the new workforce:
• is not as loyal by nature and needs more leader effort to grow and instill loyalty;
• is more resistant to traditional, directive styles of management;
• wants to constantly know what is going on in the organisation;
• demands more flexible work schedules;
• is more protective of their time after work;
• has higher and clearer expectations about the organisation's responsibility to develop them;
• needs more face time and attention from their managers and leaders.
The CEOs expressed the need for their organisations and themselves to invest significantly more time in retaining, developing and motivating members of this new workforce. |
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Bruce J. Avolio is the Marion B. Ingersoll Professor, Director of the Foster Centre for Leadership at the University of Washington. Professor Avolio has published extensively on leadership; his recent books include Psychological Capital: Developing the Human Capital Edge (USA: Oxford University Press, 2007) and The High Impact Leader (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006).
Peter Ong is Managing Partner for The Gallup Organization in Singapore, Hong Kong, and South-East Asia. Mr Ong has led many leadership development and behavioural economics type projects with both public and private sector organisations. Mr Ong is exceptionally interested in the concepts of "Soul of the City" and its links to engaged citizenry and brain gain; and the building of successful and sustainable organisations through the employment of behavioural economics approaches. Mr Ong is an executive coach to a dozen C-suite executives leading key enterprises locally and internationally.
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The Asian Leader Study employed a two-pronged approach. For each of the six cities, 300 nationally representative middle managers were surveyed to obtain their assessment of middle to senior leadership in their organisations. In the second phase of this study, a total of 44 CEOs from Singapore, Bangalore and Beijing were interviewed to determine how they viewed their own leadership styles, and how they perceived the overall quality of leadership and followership in their respective organisations. The study also examined how each of these CEOs came into senior leadership roles and assessed what each of them were doing in their organisations to develop and grow future leadership. For further details on the study, please contact Professor Bruce Avolio at bavolio@u.washington.edu. |
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