CPOEF E-TALK: SPREMEMBE SPREMINJAJO – KAM GREMO?

Center poslovne odličnosti EF je ob vstopu v 11. leto gostil spletn, gostil spletni dogodek, sklopu katerega je 11 izbranih govork in govorcev iz akademskega sveta in gospodarstva v središče 11-minutnih govorov postavilo spremembe, ki nas čakajo v prihodnjih desetletjih. V spodnjih vrsticah predstavljamo izseke, ki so zaobjeli revolucijo družbe, ljudi, ekonomije in okolja. 

DUŠAN MRAMOR: (R)EVOLUCIJA DRUŽBE: KAKO DO LETA 2050?

Prof. dr. Dušan Mramor je spregovoril o težavah, s katerimi se ne srečujemo le v Sloveniji, ampak po vsem svetu. »Kot družba smo pojedli del prihodnosti, kar se bo odrazilo na nižjem prihodnjem življenjskem standardu,« je dejal. Dodal je še, da nam bo življenjski standard v prihodnje zniževalo tudi staranje prebivalstva in cela vrsta drugih groženj. Znanost oziroma raziskave in razvoj so tisti, v katerih prof. dr. Mramor vidi rešitev omenjenih težav.

JOHN DENHOF: HOW TO LEAD IN FACE OF CHANGE

Predsednik uprave Nove KBM John Denhof je govoril o vodenju sprememb. »Potrebujete zelo pogumno vizijo, ki se ne spreminja in ima zelo jasne in nespremenljive ključne kazalnike učinkovitosti. Kot drugo: komunicirajte – in to preveč. Kot zadnje: Bodite brutalno jasni,« je izpostavil način, kako zadržati in spodbuditi zaposlene v času velikih sprememb. 

TJAŠA REDEK: KAM VLAGATI V PRIHODNJE: V STROJE, STAVBE ALI INTELEKTUALNI KAPITAL? 

»Treba je vlagati v znanje in to morajo početi predvsem podjetja,« je povedala prof. dr. Tjaša Redek. Govorila je o neotipljivem kapitalu, ki ga sestavljajo digitalizirane informacije, inovativni kapital in ekonomske kompetence, s podatki pa je pokazala, da pri tem dejavniki, povezani z znanjem, prispevajo od ene četrtine do ene tretjine.

VALTER LEBAN: HUMANIZACIJA/AVTOMATIZACIJA DELA

Valter Leban je poudaril, da je danes sodobna tehnologija postala dostopna v vsakdanjem življenju, pri čemer pa se poraja vprašanje, kako bo vplivala na trg dela. Meni, da se bodo podjetja srečevala z izzivom, kako povezati človeški kapital s tehnološkim kapitalom ter kako znanje, veščine in kompetence skupaj z avtomatizacijo usmeriti v produktivnost. Pri tem je dodal, da se v novejšem času avtomatizira tudi umsko delo. Poleg robotske avtomatizacije procesov ima namreč še večji vpliv kognitivna avtomatizacija, ki je podprta z umetno inteligenco oz. strojnim učenjem in bo po njegovem mnenju imela v prihodnjih letih velik vpliv na povečanje produktivnosti, kljub neutemeljenim pesimističnim opazkam glede kraje delovnih mest: »Avtomatizacija je smer, v katero mora iti sleherno gospodarstvo.«

ADRIANA REJC BUHOVAC: PRIHODNOST TRAJNOSTNE TRANSFORMACIJE PODJETIJ

Prof. dr. Adriana Rejc Buhovac je govorila o okoljskih izzivih, pri čemer je dejala, da smo na točki, ko je pomembnejše kot komunicirati, katere trajnostne aktivnosti so bile izvedene, poročanje o spremembi ogljičnega odtisa, ki je rezultat teh aktivnosti. »Pričeti je treba z osvajanjem metodologij za računanje ogljičnega odtisa tako na ravni produkta kot tudi na ravni podjetja,« je povedala in dodala, da številna slovenska podjetja to že uspešno počnejo.

ALJOŠA VALENTINČIČ: VPLIV ESG NA KAPITALSKE TRGE

Prof. dr. Aljoša Valentinčič je povedal, da ima področje okoljske, družbene in deležniške (ESG) odgovornosti precej težav. Izpostavil je, da so naložbe v zelene industrije donosnejše kot naložbe v rjave industrije, a se pojavi težava donosa na strani posojilodajalcev. »Podjetja se na deklarativni ravni želijo obnašati trajnostno, a ko pogledamo, kaj v resnici počnejo, vidimo, da 70 odstotkov podjetij vidikov ESG ne povezuje s finančnimi učinki,« je dejal prof. dr. Valentinčič.

LJUBICA KNEŽEVIČ CVELBAR: IZZIVI TURIZMA PRIHODNOSTI

Z besedami »Slogan turizma v prihodnje bo ‘manj je več’. Kakovost pred količino. Manj potovanj, a ko potujete, bodite na cilju dalj časa in ne pričakujte, da bodo cene takšne kot v preteklosti, ker bodo višje,« je prof. dr. Ljubica Knežević Cvelbar povzela svoj prispevek na temo turizma. Na koncu je dodala še, da je to idealna priložnost za Slovenijo, ki nikoli ni bila destinacija za masovni turizem.

MOJMIR MRAK: GEOPOLITIČNA TVEGANJA NA SVETOVNEM IN EVROPSKEM NIVOJU V NASLEDNJEM DESETLETJU 

Prof. dr. Mojmir Mrak se je dotaknil geopolitičnih tveganj, ki so v zadnjih letih, sploh pa po izbruhu pandemije covida-19, postala pomembna tema na globalnem nivoju. Orisal je ključna geopolitična tveganja v naslednjem desetletju, pri čemer je poudaril multilateralizem, večjo globalno nestabilnost in ekonomska tveganja ter pod vprašaj postavil EU način financiranja prek nizkih obrestnih mer. Pri tem je opomnil tudi na klimatske spremembe in tehnološka tveganja z vse večjimi pritiski kibernetskih napadov ter zaključil da »je tudi v naslednjem desetletju pričakovati nadaljevanje visokega nivoja geopolitičnih tveganj, verjetno pa tudi njihovo krepitev

TOMISLAV ČIŽMIĆ: »METAVESOLJE« MERCATOR

Tomislav Čižmić je orisal dejavnike, ki bodo določali prihodnost v podjetju Mercator d.d., pri čemer je poudaril pomen digitalizacije kot osnov uspešnega razvoja in prihodnosti trgovine, ne le v smislu celotnega prodajnega procesa, ampak tudi znotraj internih procesov. Meni, da je prihodnost zelena in trajnostna, predvsem v okviru logistike, distribucije in porabe energije. Nadaljeval je, da bodo pritiski na spremembe vse bolj prisotni s strani kupcev, standardizacije proizvodnje ter v transportu, pri čemer bodo trgovci v prihodnje še bolj nadzorovali dobavne verige z izborom relevantnih partnerjev. Dodal je, da je prihodnost pretočna, pregledna in skupnostna, ter zaključil, da »prihodnost prinaša nov trg, saj trgovina prihodnosti presega fizični prostor.«

POLONA DOMADENIK MUREN: IZZIVI DIGITALNE EKONOMIJE – KAKO NOVE MODELE VKLJUČITI V OBSTOJEČE?

Prof. dr. Polona Domadenik Muren je govorila o platformah in tem, kako se te razlikujejo od linearnega poslovnega modela: »Bistvo platform ni v tem, da ima uporabnik na razpolago tisoč različnih proizvodov. Ključna vrednost je ta, da se mu ponudijo tisti proizvodi, ki najbolj ustrezajo njegovim željam, pričakovanjem in zahtevam.« Je pa prof. dr. Domadenik Murnova posvarila pred monopolizacijo platform, ko je izpostavila spor med Applom in Epicom ter opozorila tudi na problematiko dela prek platform, saj na tem področju prihaja do množičnih kršitev delovnopravne zakonodaje.

DENIS OŠTIR: WHY D2C IS A HEADACHE—AN EXAMPLE FROM THE CONNECTED TV WORLD

Denis Oštir je spregovoril o ponovnem razmahu televizorjev, ki pa so postali pametni. Kot takšni svojim proizvajalcem omogočijo neposreden dostop v dnevno sobo potrošnikov in razcvet poslovnih modelov D2C (neposredno do potrošnika). »Nobenega razloga ni, da televizor ne bi mogel postati orodje za potrošnjo,« je dejal Oštir.

Uroš Konda in Anja Puc, EF News

Building your public presence is an incredible tool when looking for work or seeking career opportunities. It is not only important for freelancers and entrepreneurs, but also for young professionals and job seekers who must understand the process of presenting themselves as a marketable brand. We had an interesting and rich in content debate with our guest speakers:

  • Lazar Džamić, Xoogler, Author, Content & Digital Storytelling Trainer
  • Klemen Selakovič, Award-winning UI/UX Designer & Podcast Host & Digital Nomad
  • Nina Gaspari, Entrepreneur & Consultant & Author of the entrepreneurial podcast Lovim ravnotežje

Personal branding is attracting luck to your life and business. It is composed of a person and something else, that is a sort of promise to yourself or a set of expectations. However, there are different approaches to achieving the same objectives when creating a personal brand. But which one is the best? Doing things organically without strategies or planning everything in advance? Flexible way of work on one hand or certainty and strict planning on the other? Either way, always stay authentic and passionate about what you do.

We believe there is no single-handed approach to creating a personal brand whether there are strategies involved or intuition is used. Some people do their work completely intuitively or organically, but as we “read books”, we try different theories and improve ourselves. We look for the ones that suit us the most. As we do that it means that we think about what we are doing, about who we are and about what our weaknesses and strengths are. Later, if the evidence supports our strategies, we just jump and listen to our intuition. But first, we think! Below there are a few useful tips for applying authenticity to building your personal brand:

  • Understanding yourself, it will help you become more confident when presenting yourself.
  • Understanding the people around you.
  • Define your goals reasonably – consider your abilities.
  • Defining what is the role you are fulfilling.
  • Build something you are passionate about.
  • Do not preoccupy yourself with goals, but enjoy the path itself (you may find the answer on the way).
  • Identify which communication type you are (you don’t need to be an extrovert to build a personal brand).
  • Make sure the content you create has the added value to the community.
  • Be aware that authenticity is something that people feel, and it is not up to you to decide whether you are authentic or not.
  • Think of how you promote yourself (buy your domain and post your thought and your work).
  • Present your potential to the world.
  • Act in order to make progress.
  • Do not get scared by mismatch between your and public opinions.
  • Resist to the force that is sabotaging you from creating – just create!
  • Confront your fears and limiting beliefs by doing things you are afraid of – repeatedly.
  • Post and ghost – look forward!

You can watch the whole discussion below:

*Below we publish the article in Slovenian language.


Kaj o psihologiji inovativnosti pravi drugi slovenec, ki je objavil članek v Harvard Business Review ?

»Pravijo, da sta inovativnost in kreativnost plod posebne miselnosti. Kreativnost bi lahko bila začetna točka inovativnosti, ampak ali je to pogoj? In dodatno, ali je kreativnost kot pogoj, zadostna ali nezadostna gonilna sila inovativnosti?«

Dr. Miha Škerlavaj je redni profesor za področje managementa na Ekonomski Fakulteti v Ljubljani (EF) in pridruženi redni profesor vodenja in organizacijskega vedenja na BI Norwegian Business School, kot gost pa večkratsvoje znanje deli s študenti drugih fakultet v Evropi in Aziji. Pred kratkim je sprejel tudi prodekanovanje raziskovalnega področja na EF.  Ker so njegove znanje in izkušnje izjemno uporabne tudi za poslovni svet, je reden predavatelj in trener v programih poslovnega izobraževanja Centra poslovne odličnosti EF. Najpogosteje pripravlja programe v sodelovanju s posameznim podjetjem, in sicer na področju inovativnosti in vodenja sprememb. Predava tudi na Ljubljana MBA programu, kjer se lahko pohvali z laskavim nazivom najboljšega profesorja generacije.  Iz opusa njegovih mednarodnih objav je težko izbrati najodmevnejšo, zagotovo pa lahko izpostavimo Harvard Business Review (HBR), kjer mu je uspela objava kot drugemu Slovencu. Miha pravi, da ga najbolj zanima psihologija ljudi in pogoji, ki jih ustvarjajo podjetja za uspešno inoviranje zaposlenih.

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Nekatera podjetja imajo posebej oblikovane inovativne centre z namenom spodbujanja večje inovativnosti, pa kljub temu ne izžarevajo kreativnosti. Spet na drugi strani imamo podjetja ali posameznike, ki nimajo zadostnih finančnih sredstev oz. primernega prostora, pa so kljub temu kreativni in uspešni v procesu inoviranja. Kako pomembno je dejansko okolje, ki spodbuja inovativnost?

Okolje je pri ustvarjalnosti in inovativnosti eden ključnih dejavnikov. Vsak od nas ima v sebi kakšno vrlino ali je skozi leta pridobil veščine, ki prispevajo bodisi pri generiranju idej, njihovi selekciji, razvoju ali pa implementaciji. Proces inoviranja je sam po sebi tako raznolik, da je veliko prostora tako za različne osebnosti kot tudi za različne prispevke. Vendar pa so naše vrline zgolj neizkoriščen potencial, če ne ustvarjamo okolij, ki spodbujajo in omogočajo, da te vrline pridejo tudi do izraza.

Študije na Harvard Business School so pokazale, da je skoraj vsak posameznik lahko kreativen v pravih okoliščinah (v okoliščinah, ki spodbujajo inovativnost). Ali se strinjate s to trditvijo?

Ustvarjalnost je potreben, ne pa tudi zadosten pogoj za inovativnost. V splošnem se pridružujem ugotovitvi, da lahko marsikdo od nas prispeva k procesu inoviranja z generiranjem idej – torej imamo vsi potencial biti kreativni. Je pa tudi res, da raziskave – recimo mojih kolegov psihologov na Norveškem – kažejo, da so določene osebnostne značilnosti močneje povezane z ustvarjalnim vedenjem. Med njimi zlasti odprtost za nove izkušnje, potreba po originalnosti, ambicioznost, ciljna naravnanost, fleksibilnost v razmišljanju, hkrati pa tudi nizka emocionalna stabilnost in nizka družabnost.

Kakšno je podjetje, za katerega vi rečete, da je zares inovativno? Je zares inovativnih podjetij veliko?

Če bi obstajal recept za inovativno podjetje, bi ga vsi ostali najbrž tako hitro skopirali, da ne bi več deloval. Ravno tako ne verjamem veliko v lestvice, ki primerjajo zelo raznolike organizacije in poizkušajo presojati katero je bolj in katero manj inovativno. Mene pravzaprav zanimajo ljudje v organizacijah in pogoji, ki jih organizacije ustvarjamo zato, da lahko naša ustvarjalnost in inovativnost prideta do izraza. Menim, da so ključni dejavniki tu soorganizacijska kultura, procesi inovativnosti in vodenje.

Inovativnost je tesno povezana s pripravljenostjo podjetja in zaposlenih na spremembe. Ljudje, kot človeška vrsta, nismo naklonjeni spremembam in se pod pritiskom velikokrat obnašamo drugače. Kako pomembna je pripravljenost na spremembe, ko govorimo o inovacijah?

Inovacije po definiciji prinašajo nekaj novega, novost pa pomeni spremembo. Do sprememb imamo udeleženi tako kognitiven kot tudi afektiven odnos, ki variira vse od negativnega preko nevtralnega do pozitivnega. Z vsem tem se morajo ukvarjati vodje v vlogi agentov sprememb, še posebej ko nastopi čas, da ustvarjalne ideje spravimo v oprijemljive inovacije.

Po vašem mnenju bi lahko bilo pomanjkanje podpore s strani vodij v fazi implementacije sprememb razlog, da se prebojne ideje ne primejo?

Da, tudi to je ena izmed zavor pri udejanjanju prebojnih idej. V naši knjigi Capitalizing on creativity smo zbrali 42 raziskovalcev iz štirih celin, da bi se sistematično posvetili vprašanju, kako boljše udejanjati visoko ustvarjalne ideje. Ugotovili smo, da je poleg agentov sprememb, podpirajočih vodij, proaktivnih zaposlenih, potrebno tudi spodbujati multi-disciplinarno delo in pogled iz večih perspektiv.

“Ravno tako kot potrebujemo spremembe, potrebujemo tudi stabilnost. Podjetja s tako mentaliteto so najbolj uspešna.” To je eno od sporočil ene vaših odmevnejših raziskovalnih objav, med drugim tudi v Harvard Business Review.  Kaj ta trditev pomeni za podjetja?

Predvsem gre za to, da nehamo nekritično ponavljati krilatico, da so spremembe edina stalnica. Seveda potrebujemo spremembe in upamo, da so to spremembe na boljše. Naučiti se moramo obvladovati procese spreminjanja in njihove zakonitosti. Tako organizacije kot posamezniki v njih pa potrebujemo tudi nekaj stabilnosti. V časih spreminjanja sejemo, v časih stabilnosti pa žanjemo.

Lahko pomen te trditve prenesemo tudi na nivo posameznika? Ali je t.i. agilnost, k kateri nas pogosto tudi populistično nagovarja okolje, lahko tudi nevarna?

Vsekakor. Organizacij brez posameznikov ni in niti ne more biti. V medicini ter psihiatriji dobro vedo, da je stalna izpostavljenost dražljajem povezana z bolezenskimi stanji, kot je recimo t.i. vietnamski sindrom. Tako toksičnih organizacij si prav gotovo ne želimo ustvarjati, ali pač?

V tem oziru je agilnost zanimiva tema. Gre za ta hip zelo popularen skupek pristopov, ki želijo izboljšati koordinacijo med ljudmi, ki delujejo v soodvisnosti na projektih. Veliko od teh praks je zelo koristnih. Hkrati pa se je potrebno zavedati, da tovrstne prakse visoko intenzivirajo delo in imajo denimo lahko tudi psihološke stroške (to področje še ni popolnoma raziskano).

Zanimivo je videti, da so agilnost ponekod uporabili tudi v smeri preoblikovanja celotnih organizacij. Takšen primer je recimo nizozemska banka ING, ki pa se je v zadnjem času povlekla korak nazaj. Enako se je zgodilo v Zapposu, ki stopa korak nazaj od t.i. holokracije.

Mogoče še najbolje moje sporočilo pojasni prispodoba, ki jo uporablja gospa Teresita Alvarez – nekdanja predsednica alumnija Harvarda in izjemno uspešna poslovna ženska. s Svojo življenjsko zgodbo naslovi z »Roots and wings« –korenine in krila, torej stabilnost in spremembe. Oboje potrebujemo! Paragraph

Vse to in še več bo Miha naslovil v delavnici na temo psihologije inoviranja v sklopu izobraževalnega programa Psihologija v poslu v organizaciji Centra poslovne odličnosti EF. Skupaj z udeleženci se bo podal na pot pomembnosti in razumevanja inovativnosti. Inovativnost namreč ni več rezultat potreb potrošnikov, temveč so potrebe potrošnikov rezultat inovativnosti. Podjetja, ki želijo to doseči pa morajo razumeti psihološke mehanizme izvirnosti, prepoznati ustrezno miselnost in čustveno stanje tako ekipe kot posameznega zaposlenega ter obvladati umetnost kreativnega razmišljanja.

*Below we publish the article in Slovenian language.


Vodenje podjetij v Sloveniji pogosto temelji na argumentu moči, namesto na moči argumentov.

Kot odgovor na nepošteno vedenje vodij, na neetična vedenja, politične, družbene in gospodarske pretrese v svetu v zadnjih dveh desetletjih, je nastalo avtentično vodenje. Zanj sicer ne obstaja jasna in enotna ter splošno sprejeta definicija, obstaja pa strinjanje stroke, da avtentični vodje dobro poznajo lastno bit, se identificirajo s svojo vlogo in ravnajo skladno s svojimi vrednotami in prepričanji.

O relativno novem načinu vodenja smo se pogovarjali z dr. Sandro Penger, redno profesorico na ljubljanski Ekonomski fakulteti. Leta 2006 je zagovarjala doktorsko disertacijo, kjer je bilo avtentično vodenje osrednji raziskovalni koncept in takrat prvič predstavljeno v slovenskem akademskem okolju.

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Profesor Pengerjeva, zdi se, da izraz avtentično vodenje v Sloveniji še ni udomačen. Nam lahko, prosim, pojasnite za kakšen koncept vodenja gre?

Korenine koncepta avtentičnosti zasledimo že v starodavni grški filozofiji, kjer so ga misleci obravnavali s frazama “poznati sebe” in “tvoj resnični jaz”. Izraz avtentičnost označuje humanistično psihološko naravnanost, ki pomeni: samemu sebi naj bo resnično. Bistvo avtentičnosti je v sprejemanju samega sebe ter ohranjanju lastnega jaza. Sinonimi avtentičnosti so pogosto tudi pristnost, bona fide (v dobri veri in z iskrenim namenom), točnost, legitimnost in pravilnost. Ko nekaj danes poimenujemo za “resnično”, zahtevamo, da je zakoreninjeno v človeški etiki, v naravi.

V znanosti in poslovni praksi smo priča intenzivnemu razvoju avtentičnega vodenja zadnjih 20 let. Vodilna znanstvena revija na svetu za področje menedžmenta, Academy of Management Annals, je leta 2019 avtentično vodenje opredelila kot zlati standard vodenja v inovativnih organizacijah. “Današnji najuspešnejši vodje so avtentični vodje,” citira tudi vodilna harvardska univerza, ki je avtentičnost označila kot zlati standard vodenja že v letu 2015.

Na Ekonomski fakulteti Univerze v Ljubljani smo povsem v koraku z vodilnimi izsledki znanosti na svetu s področja avtentičnega vodenja oziroma jih aktivno soustvarjamo. Močno smo povezani z gospodarstvom. V Sloveniji smo prvi, ki v sodelovanju s Centrom poslovne odličnosti Ekonomske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani organiziramo vsakoletno akademijo avtentičnega vodenja za vodilne iz poslovne prakse. Tu smo povsem v koraku z diseminacijo v mednarodnem poslovnem svetu, saj na ta način vodilnim posredujemo najnovejše prakse.

Kot zanimivost naj povem, da Harvard Business School dvakrat letno organizira akademijo za vodilne vodje na temo avtentičnega vodenja, kjer štiridnevno izobraževanje stane nekaj manj kot 16 tisoč dolarjev. Ko to pokažem magistrskim študentom, si jih večina želi, da bi še bolj poglobili ta znanja znotraj magistrskega dela. Med študenti ekonomije in poslovnih ved je koncept avtentičnega vodenja zelo dobro poznan.

Kako se avtentično vodenje razlikuje od tradicionalnega?

Da bi podali odgovor, moramo vedeti, kaj avtentično vodenje ni! Znanost je pri tem jasna, govorimo o psevdotransformacijskem vodenju kot nasprotju avtentičnega vodenja, kjer vodja govori in dela eno, v svojih mislih in v zakulisju pa, ko ga sledilci ne vidijo, počne drugo ter tako pri sledilcih vzbuja lažne občutke z namenom doseganja lastne koristi. Od drugih teorij se razlikuje v tem, da je avtentično vodenje v skladu s svojo lastno osebnostjo, vrednotami, etičnimi načeli, prepričanji, integriteto in obenem širjenje teh vrednot z etičnim delovanjem kot vzorom za zaposlene v organizaciji ter spodbujanje njihove osebne in strokovne rasti. Zato potrebujemo moralne in etične vodje, ki gojijo zaupanje zaposlenih, jih opolnomočijo in skupaj stremijo za cilji, ki imajo zanje smisel.

Zaupanje v avtentičnem vodenju razumemo kot olje v motorju, brez katerega ne more delovati. Legendarni smučarski trener Filip Gartner je dejal, da je “zaupanje alfa in omega vsega.” Kot vidimo, gre pri avtentičnem vodenju za poudarek na opolnomočenju sledilcev, da ti prostovoljno sledijo in proaktivno prevzemajo aktivnosti k doseganju skupnega cilja. Da čim bolj minimiziramo nepotrebne komunikacijske procese, sledilci potrebujejo jasna in kratka navodila, ključna naloga uspešnega vodje je, da čim prej podaja povratne informacije in pri tem sočasno opolnomoči sledilce ter jim zaupa.

V vsakodnevnem delovniku to takoj opazimo. Opolnomočeni zaposleni imajo žar v očeh, odnos med vodjo in sledilci temelji na vzajemnem spoštovanju, v vsakodnevnem urniku pa se to občuti kot lahkotno prehajanje med “kljukicami”, zaključenimi nalogami, projekti, čeprav pogosto med zelo zahtevnimi nalogami.

V čem je avtentično vodenje boljše od avtoritativnega? Kje so njegove pasti, tveganja?

“Boljše” je v tem, da je avtentično vodenje zlati standard vodenja v dobi inovativnosti, v digitalni dobi in odraža stil vodenja in sledenja za sodobno družbo, ki je visoko digitalizirana, a v ospredje uvršča integriteto vodje kot najpomembnejšo dimenzijo vodenja. Voditi inovativne posameznike in inovativne time v digitalni dobi zahteva od vodij drugačen pristop, kot ga je zahtevalo vodenje v prejšnjem stoletju.

Avtentično vodenje pozitivno in neposredno vpliva na številne izide na ravni posameznikov, timov in organizacij, zato je ena od ključnih teorija vodenja v digitalni dobi, za razliko od drugih teorij, ki so se razvile v prejšnjem stoletju. Vodje, ki jih sledilci/zaposleni zaznavajo kot avtentični, bodo uspešnejši. “Prednosti” avtentičnega vodenja so v tem, da pozitivno in neposredno vpliva na uspešnost, zavzetost, pripadnost, dobro počutje na delovnem mestu, identifikacijo z vodjo, inovativnost, znižuje raven stresa v timu, ena zadnjih raziskav v ugledni reviji The Leadership Quarterly pa je potrdila, da avtentično vodenje vpliva pozitivno na zdravje in dolgoživost vodje samega z vidika samovodenja in osebnega razvoja vodje samega.

Je prva teorija vodenja, ki meri pozitivni psihološki kapital kot del novejše vede o pozitivnem organizacijskem vedenju, med katere kot osrednje resurse avtentičnega vodje uvrščamo samozavest, optimizem, upanje in prožnost. V kombinaciji s pozitivnim organizacijskim kontekstom in določenimi sprožilnimi dogodki ta pozitivna psihološka stanja okrepijo samozavedanje in samoregulacijo vodje kot del procesa lastnega pozitivnega razvoja.

Inovativne osebe je treba primerno motivirati, voditi in jim na pravilen način podajati povratne informacije. Vodje se ne smejo posluževati tradicionalnega načina vodenja, kot je avtoritativnost, in zahtevati od svojih sledilcev konformizma. Inovativni posamezniki se zato znajdejo v dilemi, ali razvijati kreativne ideje, s tem tudi tvegati in zapraviti svoj čas ter finančne resurse za morebiti neuresničljive ideje, ali se ukvarjati z vsakodnevnimi nalogami. Vodja mora ta konflikt pravilno rešiti in zaščititi svoje sledilce pred tako dilemo. Avtentično vodenje je pozitivno povezano z inovativnostjo. Avtentični vodja pomaga svojim sledilcem, da najdejo smisel v svojem delu. S svojim delovanjem zgradi delovno okolje, zaradi katerega se vsi počutijo del organizacije.

Kritike razumevanja avtentičnega vodenja segajo v samo pojmovanje teorije avtentičnega vodenja, pridevnika avtentičnosti, na področje merjenja avtentičnega vodenja. Kritiki opozarjajo na vidik, da avtentičnost ni intrinzično etična; na primer, četudi avtentični vodja zasleduje visoke moralne standarde, bo sprejemanje etičnih odločitev podvrženo zunanjim pritiskom, denimo tržnim. Podobno kritike osvetljujejo predpostavko, da “avtentično pomeni dobro”, zato je gledanje avtentičnosti kot inherentnega dobrega problematično zaradi njene samoreferenčne in tavtološke narave. Ta argument temelji na zamisli, da je avtentično vodenje dobro, ker je dobro vodenje avtentično. Pri tem nimamo vedenja o tem, kaj je dobro in kdo to določa. Hkrati se pojavljajo vprašanja o različnosti v konceptualizaciji avtentičnosti in o precenjenosti avtentičnosti.

Nam lahko navedete ime kakšnega vidnega in uspešnega vodje, ki se poslužuje avtentičnega vodenja?

Na nedavnem imenovanju najuspešnejšega menedžerja na svetu za leto 2019, na lestvici “Best performing CEO”, ki jo izdaja ugledna znanstvena revija Harvard Business Review, sklene novoimenovani Jensen Huang, soustanovitelj in predsednik podjetja Nvidia: “Dovolite mi, da sklenem, kdo so po moji presoji uspešni vodje. Cenim ljudi, ki so pristni, avtentični. Preprosto so, kar so.” Tako uspešnega vodjo v dobi inovativnosti opredeli ta hip na svetu vodilni izvršni menedžer.

V Sloveniji se zdi, da je vodenje podjetij pogosto napačno. Predvsem je problematičen odnos med nadrejenimi in podrejenimi, saj odločitve nadrejenih pogosto temeljijo na poziciji moči; utemeljeni argumenti podrejenih niso zaželeni, kaj šele upoštevani. Kakšne so vaše izkušnje? Kakšen tip vodenja prevladuje v Sloveniji?

Koncept avtentičnega vodenja je prepoznan v Sloveniji med gospodarstveniki, kot ena izmed teorij vodenja, na primer poleg transformacijskega vodenja, ki pozitivno vpliva na izide inovativnosti in posledično na uspešnost. V Sloveniji smo leta 2015 izvedli raziskavo med 64 kadrovskimi direktorji velikih podjetij o razvitosti avtentičnega vodenja v slovenski gospodarski praksi. Že takrat so rezultati pokazali, da slovenski kadrovski menedžerji velikih podjetij poznajo avtentično vodenje in mu pripisujejo pozitivno in neposredno povezavo pri razvoju koncepta učeče se, agilne organizacije.

Med pričakovanimi lastnostmi uspešnega vodje so kot najpomembnejše kompetence izpostavili prav pozitivno naravnanost, iskrenost in odločnost, kar so osrednje dimenzije avtentičnega vodenja. Želela bi izpostaviti izkušnjo, da v javnosti običajno pri nas odmevajo najbolj negativne zgodbe, vendar se moramo zavedati, da je zavedanje in izobraženost vodilnih (vodij, menedžerjev, kadrovskih direktorjev …) v Sloveniji na zelo visoki ravni, posebej še mladih generacij vodij v digitalni dobi. Pohvalila bi tudi, da se trend ozaveščanja javnosti spreminja, kot je tudi ta intervju z vami, vse večji interes je za delitev dobrih praks in poudarek na pozitivnih zgodbah, kar kaže zglede in smo za to iskreno hvaležni.

Kakšne so torej osebnostne lastnosti avtentičnega vodje? Kakšne vrednote mora imeti? In če teh vrednot nima, je lahko sploh avtentični vodja?

Avtentično vodenje se razprostira prek avtentičnosti vodje kot samega sebe, saj obsega tudi odnose s sledilci, sodelavci in podrejenimi, ki jih odsevajo odkritost, odprtost, zaupanje, vodenje k ustreznim ciljem ter poudarek na razvoju sledilcev. Avtentični vodje prek pozitivnega modeliranja skozi osebno identifikacijo v razmerju vodja-zaposleni (vodenje z zgledom) razvijajo upanje in preostale elemente pozitivnega psihološkega kapitala pri svojih zaposlenih. Vzpostavi se avtentično sledenje. Avtentični vodje so samosvoji, avtonomni in visoko neodvisni. Razvijejo svoj edinstveni slog vodenja in z njim služijo drugim, so veseli za rast in razvoj drugih. Vodijo z opolnomočenjem sledilcev. Pri pomenu pozitivnega vpliva vodje ni ključno, kako pristno se vodje počutijo glede svojih namenov, marveč, kako jih vidijo sledilci. Avtentičnost je lastnost, ki ti jo pripišejo drugi: “Vodja se ne more pogledati v ogledalo in preprosto ugotoviti, da je avtentičen.”

Avtentično vodenje je v dobi inovativnosti intenzivna psihološka paradigma, temelječa na znanju, sprejetju in vedenjskem odzivu osebe, ki izvira v osebnih, moralnih ter etičnih vrednotah, visokih standardih, prepričanjih, čustvih in motivih. Avtentično vodenje je zadnja evolucijska stopnja v razvoju vodenja in poudarja avtentičnost vodje. Za avtentično vodenje ne obstaja jasna in enotna ter splošno sprejeta definicija, obstaja pa strinjanje stroke, da avtentični vodje dobro poznajo lastno bit, se identificirajo s svojo vlogo in ravnajo skladno s svojimi vrednotami in prepričanji.

Kako dovzetni so v Sloveniji vodje oziroma lastniki kapitala, da spremenijo način vodenja? Če grabijo dobiček le zase in tega niso pripravljeni spremeniti oz. deliti s podrejenimi, bodo verjetno težko spremenili stil vodenja?

Ravno kot odgovor na nepošteno vedenje vodij, na neetična vedenja, politične, družbene in gospodarske pretrese v svetu v zadnjih dveh desetletjih je nastalo avtentično vodenje. Uvrščamo ga v bazen etičnega z vrednotami usklajenega vedenja in vodenja. Bolj kot ljudje ostajajo zvesti svojim temeljnim (pozitivnim) vrednotam, identiteti, čustvom in prepričanjem, bolj avtentični postanejo.

Avtentičnemu vodji zaposleni nikakor ne predstavljajo zgolj stroška, ravno tu je razlikovalna dimenzija avtentičnega vodenja, saj avtentični vodje skozi čas pri sledilcih vzgojijo avtentične harmonične osebnosti, kar sledilcem omogoča zadovoljevati lastne potrebe in razvijati ter dosegati lastne cilje. Pri tem bi rada izpostavila, da vodja ni nujno isto kot lastnik podjetja ali menedžer, kar zadeva odločitve o plačah, lahko so te organizacijske vloge (funkcija upravljanja oz. lastništva, funkcija menedžmenta/vodenja in funkcije izvedbe) združene, ni pa nujno. Pri sledilcih se skozi proces avtentičnega vodenja razvijeta samozavedanje in samoregulacija.

Rezultat razvoja avtentičnega vodenja je, da najbolj avtentični sledilci prevzamejo vlogo novih avtentičnih vodij. Preostali sodelujejo z njimi pri doseganju skupnih ciljev, vključno s pozitivno etično klimo. Najbolj avtentični zaposleni bodo prevzeli vlogo avtentičnih vodij. Kot v družini, vsak starš si želi, se bori, veseli in ga navdihuje, da bi otrok čim prej postal samostojen, pripravljen za izzive življenja, močan in opolnomočen z znanjem za vse lepe, a hkrati tudi težke preizkušnje, ki pridejo v življenju.Paragraph

Naj sklenem z mislijo profesorja Vlada Dimovskega: “Ne želite si le vodstvene pozicije, ampak si želite predvsem postati vodilni na svojem področju dela, nato bo vodstvena pozicija prišla kot nagrada predanemu delu. Delo naj vam bo vrednota, učenje in študij priložnost, razvoj neprestan in potem sledi tudi napredek.”

Avtor: David Kos (intervju je bil 26.2.2020 v izvirni obliki objavljen na portalu SiolNET, Posel danes.)

Povezava do izvirnega članka.

Have you ever noticed how first impressions influence your perception of people? How you judge or treat some persons differently based on their facial appearance?

Eva Aljančič

Similar ideas have been studied in business settings as well. Appearance-based perceptions are not only crucial in day-to-day human interactions but can significantly influence the individual’s success.

Phycology literature argues that first impressions are a powerful source of information about individuals’ action, social role, and personality and are often formed unconsciously from the visual appearance of their faces.

It has been proven that just from short, non-verbal observations of people’s behavior, we can accurately predict, for example, teachers’ end-of-semester evaluations, individuals’ job performance, election outcomes, and people’s intelligence ratings.

Even more interestingly, facial appearance is extremely important in corporate settings as CEOs’ success can be inferred from the cognitive perception of their faces.

For example,  CEOs that look more powerful and are perceived as better leaders also reach higher profits for their firms. Additionally, CEOs with higher width-to-height ratios of their faces are better negotiators as they look more aggressive and self-interested.

Taking all this into account, it seems that some element of firm financial success is communicated through the CEO’s facial appearance.  

However, the CEO’s facial appearance does not only predict firm success, but it can also influence the decision of whether to invest in the company or not. As attractiveness can dramatically affect human lives in general, it is also extremely important when assessing firm value. It has been proven that investors are more likely to buy shares in firms with more attractive CEOs, leading to higher stock returns for such firms. Similarly, the cognitive perceptions of management competence, trustworthiness, and attractiveness also increase the pricing of firms’ shares.

Now, let’s take a look at the role that facial expressions plays in all of this.

While most of  the appearance-based studies control for the emotional expressiveness, emotions can be also important cues when making inferences about CEOs‘ characteristics, and hence deciding about investing in the firm.

For example, looking at two pictures of the same CEO below, when would you preferably invest in the firm – when you see the left photo of a CEO in the annual report or rather the right one? When do you consider the CEO as more competent, credible, or trustworthy?   

If your answer is the right picture, this is quite expected given the psychology research…

The current literature suggests that positive emotions may lead the CEO to process more information, be more creative, and reduce the conflict between individuals who work together. Furthermore, positive psychological traits of CEOs (e.g., optimism) are positively associated with transformational leadership, which improves the firm’s performance. Another important aspect of positive emotions is CEO charisma, which positively influences the perception of leader effectiveness and attraction to the leader.

On the other hand, when leaders express negative emotions, people negatively assess their competences.

When studying the relationship between CEOs’ emotional display and the firms’ stock prices, we can observe that investors value CEOs with positive emotions more favorably, leading to higher stock prices after controlling for financial results (i.e., net income and book value of equity). These findings provide initial evidence that investors detect managers’ ability from their facial cues and at least partially incorporate it into the firm valuation.

Therefore, believe it or not, emotional expressions are extremely important in several contexts of human life since they can notably affect our perceptions of individuals and their characteristics.

That is not only the case in a corporate setting, where CEO photos included in annual reports can significantly influence the investors’ perceptions, but can happen in every-day situations that involve social interactions between humans, such as job interviews, oral exams, or even romantic dates.  

New technologies are shaping modern supply chains 

Access to global markets have increased the complexity of supply chains, but often the effect the globalisation on supply chain performance has been neglected. Regarding that situation and future trends we are talking with Marko Jakšič, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana. 

What is the supply chain, and are we aware of its importance for whole economy?

It has to be noted at the beginning, that supply chains or networks should not merely be perceived as channels through which the products or services are delivered from suppliers to end customers. Due to this common misperception, the role of supply chain management is often reduced to “management of logistics”. While this may be the consequence of the fact that in most supply chains 90% of the relationships are transactional, companies are increasingly realising that their performance is heavily influenced by how well they co-ordinate their activities, and how well they co-operate with their supply chain partners. This is something that is not easily achieved within the company, and even more so across a supply chain. Often characterised as a “behind-the-scenes” function, the supply chain function often only is noticed when there is a problem, thus it is no surprise that companies are struggling with how to position it within their organisational structure.
The supply chain is in fact a system that enables “end-to-end” integration within organisations, activities, resources, and information with a primary objective to fulfil customer demand. The success of such integration is of vital importance, particularly in small economies, due to the fact that individual companies cannot develop their capabilities and achieve the desired economies of scale outside global supply chains, linking them to suppliers and potential customers around the world.

What are the global trends in supply chain management?

Access to global sourcing and sales markets have increased the complexity of supply chains in recent decades. However, often the effect the globalisation has on supply chain performance has been neglected, which nowadays forces companies to rethink their past investment decisions, particularly in off-shore production capabilities. This is a consequence of a “total cost approach” to supply chain management, combined with increasing comparative cost attractiveness of developed economies compared with traditional off-shoring locations. However, the complexity of supply chains is here to stay as they continue to evolve by taking advantage of multiple sourcing to decrease risk, supporting the future trend of “distributed manufacturing”, and by tapping into new sales channels. Such complexity requires companies to rethink their approach to analysis and the optimisation of supply chain activities. As it is only “end-to-end” solutions that will deliver the full benefit to the supply chain, more effort will be put into sharing data across supply chains. This will result in connected supply chains with a strong focus on achieving “supply chain visibility” and transparent supply chain management practices. It is evident that trends like re-shoring, “Internet of Things”, smart automation through Industry 4.0, real-time demand fulfilment, new manufacturing technologies like 3D-printing, and others will largely shape the way the modern supply chains will be structured.

In retail and manufacturing business in our region are going intensive investment and consolidation. Are same things going also in the supply chain?

We need to understand that there are opposing trends in action, which will work both in favour as well as against the consolidation of supply chains. While in some, particularly mature industries, the need to attain the economies of scale will prevail resulting in consolidation, and to some degree also the vertical integration of supply chains, we will see further fragmentation of supply chains in others. For instance, the advent of 3D printing combined with on-demand manufacturing may result in bringing the manufacturing capabilities back in-house and closer to the end markets, which will require a major restructuring of the distribution system and the supply base. Similar can be observed related to increasing product diversity, shortening product life-cycles, and the specifics of the distribution in urban areas.

What will the future look like?

Having discussed major global trends, there are some specifics of the small economies in our region. As many companies in the region are 2nd or 3rd tier suppliers to global multinational companies, more stress will be put on them to align with the increased focus on agility and responsiveness related to on-demand manufacturing. Essentially, this means that they will as well have to adopt the technological capabilities that will lead to faster, easily accessible, and cheaper manufacturing and supply options. Another concern that I would like to mention is a significant constraint related to availability of supply chain management related “people capabilities” within the companies as well as on the labour market. The importance of data-driven decision-making and complete understanding of end-to-end supply chains requires a profile of people who can grasp all aspects of supply chain activities. Here, it is only recently that faculties in the field are offering a limited choice of study programmes that allow students to combine engineering and business management knowledge. It is certainly our goal to improve the situation, as the demand from companies for young talent has been substantial in recent years.

In what way are innovation and technology helping the prosperity of this part of the economy?

Technology will act as a crucial tool to support the integration of supply chain operations. We will see Mobile Apps, automated data exchange used to automatically record all transactions, provide real-time updates of the status of operations, and better end-to-end visibility. The large amount of data will require new approaches to data analysis where “Big data” techniques and “Cloud computing” will offer deeper insights to the marketplace and the supply base, as well as potentially lowering capital investment. But most significantly, it is the changes in market requirements leading to changing manufacturing technologies and strategies that will require further development of supply chains. Thus, it is safe to say that the relevance of supply chain management will be increasing with the increasing need to integrate all these technologies in modern supply chains.

How to achieve successful sustainability in the supply chain?

There is a very short answer to this that captures the essence of building a successful “sustainable supply chain”. The sustainability aspects, whether they are related to economic, social or environmental performance, need to be recognised as potential sources of added value and competitive advantage on the market.

Being a cyborg means to realize that technology defines humanity. Human society as a whole is a cyborg but we as individuals rarely see ourselves this way.

Not so long ago we were asking ourselves whether we are heading towards a future where the human race merges with machines. Well this question is outdated and one proof for that are cyborgs. A cyborg or a cybernetic organism in IT is defined as an organism with both biological and technological components. It is an organism that has restored function or enhanced abilities due to the integration of some artificial component or technology that relies on some sort of feedback. We could easily say that super heroes that we know from fairytales are here. Superhuman strength, dexterity, and senses are no longer science fiction, they are already here.

One living example of this extraordinary technology is Enno Park. He is a cyborg, author, speaker as well as the founder and chairperson of Cyborgs e.V. in Berlin. He is a member of the research project “futurebody” at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and member of Advisory board of VALID research project on ethical aspects of digitalization in the health sector at University of Applied Sciences, Furtwangen, Germany. Enno Park will share his experience at the “Cutting Edge of Digital Mind” conference on September 20 in Austria Trend Hotel in Ljubljana.

The definition of a cyborg is clear – an organism with both biological and technological components. But tell us from your perspective, what does being a Cyborg actually mean and at what point does one become a Cyborg?

Being a cyborg means to realize that technology defines humanity. It started when we began to use fire and outsourced parts digestion to cooking. History of culture is also a history of technology. So, being a cyborg isn’t about having artificial implants inside your body, but rather being a part of a cybernetic system. Human society as a whole is a cyborg but we as individuals rarely see ourselves this way.

Has becoming a cyborg influenced your career in any way or vice versa – did your career in any way influence your decision to get cochlea implants?

Despite some exceptions being deaf usually limits your opportunities which jobs to choose. I’ve been working as a designer and later as a software developer because those are jobs where verbal communication isn’t that important. Gaining my hearing back, with cochlear implants, had a deep impact on my life. You can do phone calls, watch movies without subtitles, and it’s way easier to have a flirt at a crowded bar. By changing what things I could do, it changed my behavior and through this my identity. Shortly after implantation, I started working as a publicist, did video and radio pieces, started to study again and met people to establish the Cyborgs e.V. with.

“One of the biggest goals is to keep (democratic) control over the technology you’re entangled with.”

As mentioned above, you are a founder and chairperson of Cyborgs e.V. in Berlin. Could you tell us what exactly you do and what is your mission?

Firstly, Cyborgs e.V. is about hacktivism. You have a medical implant or prosthetic and want to know how to hack, program and control it beyond the possibilities vendors usually allow. Security became an important point, not only when you have a digital pacemaker. For the better picture we try to run a public debate on digitalization beyond the old positions of solutionism on the one hand and seeing technology as unnatural and perverted on the other hand. One of the biggest goals is to keep (democratic) control over the technology you’re entangled with – no matter if you have a medical device, a smartphone, a computer, an e-book reader or other algorithmic systems to influence your life.

In the last period we started considering privacy more seriously. You have a piece of technology inside your body – does this mean that theoretically you could be a target of a cyber-attack?

There are security breaches in cochlea implants but they’re not connected to the internet or any other computer outside the clinic. So I’m safe. It’s that simple – never connect implants or other devices your life relies on to the internet.

We could probably agree that human evolution is an ongoing process. And with new technologies and implants we are shaping this process. Do you think that in the future everyone will become a Cyborg?

Trans-humanism tends to confuse technological development with evolution. Humans of the future will be humans as we are. Of course new technologies can prolong life expectancy or enhance our abilities, but you have to see it in the context of human history. In the 1800s when industrialization started, there was a need for everyone to have a new sense – time. So watches became ubiquitous. Of course there have been lots of technical enhancements people could attach to their body before, but watch was the first device nearly everybody was wearing it strapped to a wrist on a daily basis. Right now it happened again with smart phones. They aren’t implanted, but you always have them with you. So you don’t have to wait for things like brain implants to study the effects of cyborg devices on society.

The future is uncertain. For that reason we have to learn how to react fast and how to be flexible in an ever changing environment. It is crucial to always keep learning in order to be able to answer to the demands of the future. And the future will be nice.”

The interview is published in Slovene language. Read more >>>

We will host Tomaž Lanišek at the following events:

Nowadays everyone talks about talent management and how it can create the most enduring competitive advantages. However, many questions remain unanswered. How do organizations operationalize talent management? What do we mean when we talk about talent? How do organizations engage in talent management?

David Collings, one of the Most Influential Thinkers in the field of HR for four consecutive years gave his perspective on talent management throughout his workshop at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana.

He argues that adding talent management to the organization’s strategy will merely have any effect on organization’s performance if it is not done in a right way. And yes, we can argue what is right and what is wrong. But let’s make it clear – nothing is right and nothing is wrong. It all depends on the organization and the culture within. Yet there are some directions on how to implement talent management. First, it is extremely important to understand that talent management is a job of the whole organization. It has to be aligned with the organization’s strategy and it has to fit in the culture of the organization.

Very often, it happens that companies are looking for people first and only later they try to find or even “create” a position for them. But then how do they know if the person fits the position? They cannot! It is, for that reason, important for the companies to understand where the value comes from, which are the critical roles and what kind of skills and knowledge is required from the future employees. The starting point here is the definition of critical roles and not the employees. Only when the critical roles are defined, recruiters can start looking for people to best fit in these roles. And the place to look for them is in their talent pool.

Collings described talent pool in a very simple and elegant way. “Talent pool are people who can and are motivated to grow.” But again, who is a talent? Talent is an individual with ability, motivation and opportunity to grow. Let’s imagine for a second a young boy wanting to become a professional football player. First of all, he needs to be able to play it – the ability to kick the ball, to run and to learn. But if this young boy does not have the motivation to play, he will stop once he becomes a teenager. It is crucial that an individual has motivation, dedication, drive, ambition, and eagerness to learn in order to succeed and take advantage of the ability one possesses. Lastly, ability and motivation are not enough if there is no opportunity to succeed and develop the potential inside.

Once the critical roles are defined and the need for new positions is identified, the fun part begins. How to find, attract and recruit talents? Where to look for talents? So many companies are trying to find talents outside the organization and are not even considering the development of the talents from the inside. At first glance, it might seem that the grass is greener on the outside, but as a quote says: “If you take the time to water your own grass, it would be just as green.”

There are various advantages of looking for talents within the company. Not only that the cost of recruiting is lower but also the chance for high performance in a new team is higher. According to Collings, there is a 50% chance that a person will perform as high as it performed before. Talking about top management positions, there is only a 20% chance for high performance. One of the main reasons for the decrease in performance is that individuals are trying to implement old practices in the new environment. Every company is unique and therefore needs special “treatment”. Google might have a great talent management practices, but would Google practices also work in Slovenian companies?

Talent management is a two-side process. On the one hand, there are organizations and on the other, there are talented individuals. As it is important for organizations to analyse their needs, it is also important for talents to specify what they are searching for. Recognition, career development, internal worth, and exposure to senior leaders are just some examples of what drives an individual to a specific organization. A study from PwC, “Connecting the dots: how purpose can join up your business” showed that emphasising purpose within the business helps build better employee engagement, brand reputation, and customer loyalty.

To wrap up, talent management is important but not on it’s own. Organizations should define the critical roles, find the individuals who fit in the roles and organization. Lastly they should create an environment that makes employees feel like an asset for the organization. As an organization, remember to define the purpose and make people believe in it!

We will host David Collings at the 2nd Talent Management conference “Talent Matters”.

Source:
PwC Global. Connecting the dots: how purpose can join up your business. Retrieved from https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-agenda/pulse/purpose.html

“With neuro leadership we do not look at people as who they think they are or as consciously controlled individuals, but as how their brains react.” – Nikolaos Dimitriadis 

What do you have in mind when speaking about modern leadership?

Modern leadership has to follow a modern organization, so for me modern leaders are the ones that manage to break away from the mental barriers of the old management and organizational systems. The way that scientific management was first developed by Frederic Taylor and other people and the beginning of the industrial revolution had a very specific task – to optimize performance with specific benchmarks. But when you want people to be innovate, to go outside of their comfort zone, and create new disruptive moves, then the old way is not good enough and it becomes an obstacle rather than a booster. A modern leader is the one that can both, recognize when to apply the old model for stability and management, so our corporate system survives, but also when to use innovation as we approach the customers with a religious focus on their delights, satisfaction, and loyalty. We have to be a leader that we want the others to follow, we have to walk the talk – and these are the new leaders, who move effortlessly through new models and slowly get away from the management and organizational systems of the past. Old management was about getting things done. Therefore, if you got your thing done you performed well as a manager and for that reason we confuse this with great leadership. Great and modern leaders do not just get things done, they get the right things done fantastically well, through their best people who are performing at their highest level. And exactly that is the difference between new management and new leadership.

FELU MBA just introduced neuro leadership into the program. What will neuro science add to the FELU MBA participants?

The FELU MBA is extremely innovative in applying neuro science research to its executive FELU MBA students. Only a few MBA programs around the world are as cutting edge as this one. We now know that the self-reporting part of the brain, which talks about experience, interacts with other people through words and believes that it is a person’s consciousness that controls behavior, is not the one that runs the show. Behavior is driven by different parts of the brain working together for the final outcome. Neuro leadership is modern approach on looking at personal and group behavior, which utilizes latest research insights from neuroscience evolutionary, biology, anthropology, psychology, and other sciences. With neuro leadership we do not look at people as who they think they are or as consciously controlled individuals, but as how their brains react. Practically, with applied neuro research we are trying to discover how different parts of the brain respond to stimulators. Based on these results we can have a very interesting picture of leadership and related capabilities such as empathy, resilience and growth mindset. Based on the research of MBA students while they are sitting and watching these stimulators on a screen, we can have an individual score of how they perform in these leadership skills. Our goal is to familiarize managers with neuro science and help them understand their brains in a deeper and more holistic way, so that they can become better leaders.

Better leaders. What does that even mean?

The old mindset was that leaders work with the processes and employees inside the company and only managers deal with the customers. But today the best CEOs are marketing oriented CEOs, for example Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. None of them is an internal CEO, they all are in a direct interaction with the real world. Therefore, their goal is to solve real problems in a real world in a real way, which is what great leaders do today. They understand the current and future state of society and how their company is going to feed it and respectively change it. I have seen extreme leaders, that are always outside of the company and also those who are always in the company – both situations are negative. There must be an interplay between being outside and being inside, which has a lot to do with one’s state of the company, periods of time, industry etc. But it is imperative for a leader and the team around him to spend time outside the company, to be fully engaged with the real world, the competition, the industry, finances, consumer trends, distributors, technology, etc. They cannot sit inside their office all day and read an article on LinkedIn. Because the brain will get much more signals and get much more information and sub-conscious intuition outside the four walls of the organization, which you have to infuse into the company. Being within four walls all day cannot lead us to the information of what the customer and the supplier wants – a pie chart does not engage the brain, so there can be no creativity and solutions due to the lack of motivation.

So, be real, be outside but also stay inside, you have to be active and dynamic, create a team that understands the importance of the company within the society and the market that it lives in. Unfortunately, the old managerial system creates a big gap between the outside and the inside, and it is on modern leaders to break this barrier.

Why has neuroscience become a hot topic and why is it important to understand how does a consumer behave nowadays?

Neuro marketing is nothing new, it has existed for 20 years and has become mainstream globally. Most companies have not heard of it or have not implemented it, which is why we created a cutting-edge science lab in south-east Europe to do work all around the world. What is interesting to me are the surprises we see every day with neuro HR, which is testing the brains of people before employing them or promoting them. But this is a very fresh topic and there are very few neuroscience labs, but we are happy to collaborate with FELU MBA.

Concerning neuro marketing there are some very interesting results that are repeating themselves as we do research around the world, I will mention just two.

The first one is the different response of the millennial brain compared to older generations when it sees stimulators. There is a lot of talk about the millennial concept and some people are attacking it. Traditional marketing techniques fail to generate strong focus to the millennials’ visual attention. To say it more simple, on the one hand millennials seem to have this wandering gaze pattern, rather than focusing on specific elements of packaging, POS materials or advertising. On the other hand, older generations seem to be able to find points that the brain finds interesting within milliseconds. The millennial brain is just wandering around without creating these strong points. Due to their different upbringing and the fact that they are digital natives, their brain requires a different and stronger motivation for them to focus on something. Therefore, when you approach millennial there can be no mediocracy, you have to be bald, strong and very emotional, which is risky, as you will either make it or not, but you cannot be in the middle.

The second interesting thing is the difference in engagement. We measure it through an electro encephalogram, an x-ray of consumer’s brain measuring brain activity. The engagement between males and females is substantially different. There are different products and retail environments where there is a huge difference between them. On average the female brain is more engaged than the male brain in most of the situations. Even in financial institutions the research showed that the male brain was less engaged and working on auto-pilot or was in a zombie mode. What we recommend our clients is that there are some stereotypes, some overall results, but they have to be careful with this, they have to do the study every time for their specific product in a specific situation to see how it attracts the eyes, emotions, and the brain of their customer base.

Why is status quo no longer acceptable and how can you make a change?

Today’s business environment is characterized by increasingly high levels of uncertainty and change. As both, environment and consequently organizations are changing, executives and managers need to prepare themselves to adapt successfully to a rapidly changing business environment. Flexibility and a willingness to embrace change will make you a more valuable member of your organization. You will become someone who can reliably deal with many different opportunities and circumstances. Of course, no one is saying that you will like all the changes that are occurring, but you can be sure that if you resist them, you will not prosper. And how can you make a change? With not giving up and standing up even if we fall multiple times. Everything is about continuous practice and obtaining the right knowledge. I think that nobody should be afraid or worried of changing their fundamental view of what makes us human. We need this change fast – great leaders have done it already, actually they do it every day. We need to change it fast, as we have to abolish the perceptions of the importance, control, and self-arrogance that our conscious mind adapts and then connects with people. But most importantly we have to make a change with ourselves, otherwise we will continue to get disappointing results. Once you recognize the possibilities created by change, you are also more prepared to exploit them. You will find change as not something to fear, but as something to welcome and turn to your own advantage.

Nikolaos Dimitriadis is one of the guest lecturers at LJUBLJANA MBA programme. Besides that we will host him at the following events: