With rapid digitalization, innovation, and technological evolution, economies and businesses across the globe have continued to flourish and grow. To understand the success of these organizations and business enterprises, we must study their leadership models and their role in inspiring and empowering stakeholders.
One of the leadership styles that has shown great promise in keeping up with the transformational demands of the current economic climate is Executive Leadership. Several top businessmen in India adhere to this form of leadership due to its inherent scope for overall employee well-being and stakeholder empowerment. However, before we understand these benefits, let us first look at the leadership model.
What is Executive Leadership?
Executive leaders believe in creating a vision that factors in the individual, team, and organizational goals. This is part of a clearly defined set of objectives that are achieved by critical thinking and creativity. Executive leadership inspires rather than demands commitment. It would be a mistake to think this leadership style is about rule-following. Instead, it is about ideating and developing workable strategies and synchronized progress plans. These are now used to achieve the goals agreed upon by the team or organization. It fosters an environment of trust, agreement, and shared vision. It also helps the business as a whole to review and course-correct when necessary.
How does Executive Leadership help the business organization?
- One of the key advantages of executive leadership is that it clearly distinguishes between management and leadership. It creates an environment of empowerment, wherein every employee is valued for their contribution and is encouraged to contribute towards shared goals. This allows for a free flow of ideas and holds the employees or teams accountable for the implementation. This can be better understood with an example.
Sanjiv Bajaj, the Chairman and Managing Director of Bajaj Finserv, has transformed how his organization functions. Every employee of the organization is encouraged to think like a business owner. This means taking responsibility for the product, process, or service and personal growth as well. We have learned from the rapid transformation of markets and business models that communication is the key. This is what executive leadership focuses on. It fosters a culture of strong team interactions, transparency, and trust.
One of India’s most admired corporate leaders and co-founder of Infosys, N. R. Narayana Murthy, for example, strongly believed in bringing teams and various groups in the organization together to work towards realizing the company’s vision. This helps teams to work in tandem rather than siloes and appreciate the larger picture.
- Executive leaders are better at managing challenges because they emphasize taking the time to understand the environment and formulate an action plan based on situational awareness. This directly links to the long-term vision of the organization. This is where executive leadership is often misunderstood. It is not about blind adherence to rules, regulations, and guidelines. It is goal-oriented planning and execution. This makes for the best utilization of the organization’s resources and focused action.
Executive leadership inspires employees to review the organization’s progress periodically and course-correct when necessary. With such a leader at the helm, every employee is encourage to be a problem solver. Some of the top businessmen of India believe this is the top-most approach to survive and thrive in a fast-changing economy like ours.
- Executive leadership emphasizes values such as honesty, integrity, commitment, team spirit, and transparency. This is one of the reasons businesses with executive leaders tend to be value-base and are great for employee morale. Some of these business groups and organizations, such as the Tata Group, are known for their strong CSR initiatives.
- It is in the very nature of executive leadership to practice prudence and responsibility. This, in turn, sets a tone in the organization and inspires other leaders and team members to be more empowered and responsible. With fiscal responsibility and team contribution, also comes a greater commitment to the industry, society, and nation. This sense of positive contribution towards nation-building motivates some of the famous corporate leaders of the country and their businesses as well.
Executive leadership enables the overall growth of the organization through inspiration and motivation. The most remarkable aspect of this leadership style is that it is not personality-based and can be learn. It also promotes the professional and personal growth of individuals within the organization.
Executive leadership is a value-based leadership style that inculcates and regards truth, integrity, social responsibility, and commitment to all the organization’s employees. It involves the development of analysis, understanding, and a goal-oriented approach. Encouraging employees to communicate freely and take a cohesive approach inspires team members to take ownership and think like business owners.