"I am me and my circumstances" is a phrase attributed to the Spanish thinker José Ortega y Gasset, and it holds true for the business leader. What was good before is now insufficient and what works today will fall short tomorrow.
The world is evolving faster and faster and demands a great capacity to adapt to the leadership of organizations, new learning, new skills and approaches that perhaps a short time ago were considered useless, if not ridiculous. Thus, we have gone from the very capable leader who has all the knowledge and power to dictate from his office what to do and what not to do, how to do it and at the right time.
Now that we are approaching the third decade of the new century, we are facing 'level 5 leadership', a category that 11 successful companies have created to describe the characteristics needed in these times, as Margaret Grigsby, professor at INCAE Business School, tells us.
"Now it's about solving problems and developing critical thinking, exploiting collective creativity, knowing how to communicate and collaborate. We have to know what to do with everything the machines do," says the professor, an expert in Leadership and Personal Branding.
This requires qualities such as curiosity, initiative, persistence, adaptability and social and cultural awareness . Each element counts in meeting the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, that of digitization, the Internet of Things, the cloud and robotics. Superior types of intelligence are now required.
It is about being sufficiently literate, understanding at least the basics of software and computing, the basic programs, knowing how to handle money and not just produce it, as well as developing the social and cultural dimension so that we do not become automatons, recommends Professor Grigsby.
Before, the training sought to clone and the salary was the incentive. It was all the same mold, even dressing the same as the boss. Before it was titles and now professional development is needed. One person is no longer enough. Before it was individualities, now it is teams. Before it was classified information, now there is more transparency. Before, the boss gave the idea; now the one who gives the best ideas wins. Now the leader listens to learn; before it was dictating. Now, in short, emotional intelligence prevails.
This is what the 'level 5 leader' is all about, the triumph of humility and steely determination, one who tries to overcome his ego and prioritizes the team over the objectives, one who knows how to choose the right people and does not try to behave like an irreplaceable star. He understands the need to prepare the whole team, without "chosen ones", which guarantees continuity in the processes.
This leader will then be able to say that he/she has overcome level 1 (that of individualism), level 2 (that of a good team coordinator), level 3 (that of a good organizer of resources and follower of objectives), and even level 4 (that of a leader who motivates by example and brings ideas to the ground, who operates efficiently and exceeds goals, but without yet being able to provide a collective solution to problems).
