To Adapt to a Changing Workplace, Leaders must Rethink Traditional Roles

The coming change could spell the end of the traditional chief executive officer and the introduction of a “chief enabling officer.”

Those jobs require a new type of leader. “I do not believe that a command-and-control leadership model best enables those skills,” Hess said. Instead, he said, the next generation of CEOs should practice what he calls the “Four E’s.” Below, Hess describes each of the four leadership practices he believes will drive success in the Smart Machine age.

Engage

 
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The best leaders will be lifelong learners and will engage the world with what Hess calls “a quiet ego” based on humility.

“By humility, I do not mean meekness, submissiveness or thinking less of yourself,” Hess said. “I mean having an accurate view of one’s strengths and weaknesses, being able to acknowledge and own one’s mistakes and being open to new and contradictory information.”

Excel

 
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Good leaders should excel at managing themselves and others in a way that builds trusting relationships, which Hess calls “mission critical” because critical thinking and innovation – two traits that set humans apart from robots – are often best done in groups.

“The Smart Machine Age will reward people who value the ‘Big We’ more than the ‘Big Me,’” he said. “We need others to be all that we can be.”

Embrace

 
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Rather than clinging to hierarchy or control, leaders should embrace uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity, much as “a good, courageous scientist” would, according to Hess.

“I like the scientific method analogy for the workplace, because scientists are trained to acknowledge the magnitude of their ignorance and to treat their beliefs as hypotheses to be constantly tested and subject to modification by better data,” he said. “Business people need a method to continuously learn, unlearn and relearn.”

Enable

 
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In addition to managing employees, the best executives will constantly enable them, in the most positive sense of that word. Leaders must create and sustain a work environment that “promotes and supports the highest levels of human thinking, learning and collaboration,” Hess said.

“We know from science that the highest levels of human performance occur in a humanistic, positive, emotional environment where people are not fearful,” he said. “That is why I believe we need a different model of leadership – where the CEO is the chief enabling officer.”