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Three Models of 21st Century Leadership
by Brett Johnson
With the changing global Internet economy, leaders face new personal and professional challenges. Maintaining personal integration and professional impact requires new models of leadership.
In this article, The Institute offers three unique examples of leaders who embody new ways of integrating personal and professional values.
Hitting the Target: No Time to Waste
Victor Anderson was a keynote presenter at a recent Institute Outlook Forum entitled, "The Thinking CEO". Victor has founded and sold several companies and is currently a Senior Managing Partner of Venture Catalyst Partners. Victor’s interests are wide ranging and his success is rooted in his ability to have instant access to cutting-edge expertise. Anderson thinks deeply about a range of issues, from the future of e-business to unique partnerships between Silicon Valley VC’s and new entrepreneurs in developing nations.
For the CEO who wants to retain a daily edge on the competition, Anderson recommends developing a network of experts who are available for a retainer or in exchange for pre-IPO stock or other compensation. Availability can vary, from a truly "on-call" basis to a monthly cell phone appointment. There are three criteria for knowing who should be one of the network experts. The first one is expertise and reputation. The goal is access to the best insight from a proven leader. The second is integrity and mutual compatibility. There must be trust and common interest in the field. The third is cost effectiveness. Both parties need to believe their time is well spent.
Anderson programs up to 20 key numbers into his phone and he has an established schedule with each one. International finance, communication hardware and software, merger and acquisition experience make up his personal network. The players can change, depending upon the strategic situation.
At first glance this can seem like "networking" taken to an extreme. Further reflection, however, yields a much more salutary conclusion. The 21st century economy depends upon reliable and timely information, and effective networks are the infrastructure of the new global economy. If a company manufactures in Central America, develops software in New Delhi and does research in Silicon Valley, understanding the varied economies, cultures and their interrelationships is a necessity for the thinking CEO.
Anderson demonstrates the integration of corporate effectiveness and social investment as he ponders traffic solutions for harried commuters and partnerships between Silicon Valley capitalists and developing-world artisans. Intelligent networking is the key to keeping the edge.
Paying to Serve: The Message of Mercy Ships
Kipling once declared that East and West would never meet. His glib colonialism has been shattered by a wired 21st century world. Less than a decade ago, conventional wisdom declared that profits and philanthropy were distinct realms, united only by annual charity events and the guilty goodwill of benevolent noblesse oblige. Today this is changing: exciting new cooperative ventures between the profit and nonprofit sectors are emerging every month.
Mercy Ships begins as the story of hardy visionaries retooling an ocean liner to bring medical help to the neediest locales around the world. That essential passion is unchanged. Men and women actually pay for the privilege of living in cramped quarters on a floating city with other volunteers from scores of nations. Some use accumulated wealth, others raise support as charitable staff. All participants, from swabbies to surgeons, have a sense of purpose and job satisfaction that Franklin-Covey (in a recent professional review) rates as among the highest ever encountered.
Today Mercy Ships International has three fully equipped medical vessels, one undergoing renovation and a capital campaign preparing for two more. Moving from a single ship to a fleet has required fresh thinking and new partnerships between the corporate, charitable and governmental sectors.
Don Stephens is the founder and CEO of Mercy Ships. Stephens is a passionate visionary, able to mobilize and motivate thousands to participate in and support the vision financially. Most charitable leaders would be content with merely enhancing these skills and hoping for new donors and leaders over time. Stephens and his leadership team, however, refuse to slip in to a sophisticated version of an old paradigm. Mercy Ships is not a traditional charity or a business masquerading as a nonprofit
Mercy Ships is a mission-driven community that integrates charitable services with business acumen and excellence. Once the ships are outfitted, the monthly contributions of the workers provide for the basic costs of operation, thus freeing the Foundation Board to raise capital for major equipment/vessel purchases. A commitment to professional excellence in all fields, from maritime outfitting to eye surgeries that transform the lives of its recipients has attracted the notice of governments around the world. Nations previously hostile to other "medical missions" are clamoring for return visits.
Stephens admits that his learning curve remains steep as Mercy Ships labors to retain its edge in a challenging environment. Financial integrity, professional excellence, carefully cultivated relationships with leaders from all sectors of society AND fidelity to the original vision of breakthrough caregiving make Mercy Ships a model of integration for the 21st century.
Creating Corporate Community in the Silicon Valley
Dr. Barrie Laing provides personal proof that cell phones and PDAs are here to stay. Whether driving his kids to school or chipping out of the rough on a golf course, he manages the affairs of a growing high-tech firm and a charitable community with equal aplomb. Laing is the CEO of Radiation Detection Company (RDC) and the Executive Administrator of a large faith community, both located in the heart of the Silicon Valley.
Dual leadership alone is an exemplary feat; however, Laing’s leadership is distinctive due to its consistency and integrity in both locales. The principles for success in the profitable and philanthropic realms are the same. There are varying motivations for leaders and workers in each field, and the pay scales are different. Laing is not naïve about charitable altruism and the inherent self-interest in the business sector. Laing embodies integrated leadership that propels the missions of a business and charity forward.
There are four principles that provide the cohesion for Laing’s leadership in both spheres:
• There is a commitment to an environment of mutual respect and trust. All employees, from the CEO to the receptionist, deserve to be treated equitably, and acknowledged for their individual contributions to the corporate community.
• Compensation is fair for all, with all employees benefiting from success. The CEO’s compensation is never more than a certain percentage above the entry-level employee. Laing also creates an environment that promotes personal growth and upward mobility.
• Clear mission, vision and value statements are essential. These are not slogans to be assumed and discarded at will. Guidelines for conduct are directly tied to the larger picture. Esprit de corps and ethical integrity are integrated.
• The Golden Rule remains the bedrock for all relationships. With customers it ensures loyalty and return business. With employees is stimulates an atmosphere of sacrifice and trust. With business partners it inspires cooperation and creativity. Even competitors feel the impact and their own standards may rise.
Leading and managing two corporate communities is not easy. Even with such integrated values, business and charity remain quite distinct in the minds of their constituents. Laing is a pioneer of integration. Hopefully more leaders will follow his example and the profit/philanthropy dichotomy of two millennia will yield to a superior model in the 21st century.
Toward Integration: Creating Sustainable Enterprises
The three profiles presented here offer some valuable insights in the search for personal integration and breakthrough models for impact in business and philanthropy.
The dizzying ascent and demise of dot.com companies leaves thoughtful people searching for sustainable models of personal and community development. Employees can no longer count on the "company store" and a gold watch after 30 years. Non-profits must contend with a mobile population that is more critical of their enterprises and less loyal to any system or tradition.
The landscapes of business and charitable enterprise are metamorphosing as the world becomes wired and Information Age leaders take the helm of corporations whose products did not exist a decade ago. Leadership in both for profit and nonprofit arenas must adjust to a world of employee and membership volatility. Corporate culture must offer employees greater autonomy and expectations of advancement and growth. Philanthropic agencies must attract and retain donors with intelligent and integrated models of administration and service.
Victor Anderson is not only a cutting-edge, well-wired entrepreneur. He is also concerned with local and regional quality of life issues. These include creative, private-sector initiatives to resolve traffic congestion (after all, it is wasted time for otherwise productive employees!). Anderson is also intrigued by new partnerships between Silicon Valley venture capitalists and developing world entrepreneurs. Central American artisans are receiving micro loans and nurturing successful family and village businesses and the Internet opens new markets. Here we see altruism and concrete business outcome unite to form a sustainable life for frustrated commuters and hopeful men and women thousands of miles away.
The Mercy Ships efforts of Don Stephens continue to offer insights for integration. The Mercy Ships Foundation and the administration of the enterprise rival any corporation for their commitment to excellence and efficiency while retaining the compassionate vision and intercultural community that make Mercy Ships attractive to volunteers. Without compromising ethics or ethos, Mercy Ships has found ways to partner with major corporations (such as Virgin Atlantic Airlines) and win favor with national and international leaders. Mercy Ships will participate in the emerging Maritime Regulations being shaped over the next decade. Charitable enterprise, political savvy, economic sanity and intercultural community come together in one organization.
Barrie Laing is preparing RDC for a new season of growth, with new facilities and a growing workforce. He has also led a multimillion dollar campaign for a faith community poised to make a compassionate impact in the changing world that is Silicon Valley. Laing is careful to deliver what he promises and quick to acknowledge the gifts of others. He exudes a quiet confidence born of integrity and nourished by a commitment to community in both spheres of influence. In January 2001 he will be a plenary speaker at a major conference for nonprofit leadership, where these principles will be elucidated in greater detail.
All of these leaders "blur the lines" between previously discrete domains of profits and philanthropy, business and social concerns. Value-based living that integrates personal and professional concerns is the key to future impact.
Gary Daichendt, former Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations at Cisco Systems, and Brett Johnson, founder of The Institute, are releasing a groundbreaking book, I-Operations: The Impact of the Internet on Operating Models, in January, 2001. In this work, a revolutionary framework for corporate operations is offered, with a challenge to integrate previously discrete fields of thought and operation. The models of the 18th to 20th Century are being superseded by a global market connected and driven by new forces. Daichendt and Johnson evaluate the impact of the Internet in several fields, including business, education and philanthropy. Daichendt and Johnson argue that the Internet is much more than a superior PR or fund-raising mechanism; it opens doors to completely new ways of internal and external operations.
The real "front line" of Integration is not in commerce, but in our conceptions. The revolution begins with new thinking and true Integration is not a simplistic endeavor. Transformation begins as we allow the lines between commerce and community, profit and philanthropy to blur. Yes, blur. We need to be rid of these destructive dichotomies and allow a new framework to come into focus.
The confluence of the Information and Imagination Ages offers new possibilities for transformation of individuals and communities. Victor Anderson’s example propels leaders to humble interdependence upon the expertise of others. Don Stephen’s experience compels continual retooling of operating models. Barrie Laing confronts the false dichotomies of capitalism and charity and personal and professional values. Innovation toward Integration is the only way forward. It is time to bid farewell to the false distinction of the business and charitable realms, and welcome a world of Integration.
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