Synopses & Reviews
Responsible leadership involves making business decisions that not only affect brand trust and corporate reputation, but also impact all stakeholders, including employees, clients and the environment.
This book explores the role of responsible leadership in an organization and offers a framework for how to incorporate it into company culture. It challenges common-held beliefs established from traditional management methods and provides the practical steps needed to achieve organizational change.
The Responsible Leader presents a fresh vision for leadership and business success and includes in-depth case studies and examples from companies such as Starbucks, BP, HSBC, PwC, and BodyShop.
Review
"At this time of rapid change every institution and organization, including the church, is reviewing its understanding of leadership. Tim Richardson has assembled some very helpful models of a style of leadership which unites professional competence with the human characteristics which make all the difference between deadening and fruitful leadership." Richard Chartres
Review
"Timely, practical and stimulating." Bishop of London
Review
"[A] well-written overview of how we got where we are in our leadership understanding and the forces that are shaping our leadership context today." Ian Powell - Chairman and Senior Partner, PwC UK
Review
"The information, insights, and counsel that Richardson provide...help the reader to gain an almost 3D perspective on what responsible leadership is...and isn't." Bishop of London
Synopsis
Leaders; senior managers; HR and OD professionals responsible for talent management
Synopsis
Responsibility as a leader is the ability to respond quickly to a complex and changing business environment. It means using values to make decisions that not only affect brand trust and corporate reputation, but impact upon employees and the wider community. In today's increasingly interconnected world, it is more important than ever that managers can achieve goals and desired results while still maintaining a degree of authenticity, ethics and stewardship. The Responsible Leader identifies what it means to be an authentic leader, taking in intra-organizational relationships, role modelling and ethical practice.
Addressing the practical challenge of implementing a framework of corporate social responsibility in an organization that may embrace thousands of people, The Responsible Leader sets out what this strategy looks like in practice and advises on creating a new and hopeful narrative for the future. Drawing on in-depth case studies from HSBC, PwC, Oasis and Marks and Spencers that chart the journey to responsible and sustainable management in challenging environments, it presents a fresh vision for leadership success that goes beyond simple compliance.
About the Author
--Emphasizes a companys need for responsible leadership and how to implement it
--Presents comprehensive in-depth case studies on the journey to responsible leadership from organizations
--Clearly identifies what responsible leadership involves: ethical practices, authenticity, intra-organizational relationships, and role-modeling
--Written by the former Head of Leadership and Talent Development for PwC, with a foreword from organizational behavior and management author, Professor Charles Handy
Table of Contents
List of figures
Foreword
Introduction
01 How did we end up here?
Forming our mental models of leadership
Leadership through the ages
The role of charisma
Situational leadership
Further interpretations
Changes in sources of power: a 21st-century revolution
Information overload
Multiple stakeholders demanding to be heard
Distinct generations all alive at once
Employees voice and the change in the employment contract
The globalization revolution
Relationships and structures: when hierarchy prevents action
Drowning under regulation
A final point: to consume or steward?
Summary
Part One A fresh response: outlining the case for responsible leadership
02 What distinguishes responsible leaders?
Internal assuredness and attractiveness
Clarity about identity
Clarity about personal values
Moral compass
Adaptability and learning orientation
Comfortable with ambiguity and not knowing
Listening and learning
Open, confident yet humble
Thinking and operating relationally
Moving from transactional to relational
Moving from competition to co-creation
Moving from self to other
Purpose and focus
Case study: Rev Steve Chalke MBE and Oasis
Summary
03 What it means to be a responsible leader in practice
Case study: HSBC Mexico
At the core
Core identity
Life vision, legacy and purpose
Talent and capability
The organizational dimension
Brand promise
Customer relationships
People practices
Product integrity
Leadership and culture
The wider global and local connection
Discovering the model
Planet
Economy
Community
Summary
04 Living with paradox as a responsible leader
Listening to hear through the noise - cultivate serenity
Brain fatigue
The illusion of busyness
Focus to create serenity
Looking for and seeing beyond while dealing with the immediate
Scan widely; challenge assumptions
Ripples
Redefining success
Success in the future: the dilemma of agility
Case study: M&S - towards becoming the worlds most sustainable retailer
Summary
Part Two The organizational response
05 Developing responsible leaders
Case study: PwC
Enhanced learning cycle
Getting the balance between cognitive and emotional learning right
Notice
Think
Explore
Act
Reflect
Beyond the ‘so what test
The habit of learning
Creating impactful and lasting development opportunities
Contracting
Orientation
Immersion
Re-entry
Ongoing dialogue and support
Summary
06 Evolving a culture of responsible leadership
Responsibility from commitment not compliance: it starts with our view of the world
Track 1: zero-sum game
Track 2: mutual growth
Impacting culture intentionally
One decision and one conversation at a time
Distributed leadership
Working with the ‘cool kids
The narrative is all-important
Summary
07 Potential pitfalls and myths
Just saying the words does not equal progress or change
Getting beneath the surface
Avoiding over-communication
Properly aligning reward, recognition and performance management to responsibility
Restructuring alone will not yield results
When growing - consider carefully the drive to add more roles and departments
Restructuring to create the illusion of progress
Dont just promote the usual suspects
Measurement alone will not change behaviour
Where measurement apparently conflicts with passion
Summary
Part Three A visionary narrative
08 Our moments of truth
A new way of being - stepping forward for the greater good
How can we help ourselves cultivate this different way of being?
The rise of social enterprise
Learning from and becoming alchemists
Organizations and places to look for responsible leadership at work
Conclusion
References
Index