Time for Asian leaders to 'change their game', re-boost competitiveness

Meanwhile, the percentages of actively disengaged workers are high in Asia compared with Western countries, as indicated in the latest Gallup “State of the Global Workplace” survey, published in October 2013. And the percentages of engaged workers are low, ranging from 6 to 12 per cent in Asia with Thailand at 14 per cent, while they stand at 24 per cent in Australia and 30 per cent in the United States. 

Change is urgently needed, yet 70 per cent of change programmes fail, as stated in the article “Changing Change Management” from McKinsey (July 2015). And the most common cause is employees’ disengagement. My experience as a global executive coach concurs: Leaders may roll out any change process they like, but change won’t be sustainable if employees are not energised enough to make it stick.

Yet many factors can help to improve engagement and performance in Asia. Having worked across Asia for 20 years, I recognise a few specific ones. First of all, success at work is generally an important part of life here; high energy and long work hours can be invested for it. Overall, the thirst for personal development is great. So is the aspiration to build a “second family” at work. The resilience to hardships is far superior to that in most other continents. 

And most important, in crises so severe that traditional, seniority-based modes of interactions with others are relegated, impressive creativity and collaboration surface, yielding remarkable agility.

For engagement and competitiveness to soar again in Asia, what needs to change above all is what’s most often at the core of employees’ disengagement: inadequate leadership.

Leaders can try to change their employees’ mindsets and behaviour for as long as they want; it won’t work until they have become the type of leader people want to be inspired by.

Change leaders must change themselves before they “change the game” in their organisation. In other words, leaders need to reinvent a part of their leadership to foster high-performance cultures. 

 

First step: Become authentic

The most basic definition of a leader is “someone with followers”. And people will only follow someone they can trust through hardships. 

They won’t trust someone who always “knows better” or never makes mistakes, as they know this can’t be for real. Instead they will trust someone who is authentic and humble, acknowledges when he or she doesn’t know, apologises for wrongdoing and occasionally asks for help. 

To reach such a level of authenticity and vulnerability, leaders need a healthy level of self-confidence. And that implies solid self-awareness and self-acceptance. 

Therefore the first step for leaders to change their game is to look deep within themselves, acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses, accept their whole imperfect self, consider themselves as a work in progress, and embrace mistakes as growth opportunities. Such “self-leaders” will be genuinely respected and trusted. 

This is a clear departure from the traditional “boss” model as an |all-knowing father or mother figure, directive and protective of subordinates, which hinders both leaders’ |and employees’ growth and motivation. 

 

Second step: Lift others up

In countless speaking engagements across Asia, I candidly asked, “Think of your ‘best boss ever’ and tell me what he or she did to deserve your preference.” The answers have always been similar: “my ‘best boss ever’ was the one who helped me grow the most as a professional”. 

Leaders can lift others up by first being open and looking for the best in them, and then by helping them play at their best and expanding their scope of responsibility, while removing their fear of making mistakes. Leaders can do so once they have gained sufficient confidence in their abilities to handle others’ mistakes. 

In turn, employees grow self-esteem and confidence, and then take more initiatives and become more accountable. Their engagement soars. 

This second step is anchored in an adult-to-adult relationship between leaders and their people. It clearly contrasts with a paternalistic management style that limits subordinates’ accountability level. 

In his book “Good to Great”, Jim Collins showed the importance of “getting the right people on the bus”. I advocate that leaders also invest time in making people in the bus “the right people”.

 

Third step: Enable collaboration 

Once leaders and managers across the organisation are authentic and open, and employees continuously grow in capabilities and self-esteem, the third step towards changing the game becomes possible: Bring down walls between departments, and instil a bias for diversity, collaboration and agility. 

With sufficient self-confidence, managers and employees will dare to leave their comfort zones, and embrace the challenge of playing well with others outside of their own turf for the greater good of the organisation. It helps to cascade decisions at the lowest levels possible and kick politics out of the organisation. 

Then leaders can fully leverage the very favourable factors for the improvement of productivity, creativity, collaboration and agility in Asia, bring out the best out of everyone and every team, and enable sustainable high performance in their organisations. Renewed engagement and competitiveness will follow.

 

Jean-Francois Cousin is a global executive coach and founder of Greatness Leadership Coaching. He also wrote “Game Changers at the Circus: How Leaders Can Unleash Greatness in Their Organizations”, available at Asia Books and Kinokuniya bookstores and on Amazon.com.