Foreword to Reimagining Leadership

Empowering Growth and Performance Through Purposeful Change and Constructive Culture.
Author: Elie Daher

As we face into the headwinds of many unprecedented and interconnected global challenges, every company and organization is having to discover how to do more, at higher quality with less resource. Organizations can either respond by driving harder and working longer, or by working smarter. Working smarter involves having an agile organization that can constantly adapt its strategy to the changing needs of its wider eco-system. But it is much easier to change one’s strategy than evolve the company’s culture. Peter Ducker famously said, “Culture will always eat your strategy for breakfast!” Trying to implement a new strategy without attending to what is required in developing the culture is like planting a new specimen plant without first preparing the soil and ensuring it has the right conditions to grow to enable it to flourish.

In our work enabling organizations and their leadership to transform, we also use another key phrase: “Leaders get the culture they collectively behave.” Therefore, we must constantly address the question: “What needs to shift in the collective leadership to role model the culture needed to deliver the new strategy?” Many organizations separate out the three areas of Strategy, Culture and Leadership, to their cost. They invite in a global consultancy to help them develop their new strategy, a boutique H.R. consultancy to help them with their culture and send their senior leaders off to business schools to develop their leadership. What is needed is for organizations to address these three areas of Strategic change, Culture change and Leadership Development in an integrated and systemic way, which recognises that each point of the Strategy, Culture, Leadership triangle, is dependent on the other two aspects. I have argued that HR, Strategy, training and development and transformation, can no longer sit in separate siloes, but need to be one integrated enterprise which I have named “The future-fit function”, which has a joint collective purpose of ensuring that the organization, its leadership, teams, structures, processes, partnerships and its people, are fit for what the future will require.

In my research and writing (Hawkins 2017, 2021, 2022) I have shown how most leadership development is actually leader development, developing 20th-century heroic leaders, rather than the collective and collaborative leadership that is needed for the 21st century. In today’s complex and interconnected world, if the only place the various challenges and differing stakeholder needs come together is the CEO, then the organization is not sustainable. It requires leadership teams where all members take joint responsibility for the whole organization and not just their function. It also requires senior teams to be as much, if not more, focussed on growing the capacity to play tomorrow’s game as they are focussed on more efficiently and effectively playing today’s game.

In this straightforward and practical book, Elie Daher provides clear frameworks and illustrations of how to lead and manage change, while also evolving the culture that is needed to make the change take root and be successful. His insights draw from a perspective that values collective and collaborative working, as well as respect and mutuality, which can provide valuable lessons for leaders in today's multigenerational and multicultural workplace. This approach emphasizes the importance of fostering collective and collaborative leadership, which is essential in today's complex and interconnected world. This book offers valuable guidance for any leader seeking to drive meaningful change and improve their organization's performance."

Hawkins, P. (2017) Tomorrow’s Leadership and the Necessary Revolution in Today’s Leadership Development. Henley Business School: Henley UK

Hawkins, P. (Fourth edition 2021) “Leadership Team Coaching: Developing Collective Transformational Leadership.” London: Kogan Page (translated into Spanish Chinese and Japanese)

Hawkins, P. (Edited) (third edition 2022) “Leadership Team Coaching in Practice.” London: Kogan Page (Translated into Chinese)

Professor Peter Hawkins Chairman of Renewal Associates, Emeritus Professor of Leadership Henley Business School, peter.hawkins@renewalassociates.co.uk.