The list of leadership challenges continues to evolve.
A recent Reuters Business Insight report examines current research on
the subject, including the changing requirements for selection and development
of leaders. Reuters interviewed thought leaders, market leaders and practice
leaders to determine the state of leadership today.
According to one survey respondent, David Roussain,
CEO, AdExact,
“So what I look for specifically are people
who can first of all lead and direct others to get the job done, but most
importantly, they need to know what needs to happen themselves. They need
to be the one that can point out to me in an interview the key things
that need to happen to make this capability become alive. If they’re
looking in an interview to me for direction on how it might unfold or
how it would go this way or that way, that’s not what I’m
looking for.”
One key issue examined in the report is “What
issues are having the greatest impact on boards of directors?” Here
are the issues listed by the respondents, in ranking order:
1. Globalization: More companies have
developed multi-national or international business lines and look to
increase the diversity of their boards of directors.
2. Accountability in corporate governance:
There are a number of regions around the world where increased interest
has been generated in improving corporate governance. This includes
Asia and parts of South America which have more family-owned businesses
and smaller firms with more internal directors, and Central and Western
European firms that have had more government regulation and direct investment.
The model most commonly cited is the US/UK model, which offers greater
shareholder rights. This is a particularly attractive issue to large
institutional shareholders.
3. More active boards: For several years
the trend has been towards smaller, more active boards with more external
independent directors (particularly in the US and UK). The preference
has been for active, rather than retired executives and for executives
with limited external commitments.
4. Greater board control mechanisms: One
result of smaller boards is the increased importance of mechanisms to
remove a board member or change board practices if a change is needed.
Changes have always been difficult, but the smaller numbers of members
tends to highlight problems.
Excerpted from the “Reuters Business Insight
Report on Leadership,” by Peter McAteer, copyright 2002, Datamonitor
PLC.
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