It’s all very well to say you want to embark on a “digital transformation” – as every company and his dog seems to be doing today – but it’s another thing to have the leaders and team who can deliver it.
In a global survey of views on leadership development, done in July and August 2015, Korn Ferry found that only 17% of those surveyed are confident their organisation has the right leadership to deliver on its strategic priorities and on average, 50% of first-level, mid-level, and high-potential leaders are not active in driving change.
Addressing leadership challenges among airlines and airports at the CAPA Australia Aviation Summit in Brisbane early this month, Tobjorn Karlsson, Senior Client Partner Asia Pacific for Korn Ferry, said that the crucial competencies that most relate to superior leadership by top executives were nimble learning, cultivates innovation, directs work, courage and resourcefulness.
Curious, I asked my panel at the CAPA Australia Aviation Summit in Brisbane to pick the one competency they most wanted to work on.
From left, Kei Shibata, Venture Republic, Paul Whiteway, Skyscanner, David Peller, Booking.com – “directs work” is a critical skill for all three executives.
Paul Whiteway, commercial director APAC, Skyscanner, Kei Shibata, CEO of Venture Republic, which runs the travel search site, travel.jp, and David Peller, director, strategic partnerships for Booking.com, all picked “directs work”.
“Too many things to do and impossible to do everything myself,” said Whiteway. Added Peller, “I don’t direct the work of my team; my perspective is that I set a broad vision and goals for the team, then leave the team to chart their own path in terms of how to achieve the goals.”
James Marshall, Expedia Inc: “Resourcefulness and knowing how to be agile and nimble.”
James Marshall, Vice President, Transport Partner Services, Asia Pacific at Expedia, Inc, picked “resourcefulness” and knowing how to be nimble and agile.
Patee Sarasin, CEO of NokAir, said one challenge facing leaders was how to bring the two worlds of technology and marketing/product together. “I want to be able to communicate my vision better in a way that gets both sides aligned in the same direction – it is hard to find people who can do IT and, at the same time, understand marketing and product.”
So what qualifies as effective digital talent? Karlsson cited Korn Ferry’s research which shows these differentiators in the profile of digital talent.
- Successful Digital Talent is likely to deal with new situations better where they have no prior experience
- They are more comfortable taking risks with limited information and manage stress that comes with it
- They showcase a stronger ability to be assertive, motivate and influence others on new ideas
- Digital Talent is likely to be more driven by challenging goals and would commit themselves to the same
As far as Ed Sims, CEO of Airways New Zealand is concerned, it’s a case of “step up or step out. You have to be nimble, fast and laser-like today.”
The former airline executive at Air New Zealand, who’s been introducing changes at the sole Air Traffic Service Provider in New Zealand, said, dealing with disruption is all about attitude. “If we don’t disrupt, we will be disrupted. Our customers are disrupting us.”
He said that although 35% of its business came by statutory right, 50% of its workforce are now on performance-related compensation schemes. “We are changing to culture to owners rather than victims of the business. We are outsourcing our services to entrepreneurs.”
In implementing these changes, he said only 50% of the workforce were able to follow the journey.
He believes in “partnering with entities who frighten you most”. “We are frightened of Google, we have been working with them for four years and we don’t know if we should sleep with them or kill them. They don’t understand the word ‘can’t’ but they force us to think differently.”
For him, transformation of an organisation is not about digitisation, it’s more about organisational and it’s about ensuring you have the right structures and processes in place to support the team who’s implementing the vision.
Another take on leadership comes from the book “Loneliness of Leadership”, published by the AETHOS Consulting Group, a result of a three-year study of top hospitality executives and entrepreneurs.
Speaking at Hotelsworld in Sydney, managing director James Houran who co-wrote the book, argues that the number one characteristic of leaders today is the ability to deal with chaos. “We are built to fight the things we can’t control but there are some people who are energised by chaos, that’s a skill.”
Note: What are the skills required of a career in the digital age? All these, and more, will be discussed at Tern, a travel careers event, supported by WIT and Travel Weekly Asia, happening this August 29 at Novotel Clarke Quay. Sign up here.
