Ancona Deborah, Malone Thomas W, Orlikowski Wanda J, Senge Peter M
MIT Sloan School of Management, MIT Leadership Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Harv Bus Rev. 2007 Feb;85(2):92-100, 156.
Today's top executives are expected to do everything right, from coming up with solutions to unfathomably complex problems to having the charisma and prescience to rally stakeholders around a perfect vision of the future. But no one leader can be all things to all people. It's time to end the myth of the complete leader, say the authors. Those at the top must come to understand their weaknesses as well as their strengths. Only by embracing the ways in which they are incomplete can leaders fill in the gaps in their knowledge with others' skills. The incomplete leader has the confidence and humility to recognize unique talents and perspectives throughout the organization--and to let those qualities shine. The authors' work studying leadership over the past six years has led them to develop a framework of distributed leadership. Within that model, leadership consists of four capabilities: sensemaking, relating, "visioning," and inventing. Sensemaking involves understanding and mapping the context in which a company and its people operate. A leader skilled in this area can quickly identify the complexities of a given situation and explain them to others. The second capability, relating, means being able to build trusting relationships with others through inquiring (listening with intention), advocating (explaining one's own point of view), and connecting (establishing a network of allies who can help a leader accomplish his or her goals). Visioning, the third capability, means coming up with a compelling image of the future. It is a collaborative process that articulates what the members of an organization want to create. Finally, inventing involves developing new ways to bring that vision to life. Rarely will a single person be skilled in all four areas. That's why it's critical that leaders find others who can offset their limitations and complement their strengths. Those who don't will not only bear the burden of leadership alone but will find themselves at the helm of an unbalanced ship.
如今，人们期望企业高管事事皆能做好，从想出解决极其复杂问题的方案，到具备魅力和先见之明，以围绕完美的未来愿景凝聚利益相关者。但没有一位领导者能在方方面面都做到完美。作者表示，是时候终结全能领导者的神话了。处于高层的人必须了解自身的弱点和优势。领导者只有接受自身的不完美之处，才能用他人的技能填补自己知识上的空白。不完美的领导者有信心和谦逊之心去认识整个组织中独特的才能和观点，并让这些特质得以彰显。作者在过去六年对领导力的研究促使他们构建了一个分布式领导力框架。在该模式中，领导力由四种能力组成：领悟、关联、“展望”和创新。领悟包括理解并描绘公司及其员工运作的环境。在这方面有技能的领导者能够迅速识别特定情况的复杂性并向他人解释。第二种能力，即关联，意味着能够通过询问（有意倾听）、倡导（解释自己的观点）和建立联系（建立一个能帮助领导者实现其目标的盟友网络）与他人建立信任关系。第三种能力，即展望，意味着想出一个引人注目的未来图景。这是一个协作过程，阐明组织成员想要创造的东西。最后，创新涉及开发将该愿景变为现实的新方法。很少有人能在这四个领域都有技能。这就是为什么领导者找到能弥补自身局限并补充自身优势的人至关重要。那些做不到的人不仅将独自承担领导的重担，还会发现自己掌舵的是一艘失衡的船。
