Today, I met up with Rowan Gilmore - CEO of the Australian Institute of Commercialisation (AIC)
We discussed what responsible and effective leadership means to Rowan and the AIC and he had a few very good points as below.
Before we ventured into what makes a leader responsible and effective, I discussed with Rowan when he had seen responsible leadership at its worst.
Rowan cited the international banking organisations who were seen as responsible in the main for the recent GFC.
The breakdown of many financial institutions was created - often because the right questions were not asked and followed through.
Banks should have long term values over and above the needs to maximise profits and prior to the GFC many people became greedy, self-centred even - not believing or behaving within the core values of their institutions.
Rowan believes leadership should be in line with stated organisational values which then are publicly expressed through desired behaviour of the business / organisation.
Values typically contain expressions relating to ethics (although increasingly these are assumed rather than stated). Often these include ethical values like openness, honesty, caring.
Responsible leadership is aligned with these types of ethical values.
Though many people’s actions - like the bankers referred to above - prove they don't follow ethical values and behaviours.
Rowan went on to discuss how he sees leadership work... This works equally for responsible and effective leadership.
Leadership in business has 3 core areas in the process as Rowan sees it...
1) Leaders set the vision of where the business wants to head
This is usually presented through scenarios, goals and pictures through carefully chosen words that explain where they see themselves in the future.
This first step in setting the vision will be referred back to and read by staff as what is meaningful to them and creates value.
In the area of commercialisation - vision of the future starts from where the IP all began
Responsible leaders will ensure ethical values are congruent with the vision from the start
2) Leaders align stakeholders with the vision
All the processes are enunciated, noses are pointed in the right direction so everyone can work in a unified manner.
Responsible leaders will ensure they align with stakeholders who share their ethical values.
3) Leaders obtain commitment of staff and stakeholders
A promise is a few words until it is delivered.
Leaders ensure tactics are covered and understood
Metrics cover what everyone is doing and when they are all working together...
The visions of the leaders from 1) and 2) above cascade throughout the business or organisation as everyone follows the tactics and strategy that have become their vision.
Responsible Leaders take #3 very seriously with their business to ensure it is communicated across all staff and stakeholders so that the ethical values that they have incorporated in their vision are followed.
Responsible leadership ensures everything is measured accordingly and teams are recognised for their achievements.
With these three processes in place, success in business and competitive advantage as a responsible business is defined as everyone puts their best foot forward in replication of their leaders.
Rowan recognises that in theory, this style of responsible leadership is much easier than in practice.
Often - as with the bankers noted above there are breakdowns because the right questions were not asked and followed through.
He relates this to how leadership within his business in the AIC works...
The Australian Institute for Commercialisation recognises they do not have all the answers for their clients who are looking for how to commercialise their IP in the process of innovation of ideas.
Internally they set up their ideas forum where all staff can share ideas and threads of discussion to enable everyone to put forward ideas.
Every month Rowan works with the management team to evaluate, move forward and discuss how they can commercialise these ideas.
Rowan understands that communication with all leaders and future leaders within an organisation requires support through this communication and decision making.
Collaboration is also very important to help them evaluate IP and proceed with commercialisation.
Working collaboratively with patent attorneys and other specialist firms enables the AIC to work together on many more projects than they would have been able to do alone.
In the field of responsible leadership, collaboration is also key to the future as those who share similar values work together on solutions to major projects facing our society from many different locations.
Many solutions to global concerns can only be treated internationally - through collaboration.
There will also be many more ways to commercialise these solutions moving forward as new generations start to take over more and more leadership positions across business, education, enterprise, government and community focused organisations.
This process will develop opportunity for many people into the future as jobs that currently exist are replaced.
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