No. This is the answer according to Prof Marius Stander, a leading expert in industrial psychology from the North-West University (NWU).
During his recent inaugural lecture – to mark his appointment as full professor within the NWU’s School of Industrial Psychology and Human Resource Management – Prof Stander proposed a complete leadership skills overhaul in preparation for Industry 4.0. He continued to say that leadership should be the bridge between potential and performance.
For organisations to remain sustainable and impactful, it is of vital importance that employees who are able to effectively handle changes and challenges are attracted and retained. According to Prof Stander the absence of key skills can be a major threat for companies, particularly in developing countries such as South Africa. “We need to ask ourselves if current systems are able to support the development of these skills. I am not convinced, especially in terms of our ability to adapt swiftly within our current leadership development systems,” explains Prof Stander.
Leadership development
According to Prof Stander, the role of leaders in developing individuals and managing talent will become increasingly important. Having said this, leaders henceforth need to create working environments where individuals can optimise their potential and add value to the organisasion whilst improving their own wellbeing.
Research has found that amidst difficult times positivity is of the utmost importance for leaders. Leadership styles such as empowering leadership, positive leadership, and authentic leadership are gaining increasing field in literature and practices. These styles as well as psychological empowerment are diffused from a theoretical basis and thereafter aligned with practical challenges.
Prof Stander explains that it is important to have leaders who attract and develop talent, allow people to explore their own ideas, set dynamic challenges, engage in robust debate, create ownership with direct reports and invest in their potential by means of focused development.
The availability of key leadership skills
The absence of key skills is regarded as one of the top 10 threats for high-level leaders in Africa. According to the Deloitte Insights 2018 Report, a mere 25% of executives are highly confident that they have the workplace skills needed to deal with the challenges of the advancing workplace.
It is further reported that 35% of global leaders are of the opinion that a complete rethinking of the educational system is needed. To complicate this matter even further, Prof Stander explains that South Africa is confronted with an outflow of professional skills, a lack of certain skills and in general skills development. In the World Talent Ranking report on how countries develop, attract and retain highly skilled professionals, it is reported that SA is ranked at number 50 out of 63 countries.
In his lecture, Prof Stander aligned current leadership challenges with his research findings and came to the conclusion that: (1) leaders need to focus on psychological empowerment that will impact both the employee and the organisational effectiveness; (2) by exhibiting leader empowering behaviour a leader can positively influence employee’s state of mind; (3) authentic leadership lies at the very core of sustainable leadership; (4) positive leadership focuses on the strengths of employees, continuously recognises good work and contribute towards the success of the organisation and; (5) leaders should be skilled as people developers and as such master the skills of mentoring, coaching and providing feedback.
Prof Sonia Swanepoel, executive dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, congratulates Prof Stander on his inaugural lecture.
