Smart Leadership - Wise Leadership: Environments of Value in an Emerging Future

There is a strong link between organisational culture and profit after all a happy workforce is a productive workforce. Yet a culture of inertia rather than innovation prevails in many organisations. Wise leaders, however, know how to work with the grain of human value and worth, harnessing it, so as to add shared value both for the organisation and for the good of society. So, how can astute leaders set the right conditions for creativity and cultivate non-economic goods, such as time and relationships, that make for a happy, effective workforce? The author proposes the notion of organisational culture as ’environments of value’ wherein inner value translated into external value is embedded within the triple bottom line and indeed an awareness of how an organisation is like a force field: it exercises power and leaves a footprint. This construct informs the emerging concept of Shared Value as requiring five literacies about: ¢ Shareholder value and return for risk ¢ Value for the social environment linked to respect for the natural environment ¢ Inner value of those in the enterprise, which, when unlocked, releases energies and adds value ¢ Nurture of non-quantifiable qualities that promote human flourishing ¢ Understandings of how power relations distort the way organisations operate He clearly signposts the link between promoting an environment of value within which these literacies flourish and the added value for the organisation arising from such a culture.

Dr Christopher Steed FRSA – writer, management consultant, counsellor, educator, research fellow at Southampton University. Chris contributes papers to conferences across multi-disciplinary boundaries on subjects he has taught. He holds an MSc in social theory and international relations, a PhD in theology and a doctorate in social sciences. A member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, Chris has a private practice in Totton, Southampton, where he works for the Church of England developing a community hub for social innovation, support services and active listening.

Chris asks what the leadership and organisations of the future will look like in a digital era. What kind of ‘wise leadership’, as contrasted with ‘smart’ (technocratic) leadership, will be needed as business learns to function in a different way.