Thesis

The leader is no longer able to control
Employees control, customers control
The leader creates the conditions for others to control
Leaders should stop thinking about their leadership. They shouldn’t think of their talents or of the list of trendy virtues
The obligation of a leader is to be him/herself and not imitate others. This is a purpose as a human being and not just as a leader
Leadership is a process. Leadership is relationship
Leadership is reciprocity. If a leader wants to be able to influence he/she must accept being influenced
Leadership is a service: to customers, to employees , to the community. For this reason its guiding values are: honesty, power sharing, transparency
In open systems trust is the engine of relationships, both within companies and on markets, by means of collaborative consumption
The leader builds relationships based on respect
The leader knows how to play the role of catalyst. He/she is not the only protagonist. He/she performs an inspirational, alignment and support function for colleagues
Leaders must not think of their employees as parents think of their children (in a top/down relationship)
Leaders should not think of their managers as children think of their parents (in a bottom/up relationship)
In contemporary enterprises leadership is not just based on asymmetrical relations (top/down, bottom/up) but also on peer relations
Leadership accepts ambiguity and turns it into generative conflict
Conflicts can be dealt with through negotiation and mediation. Contemporary leadership must negotiate rather than control
Leaders work in an agile way . They need to adapt to a constantly changing environment. They promote simplicity, flexibility, the production of real value for customers
The leader supports co-workers in the development of self-organization processes. This support is expressed 1) as definition of guidelines in the planning stage 2) as self-restraint in later stages
The engagement of employees is fundamental
The engagement of employees is possible if the leader is interested in their work, if he/she is accessible, if he/she enables, if he/she encourages questioning
The leader values his/her own passion
Reputation is the capital of credibility and consistency available to the leader
The leader builds social capital by sharing a common vision
Social capital is the set of behaviour rules of a system that minimizes transaction costs and maximizes cooperation between subjects. It’s not located in individuals or in physical production structures
The leader encourages the development of bonding and bridging social capital. The bonding social capital reinforces the organization identity. The bridging social capital builds a bridge between different entities, in the name of diversity integration.
Social capital is pivotal for innovation. Innovations are developed by connecting worlds that have different sets of knowledge
Keeping boundaries open and getting in touch with new know-how increases the company’s potential for innovation. Innovation can be open, in the sense that it doesn’t originate
from the R&D function only
Real innovation goes through the innovation of the company’s culture. The responsibility of leadership is to foster cultural transformation
Tolerance of mistakes is the mindset that allows the development of innovation
A structured vision, cohesive groups and clear responsibilities can result in a difficulty to learn from mistakes
Leadership promotes collective intelligence
Collective Intelligence is the process whereby groups take charge of their challenges and future evolution, by using the resources of all members in such a way that a new level emerges, with new added qualities
Collective intelligence is possible because human beings know how to be cooperative
In the long run cooperation increases the chances of survival of a system
Competitiveness is not always opposed to cooperation. The main feature of open systems is that they often are coo-petitive (cooperation and competition coexist)
Different approaches to task performance and to problem-solving can coexist (not hampering one another), and learn from each other. Diversity increases the chances to successfully achieve goals and to develop new practices
The leader should not assume that people understand the meaning of what is happening
The leader is a sense maker: together with co-workers, he/she strives to give sense to the past and to imagine future scenarios
Leadership deals with the generation and development of knowledge because intangible elements are pivotal for the creation of the value of products and services
The knowledge produced by an organization, including its internal debates and lessons learned, should be recorded and saved in archives that are accessible to everyone. In compliance with intellectual property, the sharing of knowledge inside and outside the organization generates benefits for individuals and for the community
Leadership pays attention to the organization of the invisible part of knowledge
The model of vertical leadership is inadequate for situations where knowledge is fundamental. In teams with very diverse skills shared leaderships works better
In order to favour the development of knowledge the leader can undertake the role of mentor or coach
Learning is possible as a result ofcontinuous improvement
Leadership works at increasing well-being because organizations were people feel good have superior performance
The leader takes a critical position towards contemporary value production models, perceives their contradictions and seeks sustainable solutions for him-/herself and for the group he belongs to
The leader is committed to the success of the enterprise at the present time, but by investing on intangibles he/she improves the overall quality of the system
Open leadership means to develop antifragile systems, i.e. able to improve as the result of a crisis