在这些不确定的时期领导它真正需要什么？
“如果在那里更快地改变它，那么我们有问题“ -Jack Welch.
Stephen Howard, chairman of力量改变，是首席执行官Business in the Community（比特）10年。他说领导是一个孤独的地方。首席执行官不会保持工作。压力很高，不要考虑诸如价值观之类的事情。在政治上，社会，经济上，我们在不确定的时期。没有人信任任何人 - 你的更大，你信任的越少。我们相信本地国会议员，但我们不相信议会;我们相信分支经理，但不是大银行。
Howard said that the reality of leading is about making hard decisions because the easier decisions already have been made by someone else. There is no magic formula or self-help book when running or leading an organization.
As a native Michigander, Howard has been running large PLCs and living in the U.K. for 30 years. He recently retired after 11 years as chief executive of BitC with 830 member firms. Previously, he was chief exec at building supplies company Novar (bought by Honeywell) and engineered ceramics company Cookson Group (now Vesuvius).
因此，让我们从公司和非营利部门潜入他的观点。
Shannon Houde: How do you define "leadership?"
斯蒂芬霍华德：As leaders, we need to be able to operate and navigate in ambiguity and uncertainty while holding on to what we deem important.
I see two styles of leadership:
- being the "boss" who drives people, relies on power and focuses on "I."
- being the "leader" who coaches, inspires and focuses "we."
Both leadership styles are about three things: Permission; protection; and process.
Permission: We will all make mistakes. We will try things that don’t work, but we need a discipline to be ready to regroup when that happens. Otherwise, we can’t feel comfortable with making the mistakes.
保护：玩赢得的想法而不是玩不输的是至关重要的。随着改变的步伐，没有一个不担心“迫切”的组织。但如果你的辩护所上的模型是试图建立保护或困扰不可避免的，那么你会失败，它会赶上你。了解如何继续保持未来，创新并不是可选的。
For example, if you are a business you will have a carbon footprint. There are certain realities you have to deal with. But how will you not deny them? How will you get in front of them?如果您的模型的辩护是颠覆的，则试图建立保护或困扰不可避免的，那么你将失败，它会赶上你。
靴子在这方面很棒。它首先被私募股权拥有，但对高街妈妈的信任，然后几年前他们没有隐藏在遭到支付的税收时（由于作为更大群体的不同地方的总部）。他们披露了所有数字而不是否认或忽略它。他们试图透明和积极地解释事实。
进程：我看这是合规性与承诺的。你的人真的买到了，了解为什么和他们正在购买的原因？是你卖给你的团队的真正吗？领导者必须无情地传达核心信息，因为每个人都在这个数字时代中被淹没在太多信息中。
Houde: You were also chief exec at Novar. How did leading in the corporate sector differ from BitC and some of the third-sector leadership roles you have had?
霍华德：Managing a charity requires the same disciplines as a business — the dynamic is the same: productivity; cash management; clarity of offer; career opportunities for its people. I entered the non-profit world with a corporate arrogance thinking that people were paid more, so are smarter and will work harder — this is not the case. NGOs may measure profits in a different way but the organization still has to be well managed for people to trust it.
如果制造肥皂（消费品）与帮助无家可归者（慈善机构），则肯定更难证明目的。无论如何，我们总是需要问 - 我们试图提供帮助吗？公司在衡量KPIS的数字方面更容易，而在非政府组织中，可能需要数年时间才能衡量对年轻人的长期影响。
Houde: How many of your changemaker roles have required technical skills vs. emotional intelligence/people skills?
霍华德：What a leader doesn’t need is specific technical skills because you should surround yourself with other trusted colleagues for these. No one can be an expert in all things. There are three "soft" skills that are crucial:
- 您首先必须能够创建简短和长期愿景，这是现实的，并与您在内部和外部工作的人的价值观对齐。这很容易说，但难以理解。然后，您需要能够传达这一愿景，传达超越数字的成功看起来。
- 最好的领导者有最好的球队。他们必须使其他负责任领导人与内部系统开发和奖励它们。
- Effective leaders have to be advocates for their business, their industry and for business generally (media, Brexit). We need to be continually proving the value business adds to society through skills, employment or the economics.
Houde：如果您仍然在这些腐败的时期领导跨国公司，您可以在第一年优先考虑三件事？
霍华德：首先，倾听到处都是对想法开放。
接下来，创建一个清晰，简单的现实的愿景，你正在尝试做什么，然后无情地做到这一点。没有人读过30页的战略，甚至是董事会。这需要成为每个人都会理解的“电梯音调”。
Finally, build competitive advantage through thinking about what it is we are offering plus driving costs and speed. If you pause, people will pass you by. We don’t want to panic or be complacent, but we need to be constantly reinventing who we are and what we do. Cutting costs is a short-term solution and the benefits won’t last. Always have a sense of urgency.
Houde: What advice would you give a younger version of yourself (say, a 30-year-old) in terms of leading in complex cultures?
霍华德：首先，了解你的影子。领导者施放了重要的阴影。价值观和完整性必须从顶部开始。人们观看你所做的事，而不仅仅是你所说的。削减成本，然后飞一堂课？不，你必须展示什么事和重要的事情。
接下来,意识到商业的目的不是profit. It is creating products and services that your customers want and need. Think about the business that drives the numbers — regulators attitudes, consumer behavior changes, etc.人们观看你所做的事，而不仅仅是你所说的。削减成本，然后飞一堂课？No.
最后，如果他们没有与您的价值观保持一致，就准备好远离业务类别。
Houde：所以领导者的下一个大事是什么？
霍华德：在公司世界中，它是认识到我们正在增加压力，以披露，报告和投资人民和社区。我们看到孵化器中心的价值，有大想法的人被驱使成功，但从来没有谈论这笔钱。相反，他们谈论如何使世界成为一个更好的地方。然而，董事长席位仍有一代人，这些席位有点太老了 - 那些尚不明白他们的利益相关者具有新的期望。最终，这将赶上它们。
There are also so many companies wrestling with how to engage with the under-25s. This younger generation collects information and thinks about the world in a very different way. We need to think more about how that changes the way we train and develop our people. Globalization, digitalization and the gig economy are here and going to stay.
As leaders we need to be asking: What can we offer a young person that is unique? How can we give them a sense that they are getting more than a pay check? How can we get them to believe that what we are doing has social purpose?
