What aspects are missing in today's corporate management? In the following part three, we continue our series of interviews on corporate management in turbulent times. Having already dealt with Management models in general and the Challenges in terms of employee motivation In the following Part Three, Barbara Wietasch talks about Shared-LeaderShift© as an innovative approach that provides some exciting solutions. After all, flexible structures are needed to survive in the market - and a new form of self-image within organizations.

The Shared-LeaderShift© model responds to highly topical challenges in corporate management - an interview with Barbara Wietasch

Hello Ms. Wietasch, let's pick up the thread where we left it: With your Shared-LeaderShift© concept, you bring together the best of all available worlds. Why is it important to bring another new leadership concept onto the market?

In addition to the good reasons for a shift already mentioned, VUCA is a particular challenge for the world of organizations. The world is changing: in terms of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Innovation, disruption and greatly shortened product lifecycles often make realignment inevitable, as does a division of management tasks. Our answer to this is the Shared-LeaderShift© model, which supports the upcoming organizational change through a New management structure levers.

How can we imagine this in the long term?

Let's first treat ourselves to the whole "Big Picture". 2025 or 2030, but perhaps as early as 2022: what might the zeitgeist be like? Organizations are largely self-organized. They have their "Purpose", i.e. defining its meaning and purpose, agreeing on a common, company-wide understanding of culture and defining its "frame", its guidelines in the form of the "Governance" defined. They therefore have a cultural framework, so to speak, which provides formal orientation and shows the way in which the "purpose", the meaning and purpose, is lived within an organization as well as externally.

That sounds more like an a-hierarchical structure - preferably without leadership. Will leadership continue to exist or should we say goodbye to this fundamental concept?

Yes, of course leadership will still exist or continue to exist, but in a completely different form. Governance will form an essential framework for leadership in the future. It will provide orientation as to how cooperation within the company succeeds, how decisions are made in the community and how disruptions are resolved. Practicing self-leadership will become a driver of success. In the future, we will see leadership - as we understand it today for employee, team and company management - organized into roles, distributed across several heads and collaborative. And in thirds: not as job sharing, but as a Shared-LeaderShift© in a triumvirate.

Let's stay with the keyword "purpose" for a moment. How can this way of thinking be reconciled with the profitability of the company?

If you follow Simon Sinek and his Golden Circlethen you could use the "Governance" than the "HOW" the management for example, "how do we want to work together", while the "Purpose" the "WHY" is defined. The people in the organization operate within this cultural framework and create value together - aligned with a powerful purpose and North Star.

And why does management now need to reposition itself?

We are certain that the country needs new heroes - and a real change in leadership and companies. Why? Because the aforementioned complexity, diversity and dynamism will no longer be mastered in hierarchical structures, but in flexible ones. Agile despite hierarchy! And for this we need a roadmap for collegial, shared leadership, for a new image of people, a new mindset, for new role models for self- and team leadership.

Thank you very much, Ms Wietasch, for your exciting comments on the challenges facing the market and collaboration within organizations and companies. In the sequel, we will delve deeper into your approach and what the triumvirate actually entails. We look forward to Part Four of the interview!

The interview with Barbara Wietasch was conducted by the TCI editorial team.

Editor's note: Also read the previous parts of the interview series!

• Part one: How management models have developed: Quo vadis, employee leadership?
• Part two: Motivating employees to perform at their best: Is this necessary and possible?

Part four of the interview with Barbara Wietasch can be found here: Leadership redefined: How Shared-LeaderShift works in the company and leadership tasks are properly distributed!

About your authors

Barbara Wietasch is a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in personnel and organizational development and has been passionate about supporting people, teams and organizations in change for more than 20 years, as a coach, trainer and consultant. Her roots are in sales & marketing. This is why she always focuses on people - i.e. internal and external customers - in all organizational changes. In her work, she fundamentally assumes that systems carry the solution within themselves and are knowledgeable. On the journey to "New Work", she sees herself as a bridge builder on various levels.

Eva-Maria Danzer has been a specialist for people and organizations in transition for more than 25 years. She is the managing director of "The Company Journey Guides", a company for corporate development in Munich with over 20 employees. They see themselves as development companions for organizations on their own journey. They work internationally, particularly in four focus areas: Mindset first, Leader-Shift, Hero Customer, Zeitgeist Learning & Organizational Development.

(Cover image: © kittisak | stock.adobe.com)