Since the boom-time of the management gurus in the 1980s and 1990s the world has changed—in ways that affect how people behave, and how companies act. Today there is a pressing need for business leaders, organizations, and leadership developers to adapt to these myriad changes, to update their ways of thinking and working.  

The impact of technology is the clearest factor. Digitization, the spread of social media, and recently the introduction of generative AI, have revolutionized how individuals live, behave and how companies act, massively disrupting business models and the way people work—from instant communication to hybrid working. With generational change, traditional hierarchical management structures are being replaced with less deferential, more distributed models, and expectations have grown for more diverse, inclusive, and equitable organizational cultures.  

Climate change, and its all-too-apparent effects, has made concern for the environment an individual, government, and business preoccupation—driven by both regulation and shifting consumer attitudes. Ageing populations are putting strain on resources across the developed world. Finally, despite GDP per capita being far higher today than it was in the 1980s, the world appears more divided, troubled by culture wars, geopolitical strife, and previously unthinkable wars.  All this leads also to a polarized world but mainly to unpredictability.  

Adapting leadership mindsets to meet the challenge of today 

The core message of the management gurus, and of much leadership development and coaching up to now, has revolved around personal attributes, values, and standards. The focus has been on self-awareness, authenticity, agility, emotional intelligence, and interpersonal skills such as clear communication, negotiation, influence, and the ability to inspire performance. These skills have been associated and packaged in a variety of different management styles and approaches such as servant leadership, and customer-centricity. These basic requirements of a good leader are of course important, but in and of themselves these skills are not enough. They fail to address what leadership is for—from the perspective of each individual leader, set in the context of the specific circumstance of their organization and the role they have.  

Stepping up to a leadership position in a high-pressure, complex, rapidly changing business environment, leaders are typically pulled in multiple directions by many different stakeholders. Beyond the essentials—delivering impact as a team leader, or sustainable profits as a senior executive—today’s leaders are asked to deliver in a wide range of other areas, from employee welfare to environmental sustainability, and even to express their opinions on the social issues of the day. Yet at the same time they are faced with a range of everyday challenges and tough decisions, with little time afforded to navigate them. The way they address these tasks is ultimately determined by their understanding of what their leadership is for. 

In his new book What Leadership is for: Identifying the Three Drivers for Stand-out Performance, Patrick Faniel, Managing Director of Management Centre Europe (MCE), directs his attention to the many drivers that dictate business performance. He opens the book with a quote from Peter Drucker, “leadership is defined by results not attributes,” and, while he acknowledges the importance of leadership standards, he argues that successful results are dependent on an unerring focus on a limited number of key performance drivers—and it is the choice of these that says what leadership is for. 

Based on many years of experience and on MCE’s interviews with hundreds of senior executives, Faniel offers a new model of leadership—one that is highly relevant to our disrupted and fast-changing times. He suggests that the main drivers of business fall within four areas, or quadrants: Business, Process, People, and Market.

He then highlights twelve key drivers—three within each quadrant: 

• Business: Growth; Innovation; Partnerships 
• Process: Strategy execution; Effectiveness; Digitalization 
• People: Employee experience; Diversity and inclusion; Inspiration 
• Market: Customer focus; Brands; Personalization 

There will be other drivers—AI integration, risk management, ESG, cyber security and much else. The important thing is for each leader to identify the drivers relevant to their own business. This comes to the heart of Faniel’s model—leadership is about choice and prioritization.  And adapting then the recipe to cascade down that focus.  Hence different recipe depending on the chosen driver.  Aiming to deliver 100% on all of the many drivers that effect business performance will dilute effort and lead to confusion and eventually to failure. Every leader must decide, bearing in mind their organization’s specific situation, where they and their team must train their focus—deciding what their leadership is for.  

The power of three: focus on key drivers 

Patrick Faniel recommends that no more than three drivers should be chosen. This does not mean the other eight are ignored. If growth, customer service, and effectiveness are prioritized the company will still need innovation and diversity. What it means is that the leader should set a policy that the main effort will be focused on the three chosen drivers, and this should cascade down through the organization. 

There is no secret prescription to say which choice of drivers is best. The essential point is that if, for example, the organization’s future progress is seen to be dependent on developing new products and services, or new ways of working, and the chosen driver is innovation, the culture of the organization must adapt accordingly. It will need to be very different from that of a company where the main driver is, say, efficiency. While the model can be used at the senior C-suite level to direct the whole organization, it can also be applied at the business unit or team level where performance is enhanced by clear communication from the team leader ensuring team members’ efforts are focused on the same drivers. 

The core of the book is divided into four parts—one for each quadrant—where twelve highlighted drivers are each explored in depth, under headings such as ‘Leadership for Strategy Execution,’ ‘Leadership for Brands’, etc., and advice is offered on what actions are required to fully align the organization and cascade the chosen drivers down to all areas. This is all brought to life by a series of illuminating real-world examples, elicited from Faniel and MCE’s interactions with an array of senior leaders from diverse industries and backgrounds.  

The many cases described each show how a company has based its success on identifying and prioritizing specific drivers. For Ryanair, the successful budget airline, three drivers appear to be: strategy execution (consistently low prices), effective processes (efficiency and safety), and the inspiration that the founder Michael O’Leary imbues through the company. MSC Cruises clearly prioritizes growth; for Porsche a key driver is brand; Alan Healthcare is namely about digitization; Knauf about innovation; and Kurita prioritizes diversity and inclusion. There are many other examples and some surprising illustrations of how the lack of clear prioritization has held back performance for some. 

In an increasingly complex world, where leaders are beset with multiple pressures and demands, this timely book offers a valuable reminder of the power of clear, delimited focus and the dangers of spreading leadership and organizational attention too thinly. In earlier, less disrupted times leaders could rely on personal charisma and ‘command and control’ to get things done. In today’s less hierarchical organizations, where leadership is distributed and people are apt to pull in different directions, Patrick Faniel’s ‘three drivers’ model provides an invaluable new focus.  

…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 

‘What Leadership is for: Identifying the Three Drivers for Stand-out Performance,’ by Patrick Faniel. Published by Novaro Publishing, 2024, ISBN 978-1-7398640-6-4