IBM’s subtle new leadership guidelines
For about three generations now, IBM has been training fresh batches of leaders straight out of college. Now, Big Blue’s got a brand new bag.
Here are the new leadership traits that IBM plans to grade its executives on … and that you can cultivate, too:
— Adapted from “IBM’s Management Makeover,” Linda Tischler, Fast Company.
Here are the new leadership traits that IBM plans to grade its executives on … and that you can cultivate, too:
- Ability to sustain customer relationships. IBM says it’s no longer interested in the single sale or transaction … if it ever was. Its top executives think of the people who buy IBM products and services not as one-shot customers but as longstanding clients with whom they’ve established a relationship.
- Ability to influence without direct authority. IBM calls this skill “collaborative influence,” meaning that various groups team up informally, depending on the job at hand, to complete the work. No more thinking in a vertical silo. No more command and-control hierarchies.
— Adapted from “IBM’s Management Makeover,” Linda Tischler, Fast Company.