A new study published by consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton identified four critical elements necessary for leaders to excel.

 Commitment to the company’s purpose; a top management team with complementary skills; organisational capabilities and employee motivation and well-chosen strategic initiatives to move the organisation forward are the four factors needed to be integrated to develop and maintain a company’s capacity to transform, the company said in a statement.

"There is no one-size fits all secret to being an effective leader. Building a great team with a clear purpose, ensuring they have the tools and resources needed, and providing them with compelling direction, are all characteristics of government and business leaders that have successfully implemented change in their organisations," said Rabih Abouchakra, principal at Booz Allen Hamilton, based in Abu Dhabi.

The Booz Allen research, "A Blueprint for Strategic Leadership," found that over time a leader’s capability is shaped by the top team’s quality and by the capabilities of the full organisation.

These can either provide invaluable support for the changes a leader wants to make or make those changes impossible. The best leaders pay a great deal of attention to the design of the elements around them: they create effective leadership teams, prioritize and sequence their initiatives carefully, redesign organisational structures to make good execution easier, and, most importantly, integrate these tactics into one coherent strategy.

“In the Gulf region, we're increasingly seeing companies and public sector organizations that are making dramatic changes to modernize. Leaders recognise that it is not sufficient to issue a decree for change: they are designing their organisations, building management teams and embarking on strategic initiatives to manage change," said Abouchakra.

“Our experience in the GCC with both private and public sector clients reiterates that unless changes - such as new information technology systems or a new organizational structure - are explicitly aligned with the purpose and strategy of an organization, they can delay and even undermine strategic direction," said Abouchakra.

“Likewise, we have seen enthusiastic organizations that have taken on too many initiatives at once, resulting in failed programs and change fatigue,”  he said.

 “We’ve learned this at Booz Allen through our own work on building organisational capabilities for change, and in particular through the
body of practice known as organisational DNA.

“By changing the reporting relationships and structures, the networks through which people exchange information, the motivators and incentives, and the decision rights in an organization, organizations can shift their capabilities and motivate people to act in sync with the organization’s purpose.”

“Every organization is different, so diagnosing the situation and culture is critical,” said Abouchakra.

“The process will involve the most talented and committed senior executives, and may take several months until everyone is comfortable with the company’s purpose and the right set of initiatives to pursue. Extra time and care in bringing people to a common understanding at the beginning, means far less time lost in false starts and cutbacks later,”  he added. – TradeArabia News Service