Living as a Leader. in a Borderless World

Living as a Leader in a Borderless World 50 Contract Management | August 2009 For a "borderless leader," the goal is to not only be a leader, ...
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Living

as

a

Leader

in a Borderless World

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Contract Management | August 2009

For a "borderless leader," the goal is to not only be a leader, but to live as a leader, which will help you to influence and lead teams, organizations, communities, and careers to success.

BY Cameo Ritterbush

Contract Management | August 2009

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Living as a Leader in a Borderless World

On October 16, 2007, Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, the director for the General Council of Scientific & Industrial Research for the Indian government, opened the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Ceremonies with a profound statement, “A borderless mind and borderless thinking alone can lead to a borderless world.”1 Unfortunately, while Dr. Mashelkar’s idealism is shared by many, it has not come to fruition in today’s global market. In fact, quite the opposite has occurred— the globalization of business has created a borderless world without borderless minds to captain the ship that will lead the next generation of Fortune 500 businesses to success.

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It’s not surprising that today’s leaders lack the agile skills required to navigate a changing market. Years of habitual segregation and compartmentalization of work, home, programs, departments, and lines of business have created generations of linear thinkers eager to file and box life into neat packages. Despite this inherent leadership trend, a borderless world continues to expand, and globalization has become a part of everyday life. Business strategist and author of The Borderless World, Kenichi Ohmae, perhaps put it best when he wrote: Globalization is a fact. You can’t stop it; it has already happened; it is here to stay. And we are moving into a new global stage. A radically new world is taking shape from the ashes of yesterday’s nation-based economic world. To succeed, you must act on the global stage, leveraging radically new drivers of economic power and growth.2

Luckily, the concept of “borderless leadership” a provides beacon of hope. Borderless leadership is an effective principle that recruits the power of observation to generate a big picture philosophy from which to influence and lead teams, organizations, communities, and careers to success. The idea is to remove all walls, boundaries, and borders from the mind, and, as a result, create a “borderless mindset.” This type of leadership encourages everyone involved in the global community to observe, think, and live without parameters or boxes; to remove all segregation and compartmentalization from the work and the home. Once one has un-filed his or her life and unpacked the boxes, he or she can begin to not only be a leader but live as a leader.

Borderless Minds: The Human Element The English language is as diverse and complicated as those who speak it. Often an individual word can have multiple meanings and definitions based on the context from which it derived. Therefore, it is important to read the sentence fully to completely grasp the intricacy and meaning of an

individual word. Humans have a similar characteristic—humans are the words and the context is the surrounding environment. In essence, the leader must employ a borderless mindset in which he or she evaluates the context or environment of a team member to recognize the individual’s dynamic contribution to the team. As a result, the human element question of a borderless leader should be, “what is the context of each group member’s contribution?” For instance, a highly organized and communicative group member could be viewed as a micromanager or a group facilitator depending on the dynamic of the group. In addition, an employee’s adversity to travel could have a negative or positive impact on the team. If the trait is a simple byproduct of personal restrictions due to continued education requirements, the benefits received from further training could outweigh the negative impact of not traveling. An individual’s environment or context includes everything from the organizational culture, business department, the project team, and even the employee’s personal life. However, when implementing the borderless state-of-mind, it is important to recognize the difference between being educated and getting involved. The successful employment of borderless leadership is to observe and gather the necessary information to make the right decision based on the big picture. As Marcio Moreira, vice chairman of McCann WorldGroup, stated in a 2005 presentation, “Truth be told, the world has seen profound change, but most of us have barely scratched the surface of that change.”3 Moreira continues by saying, “Our ground level view is, by definition, immediate, incomplete, unfocused. Blurred. It takes time and perspective to develop a sharper, clearer picture.” By removing the borders from your mind, you can begin to get a clearer picture of the team and its members over time.

Borderless Thinking: Innovative Ideas This new philosophy has initiated what many scholars and business leaders refer

Living as a Leader in a Borderless World

to as “borderless science,” a field in which academics and professionals focus on the effects of globalization on the way we do business. According to Dr. Mashelkar,

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Update employees on events that may affect them;

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Listen to understand, rather than to evaluate; and

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Encourage team members to share information with others.

Today, more than ever before, we not only need “borderless science” but also need “borderless thinking” for problem solving. Yet we find that we work and think in isolation. It is only in an environment which fosters innovation that borderless minds can be formed and borderless thinking can flourish.4

Dr. Mashelkar’s statement raises two questions: 1) how does one create an environment that fosters innovation, and 2) what role does borderless thinking play in generating innovation? A borderless leader can cultivate an inventive atmosphere by encouraging open communication, allowing all team members to provide input, as well as taking an active role in the business process, regardless of authority or job title, without fear of ridicule or retaliation. At a basic level, the leader needs to take steps to remove both the institutional and perceived borders surrounding the team members and to create an environment that ensures employee input will be heard. By doing so, a leader will promote the type of behavior and attitudes that foster borderless thinking. According to a 2003 article developed by the HRDQ Research and Development Team, “Team members must keep talking with each other despite hectic schedules, scarce resources, and conflicting priorities. In fact, effective communication is the key to keeping a team productive and operating efficiently.”5 The HRDQ Research and Development Team offers the following suggestions for fostering better open communication within your team: ƒƒ

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Ask questions to solicit employee or team member opinions; Rely on regular team meetings to provide team members with useful information;

The key factor when applying the borderless thinking mindset is to establish trust within the group. One effective approach involves the leader presenting his or her ideas and thoughts openly with the goal of persuading other team members to do the same. By providing his or her own opinions, and listening openly to feedback from others, the leader can reinforce the confidence he or she has in the group, thereby empowering the assembly to reciprocate that trust. The creation of an open environment, which allows cross communication among all team members (whether across a department or entire organization), can result in groundbreaking ideas due to the exchange of diverse ideas. For instance, in my company I was recently able to significantly increase revenue and product profitability while decreasing the overall unit price through the implementation of an innovative borderless idea. The idea was shaped from an open exchange between multiple department function leads, which resulted in a new approach to an existing production program. The change required the coordination and combination of multiple customer contract awards for the same production line. Through the careful combination and coordination of contract awards, I was able to decrease the overall cost to both the customer and the company by utilizing economies of scale and eliminating other requirements affecting price and schedule. As a result, I could offer multiple customers a noteworthy price reduction. Similar borderless and innovative ideas are in practice successfully at a number of Global 500 companies. The following companies are just a small sample of the success within the industry:

Contract Management | August 2009

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Living as a Leader in a Borderless World

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General Electric,

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Boeing,

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IBM, and

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CISCO.6

In his 1994 article entitled, “Productivity: Lessons from General Electric,” author Jack Welch states, “Borderless behavior in our company lets a medical business based in Milwaukee…to empower a Swedish manager in Asia…to use a Japanese associate…to make diagnostic equipment with components sourced from India and China… for sale in Europe.”7 None of these innovative borderless ideas would be possible today without the encouragement of open

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communication and the utilization of key borderless factors.

Borderless World: Creating Personal and Professional Synergy As Mr. Loh Khum Yean, CE of SPRING Singapore, affirmed: “Borderless collaboration creates synergy. It opens up new opportunities. It creates a positive working relationship and facilitates smooth resolutions whenever issues arise.”8 As previously touched on in this article, years of habitual segregation and compartmentalization of work and home have created a generation of linear thinkers eager to file and box their lives into neat packages. The old slogan, “keep work and home separate” is no longer

a viable option in today’s borderless world. As such, the borderless leader needs to create a synergy between personal and professional livelihood. For instance, the skills acquired at work are applicable to home, and the skills acquired at home are applicable to work. Conflict resolution can be applied to all problemsolving scenarios, regardless of whom the conflict is with (be it between coworkers, friends, or family members). In addition, the borderless leader’s application of leadership qualities throughout life allows him or her to continuously develop decision-making skills in various situations. The diverse and constant learning hones the borderless leader’s skills beyond the

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Living as a Leader in a Borderless World

cubicle or office, often allowing the leader to draft creative, win-win solutions to problems. According to FranklinCovey’s 2005 seminar, The Seven Habits for Managers, “Synergistic managers are always seeking alternatives that are better than anything anyone has come up with before.”9 Perhaps, the goal is to not only be a leader, but to live as a leader.

and career through the turbulent waters of global markets to success. Once again, as Dr. Mashelkar opined, “A borderless mind and borderless thinking alone can lead to a borderless world,” and this will ultimately lead to the creation of endless opportunities. CM

Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, “Building Borderless Minds and Borderless Thinking,” Mahatma Gandhi Memorial oration, New Delhi, India (October 16, 2001).

2.

Kenichi Ohmae, The Borderless World: Power and Strategy in the Interlinked Economy—Management Lessons in the New Logic of the Global Economy (Hong Kong: Collins Business, 1999).

3.

Marcio M. Moreira, “The Borderless Brand,” presentation, Advertising Educational Foundation (2005).

the Contract Management Leadership Devel-

4.

Mashelkar, supra note 1.

opment Program. She is currently a contract

5.

HRDQ Research and Development Team, “Project Leadership Skills,” Organization Design and Development, Inc. (2003).

6.

Courtesy of the University of New Hampshire Masters of Technology (UNH MOT) cohort#1, BAE Systems Employees: Leadership & Team Management, Course #MOT936; Professor Tuck Pescosolido.

7.

Jack Welch, “Productivity: Lessons from General Electric,” Boardroom Reports (November 15, 1994): 8.

8.

As quoted in “Borderless MTI, Limitless Opportunities.” Challenge editorial team, Singapore PS21 Office, Prime Minister’s Office, Public Service Division, (2006), accessed at www.ps21. gov.sg/Challenge/2006_06/ministries/ministries.html.

9.

The 7 Habits for Managers: Managing Yourself, Leading Others, Unleashing Potential (United States: FranklinCovey, 2005).

About the Author

Conclusion: Tearing Down the Walls In 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood before the Berlin Wall and addressed a challenge to the general secretary of the Soviet Union: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Although the phrase was literally applied to the Berlin Wall separating West Berlin from the German Democratic Republic, the phrase can also be metaphorically applied to the walls professionals around the world have created in their own lives. Tear down the walls. Stop limiting your abilities as a leader to the immediate, incomplete, unfocused, and blurred picture. Develop a clear perspective of team members, allow open communication and innovative ideas, and create a personal and professional synergy. Only then can you take the helm of the ship and guide your community, organization,

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Contract Management | August 2009

Endnotes 1.

CAMEO RITTERBUSH is a recent graduate of

administrator for the Electronic Solutions Line of Business for BAE Systems. She is also a board member of the Lone Star Chapter of NCMA in Austin, Texas, and is an advocate for the student outreach program at the University of Texas-Austin

Send comments about this article to [email protected].

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