The challenge exists to sort through the different types of leaders who will be required by companies in the future. Companies need to identify mind-sets and capabilities, career-development experiences and anticipated leadership development and contributions which will be valued in the future. The following represents some of the shifts in leadership thinking and the new expectations for companies in the future. These shifts have an impact on developing leaders and shaping their roles as future contributors.

Leadershipexpectations

Business leader
Main Focus: To create a supportive environment and work culture for empowerment and to establish vision, live core values and set direction and broad goals for the company.

Past experience: Broad-based and integrative; reflecting knowledge from several functional areas of the company as well as the industry in general. Exposures to technology, markets, business and different cultures. Effectiveness in leading/ inspiring people and business results.

Mind-set and capabilities: Entrepreneurial mind-set--global thinking; customer- and commitment-driven; results focussed; leader/collaborator and follower; flexibility; synthesiser, simplifier, communicator; mentor, innovator, energiser, revitaliser; strategic opportunist; flexible, adaptable, embracer of differences; curious; on-going learner for leveraging industry, market and lifestyle trends to company advantage.

Training, development and contribution: Multi-skill development with progressivetechnical development in step with major career focus, e.g., marketing, finance, law, information systems, organisation development/human resources. Early career-training points include orientation and integration experiences to stimulate functional excellence and then a leveraging of company capabilities. Mid-career assignments and development are broadening and rely less on technical knowledge and more on strengthening entrepreneurial, cross-cultural and business savvy. Later career development is centred on leveraging all knowledge and experience to optimise company capability. This may include contributions to totally unfamiliar functions or businesses depending on the strength of the individual leader to inspire others to translate principles of generalship into useful applications for their part of the industry.

Team leader
Main focus: To deploy the leadership initiative and nurture self-directed leadership among team members; create action plans in sync with company and businessgoals.

Past experience: Functional and/or technical responsibilities with demonstrated effectiveness, interpersonal communication and relationship skills.

Mind-set and capabilities: Connector, promoter, developer; customer- and commitment-driven; action-focussed; environmental scanner, synthesiser and improver; facilitator, coach, influencer, resource; stimulator, simplifier, integrator, expeditor; leader/follower and collaborator; flexibility; leverager and harmoniser of differences; communicator, translator, mediator; enabler, enforcer, applauder.

Training, development and contribution: Early career and training experiences may be of a technical and/or functional nature or based on team management and development skills. Early training also may be focused on psychology and human development centred on motivation, productivity and fulfilment at work and in the adult life cycle. Mid-career developmental steps needed to broaden the individual to include expanded knowledge about theindustry, company and competitor operations and n area of specific expertise. Product and process-development knowledge is key in responding competitively to market trends. Rapid assimilation of new techniques and improvement methods is an advantage in developing others to do the same. Later career assignments can benefit from progressive responsibility in the management of teams and processes with focused business results.

Individual leader
Main focus: To leverage abilities to meet individual and team goals, to achieve business results (established in individual and team action plans that link to company goals) and to become effective in self-directed leadership that propels the team and the company forward through new ideas and processes.

Past experience: Technical and/or functional assignments as individual contributor on other teams and/or as a team leader who now is a member on another team. Proficiency in team-member and self-directed leadership skills maturing in step withincreased opportunity and exposures.Mind-set and capabilities: Contributor,discoverer; customer and commitment driven; follower/leader and collaborator flexibility; processor, synthesiser, leverager/optimiser, improver; resourcer, synthesiser, communicator; implementer, initiator, integrator.

Training, development and contribution: Early training aligns with areas of specific technical and/or functional expertise with a focus on accelerated performance in high commitment, self-directed leadership environments. Midcareer assignments and development include more depth in an area of specialty and increased opportunities to work in teams with increasingly difficult performance expectations in more complex team work assignments. Cross-cultural and cross-divisional experiences are highly valued in readying individuals to perform well as members of global teams.

Some individual leaders are naturals for evolving both early in their careers and at mid- or later points. Some individual leaders opt to remainfocused in areas of specialty (medical or very technical fields for instance) and become "expert" individual leaders in their career progression. Later career experiences take advantage of team-member and team-leader behaviour in ever more challenging settings, including mentoring the development of other individual leaders and/ or team leaders.

Redefining the practice of leadership

The key challenge companies face in empowering their workforce is to redefine the practice of leadership. The beginning contrast in this book between manage... management as doing things right and leadership as doing the right things. The premise of self-directed leadership is that people throughout the organisation should be trained, developed, coached, mentored, recognised and rewarded along the way for initiating and contributing in unique ways to the business success of the company.

Here is one way to frame leadership as is intended in high commitment, self-directed leadership environments: Leadership is presentin all employees and positions throughout the company. The authority to act accompanies the scope of work and responsibility that individuals have in their daily work. Each individual understands his or her link and contribution to the "big picture." Yet, the vision, goals, core values and work environment is clear and empowered enough to bring focus and reality to action plans and the attainment of business results.

Leadership is both self-motivated and company-empowered where individuals are expected to contribute their ideas for improving performance throughout the company in such areas as: