Leadership navigation for a new era: From comfort zone to competitive power (Ledelses GPS)

Abstract:

The purpose of the project is to prepare the leaders of SMEs for handling the complex internal and external demands that are put on them today. On the basis of innovative courses of development in 10 companies, where the leaders in an interplay with external consultants, and where researchers uncover both strategic leadership challenges and solutions (i.e. good leadership praxis), a leadership navigation system (a ‘leadership GPS’) is produced with a wide range of leadership tools that can be applied in other companies as well. The catalogue of leadership tools is disseminated – along with an easily accessible, practitioner friendly overview of the central, current leadership research within the field – to the business community in general, through means such as a practitioner guide, articles, blogs, a debate book, and the benefit of a network and social media.Since the project primarily focuses on leaders in SMEs with identified growth potential, it should function as a ‘stepping stone’ for other enterprises that want to prevent or remove internal barriers for a future organizational and commercial breakthrough. The method for sampling the companies attempts to choose a representative sample and show great width regarding fields, markets, geographic location, technologies, employee profiles, etc. It is crucial to include a wide range of companies, vis-à-vis the leadership challenges uncovered in the scientific literature, or through the preliminary, explorative company interviews. The companies can typically be found within the membership circles of NOCA or the Confederation of Danish Industry.