Leadership Style Leading Change Team Success

21st Century Leadership

Gail McGovern

10.21.21

More leaders are bringing their authentic selves to work. This sea change is monumental, but what does it mean for profits? Gail's breakdown of shareholder responsibility and global leadership is modern and enlightened.

Summary:

More leaders are bringing their authentic selves to work. This sea change is monumental, but what does it mean for profits? Gail’s breakdown of shareholder responsibility and global leadership is modern and enlightened.

Thuy

How would you say leadership is changing as we move into the future?
Gail_McGovern

Gail McGovern

So I am seeing more leaders bring their authentic self to work. I mean, I feel like I've always done that because I don't want to be two people, but I'm watching more and more leaders do that comfortably. I was taught in business school that a CEO's responsibility is to make profit. And there are tools that will help you, like making sure your customers are satisfied, making sure your employees are happy, but at the end of the day, your biggest role is to do the bidding of your owners, who are your shareholders. And that always made sense to me. But in this day and age, leaders, CEOs, have a much bigger responsibility than just profits. They are members of a community. They have to make sure that vulnerable communities are taken care of. They have to make sure that they have a diverse workforce. The gen Z’ers and the Millennials, they don't want to work in a company that doesn't have a good eco-friendly plan and what they're going to do with the carbon footprint. It's a different world and I applaud it. It's a much better world because we're caring about the environment, we're caring about the community, we're caring about our employees in a profound way.