Co-authored by Tilman Rock, PhD, Vice-President & Head Global Biologics Drug Product Quality, Roche Diagnostics GmbH

The uncertainties, ambiguities and expectations confronting modern managers at global companies are intense and unrelenting. Executives must make critical decisions rapidly, fairly, correctly and consistently. Shareholders, board members and other superiors demand ever-increasing profits, reduced costs and growing market share. Mistakes and errors in judgement almost immediately translate into reduced revenue and higher costs, and the consequences of a wrong decision at the wrong time cost managers their reputations, and sometimes their jobs.

The essential question confronting modern executives is: how do we lead in this dynamic, rapidly-changing business world? How does management get recognized for making the right decisions at the right moments in a complex and volatile environment?

The pace of action in the executive suite is around-the-clock, seven-days a week. Managers receive hundreds of e-mails a day, and are expected to inspire, coordinate and lead staff members in various locations around the globe, operating in radically different cultural settings and across several time zones. Ever-changing modern technology, such as Smartphones, videoconferencing, telepresence, etc., contributes to the immense challenges facing todays leaders time and physical borders have vanished due to the instantaneous global reach of this technology.

Long gone are the days of silo thinking, where a leader could build up a fiefdom isolated from other parts of the organization. Gone, too, is the 9-to-5 manager who would find a pile of papers in his in-box Monday morning and go home on Friday with the pile now neatly lying in the out-box. Moreover, leadership is no longer the exclusive domain of hierarchically-oriented, silver-haired white males who have ensconced themselves into comfortable niches and owe their position because they stood longest in the succession line. Nor is it the realm of the most experienced subject matter expert who in the past was promoted by pedigree and not by his interpersonal or leadership skills.

The new global manager works in organizations that are increasingly matrix: grid-like structures in which managers and staff report to two or more colleagues across the organization. Teams are often virtual. Managers have to be flexible, agile, superb communicators and be capable of handling and re-thinking their departmental microbiomes in order to quickly adapt to rapidly changing market conditions and customer demands.

Dynamic market forces are driving the need for new global managers. These next generation leaders embrace Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) policies, because they make good business sense, providing a real competitive advantage through increased staff engagement, less groupthink and enhanced creativity. A plethora of studies show how diverse teams and organizations out-perform all others -- when well-led. This means old school managers, however successful they were in the past, cannot simply direct HR to implement D&I policies, and then sit back in their plush armchairs to magically await stellar results.

The new global leader must ask her/himself: how can I turn D&I into a competitive advantage? How can I leverage this to positively impact and develop business? How can I help promote and drive this?

D&I means managers have to actively build, promote and lead from the front. Leaders must ensure that management and operational teams are made up of both genders, are multi-cultural, include weirdo disruptive thinkers, embrace all age groups, and welcome the physically challenged. Crucially, modern teams must include those with unique skill-sets and refreshing attitudes. D&I means embracing and implementing new perspectives and ideas, ranging from the oldest member to the outer reaches of Artificial Intelligence.

The new global leader also recognizes and accepts that the Millennial Generation consists of many gifted multi-taskers and superior communicators. Millennials revel in state-of-the-art technologies in IT, Mobile Apps and the latest communicative devices. The new global leader actively harnesses this tech-savvy know-how to stay at the forefront of new trends and market demands, and to drive results. The new global leader gives smart people smart choices.

The new global leader is receptive to the rich palette of skills, strategies, wisdom and experience presented by D&I in all of its forms. This international manager is participative, empowering and collaborative, and not content to merely command others to do the companys bidding. This managers office is an open, welcoming, sun-lit space, where the exchange of information and ideas is nourished and encouraged. Face-to-face meetings are essential, meaning that the manager spends a lot of time traveling from location to location, meeting and listening to -- his/her people personally. F2F meetings cannot be underestimated for their capacity to generate bright sparks of innovation, creativity and vigorous discussions as well as cementing relationships and clarifying misunderstandings.

The business world has radically changed. The old ways are unreturning. Realizing and embracing this, new global leaders lead through purity of intent, not just via purpose. Having intent means that new initiatives will be vigorously implemented, and never left to wither away on the desktop. Having purpose means having dreams. Leading through intent means turning practical visions into reality.