21 September 2014: Better Finance in The Guardian: Saying goodbye to the old boys' network

"More inclusive leadership can benefit both public and private organisations. So what stands in the way of diversity? A recent survey revealed that more than 40% of women identify themselves with a “collaborative” leadership style.

So are the days of the old boys’ network over? A new push is being seen around the world for more inclusive leadership, characterised by shared goals, common vision and more diverse voices. But we aren’t there yet. How much have companies, organisations and governments moved away from Superman-style leadership, opaque to those not directly in the decision-making loop? That was one of the questions discussed at this year’s Global Economic Symposium in Malaysia, where experts and leaders from both public and private sectors gathered to discuss why inclusive leadership is a good thing and what prevents it from happening.

Tenke Zoltani, founder of sustainable finance organisation Better Finance, has direct experience of how leadership changes when organisations need to generate more than simply financial returns, and instead also look at their social, environmental and cultural impact. “In the social enterprise sector, diversity in thinking is gaining prominence and leading to the acceptance and enabling of disruptive businesses. Ultimately, I equate more inclusive leadership models with a greater appetite for risk, and in the investment as well as philanthropic sectors this means supporting previously overlooked opportunities that have the potential to lead to impact at scale.”

Astrid Tuminez, Microsoft’s regional director of legal and corporate affairs for southeast Asia, said that rising economic prosperity in Asia had a dark side, with complex problems that needed to be addressed through diverse approaches.

Tuminez, not surprisingly, felt that technology is having a big impact on the way today’s leaders manage, but delegates were divided on whether technology is more likely to encourage or discourage more inclusive leadership. For some, the always-on nature of today’s technology is disruptive and not conducive to a work/life balance, but others felt the ability to be work more flexibly was a huge boon and could support different styles of leadership to the old-fashioned idea of being always in the office.

Hans-Paul Bürkner, chair of the Boston Consulting Group, said organisations around the world could benefit from mobilising all possible talent. His own company’s experience, he said, showed that it could sometimes take a while for more diverse teams to engage with one another, but the results were ultimately beneficial for the organization."

 Read the full article, by Jane Dudman, here.