Defining Capability Leadership

by Elias Moses

With relentless march of technology driven by innovation, mobility and inter-connectedness,   the current workforce of the 21 century has moved on  in its achievement streak with the speed of light.

On the other hand,  Leadership, which had always been upbeat and upfront, leading and responding to the need of time, has to a large extent failed to be a guiding and nurturing force to this world of our times.

We see it very much from the way, companies/ individuals garner talent (towards leadership positions/projects), from the choice we make on leadership models from past-best practises and the way we exercise our leadership skills and behaviour.

The end result is loud and clear. 

Leadership has embraced the lag of the past.  Past-best practises have failed to lead the way. They are easily identifiable from our fractured societal and business structures. Much more,  They are  vivid in the way the present leadership is exercising its skill and behaviour,  in the way they run the organizations, nations and economy on the large scale.

Leadership skill and behaviour

John Kotter, the noted Harvard Business Professor and author on ‘leading change’, had earlier noted that the basic ingredient for effective leadership stems from skill and behaviour. Skills and behaviour vehemently reflect leadership capabilities of a person. The question that baffles many is “ are our corporate and political leaders really equipped to breed a leadership of change in 21 century?”. Kotter maintained that there is a huge gap that exists between skill/behaviour and capability.  That is an irony. 

Even with passing on off two decades of the 21^st century,  we are yet to come to terms to building  a right leadership model that is apt in order to navigate and mitigate challenges of our times.

The fact is that today’s leadership to a large extent has neither developed an individual capability nor an organizational capability to respond to the dire need of the market and the world.  The underlying fact is this, we have not built the right and lasting  leadership model to deal with a more diverse, fast-changing global environment or work environment, and the world scenario at large.

In another decade or two, the Z generation will rule the roaster, Thus  an invention or intervention of  a new form of leadership model has to be in place that must have the capacity to cope, hold, lead the signs of the times, while at the same time enable  the leaders make quick decisions that are holistic yet pragmatic, by quickly adapting to innovation and technology personally and organisationally.  

Capability Leadership Model – the Need of Time

It is important for us to go beyond the understanding of leadership mystique (as expressed by William Weitzel, from his book Leadership – magic, Myth or Method) and existing past-best practised models, to evolve for our times a model that must enhance economic growth and engine, while at the same time, serve the world at large. As I had often stated, for a leadership model to stay put, it must stay good for a period of 3 decades at the least.  

Capability Leadership Model has the ability stay the course, cope with adversity and lead into future  personally and organisationally. 

While most of the leadership models touch a certain segment of a person or function such as performance, competency and growth, CLP touches every sphere of the individual and organisation as a whole under one umbrella called ‘capability’. What distinguishes this model is has the ability to evolve with times, and at the same time, respond to the times, as it makes change as a changeless reality.

Defining Capability  and capability leadership model

Wikipedia says that capability is – “an ability to perform or achieve a certain action or outcome”. Oxford Learner’s Dictionary “the ability or quality necessary to do something”

If we note, there is one thing that is common in both formats, the word ‘ABILITY’. In simple terms, it is ability of a person to bring about an outcome

Let us define capability for our times today. It is “an ounce within a person that drives one to manifest what one is to wholly become.”   We have taken the meaning of the word in its core. Capability is that seed or  spark in you that does not allow you to sleep till you become what you are designed become.

Capability leadership is a model that firmly helps you to discover the person of you as a leader in time and align your person with what you should become constantly evolving and becoming, as the universe is.

One should never co-relate leadership capability with Capability Leadership Model. Evolving is the thumb rule of the model. This evolving is a constant process. capability is this sense is not univocal but multidimensional yet all compassing.  

M.E. Moses is a Senior Business Strategist, Consultant, Researcher, Corporate and Leadership Trainer, Orator, Columnist and an Entrepreneur. He is also the Founder and Managing Director of  a growing reality firm in south India. He is also the founder of Managing Next, an Online portal for knowledge share and Management Consulting. 

The author can be contacted@ 

email: elias@managingnext.in,  linkedin:  www.linkedin.com/in/eliasmoses