The 4 E’s: The CEO Is The Chief Enabling Officer
In a previous article, I introduced the 4 Es Model of Leadership (Engage, Embrace, Excel and Enable) as the leadership principles that would facilitate the highest levels of human performance in the Smart Machine Age (SMA). In the SMA, human beings will be needed to do those tasks that technology won’t be able to do well. For knowledge workers, that will be critical, creative and innovative thinking and high emotional engagement with other humans. Those skills do not come easily or naturally to us and generally require that we be in the right kind of work environment, specifically one that is people-centric and values humility; empathy; trust; candor; permission to speak freely; permission to fail within defined financial risk parameters; psychological safety; the devaluation of ego, hierarchy and elitism; and the mitigation of fear.
