GineersNow Construction magazine Apr2020 Safety HSE, hardware, civil engineers, heavy equipment, machinery, BIM, infrastructure, mining, pipes contractor cement building materials tool EPC, contractors

F E A T U R E
S T O R Y
Does Industry 4.0 need a
different kind of leader?
By Assem Salaam, Gulf Sales Director, Rockwell Automation
There are innumerable ways of being a good leader,
and as many different styles and techniques as there
are leaders – in fact, I’d argue that a good leader is
first and foremost unique. That’s because a good
leader is true to themselves, it is very hard to be good if you
do not believe in yourself and your approach.
A good leader then, will, either knowingly or otherwise, pull
upon several different management styles, but the one that
I’ve been considering closely in recent times is often referred
to as Advocacy Leadership – and I’d also add a twist which
focuses on agency...
I recently read a quote from a resource kit for culturally and
linguistically diverse communities in Australia that gave me
pause for thought:
“Advocates do not have to be leaders, but good leaders should be strong advocates.”
This clever phrase from a document about diversity resonated with me, not only as a leader of a very
diverse region with many different cultures and identities, but also as a very useful observation about
leadership.
To be an advocate is to promote a cause – and a good leader will always be able to motivate their team
with a clear vision for what they are trying to achieve together. In our case at Rockwell Automation,
we are expanding human possibility by connecting the
imaginations of people with the intelligence of machines.
Our teams are working hard with our customers and partners
to help them achieve more productivity, reduced wastage,
improved safety and stronger security. For each and every
one of our customers, this means making a more intelligent
Connected Enterprise, and we have a huge toolkit available to
help them to identify their own vision for the future, and to
help them deliver on their potential.
There’s another side to advocacy too. And that is to be
someone who speaks up for or represents a group of people.
On this side of the coin, a strong leader must be aware of their
role in supporting their team to achieve their goals. It’s at this
point that the agency twist comes into play, because once the
vision is laid out and the support is made available to every
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