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member of the team, they must feel that they have the full
faith of the leaders to deliver. It’s a key difference between
being a manager and a leader; a leader will give agency to
the team member to achieve their full potential.
With the agency approach, an able leader needs to have
good personal relationships with their team. They need
to understand people’s strengths and to assign roles and
responsibilities accordingly. In an era of rapid change for
industry, this requires a certain agility.
In advocating Rockwell Automation’s approach to market,
it is important to understand that it has developed in
recent years and is continuing to do so. The traditional
role of the Industrial Automation and Information
Technology vendor is changing very quickly. The change
is being driven by industry needs and technology
development in the era of digitization. The company’s
new alignments and relationships with key partners
such as the new joint venture with Schlumberger or the
recent investment into PTC, along with longer-standing
strategic alliances such as Endress+Hauser, Cisco and Microsoft, mean that we can offer much more than
ever before. They show how Rockwell Automation is keyed in to an integrated digital-physical world of
connectivity that can help realise the most ambitious plans of our customers. In turn, this means we are
part of a conversation with more stakeholders in our clients’ operations and must work more creatively
and collaboratively than ever before.
To do so successfully requires strong advocacy leadership
so that the regional Rockwell Automation team is fully
enabled to help our customers define and achieve their
goals. But we’re not reinventing the wheel here, our
customers still want to improve productivity, reduce
costs and waste, and operate in a safe and secure way. We
need every bit of experience gathered at every level of
our team to leverage the new opportunities and we need
every member of the team to be motivated. This brings us
neatly back to the empowering effect of agency leadership
– given roles suited to us, and the support (advocacy)
and faith from our leaders to deliver (agency), we can all
achieve much more together.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on leadership in
the modern industrial era (industry 4.0/ fourth industrial
revolution). Do you agree with the Advocacy Leadership
style? Do you see the value or have examples of how
promoting agency can achieve results? Has your company identified its Connected Enterprise vision for
the future and assembled the partners it needs to deliver it? Contact me to continue the conversation.
About Rockwell Automation
Rockwell Automation Inc. (NYSE: ROK), is a global leader in industrial automation and digital
transformation. We connect the imaginations of people with the potential of technology to expand
what is humanly possible, making the world more productive and more sustainable. Headquartered in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Rockwell Automation employs approximately 23,000 problem solvers dedicated
to our customers in more than 100 countries. To learn more about how we are bringing The Connected
Enterprise to life across industrial enterprises, visit www.rockwellautomation.com.
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