According to the Gallup “State of the American Workplace,” 2013, only 30% of employees are really committed to their work 50% spend their time at work and doing nothing, the other 20% do non-productive thing According to Gallup estimation, the 20% group costs their company 0.5 trillion USD annually. This is caused by poor leadership

This is caused by poor leadership, the problem comes from the bosses who do not know what they should do to encourage their subordinates to perform better In the “blue ocean strategy”, we seek to create new markets by changing the non-customer to customer. Thus in the blue ocean leadership, we seek to create a new market from potential employees that have not yet been exploited.

Transforms disengaged employees to become engaged, leadership can be likened to service that makes our subordinate ” to buy” or “not to buy”. Every leaders have their customers, a boss that demands performance and subordinates that require the guidance and support. When subordinates appreciate our leadership practice, it means they buy in to our leadership, and vice versa

There are 3 characteristics of blue ocean leadership concept:

First, focuses on the actions and activities of the leader Instead of expecting subordinates change their behavior, leaders are the one who change their actions and activities to improve motivation and business results.

Second, to be close to the market needs, the subordinates were asked to provide input for their leader, what makes the subordinates wait and what can be done to help their leaders.

Third, develop leadership at all levels of management, this is important because the performance of the organization can sometimes come from the motivation and actions of the middle and lower level management.

There are 3 steps to apply of blue ocean leadership:

First, to get an overview of the current state of leadership (“as-is” condition), the point of this step is to get an idea of how leaders at all levels uses their time and energy.

Second, to develop an alternative leadership profile, the point of this step is to determine what actions and activities that should be “eliminated” Which acts and activities that needs to be “reduced” from its current state, which acts and activities that needs to be “raised” from its current state (raise), Which acts and activities that needs to be “created”.

Third, to determine the desired leadership profile, for each management levels, determine the leadership theme and the desired leadership profile With this approach, the leader is not required to change their habits.

They only change the tasks they need to carry out. Moreover, the company does not have to wait for the top leaders to change first in order to implement this. All levels of management can execute its transformation process by themselves

Source: Harvard Business Review May 2014