Heinz Landau is a seasoned business leader who has gained valuable working and leadership experience on three different continents.

I recently listened to an interview with Thomas Sattelberger, Member of the Board and responsible for Human Resources (HR) at Deutsche Telekom, a German Dax 30 company. When Sattelberger, one of Germany’s most respected experts and practitioners in the field of HR, was asked about the main HR trend for 2011, he pointed out that HR departments need to start dealing intensively and strategically with the topic “social media”.

When the reporter asked for Sattelberger’s thoughts on the topic of using social media like Facebook or Twitter during working hours in the office in order to communicate with business partners or friends, he stated that there is no easy answer to that and that it needs a differentiated view.

Sattelberger explained that there are three different kind of companies:

a)      Companies with a time clock card culture where the working time of the employees is recorded

b)      Companies where employees are managing their time themselves (no recording as such) and

c)       Companies with some hybrid forms of working time recordings

In modern enterprises, the trend goes towards sovereign, independent working cultures where only the work performance counts. Only what you have contributed to the overall goal matters, however not the place, the time, the methodology and the way how you did it.

In such an environment, the employee becomes like an entrepreneur in an enterprise. The control is no longer coming from the top of the company, but from the employee himself as a kind of self-regulation and self-management. And only the performance delivery of the employee counts.

In such an environment, the employee becomes like an entrepreneur in an enterprise. The control is no longer coming from the top of the company, but from the employee himself as a kind of self-regulation and self-management. And only the performance delivery of the employee counts.

Sattelberger made a strong case for self-leadership. Leading oneself provides a great chance for taking the pursuit of employee effectiveness to the next level. Effectively self-led employees may offer the best blueprint for achieving employee and organizational effectiveness in the 21^st century.

As leaders, it is our task to trust our employees and to give them the chance to lead themselves. This often has a direct positive impact on employee engagement leading ultimately to higher bottom line results.

In his excellent book “Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”, US-business author Daniel Pink makes a strong science-based case for rethinking motivation. In “Drive”, he reveals the three elements of true motivation:

• Autonomy: people’s desire to direct their own lives
• Mastery: the urge to get better and better at something that matters
• Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves

As leaders, we should help our employees to find their purpose and to align it with our company’s purpose. We should provide autonomy to our employees within a certain framework giving them the chance for self-leadership.

As leaders, we must realize that it is one of our main responsibilities to create a supportive and conducive work environment which is a key success factor for any organization. After all, results are achieved through people. So, ask yourself: Are you doing enough to let your people (and thus your business!) flourish?