Jun 29, 2020
The Dawn of a New Era of Leadership
(Part 3 of The WFH Report)
The vast majority of participants and particularly those who had worked from home less frequently in the past, experienced mood swings throughout the six weeks that the study took place. From sadness, loneliness and isolation to euphoria, camaraderie and inspiration. Quite extreme and contradictory, and changing from day-to-day. On digging a little deeper, we found there were a few things colliding.
- Any crisis is unsettling, but when it’s one impacting everyone and everything, as well as people’s personal financial situations and potentially their health, this has made people feel a level of anxiety never before experienced
- With less physical facetime with leaders and managers, employees are having to become more self-motivated
- High levels of anxiety coupled with working remotely, away from colleagues with no opportunity to socialise with friends and family, creates a pressure cooker of emotions — feeling like you are in a vacuum with no way to release the steam
The pandemic, along with accelerated digital adoption has seen the dawn of a new era of leadership. Research on leadership in the digital age reveals that certain qualities such as deep domain expertise, decisiveness, authority and short-term focus are giving way to softer skills and 4 agile leadership competencies that will outlast C19 — humility, adaptability, purpose, and communication.
Being humble
In times of rapid change and uncertainty, knowing what you don’t know is as valuable as knowing what you do. Humility removes the need for leaders to have all the answers. As data continues to grow exponentially, it’s no longer possible to know everything. Humility has come to the forefront for many leaders during C-19.
“It’s time to move from being knowit-alls, to learn-it-alls,” remarks who describes the importance of humility in learning. Since his promotion in 2014, Nadella has been credited with defusing the highly combative, silo-orientated organisation of his predecessor by building a culture of listening, communicating, learning and sharing view-points.
Forge an adaptive culture
New working norms are built and reinforced collectively. And while it’s not clear what the world will look like, accepting that change is the only constant helps individuals to adapt as new information arises. Having a “fail often to succeed faster” mantra encouraged by Tom Kelley of IDEO and others, is helpful to keep in mind.
Create purpose
Having a clear sense of long-term direction, even in the face of short-term uncertainty, can compensate for many minor short-term changes in direction. Being visionary in the workplace means setting long-term and competitive goals that inform short-term adjustments.
Continuous engagement
Agile leaders need to stay engaged, but they also need to find ways to keep their teams engaged, particularly when the going gets tough and the path becomes challenging. It involves a willingness to listen, interact and communicate with a strong sense of curiosity
Jenny Burns is an Executive Partner at Fluxx. We help companies like Condé Nast,Thames Water, HSBC, and Addison Lee Group, bring big ideas to life. Check out Fluxx Studio Notes for more stories. Are you interested in learning the secrets for sustained, repeatable innovation models, from expert practitioners? Check out The Innovation Starter Kit. Stay tuned with all that’s Fluxx by following us on LinkedIn or signing up for our WTF Newsletter. Get in touch at Jenny.Burns@Fluxx.uk.com.
