Title:
The Future of Work and Leadership Interview with Dr Caroline Burns
Presenters:
Dr Caroline Burns, Founder and Managing Director, Workplace Revolution
Kilani Daane, Executive Coach, Level V Partners
Marcel Daane, CEO and Principal Management Consultant, Level V Partners
Event:
Level V Partners Livestream
Date:
27 September 2023
About this interview:
Join us together with Dr. Caroline Burns in a very stimulating discussion about the future of work and leadership, and what will be needed from leaders in this ever-changing landscape. In particular we discuss:
- The shift we have seen in leadership styles post-COVID where leaders are taking on a more authoritative role rather than an encouraging role;
- How this shift in leadership styles has affected employees;
- What might be a more effective ideal leadership style in this post-pandemic world where many are facing new employee expectations, uncertainty with evolution, and news of layoffs;
- What steps leaders can take today to start moving towards this ideal leadership style; and
- Why it is important that leaders take the steps to learn to lead in a more encouraging rather than directive way.
Key takeaways
The fear of being ‘wrong’
I conclude the future of work and leadership interview by noting that although ‘return to office’ mandates are disappointing, I don’t underestimate how tough leadership is in the present era, and this behaviour is in many ways a rational if undesirable response to the environment. Uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity are enormous challenges for leaders, there is a high risk of unintended consequences, and the aversion to uncertainty and ambiguity is particularly evident in Asia where corporate cultures tend to be more hierarchical and paternalistic, more conservative and more risk averse
So leaders have a genuine fear of being wrong.
I feel this fear is what’s driving poor or reversed decisions (such as return to office mandates) and “follow the leader” decisions, and it seems more so in Asia where many leaders don’t want to be first, and certainly don’t want to be perceived wrong.
But what is wrong with wrong anyway?
Wrong is just a perspective and a label if we mean what we say about failing fast, experimenting and course-correcting being critical capabilities in a VUCA world.
But what we say is good for organisations unfortunately isn’t what tends to be expected of leaders, getting it wrong is a recipe for being shown the door, and that puts leaders in a very uncomfortable position.
Future of work and leader capabilities
The future of work demands higher level capabilities from people – critical thinking, problem solving, team work and greater degrees of self-management and responsibility. These capabilities need a culture of trust and mutual respect to thrive – a culture that is completely undermined and revealed as hypocritical when leaders demand presenteeism rather than setting expectations for performance and letting smart, capable people decide how best to achieve that within their teams
Leaders can take steps today to start moving towards a more ideal leadership style in the emerging environment by firstly acknowledging that old ways of leading are unlikely to be sustainable in our highly complex environment and that you might need help unlearning unhelpful mindsets and habits – which is really hard.
That being said, if you aspire to be or are a leader today, you have a responsibility to lead by example and demonstrate the behaviours you expect from your people:
- Take responsibility for your actions
- Balance your personal desires, anxieties and expectations with those of your team and the wider organisation
- Communicate openly, proactively and explicitly about your expectations – avoid ambiguity and obfuscation – people are not stupid and will know when you are avoiding being honest about motivations and drivers
- Be open to other perspectives and to negotiation within parameters/guardrails – if you acknowledge there isn’t a single “right way” then its much harder to be “wrong”
Secondly, as a leader you should help your people managers help their teams – customised coaching and training in managing hybrid/distributed teams is important in creating consistency across the organisation. We ask (and assume) a lot from our overburdened, overstressed people managers and their relationships with their teams, and yet we know that managers are one of the key reasons people leave – or join – organisations.
Invest in your own development and that of your managers as part of your future of work strategy – its not wrong to be wrong sometimes, but failure to recognise and act when change is needed (internally or externally) is a failure of good leadership in todays post-covid VUCA environment.
This interview was published by Level V Partners and originally posted here.
