Of course, numerous impulses, opinions and approaches can be found on LinkedIn & Co, especially on real and supposed zeitgeist leadership behaviour. Particularly the value dimension (inclusion, diversity, sustainability) and the postulation of turning away from established work structures (new work) are the subject of lively commentary. What we miss, however, is a deeper consideration of what all these developments and changes mean for theoretical and practical leadership in the future and what leaders really need to do to lead in these turbulent times.
There is a lot of discussion about what needs to change from the status quo, mostly directly postulating the strategic imperative “this is much better for everyone”, while little or no attention is paid to “how” (i.e., “how modern leaders do it” and, above all, how they “lead” problems, contradictions and inefficiencies that come with the new developments).
Anyone who has ever had responsibility for employees or has been led themselves has a picture of what good leadership is and how important this as well as good self-management are. Despite the many different definitions of leadership, it can be understood in the broadest sense as a way of exerting influence on employees towards a higher goal by providing vision and direction. In our context, leaders are usually company´s decision-makers or division managers. Their goal is to secure the long-term existence of the organisation and, often in conjunction with this, the economic growth of the company. Leadership is therefore something quite commonplace. However, although it is something that is taken for granted, in our current experience it is not considered strategically enough!
Leadership was one of the hot topics in the 1990s and 2000s. But is it still a hot topic today? The current picture we see is different. In most companies the management is busy finding solutions for digitalisation, overcoming crises and is reacting to current events. While doing all that, the topic of leadership is being pushed more and more into the background. Especially in times of change, leadership is crucial, and it is even more important not only to adapt the organisational structure and processes to new circumstances, but also to support managers in dealing with the resulting challenges. Everyone must learn – especially leaders. This requires clear company procedures and targeted measures that go hand in hand with the overall strategy of the company.
What we often experience is, that when there are measures for leadership development, they usually consist of individual programmes which are not linked together. An overarching strategy is missing, and the link between top management goals and operational implementation is often ignored. The following is particularly serious: While topics such as New Work and digitalisation are celebrated daily with buzzwords, there is often a lack of concrete leadership skills and initiatives on how to act as a leader of the future in everyday life.
Let’s take the topic of New Work. It is undisputed that a more flexible and self-determined working world offers many benefits (e.g., including greater employee satisfaction, better integration of diverse life models and thus access to more employees, in some cases higher creativity and efficiency).
At the same time, a variety of problems arise. Not every employee uses the liberties adequately (free-rider behaviour), creativity and team-building processes are (partly) more difficult digitally. Extroverted employees lack the cooperation with people face-to-face. Managers have difficulties conveying emotions and motivation digitally to the same extent as they were used to do physically before. The same applies to picking up on moods and opinions in virtual meetings. While this is often less of a problem in young start-ups, leaders in established companies are often insecure and overwhelmed, while at the same time tools, training, and strategies lag behind or are not offered at all.
The environment is changing – so leadership concepts need to reflect this as well
What we see as one of the major issues: While there are numerous attractive self and personal development options in general leadership training (e.g., at universities/MBAs), what we miss in the current leadership discussions is the discourse about content and facilitation of learning contemporary leadership topics methodically and consistently to deal with the currently most burning issues at top management level. This exchange is crucial, especially in the VUCA world. The abbreviation VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. It describes the characteristics of the modern world of work and thus also the core framework conditions in which managers must make decisions. In view of today’s major leadership challenges, such as digitalisation, dealing with disruptive business models, internal and external changes, new working models and purpose issues (e.g., sustainability), there are surprisingly few targeted leadership impulses and lacking exchange opportunities for changing the leadership agenda.
The massively increasing complexity that companies are confronted with, combined with the ever-increasing flexibility expected of employees, requires completely new leadership skills and tools. Tomorrow’s leaders must be willing to step out of their comfort zone and organisations must be open enough to develop and embrace new concepts. The leadership ability to assess risk levels and make decisions based on incomplete or even contradictory information is crucial. Leader must also be able to learn from mistakes and give others the opportunity to do the same. This requires development programmes that consider internal as well as external demands and conditions.
The good news is this: We see that many decision makers have realised that specific actions are needed to bring the developments that were partly installed out of the situation (COVID led to home-office) into a solid structure. This requires the integration of topics such as new work and digital leadership, which have not been reflected in the leadership concepts of the organisations yet. Consequently, the further development of individually adapted leadership programmes in the companies has started slowly. However, to meet the challenges of our time, the development of contemporary leadership concepts in companies as well as new and more specific trainings for leaders to lead in turbulent times is essential.
If you are interested in an informal exchange on these topics, we would appreciate hearing from you.
OhrConsulting, a strategy and management consultancy, helps clients focus on customers across the value chain. In our consulting work, we draw on in-depth strategic and operational expertise, and focus squarely on sales and implementation relevance. Our experiences show that strategies conceived from the customer’s perspective yield the maximum success for our clients. Our ecosystem of experts includes start-ups and innovative agencies in order to offer our clients maximum innovation.