Leaders have faced an immense challenge over the last 2 years and are feeling the weight of not only looking after their own well-being but also caring for the well-being of others. The burden of compassion fatigue and collaborative overload are real issues, so if you are feeling this, you are not alone. According to a recent McKinsey survey, 54% of managers feel overworked, with women suffering burnout more often than men at all levels of an organisation.
The pandemic has accelerated changes that may have happened gradually into the space of months. Leaders are being asked to achieve more in less time and often with fewer resources.
Historic models of leadership all offer elements that are useful today, but they’re not enough to deal with increasing levels of complexity and uncertainty.
So what do you need to thrive and help your teams do the same? Leadership today is about adaptability, embracing uncertainty and complexity and letting go of control to empower others with trust and accountability.
Leadership is a learnable process that is not only focused on behaviours but also mindset.
There are 5 core principles for effective leadership today that challenge more historic ways of leading:
- From top-down decision making to increasing the ‘decision latitude’ of teams (i.e. control over decisions that impact ways of working) with trust and accountability.
- From needing to have all the answers to coaching your team to feel empowered, come up with better solutions and see them through.
- From a deficit, addressing weaknesses approach to a strengths based, inspiring positive possibilities and accountability approach.
- From feedback that focuses on the past to a ‘feedforward approach’ that turns constructive insight and praise into positive reinforcement for the future.
- From a fixed mindset to one that embraces uncertainty and adaptability with new rituals to develop a learning culture of growth.
To learn more about our executive leadership coaching programmes or how to empower the next generation of leaders to thrive, click on the links or book a call with us now.
