People, purpose and the future of leadership disruption. This was the topic that the Chandler Macleod People Insights team recently presented at the Hargrave Institute’s Innovation 2018 Conference.
People leaders are constantly being challenged and leadership disruption is a constantly evolving term. At the same time, leaders need to be innovative, efficient, profitable, and skilled at managing risks.
We consider some of the key leadership disruption of our era:
- Modern learning is changing and coaching skills are in demand.
- Diversity is everywhere, but difficult to do well and is it having the desired impact?
- Employee engagement is now Employee Experience and people want different feedback processes. But are we listening and really providing the experience that people think they want or need?
- Data is king but how do we use it effectively?
- Organisational structures don’t fit the business, and teams are crucial but often dysfunctional.
- New innovative platforms to recruit, develop, assess and learn are constantly being developed.
- Balancing screen time versus face time and work life well being.
Go deeper – assess leaders for values as well as leadership skills
– CMPI, 2018
In 2017, Chandler Macleod researched over 2000 employees and leaders to see if this was true for the Australian market and found:
- Leaders are often not aware of their employees’ concerns.
- Employees vote with their feet when there is a problem.
- Gen X are the most likely (52%) to have left a job due to problems with a leader.
- Gen Z avoid confrontation with leaders.
- Employees are more skeptical about leadership issues being resolved if they’ve had problems before.
- Leaders may be missing essential change management skills.
- Leaders must communicate well.
- Leaders must walk the talk.
- Confidence and charisma in leadership appeals to younger generations.
- Employees want leaders who understand the challenges of their role.
So, what can we do to improve our employee experience? Shared Leadership – seeing this in a different light.
As an organisation...
- Go deeper – assess leaders for values as well as leadership skills
- Be real – remove all roadblocks to open and honest communication and feedback
- Drive leadership accountability
- Mobilise networks
- Strengthen relationships with HR
- Look to the future and strive for variety
As a leader...
- Be authentic
- Share the purpose and vision but don’t push it
- Lead through change – don’t just manage it
- Use Emotional Intelligence – increase your awareness of the impact of disruption on your people
At Chandler Macleod People Insights, we have been utilising our assessment and survey gateway to provide tools which will help with assessing and then managing the people challenges, and helping leaders, teams and organisation develop themselves for now and the future. Please contact us if you would like more information.
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