Leading in a Modern Age
- Maslow Trainers & Consultants
- Feb 27, 2020
- 5 min read
Leadership functions on all levels of management. From the lowest levels of leaders to the top management, the world of leadership proves to be an ever-evolving platform. However, Leadership in the past is not so different from leadership in the current day. Firstly, the basics of leadership will always remain what it is. From there, the basic form of leadership is left at the door and evolves with the person as it follows their values and beliefs. So, how does a person develop from having basic leadership skills to becoming a more advanced and suitable leader? Here are 5 reasons on what you can do to improve on your leadership skills.
Embracing Diversity
Observing a case study done on IBM, the company has established a culture of recognizing and valuing their employees of contrasting diversity. How did they achieve that? Firstly, they have established several task forces in charge at looking at specific minority groups. In this case, these task forces are aimed to target what is the main issue that those groups are facing and propose solutions on how they can overcome it for the specific groups.
The next question is, why did they do it? IBM hires from a wide talent pool that has a plethora of people with various backgrounds. There are 5 main reasons as to why IBM are so inclined about having cultural diversity:
1. Varying Competencies – Diverse groups of employees will have differing skillsets and strengths as compared to a homogenous workforce.
2. Different Perspectives – Distinct backgrounds on employees will have contrasting thoughts and comments on issues that need to be solved.
3. Diverse Candidate pool – A wide and culturally expansive set of employees will offer a larger variety of skill sets as compared to a homogenous set of employees.
4. Dissimilar Cultures – Employees can be made aware of other cultures’ differences and similarities.
5. Various Markets – Different nationality employees will have insights on how to tackle the problems and challenges that may arise when conducting business in their home countries.
It is undeniable that having a diverse workforce is great not just for the employees at hand in terms of opportunities but for the company altogether.
Leading multiple generations
In a modern day and age, companies usually have up to 4 generations in the workforce. The four generations that currently span across the workforce are: The Baby Boomer generation, Generation X, Generation Y and Generation Z.
The baby boomer generation: The post-war generation is named after the economies of countries booming in the global marketplace.
Generation X: The age group born before the 1980s but after the baby boomer generation.
Generation Y: Typically thought of as the group of people born between 1981 and 1994.
Generation Z: The generation born of 1995 onwards and have started creeping into modern day workforce.
The trick to managing all these generations simultaneously is that you have to be inclusive. Don’t pressure your digital initiatives on the older generations and vice versa towards the older and outdated ideas, it should be forced upon the younger generations. By allowing this flexibility, you are giving your employees the freedom and are maximising their efficiency in running their processes. If these initiatives are necessary, then there isn’t any way to go about them. If it is necessary, proper training should be conducted to ensure that they are fair and equal opportunities for everyone to learn and implementation should be done in a gradual manner to avoid any surprise to the employees in their learnings towards the new initiatives.
Transparency
Transparency is arguably one of the most critical items of them all. For leaders who are known to be deceptive and aren’t honest with their subordinates, the trust that is lost between a leader and subordinates is almost irrecoverable. Instead, employees appreciate having the honesty between themselves and their leaders. It forms a bond that will forever be there should the bond be treasured and maintained.
So how do leaders establish a bond?
In a survey done by Signal V. Noise that consists of 597 managers, 28% of them said that showing vulnerability as a leader is the most critical way of building trust and transparency among their employees. Don’t be afraid to share your weaknesses with your subordinates. Admitting your shortcomings will not only give your room for improvement but your subordinates will feel closer to you because you are someone who is aware of their weaknesses. Being aware of your weaknesses shows your employees that you are able to accept flaws and shortcomings, which makes them feel closer to you. Having them feel closer to you makes it so much easier to establish a bond with your subordinates but the critical part of maintaining it is to always be honest with them.
Turnover rates
Surveys from employees have clearly proven time and time again that employees leave companies not because of the companies itself but because of the people that they are working under and with. A study done by Businessolver shows that 93% of employees are more likely to stay with an emphatic employer.
What does this mean?
The days of an autocratic leaders are long gone and now is the era for a leader than listens, understands and their employees. Engage in discussions with subordinates to gauge how they are feeling. Give them a safe space in that whatever that say will not be used against them, provide them a bridge of trust so that they can deliver you a message on what they feel. If you feel that you probably won’t get a good response from this, conduct an Employee Engagement Survey preferably with an external party involved. If employees know that a survey is being handled by a third party instead of the company itself, they will feel more empowered and confident to utilise it as a platform to voice out their issues.
Inspiring employees
John Quincy Adams once said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a great leader.” It goes without saying that a great leader can inspire almost any employee to be the best that they can be. Giving their all in everything they do is what leaders expect of their subordinates. But if the leaders themselves don’t give it their all, how can they expect their subordinates to do the same?
An inspirational leader doesn’t just tell their subordinates to give their all. An inspirational leader is one that demonstrates and gives their all in everything they do. They give it a 110% in their conversations, meetings, presentations and managing people. Employees that observe such leaders become truly inspired by their approach and the way they carry themselves, leading into the growth of subordinates to leaders.
What’s Next?
If you feel that your employees are unable to express themselves to you about comments regarding your style of leadership or anything else about the company, the best way to go about it is to conduct an Employee Engagement Survey. As one of the award winners for best leadership development consultancy, our Employee Engagement Survey will diagnose any problems that you may face with the employees and leaders and provide you with a complete breakdown on the survey, methods that can be used to resolve such issues and finally, implementation. At Maslow, our survey is broken down into several aspects regarding the demographic of your company and how they react to the current happenings in your company. It will give you a top down view on the current problems that your company is facing and what steps you can take to further combat any issues or challenges found.
References
Written by:
Commentaires