Leadership Lens: Leading People is a Job

Is the hybrid world working for you? I mean, not just from a personal aspect of enjoying the flexibility of working from home and the office. Do you have ample access to your management, are you receiving consistent feedback and are there enough opportunities for your development?

I am working with a group of team leaders in the financial industry. They are telling me that, whilst the notion of workplace flexibility by means of autonomy has brought a breeze of fresh air into the stuffy old way of working, it also comes with challenges.

What these leaders are saying:

‘I hardly ever see my team face to face, and our conversations and meetings online are just about ‘getting things done. Everyone is too busy to talk about development until review week happens.’

‘I feel like my direct reports struggle with leading their own teams. The organisation hasn’t focussed on leadership skills training since the pandemic, and we are now losing people.’

‘I feel like the constant change, increased workloads and working from home mode had segregated our teams. People development seems to be reserved for the executive team whereas we need all our people leaders to learn how to manage this new world.’

As organisations are adapting to new workplace structures, a key focus is to equip leaders on every level with the skills that are needed now to keep our employees engaged, motivated and effective.

What has changed?

We are all, in some form, impacted by outside factors, which I call the 5 Global Megatrends:

I dive deeper into each of these Megatrends in my book LEAD THE FUTURE.  Order a copy here.

Increasing globalisation means we can tap into larger, international talent pools and a change in generational workforces (by 2030, 75% of our workforce will be Millennials and GenZ) means we need to shift from command and control to collaborative and inspiring leadership styles. And what we see across industries is that agile work models – where you have project leaders and people leaders vs. organisational hierarchies – require managers and leaders on every level to lead people well.

We have seen a growing appetite for upskilling graduates, developing emerging leaders and transforming high-performance teams, not only in multinational organisations but also in smaller companies and family businesses.

Why? Because organisations understand that whilst the head of the company or executive team has the vision for where they are headed, it’s up to the employees to realise the vision into reality. We need more than their expertise and technical skill. Our new work reality needs more people leaders, and they need to learn the skills: emotional intelligence, feedback, and coaching are the top 3 skills we are asked to include in our transformational programs.

Leading People is a Job

As Herminia Ibarra and Anne Scoular say in this HBR article:

 ‘We live in a world of flux. Successful executives must increasingly supplement their industry and functional expertise with a general capacity for learning—and they must develop that capacity in the people they supervise. No longer can managers simply command and control. Nor will they succeed by rewarding team members mainly for executing flawlessly on things they already know how to do. Instead, with full institutional support, they need to reinvent themselves as coaches whose job it is to draw energy, creativity, and learning out of the people with whom they work.’

We offer a range of transformational programs for every level of leadership. Step Up is one of our most popular programs for emerging leaders and managers who need to step up to lead the business. Download the brochure here.

Of course, you can get in touch and we can have a chat: jessica@intactteams.com

I love seeing you shine and being your brilliant best. Stay safe.

About the Author

Jessica Schubert

Cultural Transformation & Leadership Expert

Teams, individuals and organisations face different challenges. My mission is to listen, understand and tailor learning solutions that fit your cultural and organisational goals. My steps to transform people, culture and businesses:

Conversation

Listen and understand your challenges

Consult

Suggest tailored learning solutions

Co-create

Include leaders in the design process

Coach

Deliver, facilitate and coach

Consider

Feedback and go back to conversation

With over 25 years of corporate experience and leading large teams across Europe and Asia Pacific, I understand all facets of leadership. I leverage my experience of dealing with power dynamics and organisational complexities and blend it with proven leadership models, coaching theories and adult learning principles.