The world around us is changing faster than we think. Long gone are the days when leadership used to be all about passing orders and bossing people around.
Global crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine war and emerging global recession have pushed us to rethink and redefine leadership and the skills to be a leader. In this article we will discuss what skills are needed to be a leader of the future.
How Leadership is Changing in 2023: Leadership of the Future
Our world is constantly evolving and just like everything, the concept of leadership is undergoing major changes.
Businesses and workplaces are transforming due to increased globalization, political, technological and socio-cultural changes. There is a great uncertainty in the air and it is the leaders to whom people turn towards in such times. The leaders of today need to step up and evolve to acquire such qualities and skills that are essential in these unprecedented times.
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Key Skills to be a Leader of the Future
1. Connecting beyond the physical space
Hybrid workspaces are changing the dimensions of leadership
The future of workplace is virtual.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to move to an online or hybrid mode of work. As it turned out, people actually liked working from home and preferred it even after things went back to normal. The change benefitted the businesses as well by cutting down major costs of physical workspaces and utilities.
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Today many businesses have continued working from home and hybrid work which is changing the way leaders take charge. Leaders will need the skills to connect to people and show their presence beyond the physical workspace. They will have to learn how to interact with, involve and lead their teams effectively without meeting them physically.
2. Building more diverse networks
Networking has always been described as one of the defining qualities of a successful leader. More importantly though, the leader of the future needs to build a diverse network.
Research has shown that leaders that have more diverse networks are better able to lead and grow their organizations. Having connections with people from diverse backgrounds increase leader’s access to a diverse array of learning and knowledge source which helps thrive creativity and innovation needed for modern problem solving.
Also, such a heterogenous mix increases their ability to approach to foreign contacts and gain access to growth opportunities for their businesses beyond their borders.
3. Coaching skills
Coaching allows employees to trust and feel safe with their leaders in uncertain times.
Great leaders will also need to be great coaches. In these times of complexity and uncertainty, people need their leaders to be able to guide them as a team as well as individually.
Leaders can help people become the best version of themselves by understanding and leading them through their problems. With a better insight into their team, leaders will be better able to inspire and motivate them and create an engaging workspace.
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4. Shaping workplace culture
Though enculturation is both a top-down and bottom-up process, leaders are particularly influential in setting the culture of their teams and workplaces.
It will be challenging for leaders to set the way things are done at work especially in the modern workplace where there are emerging trends like diversity and remote work. The leader’s role will be important to develop strong mission and clearly communicate the vision and values of the organization. Uniting all employees on a common purpose help motivate employees and find meaning in their work.
Therefore, culture shaping in the developing workplace is a skill that will be needed in the upcoming generation of leaders.
5. Open to learning
Leadership and learning are inseparable especially in these changing times. Leaders of the future need to have this quality of being open to learning new things and evolve.
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A leader should not be satisfied with their current level of knowledge and information. The skills to be a leader are ever evolving so leaders need to actively seek new information to widen their horizons and gain new perspectives. By practicing critical thinking, such leaders do not let their beliefs hold them back rather they welcome opposing viewpoints and keep updating their belief systems.
6. Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is absolutely indispensable skill to be a leader of the future.
Recently, there has been a global shift towards understanding emotions as the primary method of improving workplace performance. The concept of emotional intelligence especially gained popularity since Daniel Goleman published his groundbreaking book “Emotional Intelligence”, which highlighted the advantage of emotional intelligence (EQ) over the traditional conception of intelligence (IQ). Goleman especially emphasized developing emotional intelligence in leaders as a catalyst for organizational progress and development.
Emotional intelligence brings improvement in the workplace in a variety of ways
Emotionally intelligent leaders can take constructive criticism from their employees, develop trust with them and inspire them to achieve the organization’s goals. Recognizing and expressing emotions also improves group connectivity and teamwork, reduces stress and leads to collective action toward achieving organizational goals. Leaders who encourage employees to express themselves get more creative solutions from their workforce.
Read more about emotional intelligence at the workplace here.
7. Team empowerment
In the past leadership used to be all about being in power and taking control.
However, truth is that leading does not mean establishing your authority and imposing orders, rather it is the ability to inspire people to follow without forcing them to do so. In a world that idealizes democratic norms, leaders need to be able to involve the team in their goal setting and decision making.
A true leader values their team members’ opinions and encourages them to share their thoughts. This is because they understand that this process will make people more involved and committed to their organizations and will increase their trust and satisfaction.
Leaders of the future do not believe in micromanaging their workers, rather they actively work on empowering their employees. As businesses are growing more complex and uncertain, an important skill for leaders is to enable their employees to take smaller, everyday decisions themselves so they have time to focus on the more complex and difficult decisions.
8. Futuristic thinking
Futuristic thinking is important to predict change
As a leader it is very important to think like a futurist, otherwise the business will have difficult time adapting to change.
Leaders should be able to have an eye for the future and prepare accordingly whenever they see change coming. Leaders that are futurists lead by creating change instead of waiting for it to arrive at your doorstep. They keep an eye on emerging trends and stay informed on latest happenings in the world. They keep themselves abreast with latest technological developments as well as their competitor activity to help them plan and prepare in advance.
9. Servant mentality
Although servant leadership is a concept that was conceived long ago by researchers, it is an even more relevant skill in current times. Today, we need leaders that are ‘servant first’. They prioritize the needs of their team over their own. Such leaders listen to and respect the opinions of their employees and provide them support to achieve personal and professional growth. They set a culture of good interpersonal relationships among team members and are democratic in their decision making.
As a result, employees are more satisfied and more engaged in their work and there is mutual trust and understanding among them which increases the organization performance and productivity.