René Janssen, Founder & CEO of Lepaya, is passionate about human and business potential enabled by tech-enabled L&D.
The world of work is now more volatile and unpredictable than ever, and leaders are being asked to contend with a wide range of never-before-seen challenges. I think that recent developments involving Microsoft and OpenAI serve as a prime example, leaving the tech industry astonished while demonstrating how abrupt changes can shake up the entire market landscape.
To navigate the pressures of modern working life and create a safe space for employees to thrive, companies need leaders who not only can build resilience within their teams but are capable of actually transforming the workplace.
Enacting this transformation begins with mindset. I believe leaders must expand their capacity to deal with the inherent tensions at play within organizations today—balancing empathy with driving ROI and cultivating cultural diversity while also unifying team members under a shared vision.
So, how can leaders start to go beyond the old paradigm and into this new era of leadership? It comes down to three important steps.
1. Break Myths Around Resilience
In my experience, resilience can be a valuable quality to cultivate during difficult times, encouraging employees to withstand challenges and swiftly recover from them. However, it represents only one aspect of the situation. In recent years, I’ve observed that resilience is frequently used as a quick fix, addressing symptoms while concealing deeper underlying problems.
If leaders and their teams are consistently expected to demonstrate resilience, it’s not enough to simply “stay afloat” and encourage employees to “get through.” Instead, when challenges arise, first ask yourself if resilience is really the answer or if it is putting undue pressure on employees to cope with challenges that could be removed or reduced in the first place.
Is resilience preventing team members from expressing healthy frustration or other natural negative emotions? Is it making them grit their teeth through a job or goal that is simply wrong or unattainable? Often, the hype around resilience can cloud leaders’ views of structural issues or their own faults.
2. Move From Resilience To Transformation
Leaders who successfully guide their organizations through these transformative times are going beyond resilience. Rather than fostering a “bounce back” culture, they are looking ahead to prevent future falls—and that starts by first turning the lens inwards.
As Simran Jeet Singh, author and educator, wrote for Harvard Business Review, “‘Resilient’ isn’t the compliment you think it is.” Indeed, when resilience is needed, it can shed light on the shortcomings of our organizations and leadership. Leaders who embrace transformation understand their task is to identify those shortcomings and initiate change. This starts with cultivating self-awareness and also a safe working environment where people feel empowered to report emerging difficulties or suggest a change of course.
For example, as manufacturing companies adopt new automated systems, rather than just expecting employees to be resilient and embrace the new technology, empowering leadership should be proactive about easing the stresses and burdens on employees.
They might implement targeted training that addresses employee challenges or establish communication channels for team members to share the concerns that may arise through the transition. Transformative leaders will see moments of adversity as opportunities to pause and reflect on what problems need to be solved and what resources, behaviors or tools they can use to best support their teams.
3. Invest In Transformative Leadership Skills
Rather than reverting to a “let’s get tough” mentality when times get hard, modern leaders should combine resilience with more transformational capabilities like:
An Empowering Mindset
Skills alone are useless without the right mindset. Becoming a transformative leader starts with a focus on cultivating the self-awareness necessary to lead yourself and embrace an empowering mindset. This involves first learning how to embody an authentic presence that puts team members at ease and allows them to show up as their whole selves at work. Only from there can you move into leading others.
Coaching
Transformational leaders know how to define a resonant purpose and motivate others to achieve it. To be able to thrive in today’s environment, it’s important to focus on supporting your employees’ well-being and helping them adapt to changing circumstances through supportive coaching.
Feedback
Receiving and giving effective feedback that stimulates autonomous growth is essential to shifting the status quo. Transformative leaders recognize effort, are specific with their critiques and ensure that team members understand how the feedback fits within the larger picture of organizational goals.
Facilitating Open Dialogue
A work environment that goes beyond resilience is founded upon open dialogue. Transformative leaders encourage candid conversations on everything from stress levels to ideas for how to reach company goals. This starts by demonstrating an openness to actively listening to others and by providing multiple avenues for communication, whether that be team meetings, open forums, digital platforms, etc.
Empathy And Psychological Safety
Transformational leaders should take time to consider how they can foster psychological safety for all, teams and leaders alike. The foundation of this is empathy and trust. You want to make sure that people feel genuinely heard and seen through active listening and conscious communication. This creates a feeling of belonging, which ultimately empowers individuals to grow and contribute.
While resilience is a highly useful trait humans have used for millennia to adapt to hard times, it can only take us so far. Fostering resilience alone will not create a secure and open culture that makes employees feel free to be themselves and drive the innovation needed to navigate today’s unprecedented challenges. Instead, modern leaders need to transition from a survival-oriented mindset to a forward-thinking state that creates opportunities for meaningful change to occur.
Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
