The year 2020, as we all know, has been a year of disruption and transformation. Managing in this new and unfamiliar environment has not been easy for leaders. As we are entering a new year, leaders and leadership experts share trends, leadership opportunities, and thoughts on what leaders can do to prepare for the changes ahead.
The year 2020 was hard on leaders, but 2021 will be harder. As leaders navigate the unpredictability of a continually shifting business climate, managing employees remotely, and ongoing operational constraints, formal training will not be able to keep up. Instead, leaders will need in-the-moment, actionable expert support and feedback directly relevant to his or her situations. That means, 1) more executive coaching grounded in business results, 2) more honest and timely feedback from employees, and 3) less formal leadership coursework.
Innovation will be a required mandate for anyone who wants to lead successfully in 2021. Last year was surprising for all of us. Whenever there is destabilization in the value chain, it creates an opportunity for new players to enter the arena. Those who can be the most agile, creative and innovative will direct and build the new normal. Leaders’ biggest challenge this year will be how to lead their people to be significant participants in the changed marketplace. After all of this disruption, there is ample opportunity for creating new value, and that is exactly what customers require in 2021.
2020 produced a symphony of crises that upended work-life as we knew it. With that, any forecast into 2021 should be viewed through the lens of a continued need for adaptability and accountability. Organizational and personal adaptability will be a requisite leadership competency to adapt plans to return to, maintain a hybrid or adjust for a completely remote workplace. And accountability - whether that is personal accountability (Forbes) to proactively manage one’s own work more independently; or organizational accountability to create greater transparency around metrics of equity like progress on racial representation, being seen as an Inclusive Leader (Deloitte), reconciling pay inequities, and community reinvestment initiatives - will be viewed as a leadership expectation in 2021 and beyond.
Connection. More than ever, leaders will need to nurture more personal connection with their team members. A world of hiding behind corporate jargon and Teflon suit attitudes is over. The leader who behaves robotically, focused solely on metrics, and devoid of interconnectedness will wind up with their people working at new organizations that operate with a more caring form of leadership. The pandemic has isolated many of us. That isolation has exacerbated feelings of loneliness and being out of touch. It’s not quite a trend but a plea. Leaders, please, start connecting and caring about your team.
The important leadership trend in 2021 is learning to radiate executive presence on video calls and meetings. According to Stanford Research, 42% of the U.S. labor force is now working from home full-time and must learn how to exude more confidence in virtual meetings. Learn how to come across as poised, persuasive, and charismatic on screen. Here are three tips: (1) be clear and succinct. Brevity is more important on video than in-person, (2) be expressive with your words, tone, and facial expressions, and (3) vary your pace and tone so your cadence is engaging. As the world goes remote, it’s vital that you assert your executive presence on video conference calls.
Grace is necessary to lead in times of crisis. Defining grace as working for the greater good means that leaders need to act with generosity and compassion. That means, give people a break. Know what they are enduring and in some cases suffering. Act with empathy. Not just “feel the pain,” but act on it to make people feel better and let them know they are not alone. Grace enables leaders under pressure to keep it real, to act with the needs of others as well as piloting the organization in the right direction.
I think we will need to deliver more practical and easy to provide tips to leaders on the full range of leadership responsibilities. Clearly, they want it quick and easy to access, but we will need to produce more “how to’s” in every arena. We will need top leadership to more strongly express the importance of supporting internal talent mobility, by developing systemic rewards and consequences for talent loss. The world of remote learning is clearly going to be with us for a long time, and while we are doing well in the technology side, we are not paying enough attention to the human side of remote work.
2020 tested leaders. Challenges were presented that were unlike any encountered in recent history. These challenges forced leaders to re-evaluate their connection to the business, employees, customers and the public. 2021 will be a year where many businesses work to rebuild what was lost as a result of the pandemic. Subsequentially, we can expect that organizational leaders exercising their emotional intelligence to stay connected and grounded with their employee base will see the greatest prosperity.
Covid-19 has created an opportunity to rethink basic business processes in many organizations. After decades of project management practices focusing on improving delivery of projects with a focus on time, budget and scope, organizations are beginning to revamp these antiquated practices. Whether it’s called “value generation” or “outcome management,” organizations are looking at ways to better align their strategy and their desired outcomes. It’s important to note that project management practices aren’t inherently aligned with value. This focus on value requires a reassessment of what an organization works on, the skillsets required to drive value, and changing the definition of success.
2020 was a devastating year to many businesses of all sizes. Forward thinking business leaders will recognize the importance of doing pre-mortems in 2021. McKinsey recently published the trend of the Next Normal which is focused primarily on businesses operating digitally. Although that will be an important consideration for executives, they should consider all potential obstacles to implement strategy. If digital is the new trend for businesses, executives will not be the only ones with a keen interest in that as a solution…hackers will be considering their strategies as well. Therefore, pre-mortems should be the main focus for any executive in 2021 and beyond.
2021 is not just a return to the office with more employees working remotely. I see three focus areas: Maintain a cadence of broad and transparent communication from the top and down through the organization; keep that empathy dialed up because 2020 took its toll on well-being and exposed issues that could remain, especially on mental health; and HR leaders must work with their CEOs to determine if the talent that got them through the pandemic is the right fit for the future.
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