Re-assessing Your Leadership Role: How Has It Changed this Year? (and what does that mean going forward?)?

The Year Past…

Hand on heart, are you still thinking about ‘work’ the way you thought about it pre-pandemic?

Or, if you’ve changed the way you think about it, as many of us have, is it a firm foundation for a new way of working, or are you still finding your feet as the ground continues to shift?

There are no right and wrong answers to these questions, and there is always an element of ongoing reflection in any role, but I’m noticing some particular changes I’ve seen and wanted to share in case they are the same as, or different to what you’ve seen for yourself.

The Year Present…

Those of us in professional roles have pretty much universally moved and adapted to a new online, home-working environment. Beyond those environmental changes though, I’m curious whether, and how much you’ve thought about what your role should, and does, include?

I’ve noticed two things that could make a much bigger difference to what we do, if we give space and energy to nurture them. Again, let me clear these are observations, and what you see for yourself, and make relevant, is a question for you, not for me.

1. Well-being at Work versus People-First Organisations

I’ve seen leaders put more emphasis on their ‘duty of care’ role for the people around them; a realisation of one human talking to another, taking more time for the person, not just the task. Now, I also see variable quality and impact from this, so we haven’t ‘got it handled’, far from, but it’s perhaps been moved further up the job description.

And there is more to see here, in my opinion, than a duty of care.

What if, by putting ‘people first’ we can change the nature of our organisations, the way we ‘do’ work, an the work that we do? And change it in such a way that we create both positive environments to work in and intelligent, purposeful outcomes of what we do.

I know it to be true that putting thoughtful people in a room together (virtual or otherwise), facilitated with a collaborative mindset will inevitably create good work.

One follows from the other, we don’t need to ‘decide’ the work and then ‘make it happen’.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, I hope it’s that self-motivation, purpose, passion and productivity are innate.

What if the ‘work’ is to nurture the people and allow the outcome to take care of itself? Kinda like nurturing a seedling by creating the conditions for it to grow all by itself.

2. Make-Work versus Contribution

And…

…I also know that the extent to which we see the innate capability for good work has, and could further revolutionise the ‘what’ of work for people in senior leadership positions.

As it becomes more and more obvious that people are actually pretty good at self-managing, that raises a question about the role of ‘leadership’, especially as it’s been thought, talked, and written about traditionally.

What if everyone is perfectly capable, and indeed innately driven to create their own vision and outputs, and we don’t need to inspire them with ours, nor do we need to micro-manage their time and process to do what we think they should be doing?

Perhaps this is not a conscious shift in leadership understanding, but it seems to me to be obvious if we look.

The Year Future…

And so what then for senior leaders?

Is there a role? Is there a redundancy of role?

That’s not for me to answer, but I believe it’s a question to be asked, a reflection to spend time with,

What can I do that brings the highest value to the people and the purpose of this organisation and the work that we do in the world?

I suspect the answers might be different today than they would have been a year or more ago.

With love,

Cathy