Beyond Conventional Leadership
One of the most discussed topics in hundreds of leadership forums is the fundamental query, whether the conventional leadership lessons will stay relevant especially in the age of rapid innovations and disruptions in every market where a business exists.
The buzz word of 2020 in the world of leadership is “New Age Leadership”. While there are loads of articles and videos available in the digital space, let’s list down partial must-have qualities of the new age leader for successful leadership.
This urgency to transition from traditional schools of leadership to new age leadership development is urgent and critical especially coz of the dynamic entry and growth of startups. Surviving in the current complex, uncertain, volatile and ambiguous environment requires new age leadership skills and organizational excellence of course.
Handing out a partial list of must-have qualities of new age leaders :
1. Supportive Style
Support and strength are the foremost requirements of new age leadership. The leader should be supportive at all times and strengthen the core team with its ethical foundations and values and eventually string succeeding beliefs. Remember this – The follower is not at a great distance from the leader in terms of knowledge and understanding, he is very near to the leaders in terms of business understandings. All that differentiates a follower from the leader are few attitudinal advantages that a modern leader possesses. Therefore a radical shift from instructive leadership to supportive leadership will be prime as a new age leadership quality.
2. Participative Leadership
The leadership of the future requires involvement and participation by every member of the project, the leader inclusive. No leader could succeed without fully indulging him and his team into their responsibilities and maintaining working pace along the expected tracks. Like we mentioned earlier, a leader in the modern world has to be exemplary with active participation. His energy and aura itself becomes the driving force for his team to perform at superlative levels.
3. Flexible Adaptable
Contrary to the conventional and rigid leadership style, all the leaders of the future need to be flexible and adaptable. With a flood of uncertainty engulfing both the leader and follower in their respective worlds, a relevant leader ought to be extremely flexible to the varying challenges and absolutely adaptable to changing business needs and situations. It is important that the characteristics of flexibility begins from the thinking to beliefs to actions. Challenging your thought process as to why we think like we think is fundamental to a new age leader.
4. Empowers and Nurtures
“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empowers others”
– Bill Gates
A new age leader not only instructs and advises but also helps in nurturing the team with his/her empowering mindset. Coming out of the blame game, a leader understands this radical responsibility and works accordingly. The law of averages comes handy here to the new age leader. Nurturing the performance levels from average to above average is what can be sustained by the new age leader.
5. Innovative & Creative Mindset
“ The payoff’s to innovation is greatest where uncertainty is highest”
The future leadership requires vulnerability, innovation and creativity. Your team should see you as a role model inspiring them to thrive and enabling their creativity and innovation to flourish. This makes a strong base for the future. Disruption through innovation is the new normal for any business today. Leadership in the new age belongs to the ones who trigger their creativity at every stage of the business.
6. Accessible at all times
The new age leadership in the world of digitization and startup requires the leaders to be accessible whenever required. However, this does not refer to availability and accessibility round the clock but at the times of needs and important decisions.
7. Respects Work-Life Balance
Self-care and work-life balance are considered to be strong foundation blocks for sustainable and modern leadership. Understanding the need of work life balance for the self and others is the most important characteristics that the new age leader tags himself with.
Living in the VUCA world of radical market disruptions, these are few mandatory skills that will go into the making of a successful new age leader. Leaders who drop the conventional styles of leadership and gracefully adapt the new demand will see themselves on the thrones of business leadership for sure.
