2020 changed the whole narrative of the world we were living in. And this certainly did apply to the business world. If you are a leader, you know how much it has affected the business world.
Based on the unprecedented changes pandemic caused, there are 10 emerging leadership trends for 2021 that you don’t want to miss:
Leadership Topics
The biggest giveaway of 2020 for leaders was adopting a change mindset. This has been proven time and again. If you are a leader, you need to learn how to leverage the power of environmental change or disruption for your business. You need to be agile to make quick decisions in times of crisis. Hence, developing a change mindset is a necessity in 2021 if you are a leader.
-
Prioritizing Employee Wellbeing
With so much uncertainty, distress, and financial crisis, people’s mental health, along with covid scare, has taken a toll. This has resulted in the need for leaders to invest in employee wellbeing. As a leader, you need to ensure your company invests in wellness programs and benefits, integrating work-life balance, allowing flexible working hours, setting realistic performance expectations, etc. This helps in increasing employee productivity and improving the employee experience.
-
Positive Remote Work Culture
Remote workspace has been the biggest change and challenge for most leaders. But it is likely to stay after the pandemic as well. So, as a leader, you must master how to communicate virtually. You have to come up with ideas to set up a remote culture that suits your brand. You have to make sure that there’s no virtual micro-aggression or cyberbullying happening in your team or organization. You need to create a positive remote work culture for all.
It’s 2021, and this should’ve been long included as a necessity. But as an African American Woman myself, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is. You need to address Diversity and Inclusion in your leadership. With the recent tragic events in the US, people are furious and more aware of this issue than familiar. It is your moral obligation to include and promote diversity. It’s high time leaders look past gender and race. Make sure you are one of these people. An adaptive leader is always considered as a good leader. He/she can completely make others understand what makes inclusive leaders different from others becuase of the adaptove mindset they have.
-
High Demand for People-Focused Skills
With the paradigm shift of Virtual Workspace, it has become tough for leaders to innovate and communicate. The increased pressure for you to compete and multi-task as a leader has created high demand to stay ahead of the game. To do so, you need to constantly evolve and learn new skills, especially people skills.
People worldwide are losing their family members, losing jobs, exhausting their savings, and are emotionally and mentally drained. You need to be empathetic towards the people you’re working with. You need to learn emotional intelligence to better understand how to deal with people in crises like this. It’s time you take charge of the team and provide them with the compassion and support they expect from you. This builds a loyal team and a positive work culture. I hope this trend stays beyond 2021 as well. To become a good leader, you should know how to be an empathetic leader?
There are ample reasons that demand optimization of technology:
- The urgent need for digital transformation or building a digital presence of your business online,
- Working Virtually is the only response to smooth functioning during this pandemic,
- To gain a competitive advantage.
The pandemic has shown the need to have a disaster management plan. You need to make a plan that makes your businesses resilient. You have to learn how to cope with such a disaster that brings economic volatility to the business. Plan how to tackle the situation, how much it affects your enterprise, and what you can do to minimize the loss.
The events of 2020 not only highlighted pandemic and brutal racism but natural disasters as well. This further highlights the need for businesses to adopt a sustainable approach to business operations. People are aware, concerned, and appreciating brands that are adopting sustainability in their business. You need to examine your organization’s processes and find a way to incorporate sustainability into them.
Along with the Remote Workspace culture, another concept that’s becoming more popular is flexible working hours. Research proves that flexibility in working hours reflects the immediate increase in employee productivity. But as a leader, you’ll have to learn to manage teamwork and ensure the team spirit phenomenon isn’t lost.
Shellye is committed to helping people from diverse backgrounds to achieve their aspirations in careers and life. The content published above was made in collaboration with our members.
Shellye Archambeau is determined to help you with all possible strategies to climb the ladder of success. She values your feedback. Do mention them in the comment section below.