Since the 2020s, some significant changes have evolved or have taken a more prominent place in leadership and management. Both small businesses and giant organizations have come across more complex and challenging environments like never before. There have been new trends in leadership and new trends in management, which the modern business world is likely to witness. As a result, competitiveness will be at its peak, and for the leaders and managers to thrive in this new dawn, they will have to employ these recent trends in leadership and management.
Here the leaders can learn about lessons in leadership that are modern-day leadership and management initiatives that are almost certain to trend in 2021. Everything from failure to outstanding success in the future will be at stake. It will be dependent on how effectively leaders can adapt to these trends mentioned below.
New Trends in Leadership and Management
Every modern-day leader will have to prepare themselves for the following new trends in leadership and management. Let's have a look at them one by one.
Flattened Organization Structures
There was a time when you were hailed as a hero of your organization or group. However, you may no longer enjoy such remarks from the same organization. Even tags such as "the smartest person in the room" who seemingly had a solution for any question will be passé. Due to the shift in leadership trends, you may no longer see management micromanaging their reports as organizations leave it all to move towards a flattened structure. As moving forward, only the leaders who can adapt to a cross-functional environment and collaborate seamlessly with others will thrive.
Continuously Update yourself and Others
Gone are the days when you can gleefully boast about knowing everything. Technologies are rapidly evolving and new ways of work are stepping in. For instance, remote work which didn't have much space in the workplaces is touted to be bigger and better in the years to come. So, whatever leadership knowledge you had will soon become outdated, meaning you will need to update yourself with power and confidence to stay relevant. Also, the need to update yourself will be more challenging as it will be a continuous process and not the one where you can sit back for some years.
Besides, it will also become your responsibility to develop the teams simultaneously as the organizations will forever be dependent on their team performances and outcomes.
Strive for Gender Balance
Sincethe beginning of time, women have constantly challenged the man-dominated societies for equality and better chances to prove their worth. Needless to say, their hardships and struggles are finally bringing them decent returns. Several organizations that have had women representing in leadership teams have proved to obtain better results for them. Thus, we are more likely to have more leadership development programs prepared around females in the years to come.
It was long due to tap into the untapped and underutilized potentials and resources, i.e., females in leadership and managerial roles. So, if an organization wants to thrive in the future, it will have to strive for this new trend in management and leadership and strike a gender balance in both leadership and managerial roles.
Focus Will Shift Towards Development of Soft Skills
Leaders with extreme hard skills ruled for ages as it was the preferred skill set in most organizations. There wasn't much emphasis on knowing soft skills for getting recruited. Now, the new trend in leadership and management is likely to cause an upside-down situation. You will have to put greater emphasis on developing your leadership soft skills.
It is now believed that management can teach hard skills such as emotional intelligence, adaptability, time management, and even creativity can be conducted over time to carry out their roles. However, a lack of soft skills, knowledge, and experience can be detrimental to the overall business and organization. As a result, we are witnessing a boom in "soft skills development programs" everywhere, and you are expected to finesse your soft skills to thrive.
Blended Approach to Leadership and Management
There were times when leadership and management were seen as two separate entities in an organization. However, modern leadership will be about a more balanced and blended approach to combining leadership skills and management abilities, as explained in this article.
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