Adjusting your leadership style in a post-pandemic era

The working landscape has changed irrevocably. Remote working, hybrid teams and the expectations of millennials and zoomer generations of employees, particularly,  makes the need for inclusive and emotional intelligent communication by leaders especially even more urgent than ever before.

Why the focus on leaders?

Because leaders set the tone and contribute hugely to the organisational climate. When a leader or group of leaders (a directorial board) are collectively viewed as isolated, remote and “locked away in an ivory tower”, then there is little opportunity for real trust or dialogue to be developed with the company’s workforce.

What leaders must do?

It matters less how leaders do it, but they must be seen as visible, accessible, but most importantly of all, to care, about their workforce, about their wellbeing and about providing opportunities for their employees to thrive in, to be stretched and add real value. This means developing a style that reflects these qualities of caring, accessibility and being values-led.

In my many years as a leadership coach to senior leaders, a complaint I often hear from leaders is how the demands of their role leaves little or no time to have the level of 1 -1 or informal face to face communications required to retain visibility required by employees. I get the conundrum, yet the most valuable thing a leader can do for the biggest impact is to be seen, heard, and perceived as accessible and real on a consistent basis. The post-pandemic era will accelerate this need exponentially.

Therefore, both understanding your leadership style and knowing how to adapt it appropriate to each situation is such a crucial skill for all leaders. At the heart of this is emotional intelligence, the ability to both perceive and manage emotions in yourself and others.

In the words of Aristotle, the immeasurable Greek stoic philosopher and scientist:-

“Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”

In this one short sentence Aristotle encapsulates what true emotional intelligence is. To become emotionally intelligence takes time, concentrated effort and above all else, a deep level of self-awareness. Some personality types are naturally more gifted, others much less so, but it can be learned to a degree which makes their impact more meaningful and effective.

The future

Irrespective of the personality preferences of a leader, introverted or extroverted, pacey, and dynamic or measured and reserved, all leaders need to find their own way to connect with their workforce as well as external stakeholders in a way which gives stakeholders a clear line of sight to the leader, what he or she stands for, where their value set lies and above all else to feel able to trust them, in their word deed and actions.

In terms of leadership development, as well as a continued growth in emotional intelligence awareness and training, I see continued learning opportunities in media and inter-personal communications including the various digital platforms and increased use of video and visual communications. As the generations of employees gets older, and digital communications inevitably becomes more ingrained and pervasive, all effective leaders will need to develop competencies in these disciplines.

Firstly, however, and more importantly, any leader worth their salt must attend to their own awareness and knowledge of their unique leadership style and its impact, on an in-depth basis, and be prepared to modify those attitudes, beliefs, and external communication tics, that least serve them and their array of interested stakeholders.