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New paradigm for people and business
Leadership & Management
245 week ago — 7 min read
Crisis is a big leveller and creates new paradigms to look at situations differently. The ongoing global chaos due to COVID-19 has created the biggest disruption across the world in the new millennium. What is interesting is that this disruption has happened in the most advanced stage of global evolution where the world is one, communication is instant and technology is very advanced. Still we have billions of people locked down across the world. I thought and imagined the possible disruptions in people and business once the stabilisation starts.
Home office
The forced lock down worldwide will create Home Office as a new norm than exception. Organisations may need to rewrite HR rules to assume home office as a standard practice. This may benefit the cost in terms of rental space and related infrastructure burden. Trust and adequate delegation will be key to make this work in future. During lock down I have come across two types of Work From Home (WFH). One who religiously without pressure start the day on time and stay constructively engaged, few others who are waiting for the next instruction to arrive.
Also read: Work from home: How to handle it?
Changed management and leadership style
Higher remote management skills such as influencing, empathy, listening, ability to be precise and specific in briefs and debriefs over skype and conference calls, collaborative approach in conference calls will be needed for line managers even at supervisory levels. Micromanagement will be ineffective as the new norm may have very less scope for such managerial styles.
Developing behavioural skills in team and self
Since mutual trust and goals will be more relevant than micromanagement and high task orientation Manager will now have to play the role of mentor more often than before. Supervisors, managers with high delegation skills, collaborative skills will be more effective.
Higher remote management skills such as influencing, empathy, listening, ability to be precise in briefs over calls, will be needed for managers. Micromanagement will be ineffective as the new norm may have very less scope for such managerial styles.
Dealing with ambiguity
Covid-19 has taught the world how unprepared it is in all aspects. Ability to be prepared for any possible contingency will be a key competency going forward. Business continuity and crisis management will be a key competency to survive and stabilise self, team and business.
Also read: Business continuity plan amidst COVID-19: Immediate action points
People connect and values
Managers and leaders who have superior people connect and have high moral reputation will be able to extract more from team members than managers, leaders who will only talk of rewards. This will ensure managers and supervisors are more genuinely connected with people and display correct values.
Also read: The truth about trust
Entrepreneurial mindset
Continuous learning and development
During the lock down, many who wanted to work from home were unable to cope with stress, loneliness. They were with families but were unable to dialogue constructively. Organisations will invest and organise regular learning and development opportunities to develop these behavioural and soft skills amongst people. Ability to dialogue will be a key skill in demand.
Entrepreneurial mindset
Two dimensions to this:
1. Enhanced focus on creating more entrepreneurs who will generate jobs would be vital. Internal dependencies will be the priority. Like Japan post a setback revived into a global giant, India also has the potential however the DNA needs to be energised and activated. Policy makers will need to look at this aspect seriously.
Like Japan post a setback revived into a global giant, India also has the potential however the DNA needs to be energised and activated.
2. People skills will have this as a key attribute. Entrepreneurial mindset must not be confused with someone wanting to start a business at home. The intent is to display a spirit of enterprise at a time when there is no pressure of work. Many businesses have a day or a week, quarter where workload is less, spirit of enterprise is to still think how to keep one engaged constructively and think of adding value when organisation has no defined work given. Productivity issues will automatically be solved.
Also read: An unprecedented challenge, also an opportunity for SMEs to do unprecedented things
Technological evolution
Technology at enterprise, home and device level will be more oriented and compatible to home office scenario, considering critical nuances of working from home.
Return of the gen X and baby boomers as a freelancing and retainer specialist
One of the new norm may be having specialist workforce being available on assignment basis. People practices will also look at retainer-based models as much as fixed workforce models. Organisations may have an igloo workforce where the core function may have few people on fixed organisation roles and retainer-based arrangements on project mode to take care of deliveries. The Gen X, baby boomers will be in great demand since the experience they have will be an asset to revive the business in the time of crisis since they are an extremely valuable pool of resources, with years of experience, maturity, skill and competence.
Strategic decision making
Businesses will have to keep a balance of economic, medical, social, emotional, political factors for decision making and not just market, customer and business goals. It will open up new dimensions and principles of strategic decision making on sourcing, basis who is more ethical and adds greater value. New principles of business decision making will evolve.
Businesses will have to keep a balance of economic, medical, social, emotional, political factors for decision making and not just market, customer and business goals.
In my opinion the above are early indicators and certainly we are in a very disruptive moment of our life. Especially for India which has a young workforce and is chasing a trillion dollar GDP growth target, the decisions and choices made now will have significant impact in times to come. I am very hopeful that India will come out of this as a winner. Stay safe everyone. To good times!
Image source: shutterstock.com
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, official policy or position of GlobalLinker.
Posted by
Debashish DasLeadership and Business Growth Coach with over 20 years of experience in coaching and consulting. Specialist in HR, Strategy, Business Growth for SME and Corporates. As a coach...
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