Leadership exists to direct people working in organizations towards achieving their goals in line with the mission and vision of the organization. COVID19 has affected the majority of employees across the globe in one way or the other and organizations have changed their HR policies to accommodate practices such as work from home and started giving more importance to the wellbeing of employees. Organizations have successfully adopted new technologies to overcome the situation and trained employees on using them. In this context, all leaders need to be aware of the latest emerging technologies and how they can be used in their respective organizations.
One important challenge that all leaders face in the current situation is to decide on the emerging technologies that can be used to make the organization ready for future requirements. An ideal leader in this era of technological disruptions is one who is driven by a compelling vison and who foresees how the new emerging technologies will impact and how the organization can change and adapt to the new trends to survive.
Training employees and making them align their personal goals with organizational goals is crucial. The lower the gap between individual and organizational goals the easier it is for the organization to create a culture of belongingness and build high-performing teams. Leaders have to play the role of accelerators to motivate people to go beyond their jobs and put in their hundred percent efforts to achieve organizational goals. Leaders should not look for perfection but look for employees with a positive attitude, willingness to learn, being adaptable as per the requirements of the organization and willing to complete the tasks as per the timelines.
Leaders should focus on creating a culture where employees feel a sense of ownership which will help them in not only gaining recognition and rewards but also helps in attracting the right talent as per organizational requirements. Leaders also need to be creative and innovative and ensure that organizations are ready to face the challenges of the future. Achievement of organizational goals is the key metric to evaluate the performance of a leader. A good leader will embrace change, act as a mentor to identify and develop leaders for future requirements. Leaders in the new millennium have to give time for creativity and need to be up-to-date on the latest technological advancements that are happening in their respective fields.
One more challenge for leaders is to balance the traditional style of management and a new way of handling millennials as both of them are required for achieving the goals. The traditional managers have rich experience and the millennials are good with technology and the combination of both will help the organization in planning appropriate strategies and taking the organization to the next level. Good communication among the team members, trust, human connection, and knowledge of how the latest technologies can impact work is very important in the era of technological disruption. Leaders have to be role models and lead by example.
References:
Bennis, W. G., & Thomas, R. J. (2020). Crucibles of leadership. Harvard business review, 80.
Cortellazzo, L., Bruni, E., & Zampieri, R. (2019). The role of leadership in a digitalized world: A review. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 1938.
Mukherjee, A. S. (2020). 5 Musts for Next-Gen Leaders. MIT Sloan Management Review, 61(3), 1-4.
Professor Ajith Kumar V.V, is the sitting Vice-Chancellor of Skyline University Nigeria. He has obtained his PhD in the area of Human Resource Management from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.
You can join the conversation on Facebook @SkylineUniversityNG and on Twitter @SkylineUNigeria