Reflecting on business leadership throughout the pandemic we have seen some distinct themes.
Initially, there was a requirement to lead through the ‘new normal’, guiding teams through lockdown, furlough, redundancies, office closures and so much more. Later, we saw middle and senior managers coming together to reconnect as a team, to renew trust, strengthen relationships, and refresh organisational cultures diminished by extended periods of remote working.
As of now, leaders are setting their sights on rebuilding following the extended January lockdown. For many organisations, this latest version of the workplace will shape up differently, even from as recently as late 2020. As the pandemic has ran its course, working relationships and connection with the business have changed. This represents both challenge and opportunity for leaders.
To lead remote and blended teams, maintain engagement, and support resilience and wellbeing, agility might just be the number one required characteristic. Our Thought Leadership team defines agility as the ability for organisations to ‘act on information, make decisions quickly and implement them to meet the rapidly-evolving requirements of customers and the business environment.’
Our latest research on the topic, which included over 3,500 employees, across 11 countries including the UK, clearly showed that there were four clear building blocks of organisational agility:
- Foster a resilience workforce by promoting positivity, accepting risk and building self confidence
- Improve social intelligence throughout the organisation, to create an environment of trust and psychological safety
- Develop effective tools and processes by gathering quality data that gives you the insight to act quickly
- Enhance the capacity for action, so that once the data has been analysed, you can collaborate and be willing to act on the new information
You can read the full research here
How to be an Agile Leader in a Blended Workplace – Free Bite-Sized Workshop
On 8 June (10-12), we will explore the competencies that support agility, specifically in the context of the current blended work environment. In this session, we will provide a framework for leaders to approach building agility in a focused, deliberate way.
We hope you can join us.
Juliette Dennett,
Managing Director, Dale Carnegie Northern England