Outdated leadership practices are crippling business growth and sustainability. With blended generations working alongside the advocacy voices of gen Z’s, companies should be concerned with achieving maximum employee engagement and productivity. With this blended workforce, employee
needs will evolve, but the responsibility for leaders to meet those needs will remain unchanged.
There once was a time when employees operated with a heart of commitment to their employer. Long ago, employees felt a sense of pride with remaining with their employers through retirement. But no longer are the days where people are dedicating 30 years to companies or working until retirement for the same employer. It’s no longer enough for employees to tolerate managers who expect them to simply work and do their jobs because that’s what they get paid to do. A paycheck is no longer acceptable means for employees to tolerate mistreatment.
Employers must accept that it is now their responsibility to show devotion to employees in ways they’ve never have before. To properly prepare for this generational workforce shift, companies will need to place value in nurturing an adaptable leadership culture to satisfy the needs of this developing employee population. They now must also play a role to set standards and hold people leaders accountable when they don’t put into practice the things that disrupt healthy and vibrant workspaces.
It might be challenging for employers to accept and adapt to the role reversal of workplace loyalty. To properly prepare the leaders for tomorrow, an evolution of leadership is imminent and will require
these three things conclusively:
1. Adaptability. How people lead will require adaptability and compassion. Adaptable leadership requires exercising versatility and aligning leadership styles according to the individual's meaningful interaction and engagement preference. Leaders failing to understand the art of interpersonal collaboration will shatter diversity and inclusion efforts and gravely interfere with employee's morale and engagement levels.
2. Ditch outdated philosophies. Let go of everything you may have been taught years ago about managing people, including the ideology of workplace loyalty. Demanding results, micromanaging, and dictating instructions are all ineffective ways of working and leading. According to a Gallup survey, teams led by managers who always focus on their weak points are 26% less likely to be engaged compared with teams whose managers focus on their strengths. Instead, consider practicing behaviors to help maintain a culture where employees feel valued, cared for, and connected as a team.
3. Find new leadership influencers. Famous leadership "experts" haven't changed in decades, and most of them have been relevant for decades and are white men. It will be critical to identify new leadership faces and voices to educate and inspire for the new age of leadership; leaders with an ability to share their relatable experiences relevant to actual encounters newer leaders could face today. With all of the changes we see happening with the way we work, the people responsible for leading through these changes will need to adjust to being relatable and effectively lead through a new lens to satisfy the new way of working futuristically.