There is much talk of a new normal for the business world… and there seems to be a sentiment that we are passive in its arrival. The reality of this “new” world of business, however, is the opposite.
It is a collective group of leaders across industries that will put into place the decision-making and new cultural values that form the future of the how and where we work. The approach to regenerating our workplaces and teams is entirely within their control.
It will be the leadership decisions that we choose to make in the weeks ahead that will lay the foundation for new equations of success.
A taste of home ‘work’
With the experience of having worked from home for weeks on end, people are already reconsidering what work means to them and how they see the future of their work-life choices. Many are questioning their need to maintain an office-based role, and none more than the millennials who have never been a group afraid to challenge the status quo.
The requirement for leadership teams to pivot and relook at the way they manage and motivate their teams has been fast-tracked. And never before have we seen corporates needing to shift culturally, and indeed operationally, at such a speed.
New leadership mores
As the weeks ahead unfold, we will be driven by the need for leadership that goes beyond the rational, and connects with people on a far more authentic and motivating level, within a context that values holistic employee health. This is a time for “Regenerative Leadership”.
It is a time for leaders who can understand their teams beyond the output that they create, and really empathise with them. These will be the leaders that manage to lead their troops to recovery at a pace.
For a number of leaders today, many of whom were trained in a previous era of leadership thinking, this move to more emotionally intelligent, empathetically influenced and regeneratively-led business is infinitely difficult to grasp. When you have the same conversation with a millennial leader, however, they understand intrinsically that this move isn’t an option.
It is what 21st century business, and certainly business post the COVID-19 crisis, is already poised to be founded on.
Place it at the core
It will be in this driving of awareness surrounding the role of regenerative leadership, which systematically puts empathy at the core of organisations that we can build - and rebuild. Business and human resilience will provoke impactful organisational results.
Regenerative leadership sits at the very core of what the organisations of today, and more importantly tomorrow, will need to rely on to thrive.
- Mimi Nicklin is a consultant and influencer.
