Covid 19 has changed the overall personal practice as well as work practice being followed by us. This Pandemic has not only disrupted the business environment but also our work culture both at our home & work place.
In one hand, Governments are mobilizing the resources to safeguard their citizen & making their efforts to restrict economic downfall of their respective country on the other hand Business leaders are making efforts to protect the interest of their stakeholders despite the devastating impact of this pandemic.
One should not forget that the mutual efforts of every citizen of the country, their government, Business leaders & Healthcare warrior etc. help the country to conquer this challenging time.
Unconventional leadership behaviour& practices
- Listen & Empathize to team members
Leaders who listen to their employees & pay attention to their thoughts & feeling helps them to establish a productive relation, develop bonding & open endless communication channel. This in turn boost the morale & security among the team members that someone is safeguarding them & takes care of any exigency also allows them to focus on work without any worrisome.
This is very much inexorable particularly in this pandemic era. Listening with empathy allows the leaders to see the problem, understand the impact is having & most importantly find the solution. Understanding the problem from team member’s perspective is important for the leaders for future of work particularly when the team members are working remotely. In this uncertain, leaders have to be compassionate with their team members if they want support & result oriented work environment from employees.
2.Embrace Challenges with open heart
Volatility in ecosystem will remain be there quite some time even after this pandemic went off. Accepting this challenge with an open hart will help leaders to adjust their approach towards problem & people as well. Leaders have to accept this uncertainty as a new normal of ecosystem & be prepared for potential problem as an opportunities & capitalize it. They must adapt the changing environment & gets the result in order to thrive in Covid 19 era. Whatever best can be done in this changed scenario should be the top most priority for any leaders. Sooner we adapt & accept new challenges, faster we deliver the result.
3.Create positive environment:
Covid 19 has significantly disrupted the work environment of companies worldwide. Remote work is one of the reason for disruption & has changed the way employees were collaborated & communicated. Two ways communication between employee & company HR is the biggest challenge in this changed environment. However, in order to get out of this problem organizations need to plan business continuity.
Some of the key drivers to create positive work environment are:
- Trust in leadership
- Support of management
- collaboration &
- communication
4.Protect & promote talents
Talents are the back bone of any progressive organization to thrive. When talents feel a business’s activities purpose driven, they are likely to feel satisfied with their contributions and efforts. If the talents feel undervalued & unrewarding, they look for other employment.
Sensitive organizations are taking steps to introduce talent initiatives to turn the vicious cycle into a virtuous circle. In order to retain talent organization must make them valued, respected and valuable.
Some of the best practice an organization can adopt to retain talents are:
- Permit flexible working & work life balance
- Provide Financial wellness
- Reinforcing talent assistance programme
- Arrange talent competition
- Inclusive fun@ work etc.
5.Lookout potential risk
Covid 19 pandemic which pretenses great stress on financial, operational & health risks are the new reality of the business. Only the Resilient organization can survive in this environment. Some the potential risk can be visualized as
- Cyber fraud
- Data security
- Market abuse
- Digital inequality
- Erosion of social cohesion
At this crucial juncture a leader has to be pragmatic &market driven. Courageous leader choose to share their concerns & openly seek help from others. It is important for the leaders to keep an eye on potential risk which has short term & long term landscape & get ready to respond creatively & collaborate.
6.Engage all stakeholders
Engaging with all stakeholders is very crucial for the success of any business. Particularly in this crucial time when business is striving for their survival.
Engagement of all stakeholders not only helps in creating effective strategy but also in achieving goal, providing insight on product innovation & issues needs to be addressed to achieve competitive advantage in market place.
7.Drive cost mind-sets
Cost mind-sets is the need of the hour for any successful organizations. Instead of reducing one time cost, it looks for value on a continual basis. This shouldn’t be a top down approach but be a part of organizational culture where each & every members looks for cost & its impact on business before taking any decision.
In current pandemic circumstances, leaders in almost all organization are facing financial challenges. Hence it is imperative to incorporate cost factor in all financial decision process.
8. Promote digital technology
21st century is the era of digital technology. It would help the business in transforming in streamlining process, engaging employees, interacting with customers & enhancing their experience. Be it business, education, health services everywhere use of digital technology has enabled the process faster & contactless which has led to uninterrupted service even in this pandemic.
By the use of digital technology leaders can accelerate the pace of their business progress, reduce cost & above all collaborate with all stakeholders.
Digital technology has made it possible to work from home (WFH) else it could have been very difficult to collaborate with all stakeholder. Business leaders have already exiting from old ways of working & started adopting new technology to get a pace in development of their business, moreover pandemic has boosted the demand of use of digital technology for contactless service.
Way forward use of digital technology will be the most cost effective way of getting competitive advantage.
9.Build Trust & confidence
Covid 19 has been a jolt to our collective systems & has disrupted the way we have been working in our organization. Business exigency has forced the leaders to take tough decision for survival of business .However, it has led to Trust deficit & low confidence between leaders & their employees.
Recovery of business performance without the trust of the stakeholders rests on insecure ground. Trust fasten teams together and motivates individuals to deliver their best. Therefore task for a resilient leader is to drive the organization & all its stakeholders safely from this crisis.
In order to build trust & confidence among all stakeholders, it is required to focus mainly on these dimension of trust.
- Physical
- Emotional &
- Financial
Leaders who build trust & confidence in their team will get more productivity whether it is employees, vendors or customers.
10. Determine opportunities in uncertainty
Covid 19 is an unprecedented health emergency which has led to economic stress globally .Presently no one is sure how long this lockdown will last & what will be the new consumer behaviour.
The business which are willing to look at the world from different lens & would ready to meet the new challenges will survive & thrive in a long run. The best way to convert these uncertainty into opportunities are as follows.
- Embrace new reality
- Develop flexibility in systems
- Launch a risk management plan
- Practice value based decision making
- Promise to a direction &
- Move forward with persuasion
In this VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty and Complexity & Ambiguity) world, uncertainty is dawning as a new reality of the life & critical for a leader to acknowledge & vision it & take help of all the stakeholders to succeed.