Leading with Compassion - Everyone comes with their own set of challenges, understanding, and priorities. What is important is to not judge too quickly and trust the individual and their capabilities. Understanding each other's perspectives and creating an environment of transparency and trust will lead to solving complex business/people problems effectively.
Being Agile - Agility is a mindset, which, in current times is non-negotiable. With so many variables, there is nothing that we can put our bet on. What is working today might not work tomorrow. Having an inventor's mindset to tackle volatile and uncertain times will ensure that we do not get overwhelmed by the uncertainty. Being agile in our practices, processes, and connections is the need of the hour.
Role-based work culture - Organizations and Leaders need to emphasize more on role-based work culture which in turn will ensure further decentralization and speed up decision making. Increased proactiveness and ownership across the hierarchy are becoming the new norm.
2020 will remain the most unforgettable year, ripples of which can still be felt, in the life of humankind. It exposed the vulnerability of several in the leadership roles. THREE lessons I learned in the last 12 months are –
Be the beckon of hope- So many people lost their jobs and lives to COVID, economies crashed, morals crumpled, leaving despair all around. I think it was an exceptional year that taught us more human values like resilience, compassion, and empathy than all the training combined on these topics in the last 100 years. I call this an exceptional year, a year of humanistic leadership. I strongly believe that it was this human connection that all of us forged was the silver lining in the cloud. I learned to respect life, cherish people, and most importantly help them in our own small or big way. I learned to give others hope no matter how desperate the situation is.
Have a fallback plan- Another important lesson that we are all taught in our childhood, but I learned last year is saving for the rainy day. I realized that how important it is to create a niche for oneself and to investing in continuous self-development. I invested in acquiring a new set of skills so I can use them to create a self-sustaining business model in the future.
Life is too short to complain - This has been my most important life lesson last year. I learned to be more thankful for every little thing that I have in my life. Work from home made me more gratefully acknowledge the fact I have a home and work (that we usually crib about). I invested in relationships instead of buying new useless electronic gadgets.
I would like to conclude by saying that we as humans possess this great inherent power to support and help each other, it is just that sometimes when we forget, HE reminds us of this, our larger purpose in life. Thank you COVID 19, Thank you 2020.
2020 was one of the most challenging years in our professional tenure. We all learned the actual meaning of VUCA. The year was a test of our skills and relationship with our employees and colleagues. My three leadership lessons in the past 12 months are as follows:
Reflecting on last year's events through my lens as an HR professional, itÂ’s evident than ever before that, a business is only as strong as its people, and the people who are your pillar need care and compassion to be a part of and sustain the new norm both physically and mentally. My learnings are -
The unprecedented times of 2020 brought to me the following leadership learnings. People First Attitude - Empathy and trust became the most important drivers for leading teams towards a common objective. Leaders who trusted their people in these difficult times and did not haunt them with the constant chase of working hours delivered better performance than others
Digital Solutions are the Key - Pandemic led to a big-time cultural shift with the expedited realization of CompaniesÂ’ digital transformation plans. It is proved that there is no existence outside of the digital world.
Resilience and Agility - Leaders need to be resilient enough to absorb the disruptions like Covid19, and agile enough to think and act faster and differently than ever before, come up with innovative solutions to build a sustainable and profitable business model that can run amid the New Normal.
The year 2020 was a learning year for everybody. VUCA was the most abused and used jargon in the corporate world. However, we all learned the actual meaning of VUCA in 2020. In fact, it was a great leadership lesson.
1st Lesson - In a crisis situation, leaders are in the line of fire from various key people in the ecosystem, customers, government, employees, stakeholders, society, and political leaders. These all people may have unrealistic expectations from the leaders
2nd Lesson - Leaders too, have their weaknesses and blind spots. Maturity is when we recognize those weaknesses and blind spots and be vulnerable.
3rd Lesson - Purpose, values, and creating the trust capital are crucial. Build trust during good times, so that you are not alone during a crisis situation. As a leader continuously invests in building meaningful relations with employees, customers, and other stakeholders in the ecosystem
My THREE Leadership Lessons of the last year are –
Most of us had never imagined that we would be leading our Human Assets in a Pandemic, so massive. 2020 was one of the most challenging years in our professional tenure.
It was a test of our skills and relationship with our employees and colleagues.
Managing remotely, preparing self and workforce for the new normal has been a challenge. Pandemic has taught us many lessons but the 3 important and appealing lessons, to me are: