The Big Pivot for the New NOW
The view from the other side of crisis is a new and different workplace reality. We are starting to glimpse changes coming to global business on the other side of the pandemic, and nearly all will be disruptive – both positively and negatively – to varying degrees.
The most important changes will be to your people as they address the impact of isolated working environments, anxiety over their jobs, and their own (and their family’s) well being. The conditions for employee disengagement and lost productivity may be extremely high.
In addition to those critical needs, employees need empathetic leadership that they can trust; they need technology support for the virtual workplace; they need leaders who can model how to cope in spite of setbacks, or barriers, or limited resources. They need presence-driven leadership.
5 Critical Priorities that have Emerged from the Pandemic
There will be adjustments to entire business paradigms as the “work environment” and the “office” undergo radical redefinition. Then there are the more profound challenges as companies work through immediate, near-term, and long-term priorities. But research by DDI* shows these five critical areas will be the highest priority for leaders and executives on the other side of this crisis:
Empathy
Trust
Well-Being
Resilience
Virtual workplace
Four of those five priorities emerging out of the “new normal” rely heavily on soft skills; primarily emotional and influential intelligence.
§§§