How are business and HR leaders navigating the new world we live-work in?

Blog

We are examining leadership and coaching in a changed world and how disruption is also an opportunity in a new series of articles. We will also look at how progressive companies navigate the challenges of today.

Our first article takes a look at how leadership is changing: Our new reality has seen everything accelerate as a result of the pandemic. As a consequence, the world of work has changed, and this means the leaders of 2019 are not necessarily the leaders of the future.

The nature of the workforce is changing too; over 1 million people are now working past the age of 65 and this is set to triple by 2022. Over a quarter (27%) of the UK workforce works part time and 44% of people aged 30-39 want to! Employees are multi-cultural, highly networked with high expectations around working flexibly and intelligently, in a way that suits them. Clearly people now want something different, especially as work has become something you do rather than a place to which you go. So, what exactly should leadership involve in the world today?

In a recently published op-ed for The Times, Vodafone’s Chief Executive Nick Read wrote: ‘The big question is: can our “office” of the future be defined by flexibility, productivity, and creativity, rather than location?’ For Vodafone, the answer is yes, and clearly all companies need to be ‘future ready’ and not just in terms of advanced IT capability, but with a different approach to leadership. So, what does this actually mean?

How do Leaders get the best out of their people in the new world?

The Gartner Top Priorities for HR leaders in 2021 highlighted critical skills and competencies (65%), plus current and future leadership bench (44%) as crucial. However, we believe some companies will have put talent development on the back burner during 2020 and now, in 2021, it’s more important than ever.

At IG, we partner with line leaders and people functions to drive performance in global organisations and prepare the future today. We have three practice areas: Coaching Leaders, Developing Teams and Collective Development. We combine an evidence-based approach, build foundations in coaching and tailor our work to each organisations’ unique context.

Developing Teams - Effectiveness and High-Performance Culture

We have a deep understanding of what drives performance. We know what undermines it too; how the small, hairline cracks and misalignments in leadership teams manifest as significant silos and non-collaboration further down the organisation.  IG’s Team Effectiveness is a leadership and development programme designed to spark collective change and enhance long-term performance. 

 

“Team effectiveness starts at the top and this means leadership teams need to be agile, swift in decision-making and in execution. Debate in the board room needs to be constructive, challenging, and balanced. These are skills which don’t simply appear overnight when you arrive as a new Exec member, they have to be nurtured and developed. This is why smart CEOs invest time (yes time!) and money in team effectiveness. They need to unearth some valuable truths in the process: What are the behaviours that support high performance? What are the behaviours that limit a strong performance culture?”

Ann Pickering, Strategic Advisor, IG

We understand every team is unique and that context matters. Our tailored approach to team effectiveness reflects this and our consultants’ partner with teams to explore collective identity, reputation and support sustained growth and change. We have successfully helped our clients by challenging their teams to take a deeper look at their leadership through a combination of data rationality, objectivity, and candour. 

“People are starting to say, ‘I can impact the business in my way, and I know how to do that:’ and now we’re putting the structure in place to allow that to happen. It’s early days, but the team are already coming together and working differently. IG managed to achieve a huge amount in the limited time we gave them, and we look forward to their continued support – and challenge! – throughout this new chapter of our journey.”

Managing Director

In our next article, we look the benefits of coaching for leadership development.

For more information, click here for Indigogold Team Effectiveness

Sign up

Enter your email address to sign up to the Indigogold newsletter.