A leader who wants to be truly exceptional should be aware of all the current happenings and trends that are affecting their organization, their industry or sector, their team members, and themselves. Today organizations across geographies are witnessing massive changes in the macroeconomic factors that are impacting the cash flow, success, and morale of the employees in the organization. Being a good leader needs a lot of unlearning and learning of new skills and techniques.

Changes happening around should serve as indicators, on how to improve the way the organization has been operating. Disruptions in the organization can be challenging, exceptional, and unknown like what the organizations are facing today. But leaders should consider every challenge as an opportunity and figure out new ways of operations that were never implemented earlier.

Let us look at some of the leading trends that will help you lead better even in times of crisis:

1. Offer Flexibility

Leaders should be clear about the requirements and the expectations of the work quality and the efforts that are expected from the employees. But at the same time leaders should be open to discuss and try new ways of implementation that provide flexibility to the employees and teams. A recent study has shown that 90% of the employees believe that their excitement for work would increase if their leaders were more lenient with the time schedules.

2. Managing Remote Workforce

As flexible working increases so are the challenges related to managing the workforce will increase. Leaders should follow some of the below mentioned general strategies to manage the challenges of the remote workforce:

• Leaders need to build and maintain relationships based on trust, as the work now would not be done under the direct supervision of the leader.
• Leaders should set well defined and clear standards for the work expectations and the employee conduct
• A leader needs to be in constant touch with the employees and should maintain positive morale thus enhancing the organization’s culture
• Improve communication and restrict quarantine by getting employees face-to-face via online video calls.

3. Manage Accountability

With the remote work option, the need for accountability in leaders and teams is increasing rapidly. A leader should manage accountability with the employees to ensure that the bonding in the teams is reliable and robust.

4. Build High-Performance Teams

As the world is changing at rapid speed, employees should grow, morph, and adapt as per the changing market demands and the needs of the business. So employees constantly need to acquire new skills and upgrade themselves. Leaders should have clearly defined processes as to how they are assisting their teams to acquire the new skills needed for the growth of the organization. Leaders cannot themselves develop new skills in their teams, but they can inspire and confront them to take the necessary steps and thus build high-performance teams.

5. Human Resource a Strategic Role

Human Resource plays a strategic and most important role in an organization when there is a change and the employees are trying their level best to cope up with the new ways of operations. When employees are struggling to manage work and home, struggling to take breaks while fighting the distraction from family and kids, internet connectivity issues, and many more, it is the responsibility of the HR to offer support to assure work continuity without affecting employee’s personal needs.  

Being a leader today is frightening, but you always have your colleagues and teams, to help you sail through the tough times.  All in all, leadership will keep undergoing changes as organizations are facing a more complex and competitive environment than ever before. As a result, the competencies of the leader who succeeds in the modern-day business world is changing. 

Written & Compiled by Faber Mayuri