Leadership of the future
Hello, humanism; goodbye, hostility.
We have seen many protests around the world as reactions to inhumane behavior with some groups of people or individuals — due to their skin color, gender, profession, religious beliefs etc. In the bright future as I see it, intolerance will be the thing of the past. Unfortunately, currently it happens in many environments — social circle, directly or behind a person’s back; at a workplace, public places. Perhaps the best medicine for hatred and intolerance is peacefully speaking up and education.
What people want at a workplace?
They want to be heard and appreciated for their authenticity — they work, study for many years, develop their talents and their chosen skills / profession. They want equal opportunity, fair competition and, of course, their human rights. I was lucky to work with many amazing professionals and top organizations in the industry, which I can highly recommend. So it’s easy to forget that there is another side — hostile colleagues, bosses, workplace culture. Let’s stay safe and watch out for the red flags.
Highly emphatic people will sometimes justify the behaviors as “caring”, “just a bad day”, “didn’t mean it”. An important reminder, that a healthy workplace communication means honesty, emphatic team leading, collaboration, direct and clear communication, constructive and positive feedback. Naturally, I want to ask — why toxic leaders are tolerated? In short, money. For example, a leader is earning loads of money, however, the method is considered unethical, not up to industry standards or exploitative. And the solution? It looks like, the only way to fix the situation is to leave, with your mental health, money, morality / values, confidence intact. These are the areas the toxic individual may target; be extra careful after you leave — they may behave revengefully for no reason.
What our clients want?
High integrity, high value products.
Our clients, paying us for products or services, want to receive good customer service, tailored for their needs, privacy, data security and high quality product or service. Ever been a client of a firm, whose database was hacked? That vulnerability is every client’s worst nightmare, especially when payment details are exposed. In the future workplace, data security will be the top priority.
Let’s talk about innovation, costs and profit.
We are all different and our views on business culture and values are different. It is important to find the right business fit for your personality. For example, some companies value profit above all — above employees, above high quality product. Some organizations will change over time, others probably won’t. It is obvious — if we want to create the best product, we need to invest money and time, invest in best talents. In order to keep best talents, we need to motivate them and provide a good work-life balance. Perhaps working remotely on an exotic island is motivating an individual to create an innovative product?
Can we have innovation without empathy? Empathy for customers, emotional intelligence, trust, “being in their shoes” when providing a service / product are imperative for innovation.
And innovation helps grow economy.
I believe I have an innovative business idea, I want to “sell it” and get a loan for my business. I may go to a bank or a private investor. If they believe in my idea, they will carry out certain checks, to make sure I have a solid business plan, no debts, can handle the risk and will be able to repay; then will trust me with a loan. In my opinion, there is always a business opportunity somewhere, the old supply and demand rule.
What happened when the global COVID-19 crisis hit? Some stocks went down and others jumped up. For a stock market, even a crisis may be a good business opportunity. Same with real — life. Some businesses grabbed the opportunity to help people in crisis, plus make profit by producing masks, adapting by transforming restaurant service into a take-away and so on.
If people innovate and the risk pays off, people trust in the future more, loans become more affordable, interest rates drop; businesses can collect money easier, economic grows, science innovates etc. In contrary fashion, in nature, some animal may survive only at the expense of another animal. Who eats who first? Let’s be real, humane — we can all thrive.
For inspiration and though provoking ideas, I highly recommend reading both Sapiens and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari.
