Written by: Gauri Kacherikar, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
COVID-19 has disrupted markets and lives at levels not seen by many. As cases worldwide soared, executives were stunned, unprepared for the rapid shifts that would test even the most experienced of experts. The disruption wreaked by this pandemic was swift, unprecedented, and underestimated. While it largely reset the world we once knew, the term “new normal” became a staple in how we defined these novel times. But the impact on and shifts in markets and human behaviors were far from normal and definitely elusive of offering insights necessary to recognize any sense of normalcy or clear path forward.
Businesses that don’t take the time to understand what’s changing and why, as times and trends continue to evolve, will miss their opportunity to earn relevance and thrive in this new world. A significant majority of customers are more than ready for brand humanization. According to Salesforce research, 84% of customers say the company's experience is as important as its products and services — up from 80% in 2018.
During these times of disruption, data-driven empathy enables empathetic marketing, customer engagement, and genuine experiences. As customers’ circumstances, needs, and sentiments evolve rapidly, accumulating a clear understanding becomes mission-critical.
“Change is the Only Constant” — Heraclitus, Greek philosopher
Changing and succeeding under any conditions is something that all of us are currently experiencing as we adapt to the daily challenges of the pandemic. The breathtaking speed took a toll on the physical and emotional well-being of employees. In a traditional workplace, priorities like protecting people and communicating effectively were part of everyday leadership. When the workplace culture moved into the home, remote working altered the status quo. Making intentional choices about work and team became difficult for anyone simultaneously homeschooling children and running a business.
Business leaders need the agility to create a vision and support a company’s greatest asset: its people. As Leaders and Organizations, you know that the change needs to happen, but you don't really know how to go about delivering it. Where do you start? Whom do you involve? How do you see it through to the end? There are many theories about how to "do" change. Many originate with leadership and change management guru John Kotter. A professor at Harvard Business School and world-renowned change expert, Kotter introduced his eight-step change process in his 1995 book, "Leading Change." The first time I read this, I was blown away by the simplicity of the fable and the 8 steps that Kotter has laid down as a framework for organizations to follow their journey on implementing change. No matter where we live or what work we do, all of us have got to expect a devastating series of cataclysmic ripple effects as long as the world’s ice(pandemic) continues to melt. Just as how the penguins solve their problem in this fable and turn it into an opportunity by harnessing the power of “the excitement and the learning that happens… when (we….. leaders, employees, and organizations) come together with others to make something extraordinary happen”.
Employees and Upskill
At the inception of a technological revolution rife with AI and automation, we will cause job obsolescence. As organizations look at cost-saving measures or get more comfortable with remote workers, the onus will be put on the employee to evolve with their position; if they don’t, there is a real chance they could become obsolete. The competition for employment will be fiercer with a remote workforce. Candidates will no longer just be competing with people in their city but from every corner of the globe.
McKinsey discovered that 50% of global job activities could theoretically be automated; that could mean 400-800 million people could be displaced globally due to automation by 2030. Now 85% of the jobs that will be available in 2030 haven’t been invented yet. Those entering the workforce will have a higher probability of an irrelevant skill set tomorrow. An upskill is a must!!
Common examples of upskilling efforts include digital skills, analytics skills, and organizational transformation skills. Upskilling is no longer an expensive and strenuous affair - thanks to the digitization of communication, learning, and upskilling immensely. Availability of e-learning content in various formats and different languages is greatly beneficial.
What stops you from transitioning? Analyze your transferable skills. Now is the time to get creative, and here are some ways to attack it.
Set up goals for your upskilling. Identify your subject matter areas that boost your employability and potential to change to a slightly different job – the more skills you develop, the more opportunities become available to you. Upskilling allows you to stand out from the crowd in the current competitive job market.
Hop on to courses that help you stay relevant to the industry and not lag you behind—Shadow someone in your company with these newly identified skills.
Start contributing as a subject matter expert to your peers. Collaborative learning is important. Every person requires different workouts to build the part of themselves that needs the most attention and focus. So it’s necessary to plan and implement your own learning workouts to become the best professional version of yourself.
Embrace mobile learning: Remote learning is not just for our kids right now. People often use Google and YouTube in the flow of work, and eLearning should be no different – after all, it is just another resource that can be used to craft skills.
Leaders as Coaches
Shifting a leader’s style from managing workloads to coaching employees takes thoughtful efforts by both the leader and the organization. Here’s how to make it happen.
Get to Know Team Members on a Personal Level
Great coaches build relationships that make individuals feel valued and understood. They take the time to evaluate strengths, provide ongoing guidance and connect on a level that builds trust.
To achieve this, you must genuinely know your team to tap into their strengths and understand how to best support them. Start with empathy and patience. Especially in a crisis, we cannot forget that we are all human – and tapping into that humanity is the foundation of leading in such uncertain times. Understanding your team or workforce as individuals is paramount if you’re going to help them navigate the uniqueness of their situations. Are their children’s schools closed? How are they managing the multiple roles family members are now playing together at home? Do they have loved ones in high-risk populations? Are they in an area with reduced or overwhelmed health systems?
Find ways to bring these stories to the surface. Being virtual requires creating space for these chance encounters to occur on purpose because they won’t work by happenstance, and the unsaid will remain unspoken. You can’t help if you don’t know what they need help with, and that requires spending extra time reaching out and listening. If you do this well, you might find yourself building deeper personal relationships.
Double down on deepening trust between employees and the organization, and communicate authentically. Employees (and leaders) are swirling. They need to know they are going to be taken care of. They can rest assured their employer acknowledges their situation and is doing everything they can to ensure business continuity with a heightened appetite for flexibility. Day-over-day, the needs of people are going to change.
Find and highlight the silver linings, the human moments, and the fun. There is plenty of pressure to remain in intense problem-solving mode. There is logic and reason behind doing so, as it is true we have little to no time to waste. However, our ability to respond with the big picture in mind and open people to what is possible is dependent not just on logic but on passion and energy (the Heart we keep mentioning). As humans, we need moments of brightness, levity, connecting more deeply with each other and unlock our creativity. This is a simple concept but requires us to take the time to work it into our days of virtual connection.
And a final thing: as a leader, take care of yourself, too. You may not know what you need right now: you too have never been in this moment, under these circumstances. Sorting this out for yourself will only amplify your appreciation for those around you who are also trying to do the same. This is an extraordinarily equalizing time – a shared human experience. Lead from that common denominator, and you will position your team to Thrive through the uncertainty.
Organizations and Blueprints
Organizations have been forced universally into programs of rapid and drastic transformations. In many cases, this has caused a rapid rethink on how work should be carried out virtually. The pandemic resets major work trends. HR Leaders need to rethink workforce and employee planning, management, and performance and experience strategies. The recent Gartner trend shows 32% of organizations are changing to contingency workers as a cost-saving measure. The pandemic has forced the pendulum of a long-observed pattern to an extreme.
As the pandemic subsides, the global merger and acquisitions (M&A) will rise to their peaks. Companies will focus on expanding their geographic diversification and investment in secondary markets to mitigate and manage risk in times of disruption. This rise in complexity of size and organizational management will create challenges for leaders as operating models evolve.
Organizations must transform to:
Embrace New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s perspective that humans who want to adapt in an age of acceleration must develop “dynamic stability.” Rather than trying to stop an inevitable storm of change, Friedman encourages leaders to “build an eye that moves with the storm, draws energy from it, but creates a platform of dynamic stability within it.”
Leverage the opportunity to return to work by designing the future of work, employing the lessons, practices, and goodwill they built during their accelerated crisis response
Design work for well-being by redesigning work towards output instead of activities
Target programs and policies that bring out workers' personal best while affording them health protections need to work safely.
Use technology as an augmentation or collaboration strategy instead of purely substituting humans with technology.
Invest in resilience for uncertain futures.
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Gauri Kacherikar, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Gauri Kacherikar is a global business leader and has extensive experience working with the Nordics. She comes with unique capabilities and has led businesses across diverse sectors, including Public and Healthcare, Financial Services. She believes her learnings from the Stockholm School of Economics have contributed to her futuristic approach and thought leadership.
As a Coach, she brings an uncanny ability to nurture, coach people to achieve their goals, and advance their career paths. Her mission is to empower women to grow as successful entrepreneurs/corporate executives. Her signature program, "MidLife Energizer," has helped women transform their lives and dreams to find their purpose. "Build Your Executive Presence" is another program that has assisted women in their career trajectories. She has been recognized by the Swedish Royal Family for her gender equality initiatives and is a winner of the Sandvik India Diversity Awards.
