Leadership for the Fifth Industrial Revolution
Leadership for the Fifth Industrial Revolution
In today’s often disruptive business climate and rapidly changing world, the workforce comes to rely even more on their leaders. They look to their leaders for help to make sense of the world around them, to ensure more clarity around direction, and for a stronger sense of purpose that translates into their professional occupation giving meaning to their work. Uncertainty calls for leaders with an ability to engage, bring people together and help make people move in one direction, together. In this article we explore the type of leadership style that is in tune with our times – a sustainable leadership.
Good leadership is not something static, but constantly evolving, adapting to the context where it resides. As we navigate through the complexities of the 21st century, traditional paradigms of leadership are increasingly being challenged, faced with increasing stakeholder demands to have organisations better equipped and able to meet our dynamic world. The expectations of employees for instance, and the challenges of a rapidly advancing technological landscape, and the urgent call for sustainable practices have ushered in a new era—one that demands a re-evaluation of leadership style more fit for purpose. A leader's authority can no longer be solely defined by hierarchical structures and unwavering directives. Today's workforce is calling for a different breed of leadership, one that is adaptable, empathetic, and committed to sustainability. This shift is not merely a trend; it is a fundamental response to the changing needs of our interconnected and socially conscious society.
“Today’s workforce is calling for a different breed of leadership, one that is adaptable, empathetic, and committed to sustainability.”
The context today
To understand why a sustainable leadership style is in focus we need to take closer look at some megatrends of our time.
High pace of change and disruption
With a higher pace of change there is increasing focus on leaders’ ability to lead innovation and learn from change. They need to be able to navigate ambiguity and create clarity from complexity.
Talent shortage
Looking at the research into how leaders can successfully attract and retain the best talents, two things surface; 1) leaders who work to develop their people and 2) leaders that are able to convey a purpose with what they do.
Global challenges
We face a number of global challenges and foremost a need to address climate changes. UNs 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development along with the business world’s adoption of ESG standards, has made sustainability the hot topic, particularly these days the metrics that will help us measure and track progress.
Globalisation
How do you succeed in engaging a workforce that is spread all over the world and often remotely? Formulating a vision that allows for autonomy is a big part of the answer. Making the people within the organisation emotionally connect with that vision will help you get the most out of everyone’s commitment to work towards common goals.
Information overload
Not only do we have too much information, but there are also more tools than ever before available, providing us with false or misleading information. Leading with authenticity and prioritising clear communication will help combat information fatigue.
Sustainable Leadership
Combining an understanding of these megatrends that impact our day-to-day context, the desired leadership behaviours and research into various leadership styles throughout the decades, gives us four key themes:
Importance of purpose and a sustainable, long-term perspective.
Ability to process and adapt to a quickly changing world.
Building excellent communication with people in ways that engage and connects with their intrinsic motivation.
Capacity and courage to do something new and continuously develop the people and the organisation as a whole.
Analysing these themes, we at Alumni we have built a framework that we call our Alumni Sustainable Leadership Model. In our pursuit of identifying and promoting exceptional leaders who can navigate the challenges of a rapidly changing world, we firmly believe that there are fundamental traits in leaders that play a pivotal role for success today.
Our model for sustainable leadership encompasses four over-arching key competencies: humanity, agility, authenticity, and an unwavering drive for growth. While representing separate and unique facets of sustainable leadership, each of the four competencies are connected and interact in ways where strengths in one area also adds value to others.
“ We wish to empower sustainable leaders to effectively position their organisations not only for survival but for thriving within our dynamic world. ”
Incorporating these distinctive qualities into their leadership methodology empowers sustainable leaders to effectively position their organisations not only for survival but for thriving within our dynamic world. By nurturing collaborative endeavours, embracing forward-looking mindsets, and championing diversity, they cultivate a milieu of innovation and resilience. This environment enables their organisations to proactively confront disruptions and realise sustainable growth, all while upholding ethical standards and nurturing the well-being of all stakeholders.
Solutions for multifaceted challenges
With this framework, we at Alumni are able to identify, assess and help organisations make more informed hiring decisions, but we are also able to work with development initiatives to help the leaders of today strengthen the key competencies needed to drive success.
The Alumni Sustainable Leadership solution provides a foundation that covers key areas that enable a successful holistic transformation:
Implement with Impact
Alumni provides advice on how to integrate the Alumni Sustainable Leadership model into your organisation’s Talent Management processes, to ensure operational efficiency and optimising the benefits for the wider organisation.
Leadership Assessment
providing evidence-based assessments of leaders, ensuring a systematic and precise approach to talent acquisition, succession planning, management audits and Human Due Diligence processes as part of M&A:s. Alumni’s unique combination of functional and psychological expertise related to different roles, business areas and markets allow for an in-depth evaluation which directly connects to the needs of your business.
Leadership Development
Alumni offers a powerful and flexible Sustainable Leadership development suite that includes a Sustainable Leadership 360 for evaluating and developing your current leaders, Management Team Development workshops, and Sustainable Leadership Development Programs.
A key driver for economic growth
Having sustainable leaders will impact the wellbeing of employees, tie to long-term prosperity of the company and set visions that have a positive impact on our world. Leading sustainable organisations is not only about prioritising people and planet at the expense of the profit. The market favours organisations that prioritise sustainability and want to see profit with a purpose.
Sustainable leadership embraces a holistic approach that addresses environmental, social, and economic dimensions while fostering collaboration and driving transformation. This type of leadership supports the building of durable businesses in a disruptive world. Being able to identify and assess as well work to develop these key competencies within the leadership is an imperative, to future-proof your organisation.
Did you know that Alumni in addition to working with top Executive Search, Interim Management and Recruitment, are also experts in the field of Leadership Assessment and Development? We are happy to help if you are looking for ways to select and grow the leaders that will boost the success of your organisation.
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