Leadership Trends
Over the past few years, outlook has certainly changed in the way employees view their leaders and how leaders take care of their employees. Organizations have taken the opportunity to prioritize and revamp communication styles, work-life balance, and especially leadership trends.
I read an article in Forbes a few months back, and they listed four main leadership trends that organizations should be following in 2022:
- Connecting People to Purpose
- Focus on Employee Experience
- Career Pathing and Succession Planning
- Creating a Culture of Adaptability and Accountability.
As an organizational leader, it’s essential to understand that employees should have just as much purpose outside of work as they do inside of work. Creating a sense of belonging and a distinct mission inside of your organization establishes the connection between those purposes. What drives your employees? What keeps them goal-oriented? What may be holding them back in giving 110%? Breaking down those barriers by opening communication and dialogue reflects on a good employee experience and provides the transparency they need to feel comforted in both their performance and work culture.
Caring Leadership Means Giving Recognition
Imagine giving a job all you have day-in and day-out, but slowly over time, you transition to a steady, well-balanced work performance because you’ve been given little to no praise. Why work hard when no one seems to care? Without any indication of opportunities for advancement, you’re left to feel like there’s no way up from here. An integral part of caring leadership is taking the time to give recognition continually and create opportunities for your employees to succeed. A little employee appreciation goes a long way. Carving out time to have one-on-one discussions will not only open that communication door, but it will provide insight into who may be ready to advance when the organization is ready to promote from within. Building those relationships will help choose who’s ready to step into new roles and continue to drive productivity.
Workplace Culture Matters
Defining or redefining the culture of a team or organization is a very complex undertaking. However, having your leadership values on display and integrating them into your actions and words molds the entirety of your culture. Being open to change and adaptability is not something that comes naturally to some of us. But as leaders, we must learn how to take a negative situation and turn it into a positive one. A part of that is learning to be accountable for yourself and extending that accountability to your employees.
Regardless of your role within your organization, there will always be areas for improvement, such as learning how to implement these leadership trends. We all have room to grow, and when we embrace that growth, we sustain it.