Ineffective leadership has tangible and far-reaching consequences. It is expensive and can cost up to seven percent of a company’s annual turnover. As observed, the quality of leadership influences employee turnover for ages. Employees not only leave their position but, most importantly, their superiors. Better direction can save you from as much as 32 percent of voluntary employee turnover. Another consequence is lower customer satisfaction due to poor management practices. It leads to almost 44 percent lower earnings growth.

For a long time, the leadership image was that of the top-down approach with orders and instructions from above to a group of loyal subordinates who should follow without questioning. However, our business world today is becoming smarter, faster, more agile, and more democratic. The digital economy has transformed the way we work, which has changed the face of leadership. The manager of yesterday – the lone heroic fighter in the executive chair – is becoming obsolete faster than ever before.

1.       WORKING WITH AGILE TEAMS AND AD HOC EXECUTIVES

Today, teams do almost all of the work. The static corporate hierarchy has opened the door to fluid, cross-functional teams. These are often put together for specific projects or tasks, and after their completion, new teams form for the next ones. Instead of static groups with direct superiors tasked with executing plans, today’s executives oversee cross-departmental or even global teams. Leading such task-related teams requires a new set of skills. Since the corporate hierarchies are flatter in cross-functional networks, leadership has become more connected and dynamic.

2.       DECISION-MAKING ACROSS FUNCTIONS AND POSITIONS

Organizational leadership is now one of the fastest-growing careers. Today, artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, and data science have become our realities. New functional practices, such as the DevOps process improvement approach to software development, have emerged. Leaders must be efficient in all these areas.

New methods of agile and design-oriented thinking have become established across companies. Thus, candidates who complete their masters in organizational leadership can find themselves working in this field as a training and development manager. Firms are now looking for highly qualified and experienced individuals for leading roles to meet modern-day needs. Cross-role work is the norm now. According to Skillsoft and HR.com’s study, 70 percent of the participants say that decision-making today often gets distributed across functions and positions.

3.        EMPOWERMENT INSTEAD OF MICROMANAGEMENT

An essential technique in today’s executive repertoire is the practice of “empowering leadership.” While yesterday’s manager gave orders, the modern manager exerts influence through coaching and motivation. Instead of imposing a predetermined direction on the team, a manager creates the team context and corrects the course if necessary. Today’s leaders need to foster trust and a collaborative work environment in which employees can develop, offer ideas, and take risks.

Progress no longer depends on the manager’s approval for every action. Responsible personnel stick to micromanagement, prevent innovation and are increasingly disadvantaged compared to more agile competitors.

4.       PROMOTION OF INNOVATIONS AS A CORE TASK

The core task of executives has changed from monitoring administrative work to stimulating innovation. Customer expectations are rising, and companies feel pressured to bring new products and services to market at a steadily and rapidly growing pace. Business survival depends more than ever on the ability to innovate quickly and time and again. Executives need to learn to recognize trends and opportunities, take customer feedback into account, and embrace employees’ promising ideas.

5.       CONTEXTUAL THINKING OVER ONE-DIMENSIONAL THOUGHT PROCESSING

There is a mismatch between what organizations need from their leaders and how leaders make an effort to meet those needs. The training of influential leaders today requires a new approach. Teaching skills is not enough. A contemporary mindset should improve managers’ ability to adapt their behavior to different situations rapidly changing.

6.       DEMOCRATIZING MANAGEMENT TASKS

Today, work gets mostly done in teams that are often project-based and cross-functional. Therefore, it is necessary to develop managers at all company levels. It is an organic development. More and more companies are giving up silo hierarchies in favor of network-like structures with flat orders. The influence of the members of task-related teams automatically increases.

Instead of waiting for instructions from above, dedicated employees shape the team’s progress. We are already taking on de facto management tasks. In the Skillsoft/HR.com study, 91 percent of those surveyed confirmed that these informal leaders could often be more effective than the formal ones.

7.       NEED-BASED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

Using this organic trend, future-oriented companies are already actively “democratizing” their management programs. They are expanding leadership development training to all company levels, rather than just focusing on upper-tier executives. However, according to the Skillsoft study, at over 40 percent in most companies, the lion’s share of the budgeted for executives’ development programs is still reserved for its upper levels.

However, 61 percent of those surveyed think that executives’ development in their companies will be more democratic in the next three years. The need for effective leadership at all levels is becoming more and more evident. Organizational leadership simplifies the offer of learning individually-tailored needs of a wide variety of employee groups. It also meets employees’ expectations that learning should be available on-demand and integrated into their workflow.

Learning platforms are becoming more and more intelligent and incorporate predictive analytics to identify special skills and appropriate training content. For example, they suggest a curriculum for first-time managers to an employee who has just got promoted. Micro-learning components significantly change the courses that allow integration into everyday work. Instead of time-consuming workshops, short learning units tailored to requirements can contribute to making learning a continuous practice and, consequently, promoting agile ways of thinking and continuously changing new skills.

8.       HAVE CONVICTIONS

According to Harvard Business School, approximately fifty percent of employees feel that their managers don’t appreciate and respect them. A true leader has convictions and beliefs, but he is mostly not afraid to affirm them loud and clear. It would help if you were confident enough in your skills and qualities to take the risk of expressing your ideas whenever necessary. However, having confidence in yourself does not mean being devoid of humility. You must use this confidence to support your ideas and projects and those of your collaborators, and keep in mind that you can also be wrong.

Listening skills are a prerequisite for good communication. It allows you to get to know your employees and to adapt your speech for an optimal impact. Integrity is one of the keys to whether or not we trust the people around us. A good leader must know how to encourage success and, above all, assume the errors in the event of failure, without disguising reality. It is about your credibility and legitimacy.

CONCLUSION

Before leading a team, you were probably under the responsibility of a manager. What did you expect from your managers? What characteristics or qualities made them good managers in your eyes? Was it exemplarity, integrity, a specific character, or their proven skills? Know how to remember the expectations you had then, what you had a particular interest in, and become the charismatic leader you wanted to have at that time!