How Has Leadership Changed Over The Years?

I sometimes think about how the leadership styles have changed over the last 20 years.

I remember in the early days of my career, senior leadership mixing up with subordinates like their own was a rare breed. It was considered cool to be intense, to maintain an “executive presence”, a swagger. Like a lion prowling around in his territory, employees would think twice before stepping in that corner office. This distance between the leadership and the “rest of the lot” was important. It signified the class divide. It was all part of the craft.

Clearly the tactics of yesteryear don’t work anymore in the modern world.

Empathy, humility, collaboration and consensus building are some of the key leadership themes of this era. Adaptability and flexibility are merely pre-requisites now just to stay in the game.

This generation of knowledge workers, they're smart. They often know more about what they do than their boss does. They’re independent thinkers trying to define their lives, not just by what they do at work but far beyond that. Views around loyalty to a workplace have taken a 180-degrees shift. They have their own ideas about how a business should be run, what an ideal culture should look like.

They don’t need to be micromanaged. They need managers who can act as enablers; who can guide them; inspire them with a story, a vision.

If you’re managing people, what are you doing to inspire your team? Perhaps even more important, what are you doing to inspire yourself in the first place during these challenging times?

I personally feel that practicing self care, managing my own mental health and believing that the work I do is meaningful are some key ingredients that provide me with the intent and energy to galvanize my team into positive action.

Easier said than done though and that's the challenge. It requires an intentional and conscious effort. Some days you're down but bouncing back quick is the name of the game!