Strive to Thrive in 2019 – Seven Critical Workplace Trends & Leadership Success Strategies
Globalization, disruption, agility, big data, digitalization: as 2019 settles in, these are just some of the changes confronting organizations which calls for a major mind shift for leaders to stay ahead. Paragon Leadership International’s executive coaches and talent consultants shared their views of what they see as the most critical workplace trends, and what leaders can do to support such a magnitude change.
1. Enterprise-wide transformation will continue to occur at an unprecedented rate.
Provide more clarity about “what” matters most, “why” it matters, and “where” change can have the greatest impact. Encourage self-directed “Essentialism” practices, which are described in Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown.
2. New work will impact the ways and means of cooperation and therefore of (team) performance.
Helping leaders’ transition from roles as “executor” (What can I do to win?) to “creator” (How can I help others succeed?).
3. Working remotely will continue to become more widespread with potentially 75% of all employees having some degree of remote working arrangement by 2020.
Companies, leaders, and teams need to adapt their approach to different dynamics and demands of a remote workforce, including communication strategies and connectivity.
4. The brain drain will continue – 10,000 people a day turning 65 with a continued extremely tight labor market, particularly for skilled and senior roles.
Organizations must accelerate their efforts to develop leaders who can seamlessly replace the loss of experience and propel the organization forward. Greater tapping of cross-generational optimization will be required, with so many baby boomers and millennials, and now Gen Zs, working side by side.
5. There will be much less formality regarding titles, work hours, and work venue.
More investment will be required in employees to learn, grow, and experiment.
6. Volatility of our times will provoke creativity and fear and make scheduling things more difficult.
Hopefully, leaders will use and leverage the stark example of our polarized, dysfunctional government as a call to unity and collaboration to address issues that require diverse and innovative thinking, shared goals and cooperation.
7. Technology (AI, digital twins, and augmented analytics) will demand continuous change and impact nearly every organizational system.
Leaders need to be much more visionary and systemic in their thinking to keep up with the rate of change and leaders will need to be constantly thinking about what is next.
Check back next week for coaching tips for your leaders.