Change is inevitable. In this piece I reflect on the importance of leaders being willing to adjust to change to ensure success.
At the forefront of business strategy and operations, leaders consider changing benchmarks or action plans to generate greater outputs. Few, however, consider making reflective changes themselves. At a leadership conference I attended this year, the importance of continual self-growth and adaptation was highlighted as the key to succeeding in the contemporary business environment.
THE CHARM OF CHANGE
In October 2019, McKinsey, a top executive business consultancy, wrote that the way companies
improve productivity is to focus on being "better, faster, and cheaper." Although a good and effective
maxim, it is no longer as applicable and encompassing as it used to be. Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeya, a speaker at a leadership conference, highlighted that the average life expectancy of a company has decreased from 75 years to 6 years. In light of such stark changes, old approaches cannot be relied on as guarantors of success. Instead, company products and services must be put on pathways of continous agility so that they can adapt and adjust. This need to steer toward revised business models was evident well before the pandemic. In forcing us to change many of our habits, however, the global pandemic has only underscored the need for such change within business operations as well. Many have discovered the charms (and pains) of working from home. According to a survey conducted in the USA, as many as 87% of respondents said they want to continue working from home. Multinational companies, such as HSBC and Shell, have started to offer employees the option to work from home and the office, even in countries where working from home was not practiced at all before. According to a Gallup study, employee engagement is even more important in times of economic downturn and instability, as is the case with the current pandemic. To even begin to access employee
engagement, managers must have the ability to be reflective and adjust. Such malleability allows for top managers today to find the imaginary buttons of every team employee, which would motivate them to give 110% of their talents and willpower.
ENABLING CHANGE
What tools can be used in order to make adjustments that align with current and foreseeable business
trends? Technology and science hold the capacity to hugely contribute to successful changes. The more we discover and come up with ways to do things better, faster and cheaper, the more resources there are to develop completely new ideas. In such transient and transformative times, however, advancements in technology and science are not stand-alone solutions. It is important to remember that such shifts require collective action. To move into a space of constant agility that contends with the modern business environment, strong team leadership is required. A completely different kind of skill-set when leading teams compared to
increasing productivity and tuning the production line. People are not machines. They do not have buttons to start them and increase their motivation. To lead with continuous advancement and change, leaders must allow themselves and their teams to evolve. A great place to start is for leaders to adopt a growth mindset, whereby they embrace change as a learning opportunity so that they too enter can continuously reflect and grow.
