3rd Round Table - "Leaders For Today Tomorrow"

"Leaders for Today & Tomorrow" is a future-focused discussion with progressive HR leaders who are driving their organizations into the future, through current uncertainties.

For the Round Table held on 4th September 2020, our eminent panelists from different organizations shared their perspective and a peek into the future of leadership with us.

Discussion Synopsis:

Topic 1: What has changed and not changed for you?

• The old mindset against Work from Home as a concept has changed
• What didn't change for us during this period was commitment & passion, rest everything changed.
• Active communication across all levels of employees has started. We could see this in pockets earlier
• Decision making has become faster, with leaders meeting together more often virtually
• Shifted to onboarding new employees online. The question remains - how do we make a new employee experience the culture digitally?
• We have had to take each day as it is, prioritize activities and then take ahead.

Topic 2: How have your organization's business priorities changed or changing – Current and Future Roadmap?

• The focus is on managing and retaining existing business. Also bring in cost consciousness
• The approach to business planning is to safeguard the future business of any possible risks.
• Diversify the products portfolio by aligning it to the business strategy. How can our employees sell virtually?
• Adapting the L&D initiatives to the demand of the how we should create the new customer experiences, by keeping the customer’s needs & wants in mind
• The learning needs have changed because of the innovative solutions we needed to provide to the customers
• We must reskill & upskill our employees. We may need to look at talent in the future who can do multiple roles.

Topic 3: What are the skills & competencies that we may need in the future?

• The old working styles will not work now & in the future. Leaders must be more compassionate, flexible, resilient and be able to stand up to challenges
• The competencies that we would need for the future are: Personalized Leadership, learning agility, Innovative mindset, Humility, & Authenticity

Few Quotes from our Panellists:

Mukta Nakra feels that “Empathy & Compassion have quickly become sort after behaviors in all the managers / leaders”.

She also shared "We have taken all decisions keeping our employees in mind so that they remain committed to our brand promise to ‘serve, sell and create magic’ for our customers”.

Mukta also said that “The future of work is being shaped by automation and a digitally-enabled workforce. As we settle in a new world of work, organizations will need reimagine how work is organized, identify opportunities to develop existing talent across shifting skills while continue to buy the new emerging skills.”

Niharika Mohan shared that “the agility of the Leadership team to Pivot in the current times has been amazing” which also helped them to quickly reorganize the way they look at their go-to-market approach. She also shared that “Personalized leadership is the need of the hour, where demonstration of compassion, concern and empathy are at the core.”

She also added that “When we look at leadership, we should be looking at disruptors. We shall truly be tested on the work (Strategic Leadership initiatives) that we have done in the last 2 years.” That being said, Niharika also questioned – “Can this new way or working last forever?” Will the leaders and employees go back to their old ways of working once we resume our normal working styles, especially for the manufacturing and distribution sales organizations?

Dr. Nirupama Srivastava said that she believes - “every adversity brings along opportunity. Today leaders who have endured adversity are most likely to be the ones with the resilience and resolve to succeed”

She also noted that the “Decision making was slow earlier but our constant interactions with leaders and team members helped us in moving forward. We believe that active communication in workplace is imperative for the success.”

Sanjeev Sharma stated - “Leaders & Senior Management have been available to stay connected with the employees through out” which helped build in trust and comfort within the organization. He also shared that the “flexibility and learnability of the employees has gone up”.

He noticed “employees have come up with innovative solutions to make things work online, thereby becoming more efficient” in the current time.

Key Takeaways:

• Adapting & learning to the new customer experiences, their needs & wants is key
• Constant Communication, Connection and Compassion is very important
• Personalized Leadership is the need of the hour
• Cost consciousness is very important

DDI will bring you more on this theme, through interactions with eminent Leaders.