Leadership Lessons from Social Work to Future of Work

In Social Work school, I was introduced to one of the most enduring tenets of the helping professions; you start where the client is. The idea was to stay in the present time, with intentional awareness of your biases and the natural impulse to rescue clients from their pain. We learned how to assess presenting issues, and unique personal situations within the context of their life experiences so we could truly understand human behavior in the social environment and begin to listen for signs of their capacity to enter treatment and recover from their emotional difficulties.

It paid off to spend the first phase of my career as an Employee Assistance Program counselor and psychotherapist in private practice. Listening with a non-judgmental approach to others was a challenge that helped me understand diversity and respect for the individual, in all relationships. As Donald Winnicott stated in his work as a psychoanalyst, providing a holding environment in which the child can be their true self is a requirement for healthy emotional development in early childhood. But regardless of the quality of our experiences in early life, the need to be loved and accepted by others seems to be a lifelong struggle for most of us. And the ability to witness others express themselves with authenticity without overreacting or judging can also be applied to leadership in the workplace.

As leaders, we can create the safe space for team members to experiment freely, but it is not easy. As one of my professors in social work used to say, "you can only take others as far as you have been yourself." If you were raised in an environment where you played the role of a caretaker to adults who should be caring for you, you probably developed protective habits and behaviors that helped you cope within the context you were in. A healthy early childhood development does not require the perfect parenting, however, it thrives under the “good enough motherhood” where all seemingly irrational behaviors are tolerated. The child needs to know that angry outbursts and anger towards their parents will not harm the object of their anger. Once they realize that there are no tragic consequences to tantrums and other anti-social behaviors, children start building an ability to tolerate solitude, knowing that they can access their authentic selves without the anxieties inherent in our fears of not belonging. Fast forward to adulthood and here we are building our masks and setting our false selves to fit into our social groups. This is not to say that the healthy development of false selves is to be avoided, in fact, healthy emotional development requires us to sense and respond appropriately to each other and adapt to each situation consciously and authentically.

By now you can see how difficult it is for adults to free themselves from their masks and perceived need to behave within the norms of their social circles. But there is hope and the world of work is much more tolerant of differences and unique displays of our full personalities, preferences and orientations, across all dimensions of diversity. The future workplace has the potential to improve the quality of our interactions and help us express our creative selves with courage and confidence in our ability to be fully ourselves at work and in life. We are blending and we must accept our imperfections without losing our sense of self-efficacy. The future workplace will be led best by those who understand the importance of letting their people fail and learn as they experiment new ways of working and being. But the work always starts with the development of self-awareness and empathy.

Since the transition to a virtual workplace, senior leaders in most large organizations have shown personal interest and empathy towards their employees’ needs, their anxieties, fears and emotional well-being. But the work ahead is more delicate and complex. Learning how to approach the collective while addressing personal situations, organizations have an opportunity to differentiate themselves and gain competitive advantage through culture and people. To make that happen, managers will need support for themselves in order to tolerate normal reactions to loss, grief and change that will permeate employees’ experiences during their transition to a new workplace. It will be especially important to recognize that we are hardly “returning” to the workplace, rather, we are reinventing it. And the healthiest way to build the future is to allow for experiences of loss inherent in change. Only then we will be able to dream big and expand our views on what’s possible.

Listen, laugh, and leap into the future to shape an inclusive culture

 In the last 10 years, we have seen a transformative movement of inclusion that goes well beyond the representation of diverse constituencies. Some concepts and practices in the workplace are changing the way teams are organized and empowered to deliver best outcomes. Inclusive design for example, provides the roadmap for program development that starts with the diversity of thought that can only be achieved by having representation of multiple points of views. A perfect example is the idea of building “accessible” workplaces for the future organization. Ensuring that a visually impaired employee has the tools to navigate social distancing or providing quiet spaces for the neuro-diverse worker who can’t tolerate the noise of an open office are concerns most often neglected by teams that have no representation of these populations.

Team practices such as co-creation, Agile projects, journey mapping, and design thinking are proliferating globally and making the workplace a laboratory for innovation and transformation. It is no longer acceptable to build a talent program without understanding employee personas, and engaging user sponsors in the creative process. In fact, some innovative companies are co-creating with their clients to ensure their offerings, services and products are designed and developed within the expectations of stakeholders and clients themselves. So, a good recipe might be to start where your employee is and bring them to the table during the initial planning phase of the work. Employees may not know everything they will need, but plans that exclude them from the ideation process, will definitely miss key elements of the employee experience for the new hybrid workplace. Furthermore, the ideas that emerge from a diverse and inclusive team may be the key differentiator for your company.

Curiosity, Courage and Compassion: Dimensions of Shared Leadership

There is a new social consciousness emerging from voices of underrepresented communities. Exposed inequalities are surfacing with greater frequency and transparency, and minority role models are more confident in their ability to effect change. Organizational hierarchy is no longer defining who is a leader, and empowered informal leaders are learning as much as they can and exercising courageous acts of integrity and purpose. That’s the environment in which inclusion, racial equity and diversity are crossing the artificial boundaries of positions and titles and shaping culture from bottoms up. The digital revolution is transforming businesses, democratizing data, opening channels of communication, and creating social platforms where people can express their views and build support for their burning ambition to change the world.

Organizational leaders are now in super jobs that demand an extraordinary commitment to stay ahead of industry trends, lead the business, build frictionless employee and customer experiences with tact, diplomacy and credibility. Executive teams are managing greater complexities and are being tested frequently in their ability to respond to social, political and geo-economical events that may harm or enhance their company’s reputation. Being accountable to board of directors, shareholders and their workforce, leaders are learning that financial acumen and business savvy are just basic capabilities in the new world of business.

Is leadership in crisis? Maybe as a temporary state in the transformation that’s taking place in every company and every community where leaders must be acutely aware of themselves, their vulnerabilities and biases in order to lead with curiosity, courage and compassion. Leaders are managing dilemmas more often than solving problems. As Bob Johansen stated years ago, complexity will continue to increase and business leaders will have to learn to deal with dilemmas, not problems with a single solution. This means that we will have to build the capacity to hold seemingly opposing realities and ensure best outcomes for the business and the people involved. Learning to be curious about others and seeking new information have the potential to transform a leader’s sense of self and their role in the communities they live in. Great leaders know that their verbal and non-verbal communications are influencing others, and they know how to use themselves as an instrument to shape culture and engage their workforce with a positive energy and optimism.

Learn, love and liberate your talent

Learning to lead is getting complicated but it is not impossible. It may seem contradictory, but the best leaders are simple, sensible, and sensitive to others. Leaders of the future will need to show vulnerability to connect with others who may be able to inform their thinking towards a more creative mindset. Leaders will need to find courage to stand for their values and allow their teams to unleash the talent across their organizations. They will need the courage to share power and trust their people to act with purpose and a sense of ownership for their actions and outcomes. Leaders will benefit greatly from seeing the organization as a dynamic living organism in which systems are continuously improving themselves as neuroplasticity reshapes their thinking with new way of leading for the development of a truly inclusive culture.

And finally, the greatest business leaders will show compassion as an authentic response to others who are adversely impacted by the current pandemic in this VUCA world. Leaders who are in touch with their own fears, vulnerabilities and biases will rise above others and shape a better future for all. They will be able to sense and respond with a growth mindset. They will experience the pain and suffering of their communities with resolve and wisdom that can only come from the awareness of human fragility and strength. We are building a future of work in which everyone is a leader and leaders are not expected to be perfect. The expectation is that we see each other realistically and “start where the person is”. We must stay attuned to our projections and emotional reactions to avoid the primal impulse of self-preservation. The path into the future is filled with challenges, but it is also the greatest opportunity we have to learn, love, and liberate ourselves from the social norms that are dividing us, excluding us, and making us unhappy at work. This is a call to a better way of leading with curiosity, courage and compassion.