Leadership Then versus Now

I have authored 27 articles about leadership on LinkedIn - the last one in 2018. As I considered how dramatically the world has changed in the last 4 years, I pondered how these changes have affected my approach to leadership, and thus, article 28 was born.

In the four years since I authored The Unspoken Truth About Leading Others, the #MeToo Movement went global and brought with it a worldwide reckoning on sexual predation, taking down in its wake many well known personalities. George Floyd's 2020 murder in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA) sparked a global awakening on racial injustice. We saw only the third US President in history be impeached - not once but twice in a single term. Juneteenth (i.e. June nineteenth) - aka Freedom Day - is now a national federal holiday in the United States. We have experienced a once in a lifetime global pandemic, which at the time of this article, has killed 6.4 million people [1]. A war has reared its ugly head once again on the European continent. Sustainability is now as entrenched in corporate performance as corporate profits. Things are certainly different today than they were four years ago. The rest of this article will explore how four societal changes that were less prevalent four years ago, and essentially non existent a generation ago, affect how we lead people today.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Rides in the Front of the Bus

One shift that has undergone exponential expansion recently is the growing recognition that organizations are more efficient, more effective, and more productive when they leverage all of the talents society has to offer. In fact, according to a 2021 Harvard Business Review analysis of earnings calls from S&P 500 companies, mentions of topics about equity, fairness, and inclusion increased 658% compared to 2018 [2]. The advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion means leaders today need to be skilled at leading a workforce full of differences - in gender, race, ethnicity, orientation, identity, (dis) abilities, education, and nationality to name a few.

With equity, leaders must be sensitive to and understand that equal and equity are not the identical. By definition, equal means "the same"; whereas equity invokes "being fair". Same is neither always fair nor what is necessarily needed to thrive.

Finally, today's leaders are expected, more so than ever before, to create an inclusive environment where all can thrive personally and professionally. If I go back in time to a different era, the evolution of leadership expectations today is even more dramatic. For instance, pre- and early civil rights era leaders of the 1950s through 1970s primarily had homogeneous professional workforces who looked and thought just like they did. Black people had not yet made into corporate offices in large numbers. Women were just beginning to migrate outside the home in scale to embark on careers that were not defined by their husbands. Society's gay population, for the most part, still lived "in the closet". Valuing diversity, focusing on equity, and including all within society was a long way away. It is remarkable to realize how far we have come as a society. DEI is here to stay.

The Rise of Remote / Hybrid Work for Knowledge Workers

The remote / hybrid work environment mostly did not exist in 2018. It certainly did not exit at scale a generation ago. This has been forever altered with the COVID-19 global pandemic. Prior to early 2020, working in an office and corporate jet setting was the norm. I believe those days are gone forever and with their departure comes the need for leaders to be skillful at inspiring and motivating others in a virtual world.

Workers today want the flexibility to work when and where it is most convenient for them. However, with workers away from a centralized office, maintaining corporate culture, close professional connections, and office-based friendships is now more difficult than in years past. The demise of the office work environment has resulted in a diminished sense of workplace belonging. Moreover, because knowledge workers are less restricted by geographical location, they have unprecedented options, opportunities and flexibility to select employers who best meet their needs. For today's leader, this means every personal interaction is crucial. With in person interactions occurring less frequently, leaders of today must be more purposeful when connecting with remote and hybrid workers. They need to be more diligent in communicating with distant workers. Today's leaders must manage results rather than where and when the result was generated. Those leaders who successfully navigate this new leadership environment can indeed maintain workforce continuity, build workplace affinity and increase corporate loyalty. The hybrid / remote work environment of today is very different than just four years ago. It was unthinkable a generation ago.

Sustainability Matters

The idea of sustainability has come a long way since the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. By many accounts, the turning point in the sustainability movement occurred in 1987 when the United Nations published Our Common Future (aka the Brundtland Report), which stated, "Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"[3].

If you go back in time, maximizing profits was the end game. It mattered less how profits were generated, just that they were. This is how we ended up with Deepwater Horizon, Exxon Valdez, and Bhopal. In today's world and for today's leader, growing profits independent of environmental and societal impact is no longer acceptable. Creating sustainable business strategies that focus on the interplay between growing profits, expanding social equity, and preserving the environment is the new metric of success. The successful leaders of today will be skilled at managing the triple bottom line of people, profits, and planet because sustainable growth really does matter. Just look at the number of S&P 500 companies that issue sustainability reports. In 2011, 20% of S&P 500 companies were publishing a sustainability report. Just one year later, in 2012, 53% were reporting on their sustainability efforts. By 2014, 75% issued sustainability reports. By 2018, 86% reported on sustainability. In 2019, 90% reported on sustainability [4]. In 2020, this number reached 92% [5].

A New Generation Hits the Workforce

The newest generation of workers have arrived. Born between 1997 and 2012 [6], Generation Z is the first generation entirely born in the Digital age, with the earliest of them entering the professional workforce around 2019. Generation Z came of age in parallel with the ascent social media. The internet has always been their source of information. They only know a world with mobile phones. On the other hand, those (of us) who came of age in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s - late Baby Boomers, Generation X, and early Millennials - were born or raised in a pre-internet era. We can remember putting coins in pay phones and using card catalogs to find books in libraries. World Book Encyclopedia or Encyclopedia Britannica was THE go to source for information.

Generation Z enters the work force more technically savvy than any generation before them. They are on track to be the most educated generation in history [7], the most diverse generation in history [8], and will become the first majority non-white generation by 2026 [9]. They are socially conscious and enter the workforce during a global pandemic. Because this group is so diverse and has come of age in an era when Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and social and environmental responsibility are rapidly becoming hallmarks of society, it should be no surprise that these young workers value social change and are clear-eyed on seeking employers who share their values. Leaders and organizations who want to attract and retain the best young talent will need to be bold with clearly defined positions on DEI, sustainability, social consciousness, and personal well-being.

Interestingly, there are two additional points I would like to share regarding Generation Z. First, because they are entering the workforce during a global pandemic, many Gen Zers have only experienced remote / hybrid work environments. Many Gen Zers have substantial experience with virtual training, virtual teams, virtual corporate culture and virtual corporate leadership. Many have far less professional experience in a non-virtual world. Second, Generation Z is the least experienced generation to ever enter the workforce. According to the Pew Research Center, only 18% of Gen Z teens between ages 15-17 had jobs in 2018, compared to 27% of Millennials at the same age in 2002 and 41% of Gen Xers at ages 15-17 in 1986 [8]. These two facts combined suggest leaders and organizations should establish strong development and mentor programs for these young workers so that they thrive in today's evolving work environment.

Conclusion

As a person who came of age as an adult in the 1980s, I hit my leadership stride in the mid 2000s. Leadership was different then. The sweet spot of leadership centered on delivering results on time and in a profitable manner. If I bring the essence of leadership forward to just four years ago to 2018, leadership was still different than it is today. A once in a lifetime pandemic has forever changed the workplace with leaders having to adapt to hybrid and remote workers. Today, we encourage professionals to bring their "whole self" to work, whereas in the past, workers were told to check their personal issues and beliefs at the door. Today, we celebrate diverse environments that promote equity and inclusion. This was not always the case. With Generation Z entering the work force, today's workers are younger, more educated, more diverse, and more socially aware than in years past. Today, more than ever before, leaders must recognize the importance of the intersection of social, environmental, and economic sustainability. Leadership is definitively different NOW in 2022 than it was THEN in 2018.

References

1. COVID Live - Coronavirus Statistics - Worldometer (worldometers.info)
2. Kropp, B., and McRae, E. R. (2022) 11 Trends that Will Shape Work in 2022 and Beyond (hbr.org).
3. World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987) Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (un.org). Page 16
4. 90% of S&P 500 Index Companies Publish Sustainability (globenewswire.com)
5. Monterey, T. (2022)How Many Companies Have Sustainability Reports – ictsd.org
6. Dimock, M. (2019) Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins | Pew Research Center.
7. Fry, R. and Parker, K. (2018) ‘Post-Millennial’ Generation On Track To Be Most Diverse, Best-Educated | Pew Research Center
8. Parker, K. and Igielnik, R. (2020) What We Know About Gen Z So Far | Pew Research Center.
9. Population Projections Datasets (census.gov)

Thank you for reading my article. Leadership Then and Now is the 28th article from Dr. Michael Edwards. If you enjoyed it, please subscribe to my Newsletter,?Leadership Explained,?to get notified when I publish a new article. Please 'share' this article with your network, click 'like', and/or leave a comment.?Click 'Follow' if you wish to follow me on LinkedIn. Have a look at my other Leadership Explained articles by clicking here.