My Predictions About the Future of Work

In an interview with Authority Magazine, I was asked to predict The Top 4 Trends That Will Define the Future of Work.?

Here are those predictions:

1.Automation & Artificial Intelligence will replace 70% of a manager’s duties: Managers currently spend nearly 70% of their time doing repeatable “hard tasks”- filling in forms, updating information, approving workflows, managing tasks and time. ?Within the next three years, artificial intelligence and automation will be able to do most of those hard tasks. This will eliminate the traditional command and control managerial role and replace it with Subject Matter Experts (see item 3 below).

2. Most work will be done by Self-Directed Work Teams. 63% of employees value autonomy, being empowered and trusted to be the primary decision-maker of where and when they do their work. Autonomy is also an essential element of intrinsic motivation, creating increased employee engagement, performance and well-being.? Companies will increase employee autonomy by creating Self-Directed Work Teams, which will provide the radical flexibility necessary to generate more employee engagement, increase the number of high-performing employees, and generate 21% more profit than traditionally managed work teams.

3. Managers will be replaced by Subject Matter Experts: According to Gallup, leadership fails to select managers who can lead a high-performance team 82% of the time. Even worse, these managers, who are responsible for culture, retention, employee engagement and performance, don’t receive the training and development to develop the skill sets required to interact successfully with their Information Age employees. This situation will only get worse as distributed and hybrid work becomes the norm for more of the workforce and increase the necessity for the development of self-directed teams (see item 1 above). Once there’s no need for teams that need to be traditionally managed, managers, who qualify, will, through training and development, become Subject Matter Experts - filling specific roles as coaches, or mentors, or mediators, or facilitators, or trainers.? These Subject Matter Experts will provide Self-Directed Teams, and individual Team Members with the assistance, information, support and training they need to do their jobs and remain a High Performing Work Team.

4. ?Leaders’ compensation will be connected to sustainable employee engagement. Based on the direct link between employee engagement — an emotional commitment to the success of the organization — and an organization’s success, it will become a business imperative for leaders, at all levels of the organization, to create, and maintain, a high level of sustainable employee engagement. This will be accomplished by connecting a portion of a team leader’s compensation to their team’s sustainable level of engagement.

?I could be wrong…Do you think I will be?

?#postpandemicleadershipSME; #LeadershipDevelopmentSME; #leadershipSME

?

?