New Way of Working => New Way of Leading

The new kind of leadership is arising

For many CEOs, it is obvious that the world is likely a very different place from when they started their careers many or a few years ago. Not many years ago, investors, boards, and the business press worshipped the imperial CEO. Larger-than-life leaders such as GE’s Jack Welch or Chrysler’s Lee Iacocca were household names. And most importantly: their employees expected them to have all the answers.

The imperial CEO is no more; the all-knowing leader is gone forever! We learned a lot from covid. We live in a time of complexity and uncertainty - all the speed of development in AI makes it impossible for leaders to have all the answers.

New Way of Working => New Way of Leading

This is a reality! and we can not keep on to old ways of working or leading - without losing the strong minds among us! We are in a new paradigm that demands other values like:

Seeing the leader as a whole-orientated personal, relational human being - things shift! When viewing leaders working on their authenticity, empathy, humility, resilience, etc., they are showing the side of themselves that we all know - and can relate to!

The basis of this approach is to be ourselves and be the natural inspirator to help the employees do the same - simple, but necessarily not easy. When we develop leaders they are getting to a place of easy - compassion - inspiration, and self-awareness. And life suddenly becomes much easier, building stronger relationships at home, etc.

Taking that resolute step away from being "the traditional leader" to the self-aware and open-minded leader in itself changes a whole pattern of beliefs, realism, and possibilities!

Experiencing how strong our Minds are can be scary - and making the decision to work intentionally with them can bring in a whole new way of viewing the options that have been there all along, but we never found precious or useful - we are waking up!

"Life is short - and you better find your values before you grow old," my grandfather told me. He had a big farm with many employees, and he appreciated each of them by showing them gratitude to meet up each day - sometimes we forget the small actions in the big picture, I think now many years after he told me that. An advice I have been living for many years as a leader, and a mother, and reminding myself: "We are all just humans"!

By helping leaders, organizations, and employees since very young in change management processes, I have found this "human leaders approach" as the way I found it natural for me.

Now, we are in a time where we have no choice: we need this human approach as leaders. Meeting other people at eye level is the place where we all learn together and integrate our resources to the common we are here to do, anyway: We want to create something great!

How does this article resonate with your own values? I am looking forward to reading your thoughts.