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New work needs new leadership

In addition to all the negative effects on the economy that this crisis brings with it, this development is seen as a great opportunity to leave the “old” way of working behind us and embark on a journey into the world of New Work. New Work is more than just the discussion about working from home and how mobile working is handled after coronavirus. New Work is accompanied by significant changes in organizational culture and structure. The cultural level includes strengthening or building a culture of trust, promoting the personal responsibility and self-determination of employees and a management culture that has an inspiring effect and conveys a sense of purpose. The structure includes flattening the hierarchy, agile processes, employee co-determination, more flexible working hours and work locations, as well as new technologies and a workplace that is perceived as attractive and enables and promotes task-based work.

Strict hierarchical management styles and many hierarchies will no longer work for qualified employees. However, some effort is still needed to make leadership New Work fair. How quickly this happens depends in particular on the mindset in the company and the investment in management development.

 

Company management and executives have a decisive role to play here. They are the ones who set the basic attitude and shape the organizational culture and structures with their behavior, because New Work is based on a mindset that must be lived by managers.

The basis of a strong leadership culture is a shared understanding among company management and managers within the organization of the type of leadership that should be practiced. It is a shared understanding of leadership about the attitude, role, values and behavior of the manager together with the employees and goes far beyond the current mission statements.

Especially at a time when we are undergoing a transformation towards New Work, supportive leadership can make a significant contribution to connecting both worlds. Managers can respond to different situations and the different needs of employees. Defined processes and results can require results-oriented management that keeps an eye on the goals and steers towards the desired output. Supportive leadership can also be used to promote the potential of employees when it comes to activities that require innovation and creativity.

In addition, the manager recognizes diversity in the team as a resource and potential: managers actively strive for diversity in the team in order to benefit from a variety of perspectives and the resulting innovations. They face up to their shortcomings and unconscious assumptions and treat the different needs of their employees with appreciation and respect.

Ultimately, all these aspects of an individual’s understanding of leadership can only unfold if the entire leadership culture of the organization is based on the mindset of supportive leadership.

  • Create trust among your employees!
  • Give up responsibility and, if necessary, “power” and promote independence and personal responsibility!
  • Ensure security through transparency!
  • Make sure you receive regular feedback!
  • Create and maintain cooperation networks!

In the wake of the digital transformation of the economy and society, the demands placed on company employees are also changing – because modern information and communication technology enables new forms of work organization and problem solving, among other things.

If companies use the planning of new structures and processes to rethink and further develop working methods and routines with employees, patterns of thought and behavior can be broken up and changed and more target-oriented processes can be implemented.

It is therefore about much greater co-responsibility instead of the usual top-down determination in organizations. In addition, many employees who are still hesitant or critical of the change can be won over as supporters at an early stage.

This is important because: In projects that aim to create a new culture of (collaborative) work, a key challenge is the same as in any change project,

  • strengthen the drivers – i.e. the employees who identify with the project goals,
  • mobilize the undecided, as far as possible, and
  • to work on resistance, to give them space and time, but also to make personnel decisions.

The same applies to coping with increased complexity. Learning machines will take on more tasks in companies in the future. The particularly challenging tasks remain for the employee:

  • those that are difficult to decide,
  • those for which there is not yet any reliable experience and
  • those where you also have to rely on your intuition resulting from your expertise.

To do this, companies need employees who are willing and able to make such risky decisions because they are able, willing and allowed to do so.

When it comes to establishing new forms of collaboration, the “will” is often already present in many employees. The great response to buzzwords such as “agility”, “new work” and “supportive leadership” shows that many people are longing for meaningful (collaborative) work that is based on parameters other than top-down defined processes and a rigid, predetermined organizational structure. This is exactly the kind of employee that companies will need in the future: “Satisfied working people” are not an end in themselves; in the digital age, they are often a prerequisite for business success.

 

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Do you need status? – but please not in the New Work world!

Everyone knows the stereotypes of status-conscious managers – company cars, more expensive equipment and a constant battle for the bigger office. Our experience with the RMP© (Reiss Motivation Profile) shows that up to 50% of current managers in traditional organizations have this life motive strongly developed and want to live it out – and that in the working world. Shifting this motive to private life would be sensible and successful in coaching – because New Work needs different leadership personalities.

What drives a person into a leadership role?
For some it just happens, others desperately need it – a leadership position to be able to live out their motives in life. In most cases, this includes the life motive of power – sometimes combined with the life motive of competition. People for whom the power motive is not pronounced would be reasonably happy even without holding a leadership position. They also don’t particularly like telling others what to do.
Until now, management positions were often associated with status. People who have to live out this motive in order to be meaningfully happy love their position in the organization chart, meetings per hierarchy level, their company car, their corner office and any kind of special treatment.

The visionaries of New Work hoped that the future world of work would become more humane. However, they also point out that it is no longer attendance that is rewarded, but results. For New Work to work, the attitude and mindset of some managers needs to change radically.

Flexibility means more than just working from home and supportive leadership is becoming a core competence in the VUCA world. “VUCA” is an acronym that refers to “volatility”, “uncertainty”, “complexity” and “ambiguity”. This defines the characteristics of the new world of work.

The future demands leaders who can build genuine relationships, foster cohesion, create trust and encourage interaction. Command and control is now only used in a few industries.

For 15 years, our corporate clients have ALL chosen “Supportive Leadership©” as a leadership competence in the course of competence management consulting. Definition: Can develop employees’ potential to the full and invites and encourages people to try out new things. Can inspire people and create work situations in which people have new positive experiences. As a manager, accompanies and advises employees – sparing in his interventions, but also energetic in disputes. Moves from the utilization of resources to the development of potential.

Tolerance of ambiguity becomes a core competence for employees
Definition from our competence management system©:
Does not regard matters that are in limbo as a burden. Can work on several tasks at the same time. Always look for new solutions and abandon established routines. Likes to take risks and loves change. Is bored with routine administrative processes and constantly needs challenges. Can live well with ambiguity, complex conditions and cultural differences.

Routine administrative processes will be eliminated by digitalization and a willingness to change cannot be prescribed, it can only be lived.

In traditional companies, New Work always means a change in corporate culture at the same time

A central maxim should be: “Committed, self-organized, ambiguity-tolerant employees are the greatest asset in times of a shortage of skilled workers and a change in values in society!

The meaning of work is playing an increasingly important role for many people!”

It is up to the company to preserve the feeling of togetherness by creating memorable shared experiences.
Companies must keep their promises and rethink their mission. This will give rise to cultures that are characterized by trust, participation and humanity. But only after phases with a lot of chaos and – to put it positively – creativity and innovation.

New Work does not work by “working through” a program schedule. On the one hand, it is important to initiate a process of change; on the other hand, the speed of change must ensure the “loyalty” of the workforce – and loyalty is created through ON loyalty.
Self-realization as an individual within an organization has an impact on the company. However, the flexible and innovative workforces required for this do not emerge by themselves. Employees with an affinity for technology are generally more open to the new possibilities for shaping work processes than those who tend to feel overwhelmed by them. However, as with any change, when establishing new forms of work organization and collaboration, it is important to involve and support all employees as much as possible.

Suddenly, the world of work requires a high degree of digitalization and innovation, as well as cross-divisional, cross-hierarchical and cross-functional teamwork with short decision-making paths. This is often the exact opposite of what we as consultants still encounter in companies.

Innovative ability and diversity are becoming vital for survival
Many companies are currently questioning their traditional forms of work organization and collaboration. You ask yourself: How can we use the modern forms of collaboration, which many start-ups and innovative niche providers practice, for example, for our success in addition to the technical possibilities of digitalization? As a rule, these are forms of work that aim to achieve this,

  1. the personal responsibility of employees right up to the operational level,
  2. to promote cross-divisional and cross-hierarchical cooperation
  3. increase the ability to innovate and the speed of implementation.

Diversity has a positive effect on corporate success – that’s nothing new. Different perspectives help to understand different requirements and develop different solutions. Diversity will become the rule and status thinking will no longer have a place in innovative organizations that want to retain their employees.

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Generation Z doesn’t need a midlife crisis to ask itself the question of meaning

It is the battle for the brightest minds that keeps HR managers and the recruitment industry on the move. Attractive advertisements, good starting salaries and a professional candidate journey are no longer enough to attract new employees. After a successful recruiting process – partly online – investments are made and yet new employees leave the company within a short period of time – which is also associated with high costs. A quick solution is complex and requires far-reaching changes – generation management, purpose and new work are the associated buzzwords.

Karl Kraus once wrote that “the future would have been much better in the past”. In the past, a solid salary and secure employment were enough to ensure the corresponding influx of young employees as an attractive employer. But the new generation in the workplace ticks differently and only those who can adapt will be successful.

So what is so special about the new arrivals in the workplace – Generation Z? “There is a clear shift in values in the workplace,” says Sonja Schloemmer, executive coach and CEO of Schloemmer&Partner: “Potential employees are looking for a job whose objectives are socially accepted. And it is also important for them that they can recognize the meaning of their job and that it is also meaningful for their own lives.”

What is the new generation longing for in the labor market? The requirement is actually quite simple. She wants to harmonize life and work. But not sequentially, but integrated. Ideally, this would be a lifestyle in which work is an important, meaningful and fulfilling part. So far so good – but what does this require of the employer? The professional activity must therefore make sense. A sense of purpose has now become a significant factor in the labor market. The need for meaning in or through work is increasing. A worldwide study by LinkedIn, the Global Purpose Index, shows that around 37 percent of employees networked on LinkedIn worldwide were “purpose-oriented”. They see meaning as their primary source of motivation in their job – in contrast to people who primarily strive for income or social status and advancement in their work.

Generation Z wants to enjoy their lives here and now. Nevertheless, they mainly work because they enjoy what they do. The company can create the conditions for work to be seen as a vocation and for flow experiences to occur – i.e. neither over- nor under-challenging. There should be scope for creativity and employees want to use their talents – to be able to show what they can do. Young employees experience division of labor as demotivating, they want to complete a certain task from start to finish and are interested in their own development.”

“Employees need to feel that their work has meaning for other people,” says Sonja Schloemmer. “Current studies show that employees who perceive their work as meaningful and achieve good things perform better than others. Meaningful work therefore leads to better work. And vice versa – if you want performance, you have to offer meaning.”

Companies must therefore communicate the meaning of their work to their employees. Purpose is an essential basis for motivation and young managers should recognize this in our leadership workshops, recommends Sonja Schloemmer. Because only those who understand the meaning behind a task and identify with it can and will be fully committed.

Schloemmer himself leads workshops in well-known Austrian companies. In her view, pure leadership training falls short: “Modern leadership tools can be trained and attitudes can be reflected upon. But personality traits such as the ability to trust, empathy, reflectiveness, emotional stability and openness are also required.

Sonja Schloemmer MBA, MAES

An expert in leadership and HR tools, she has been advising numerous well-known companies in Austria and Germany since 2003. As a former network partner of the Neuwaldegg consulting group and top executive coach, she works with board members, managing directors and top executives based on the findings of neurobiology. Her practical approach is based on years of experience in HR management in a corporate group and in productivity optimization. As a sponsor of the Viktor Frankl Museum, her mission is to make work meaningful again for people in companies.

 

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“Money for working time” no longer works …

It is not only futurologists who are concerned with the question of whether we have reached a crossroads that brings alternative ideas and lifestyles. Or are some things now coming to the surface that were already there before the pandemic and just needed a nudge?

Triggered by the pandemic, many people have begun to question their current way of life. Is the pursuit of material things the right path? At the same time, the current issues of climate protection and other value-based discussions have remained. The spectrum ranges from veganism to the ecological footprint. Against the backdrop of these smouldering issues of the future, companies must now address an important question: How must the framework conditions be designed in the future in order to be able to cope with the new worlds of work?

In top executive coach Schloemmer’s management seminars, the question of how to motivate employees and retain them in the company is always on the agenda. Conversely, companies lose good employees because they do not have a positive experience of the management culture. And the material and immaterial incentives on offer are clearly having less and less impact every day.

“As an executive coach, I recognize a clear trend here: the more attempts are made to buy motivation, the weaker the leadership, the more threatened the company. More and more people are no longer satisfied with the economic exchange of “money for working time”. It is more about the positive experience of everyday management. However, this requires managers to change themselves.”
“Our concept of supportive leadership requires leadership ethics. It is about expressing and recognizing each other’s interests, clarity and consistency. Successful companies have distinctive forms of results review combined with clarity, consistency and appreciation.”

So what does this new understanding of leadership entail?

Employees are not only top performers, but above all people. Therefore, a manager must also have an authentic interest in the wishes and needs of employees. It’s about taking employees seriously and showing interest in their work. In the next step, the manager strengthens the employees’ self-esteem through professional feedback. Every opportunity should be taken to recognize special achievements and good ideas.

Trust is particularly important here – not only in digital leadership in the home office, where “lack of trust” is only noticed more quickly. Instead of constantly monitoring the work process, managers must provide emotional and practical support in order to find possible solutions to difficult tasks.

Every employee must have the feeling that their manager is there for them and can be reached.

Supportive leadership is all about clear communication. First, the goals and tasks are clarified. Managers can then offer employees help and support, as well as guidance and backing. This is a healthy basis for developing ideas and impetus in a joint dialog. Modern managers support their employees in order to find solutions to difficult tasks together. In order to implement this convincingly, completely different values, skills and a completely new understanding of the role of leadership are of course required.

Further information: www.schloemmer-partner.at