5 Best Practices for Effective Leadership in the Post-Pandemic Era

In the past, leadership was a skill that can be mastered by many people successfully. Now, the requirements to be a good leader are getting tougher, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. To be an effective leader in the post-pandemic world, leaders must anticipate uncertainties, adapt quickly to changing times, and be swift in motivating their teams. Effective leadership is about having a long-term vision, plans for change, setting clear directions, and communicating them well to their teams. Success is measured by the team's engagement and impact on others. Effective leaders are also able to create an environment where diverse ideas can flourish without fear of judgment or reprisal. Although the challenges are getting greater for the leaders in the world today, it is not impossible to rise above them. Some resources for you which you may find inspiring: Human Resource Online has listed top leaders from various industries who achieved high leadership scores during the pandemic, and Forbes has published about Top Business Minds Of The Pandemic.

Here, we have listed five best practices that will help you lead effectively and rise above as one of the great leaders of our time!

1. Explain The Vision & Provide A Clear Direction To Achieve It

When the vision is clear, the strategy is easy. It is leaders’ job to set clear directions for their teams. Leaders must be able to articulate their vision succinctly and explain the reasons behind them. Not just give instructions. When the teams understand the objectives and goals, they will be empowered to know how to plan and strategise ahead. Gallup Survey 2018 reported in the CompareCamp’s Leadership Statistics that only 22% of teams believe that their leaders have a clear direction for their company. With clarity of vision and communication, we can surely do better.

2. Be Committed & Supportive

Leaders should be committed to supporting their teams towards achieving success for their organisation. One way is to use facts and data-driven reasoning to explain a decision or process. Through this way, team members will find it easier to accept, understand, and execute the right action plans to achieve the desired results. They will be empowered with confidence and knowledge to contribute positively, and at the same time, feel safe that their leader is making the right decisions. They also want the comfort to know that they will receive reasonable support from their leader along the way when they are being challenged. It’s a kind of commitment to each other towards success. Leaders who model such a practice encourage team members to do the same and guide them confidently to become the next leader.

3. Cultivate A Safe Environment On Feedback Sharing

An important step for effective leadership is creating an environment where people feel safe to share their opinions and ideas. Team members can be guided on how to give constructive feedback through a calm conversation that is backed with facts and examples, without violating others' rights or attacking someone else's perspective. Such feedback can be very useful to leaders to help them navigate their way forward and understand the pulse of the organisation. An exclusive survey by HR.com highlighted that trust in leaders is the foremost driver of employee engagement. Creating an open, supportive, and professional work environment that is constructive and free of judgment is a great way to lead effectively.

To create this environment, leaders must be able to build trust with their team members and listen intently when they speak – even when the feedback is directed at them. When leaders show compassion, empathy, and validation for their staff’s feelings, thoughts, and ideas, it will be easier for the team members to come forth with their truthful observations without fear of reprisal or judgment.

4. Agile To Change & Be Digitally Savvy

One of the most important aspects of leadership during and after the Covid-19 pandemic is to be agile and quick to adapt due to the uncertainties ahead. Being agile is about being flexible and open-minded to new solutions, approaches, styles, and strategies. For example, as the pandemic accelerates the use of digital tools, leaders need to upskill themselves together with their team members to reduce barriers of communication with the digitally savvy teams who are mostly made up of the Gen-X and Millennials; they make up the majority of today’s workforce. CompareCamp’s Leadership Statistics also stated that only 25% workforce is confident that their company is effectively building digital leaders.

Being agile doesn't mean changing the vision and direction; it means being ready for any outcome possible and adopting different approaches to achieve the goals. When leaders have an agile mindset, they will have less stress when sudden challenges appear. They would also feel more confident in their decision-making abilities by being adaptive to new strategies and being aware of potential threats or challenges.

5. Motivating The Team To Remain Positive

Motivating the team to remain positive is one of the best things leaders can do during and after the pandemic. There are many ways to do this and it all depends on the leaders and their team members’ personalities and communication styles. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution as each person is unique. Leaders should recognise individuality by adopting a “different strokes for different folks” strategy when motivating their staff; spending time to understand each team member’s needs is essential.

One way to motivate the team is to give recognition or praise when someone does something right. For example, if someone on the team helped to solve a difficult problem or took initiative to a project, leaders could acknowledge the effort by sending an encouraging note to the team member. This type of recognition is very powerful and can motivate team members to do more and perform better as they know their efforts are recognised by the leaders.

In Summary

Not everyone is born a leader, but the good news is that leadership skills can be nurtured and learned. Effective leaders can help organisations lower their attrition rate and increase the retention of talent. There is now a greater need for leaders to get on the ground to personally inspire, mobilise, and engage with their staff to exhibit more of their selflessness and competence during this crucial time in the post-pandemic era.

Recently, PERSOLKELLY has launched the Leadership Digital Learning Course 2022 to help leaders upskill and select the right digital tools to stay ahead. Click here for more info on the courses available.

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