In my previous blog I wrote about the challenges facing leaders today. The world is evolving so rapidly, and the events of the last few years have been so extreme, that no leader can feel truly equipped all the time. A once in a lifetime event like the pandemic upended so much about how we live, let alone how we work. And the way that social media has shaped how we assess brands – both the quality of their products and the perception of the organisation generally – would have been unimaginable even ten years ago. The globalisation of the economy also means that companies are influenced by political and cultural norms around the world. The only way for leaders to deal with such a dynamic array of inputs is to surround themselves with teams that are diverse, committed and aligned with a shared mission. As we prepare for a new year, leaders may have time to think about what those teams should look like. What remains the same? What qualities are new or should be prioritised?
What do teams need to succeed in today’s environment? And how do leaders build them?
Digitalisation continues to speed up our lives. Life before smart phones and social media, and even broadband might feel like a distant memory, but in fact that is proof itself at how quickly technology is evolving. In 2011 only 35% of Americans owned a smartphone. A decade later, that number soared to 85%. Information is shared within seconds, and organisations need teams that can make decisions much more rapidly than in the past. Communication skills are more important than ever. This means not only building teams that are aligned on goals and know each other’s skills, but who can problem solve quickly. They must be equally adept at their dialogue with customers and suppliers. Leaders have always needed to delegate but now more than ever they must entrust teams to execute with less oversight and more speed.
Globalisation means everything is local. Twenty years ago, even multinational companies based in places like the U.K. and the U.S. were organised around their ‘home country’ principles. Organisations like Vodaphone or Nike not only exported a brand, but also a management strategy to other markets. Leaders could control from the top down, and the centre outwards. They didn’t worry as much about how their brand translated, and their actions were relatively siloed. Now, everything everywhere is accessible to everyone. Good or bad corporate behaviour is posted or tweeted to a global audience. Leaders need teams that are diverse enough to reflect the wide spectrum of expectations. This means leadership by (not just employment of) women, people of colour, LGBTQIA+ members and across generations is not just appropriate, but essential. Greater gender diversity in companies, for example, has been connected to a near 50 percent better performance than companies with less gender diversity. And yet, as mentioned above, these teams must be able to communicate effectively and quickly if they are to act and react at the pace the world now requires.
Politicisation is a permanent new reality. While CSR efforts by companies is not new, their actions (as a whole, or the individual leaders) are part of the brand. Consumers and employees (current and potential) make decisions as much on how a company responds to social justice and political issues as they do on the quality of their products. In years past, companies might have stayed silent on gender rights or labour laws or regional conflict. In the 1990s, apartheid in South Africa was a political issue that most corporate actors in America could sidestep (setting aside for today’s purposes whether they should have done so). Compare that to the corporate response to the conflict in Ukraine today. Leaders need teams that have already aligned on what corporate values are, and can quickly resolve how those values are impacted by political events. It is not enough to issue a public statement of support (or condemnation). Teams must be ready to act accordingly, whether that means ceasing operations in a market, hiring and promoting members of historically disenfranchised groups, or changing their manufacturing practices.
Leaders need teams that not only are fearless about the unknown, but embrace it.
Teams are individuals first. Before leaders can assemble these teams, they must first assess the people who will comprise them. This means being transparent about the challenges listed above, the pace at which they must be addressed, and the ways in which problems can be solved with sensitivity and efficiency. Many of the clients I have spoken to this year say much of the work is as simple as surviving to 2025 – that is how much they expect 2024 to be a bumpy ride. Building the muscle to act as a team means each individual has to be prepared for superb conflict resolution and diverging points of view. They have to be passionate about the cause, confident in their abilities and humble about their own biases. Only then will the team be able to build a productive and successful strategy.
In terms of my background and expertise, I have spent my entire career working as a trusted advisor to senior leaders wanting to improve the effectiveness of themselves, their teams and their companies. Prior to starting my own consulting firm, I led the global executive assessment and development team for Cisco. Earlier in my career I held leadership roles with RHR International, PepsiCo, Ashridge Executive Education, Hult International Business School and the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
