Four behaviours to help you future-proof your leadership style

Traditional leadership styles may not be effective as firms try to build a strong culture and compete for talent in an era when demographic change has transformed the workplace, writes Kylie Wright-Ford.

We are in an era where changing demographics – millennials will soon make up 50 per cent of the workforce – and advancing technologies are demanding that we rethink our leadership qualities and behaviours.

Many leaders are in denial, however, and many others are looking for answers in an age where there is no rule book. In the new world of work, which some refer to as part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there are major disruptive forces due to the multi-generational nature of the labour market, globalisation and new technologies. This makes some roles and routines in the workplace obsolete.

The ability to adapt to such an environment and constantly revisit leadership behaviours with a view to the future (not just the past) will determine the difference between firms that survive and those that thrive. Future proofing your leadership style, whether you are in a small or medium-sized enterprise or a behemoth enterprise, will require developing a stellar ability to lead across generations and styles.

Technology as an enabler

Consider for a moment the demographic shifts we are about to experience. We will soon have four different generations in the workforce – Baby Boomers, Gen Z, Gen Y (millennials) and Gen Z (born in 2003) – and an arguably more diverse cultural makeup within these cohorts than ever before  This is certain to cause conflict and opportunity.

The conflict will come from the clashing of communication preferences and differences in motivations. The opportunity will come from being able to assemble teams across different geographies and time zones more seamlessly than ever thanks to rapidly advancing technologies that make remote work possible.  Further, there is the ability to find people you can bring into your firms for specific tasks thanks to the large and growing freelance workforce.

So what behaviours are going to be most important when leading across generations and styles? In researching The Leadership Mind Switch, executive coach Debra Benton and I interviewed hundreds of executives and rising leaders to talk about what they see, hear, love and hate about leaders they observe. Through this research, we identified four behaviours that matter for the future. These behaviours are related to historical behaviours, but they are different in ways that are meaningful for building strong cultures and being able to compete for talent. The behaviours involve being are: (1) dynamic (2) playful (3) unblocking and (4) uber-communicative.

Master these traits

1. Dynamic leaders enable change within themselves and others. They produce motion instead of static. They are more than just spirited and magnetic, and they are way more than just charismatic. While an important aspect of leadership used to be about change management, leadership of the future is about enabling change in processes, culture product development and more.

2. Being playful is perhaps the most controversial of the behaviours because to some it may imply frivolity. In the context of the new world of work, though, it means having fun and trying some new things. The days of a clear line between work and non-work disappeared with the entry of the mobile device, and good leaders embrace the mash-up of work and life. Playful leaders are good humoured and build a creative and positive environment. They are approachable and do way more than simply offer free food and ping pong tables at work.

3. Unblocking refers to a leader’s ability to free their people by providing them with the tools to succeed; offering support so that their efforts flourish; encouraging risk taking where appropriate; and keeping tabs on the progress along the way. They help remove the barriers to progress, including legacy thinking, risk aversion and tunnel vision based on group think. People of all ages, but especially the rising generations, want to be empowered, authorised and enabled to fix the inefficiencies their predecessors created.

4. Finally, being uber-communicative is potentially the most essential trait needed for the future. Uber-communicative leaders know that good communication requires a leader to deliver a message and then establish a common understanding of the message. They use many different channels to do so. While it is essential, this trait still needs a lot of attention, especially by experienced leaders who are often overheard moaning about the way that rising generations do not use the queen’s grammar or how they over-use emoticons. In the new world of work, which involves constant distraction because of our devices interaction with more diverse constituents than ever, it is not enough to send a message and expect that everyone receives it in the same way. Leaders of the future will meet their teams’ needs and preferences for communicating – whether it is by town hall meetings, instant message, social media, email, conference call or text.

Kylie Wright-Ford is the co-author of The Leadership Mind Switch. She is an advisor, investor and board member and, after growing up on a sheep farm in Australia, went on to hold senior management roles at Goldman Sachs JBWere and Gerson Lehrman Group. For more details, visit www.kyliewf.com.