The world of work has changed dramatically in recent years. With so much turmoil, organizations are dealing with high levels of employee burnout, workforce turnover, and challenges in recruiting. Companies need strong leadership that people are excited and happy to work with to stay afloat.
Why is “whole-self” leadership important?
As the old and powerful adage goes, people quit bosses, not jobs.
Leadership is critical at all organizational levels, from individual groups and teams to the C-suite. In the 2021 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey, 60% of executives shared that leadership skills are vital in order to be ready for unknown futures. In fact, it was their top-ranked priority for supporting preparedness.
Another revealing statistic—Gallup found that in 2020 only 33% of U.S. managers were engaged in their jobs. How can employees, let alone teams, be engaged if their managers aren’t? To decrease turnover, companies must look to their management team first. Think about it: hard workers often get promoted or hired as managers due to their work performance. And yes, historically, management has been about setting direction and getting things done. However, are they being evaluated for the skills and characteristics needed to be successful managers and coaches?
Go one step further and ask, “How can HR teams ensure that their training is adequate to lead thriving teams?” In today’s environment, their skill set needs to go beyond their ability to meet company goals—it isn’t enough to be technically savvy. Effective leaders need to communicate well, motivate and inspire their team, and be a source of support through any hectic shifts at work. As the Deloitte survey states, “They must prepare for the unpredictable by coaching, teaming, and fostering workers’ ability to learn and adapt.” In addition to promoting leaders who can build teams that thrive, look to foster resilient leadership at your company.
What is a resilient leader?
Here’s the International Institute for Management Development’s definition:
“A resilient leader has the ability to sustain their energy level under pressure, to cope with disruptive changes and adapt. They bounce back from setbacks. They also overcome major difficulties without engaging in dysfunctional behavior or harming others.”
Resilient leaders are comfortable being uncomfortable, and use hardship as a growth opportunity. A resilient leader considers employees’ whole selves to develop and engage them through lifelong learning. They navigate others through ambiguity with courage, conviction, and meaning-driven purpose and get stronger and more skilled in the face of adversity.
Companies need leaders who:
- Recognize potential within their teams by identifying who has what capabilities and how best to apply them.
- Foster a culture of psychological safety that encourages individuals to make bold and confident decisions.
- Invite and celebrate inclusion and proliferation of unique perspectives.
- Are equipped with a framework that supports open dialogue, conversation, and community.
Harvard Business School shared research stating that highly resilient leaders are seen as more effective by their managers, colleagues, and direct reports. In fact, research shows that firms that prioritize resilience not only survive but also thrive when faced with shifts and uncertainty, creating a ripple effect. Resilient leaders build resilient teams, which in turn create resilient organizations—ones with strong cultures founded on trust, accountability, and agility.
How to be an exceptional leader: Insights from the world’s best
Clearly, organizations need to invest in developing their leadership to navigate their workforce through the unknown. Here are some tips on exceptional leadership from our in-house experts—some of the world’s very best in business.
Bob Iger, former Disney CEO
“I think a strategy is only as good as your ability to articulate it. The clarity becomes incredibly important. Clarity actually is an essential ingredient to good leadership as well. When you lead people, you need to be very, very clear about what you expect of them. It’s behavioral in nature, it’s investment, it’s a number of different things.”
Anna Wintour, Vogue editor-in-chief and artistic director of Condé Nast
“Being a leader means having a strong vision. Being a leader means understanding and responding to criticism. Being a leader means making the tough decisions and taking full responsibility for them. And being a leader means hiring a great team and always giving them credit.”
Geno Auriemma, legendary basketball coach
“A good leader can galvanize everyone into a team. By what? Stating a common goal: ‘All right, look, we have a problem here.’ And I have to find a solution for this. But first, I have to admit that there’s a problem. Second, I have to identify what the problem is. And third, I have to give them a strategy for how we’re gonna attack this problem. That’s my job as a leader.”
Robin Arzón, fitness expert and Peloton head instructor
“Empathy is everything. If you consider yourself to be someone who’s kind of in the inspiration business, in the business of creating opportunities for folks to step into their power and rise above, you have to lead with empathy. Because empathy extinguishes assumptions. It extinguishes presumed limitations. And I actually think empathy directly leads to empowerment, because when you’re meeting someone where they are and accepting where they are in their journey, you’re seeing their full story and their full potential or their possibility for potential.”
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer
“All the leadership studies that I’ve read talk about the importance of having resilience to overcome adversity as an absolutely central leadership quality. All of us in our lives are gonna suffer difficult times. And the question is: Can you get through it? Can you grow through it? Can you learn from it? And then those adversities become learning experiences. Ernest Hemingway once wrote, ‘Everyone is broken by life. But afterwards, some people are stronger in the broken places.’”