Nobody could have predicted a couple of years ago that humanity would find itself in a strange world, where stepping out with one’s face exposed may be a severe threat to one’s health and even life. We cannot even sigh properly behind our masks when we’re out, exclusively for very important work. But to be human is to adapt, and we have been adapting to this world in our own inventive ways. Leadership coaches are well-versed with the phenomenon of change and lost no time in embracing change by adopting the virtual medium as soon as lockdowns started taking effect.
In the pre-pandemic days, interacting in person in meetings, getaways and even over weekends were indispensable to form a strong mentor-mentee rhythm. Today teaching, coaching, mentoring have completely shifted online. 100% digital classes – a possibility we used to talk about a few years ago, has already become common. Although we don’t even see our neighbours anymore, we can meet people from the other end of the globe and even collaborate with them effectively through digital interfaces.
So what is the direction for leadership coaching in the post-pandemic, new-normal digital era? The leaders today are occupied by diverse challenges – limitations of WFH, no social life, constant fear of the virus, always present among family, myriad distractions of kids, kitchen commotion, deliverymen at the door, it goes on and on. They are caught up with a lot and are not able to think the big picture, and their state of mind is a mish-mash of analytical and emotional. As the role of leadership changes, so should the nature of leadership coaching.
The leader of today goes through a bunch of emotions as (s)he manages work remotely, family, employees, health, household, kids, meetings, and as such needs a new set of leadership skills.
1. The foremost is emotional intelligence. Being more empathetic and forgiving as opposed to being critical. Focusing more on the efforts, less on the numbers.
2. Understanding the anxiety everyone is going through, and often, a health crisis in their family.
3. Managing people amidst these uncertain times needs a culture that balances work and care.
Conducting oneself in a pre-pandemic manner during post-pandemic times can be disastrous in the long-term.
A recent Gartner survey that assessed the evolving role of management revealed that only 47% of managers are prepared for this future role of an empathetic leader. This means a lot of leaders out there need to be skilled on this.
Time management is another skill leaders have to master. Scheduling meetings around other myriad tasks, to accommodate impromptu meetings, all these require setting boundaries and creating buffers. Also, leaders have to make space for monitoring daily operations, as well as creating strategies based market dynamics. On the personal front, they need to take out time to focus on personal fitness and family. This kind of workday is impossible to manage without effective and agile time management. So leadership coaches cannot do without covering this very important skill in any module they teach.
In-person interactions allow us to determine how the other person is reacting to us through micro-expressions, body language and countless other real-time feedback that we constantly catch to tweak our communication accordingly. Unfortunately this is not possible with virtual interactions. The mechanics of virtual coordination has its limitations, and it is common to see the team members unable to express themselves to the best of their abilities using the digital medium.
Tackling this would involve trainings on virtual tools and how people can present themselves and their work on screen making optimum use of the features, as well as virtual communication best practices to follow considering absence of non-verbal cues. This is a critical skill that helps leaders to pivot when they interact with different people such as investors, board members, customers and employees.
This is part of the suite of digital skills that every organization would expect its employees to possess soon. According to a WEF report, companies estimate around 40% of their employees will need to be reskilled in half a year or less, and 94% of enterprise leaders believe employees will pick up these new skills on the job, up from 65% in 2018.
Ultimately it all comes down to the coach retaining the personalised approach while remaining remote, and taking advantage of the upsides of the new normal. We can now mentor any leader in the world without worrying about geographical constraints. Like everything else, leadership coaching is evolving, and while priorities and delivery styles & models change.
The key goal is to equip leaders who can face tomorrow with a blend of urgency, equanimity, fairness, yet being competitive to deliver results. While the medium has changed, the purpose remains unchanged forever.
A leadership coach will continue to remain a friend, guide and mentor. Our goal to develop better, well-rounded and effective professionals and happy, genuine and fair human beings remain constant.
