Balaji Thota

Leadership Competencies.docx

The year 2020, has been a roller coasting year across the world due to COVID-19 Its time to get some additional leadership capabilities to focus on fostering today’s talent for tomorrow’s challenges. There are a few leadership strategy would help stimulate to future leaders. 1. Spanning boundaries “We know that we need to move faster. But a lack of cross-functional working is holding us back.” “boundary spanning” is the ability of leaders to rapidly create alignment, commitment and direction across boundaries. Success no longer hinges on the contribution of individual superstars. It’s about how effectively people work across boundaries and how quickly project-focused teams can form, perform and re-form to deliver their objectives. 2. An outside-in perspective The things that can really hurt us are what we haven’t thought about.” Disruption can come from any direction due multiple external factors such as global competition, rapidly evolving needs of customers or market dynamics. Leader may not have enough time prepare. Be aware that they don’t know what they don’t know and challenge those around them. 3. Leads with purpose “There’s a real disconnect right now between values on paper and our behavior in practice.” For leaders, authenticity matters. People can easily spot when the words don’t match the music. And they remember when leaders say one thing and do another. People need to feel they are contributing to something greater than themselves that actually makes a difference in the world. 4. Inclusion and psychological safety the leader “hears about all the stuff that’s going well — but not the real problems facing the business,” There’s no team without trust. Trust is about treating people with dignity and respect so that people feel they can speak up and take risks without fearing negative consequences. when these are lacking, people hold back. Tensions simmer. The team pulls in different directions. Inclusion means making people feel that they belong and they’re valued, seeking out diverse perspectives, and drawing on the range of knowledge and experience in the team. 5. Leader as coach New leaders with the challenge of “learning the role while leading it.” Given that 70% of a leader’s development is through on-the-job experience, the solution is not simply to put people through development programs. Instead, this capability is part of creating a coaching culture where leaders develop leaders and support one another in navigating the real-world challenges they face. 6. Agile execution “The external environment is so fluid and volatile right now that it demands a more agile, flexible approach and thinking. leaders who are able to act quickly are two times as effective at making change happen. There’s no lack of great ideas in organizations, but a limited pool of people who excel in translating ideas into reality, quickly. Leaders need to get sharper at executing change at speed. This is not just about ruthless prioritization, decisiveness and a bias for action Those who can get things done quickly excel at winning hearts and minds at all levels and navigating resistance.

Today’s 21st century global business model requires companies to operate beyond the brick-and-mortar structure by having virtual settings to accommodate telecommute workforce. This trend has generated controversies regarding implementation of virtual teams mainly due to talent management challenges. In order to mitigate these challenges, companies need to think through some of the key questions – 1.Do we have telecommute work policy with guidelines clearly framed out? Orientation/on-boarding process, regular work hours; check-in systems; periodic in-person meetings; measurement of work production and implications in failing to attain work objectives/milestones 2.Do we have the right fit of employees with the necessary personality, attributes and traits to work in a remote work culture? Research and surveys conducted in organizations have shown that interdependent work teams thrive in a virtual work settings. Some of the key attributes/traits of individuals in virtual work setting include self-direction, self-motivation, accountability, past experience in remote work setting, collaboration, flexibility and strong communication skills Research has also pointed to the fact that companies can hire diverse and specialized skill set individuals as there is no location constraint. 3. Is our technology advanced and supportive of remote work culture? Well-established servers, cloud technology, VPN access, privacy and security settings, high-end video and audio conferencing, chat rooms and fast internet and dialing speed with minimal layers to bypass through remote server/s to access the work application/s Advanced Intranet that consists of online policies/guidelines, dashboard and metric systems and remote project management systems (like Basecamp, Asana) to facilitate performance management, social connections like blogs/forums and two-way communication systems 4. Are the managers/ supervisors/ leaders and Human Resource practitioners trained and developed to manage telecommute workforce? Management by objectives and ROWE (Result Oriented Work Environment) Social Intelligence to enhance a collaborative work environment Facilitation of self-managed teams Virtual workforce can be a boon to an organization, provided the systems and policiesare implemented in a well-structured way. Hence, leaders and HR professionals need to come up with innovative strategies to build a globally diversified virtual workforce that fosters a culture of responsibility, engagement and success.

The COVID 19 pandemic has made the world stand still, but we can take advantage of this serious crisis to do things that you think you could not do before. The virus has forced learning heads and business leaders to rethink the learning experience of the individuals employed by the company by adopting different strategies to improve productivity. Strategy 1: Redesign Organizations as a learning perspective must create a response team. The team should be cross-functional in nature and members include learning officials, HR business partners, IT, and other operational departments. This team will be assessing current programs, deciding what is critical to learning success, and changing the program(s) and each program must discuss in detail. Members should determine what offerings are essential and easily adaptable to a virtual or digital-only format. Strategy 2: Digital Learning organizations must look for opportunities to create, grow, or enhance digital learning opportunities. According to Technavio (a UK based market research organization) report that the eLearning market is expected to increase in size by 2025 reaching $325 billion. So L & D heads to take inputs from the core team mentioned in the strategy 1, find new ways to create engaging experiences which are experiential and fun by incorporating more gamification, virtual reality and augmented reality for corporate learning.” Where required companies will create an ecosystem devoted to creating an AI-powered skills inventory, reskilling and exploring new private partnerships with traditional and non-traditional institutions of learning, as well as Ed-tech startups.” Summation Life as we know it no longer exists and a new one has taken its place due to the impact of the coronavirus. L&D department will play a major role in equipping their knowledge-based workforces with the thinking, the knowledge, the best practices, & the skills to achieve the organization’s goal. Learning must continue and teams need to be transparent and agile as the days and months move forward. Continue looking at new options and technologies to ensure your employees are able to develop and reskill in this new environment.