Embracing the New World – Can Leaders Shift to Meet the Challenge?

We can finally now see the shifts that businesses are making towards putting people and their success first – it is happening everywhere.  The needs of employees became more obvious through the pandemic and the resulting changes are accelerating at lightning speed across the corporate world. As a result, there is now a clear movement emerging around human-centered leadership and its integration into our models and strategies for business success. 

These human-centered business leaders treat employees as valued individuals who are respected, empowered, and trusted. They know their competitive advantage will be a strong workforce with an ability to innovate and embrace constant change. They are not just resources to manage, they are human beings who can be developed and engaged in their pursuit of purpose-driven careers. And to make that a reality, they need to trust in their leadership.  Human-centered leaders, according to WorkHuman, focuses on embracing a growth mindset, earning respect and being authentic while caring about people and realizing that only people can create profits. They also understand the limits of their expertise, are able to remove obstacles for others as they recognize and limit the impact of bias in an increasingly inclusive world. See the chart below, from Josh Bersin’s The Big Reset. It outlines the distinctions between traditional business and human-centered thinking:

Key Takeaway:  As leaders who recognize the value of mental diversity, we look at this emerging awareness as a giant leap forward in combining classic business models with new human-centered leadership skills.  You can see this represented in the leadership competency application of the Whole Brain Model that takes an integrated, holistic view.  Developing all these capabilities, though, will be an ongoing challenge for years to come as businesses adjust to the new realities of this transformative era.  To succeed at this level, organizations will have to create deliberate strategies that fit their current culture and drive continual learning that fuels our abilities to adapt, innovate and embrace change to a much greater degree.  

Tell us your story…We’d like to hear from you on what your companies are doing to support leaders in this shift to be more human-centered. Email me or click here to share more in the comments section on our Top Tips page. Others may learn from your story and what you share. To see your digital results and the new Thinker Portal, please login to your account using the same email and password you used to take the assessment. Choose I forgot my password to reset your credentials.

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