It is an understatement to say the world of work has changed dramatically in the last few years. And the catalyst for this change was the COVID-19 pandemic. Overnight, companies were forced to change how they did business and their employees started to work from home. Everyone had to adapt to fully remote work first and hybrid work later, when some returned to the office a handful of times a week while working from home the rest of the time. And management practices had to evolve as well. As a result, a new type of leadership, called Leadership 3.0 -or Management 3.0-, emerged.
Management 3.0 puts the focus on the whole work system, not the individual, to find the right solutions for better leadership.
Current Organizational Priorities
A current priority for organizations is to reinvent and adapt to the new reality shaped by the 2020 pandemic and the current geopolitical instability.
Besides, companies have to meet societal expectations like inclusivity or environmental concerns, and they also have to contend with their employees’ expectations. In the current environment, employees seek meaningful work, work flexibility, and work-life balance. In order to cater to those expectations, companies have embraced some kind of hybrid work model, ranging from a short work week or remote work to complete flexibility.
The hybrid option is one of three categories. The other two are the work-from-office model, where employees are expected to come to the office full-time, and the work-from-home model, where talent works remotely only.
The 4Cs an Effective Leader Needs to Consider
The purpose of a team is to deliver a desired outcome based on a business need. Besides, a team needs to be resilient, creative, adaptable, and cohesive. The leaders of successful hybrid teams follow certain criteria called the 4 Cs: Collective Mindset, Connection, Core, and Cohesive Relationships so that all the elements come together and deliver results.
Collective Mindset
The collective mindset refers to the beliefs about how the team members work together, or team culture. The actions the leader needs to take are to design a work environment that suits everyone, discuss key values like resilience and create a team culture around them, and reinforce the behaviors that support the team’s culture and identity using in-person and virtual gamified challenges.
Core
The hybrid world calls for a reestablished sense of core purpose, i.e., the reason for coming together as a team. Since many people have reevaluated their personal purpose, it follows that it should be somehow linked to that of the team and the organization to establish personal commitment and alignment.
Connection
Team members need to develop strong and meaningful connections amongst themselves and with other teams within the organization, as they do not exist in isolation. The aim is to cross boundaries to deliver results. The team leader should encourage deeper relationships by organizing cross-team activities and introducing digital tools that make cross-team work more efficient.
Cohesive Relationships
Cohesion refers to the team’s approach to working together. A hybrid work model can negatively impact relationships. For example, there are fewer unplanned interactions between colleagues, like dropping in for a chat. Therefore, there is a diminished sense of belonging and it has become harder for team members to bond. The team leader should be able to overcome this by creating spaces for honest conversation, giving clear guidance on individual tasks, small-group tasks, and cross-team work, and bringing the whole team on-site on a regular basis to collaborate.
A Leadership 3.0 Leader is an Agile Leader
A Leadership 3.0 leader has certain characteristics, among which are a strong belief in a unified team, flexibility, a willingness to share information and knowledge, openness to suggestions and ideas, and the ability to provide feedback and coaching.
Project-Based Learning at English Services
At English Services, we firmly believe that the project-based approach to learning is highly effective because it incorporates real-life situations into group projects. Our students learn to speak a language as well as practice soft skills. We provide a wide range of language learning projects for all levels of proficiency based on different subjects, and Leadership 3.0 is one of them. Drop us a line to find out more about our language training services.
