Leading in disruptive environments
20 de November de 2020
20 de November de 2020
Now more than ever before, leading is a real challenge. Not only does the professional world have to deal with huge technological advances, but also great cultural changes. Unlike previous generations, today’s professionals perceive work in a particular way, so leadership strategies also have to be updated in order to remain fit for service.
The Director of EAE’s Master in Human Resources Management, Jordi Delcor, understands this transformation perfectly and, with this in mind, he recently gave an online presentation entitled “The importance of disruptive leadership in a company”, in which he explained what he considers to be the key points.
Are you ready to delve into the world of innovative, disruptive leadership? Let’s get started!
The conference led by Jordi Delcor had an interesting dynamic that generated a lot of participation from the attendees through the chat feature. The Director asked a number of different questions about the world of employability and Human Resources, and the participants responded and shared their opinions. As a result, the presentation was gradually built as a joint project and the combination of different perspectives helped to reach some really interesting conclusions.
One of the first questions focused on working from home. Do you prefer working from home on a full or partial basis? The majority of participants agreed that partial home working was preferable.
“The lack of physical contact ends up having the effect of losing our identification with the organization and our human contact with the people that comprise it”, explained the Director. You can handle the routine but the emotional aspect cannot be replaced by the screen”.
After a number of contributions, Jordi Delcor listed the key factors for working from home effectively and safely:
“Mindset, personal attitude, the way we interact, and balance” were the main responses from the participating students.
After reading the responses, Jordi Delcor explained that working from home requires huge discipline and so we have to learn to prioritize our time. “Everybody likes the idea of not having to go anywhere, but our capacity to meet our objectives and deadlines varies a great deal, as there is no big brother monitoring you all the time”, he added.
Likewise, another important aspect is that you are supposedly available 24 hours a day. “There is no longer any physical separation between work and home so, unless we know how to deal with that, it can have a big impact emotionally”, explained the Director.
Another question posed by the Director was directly linked to the current global problems and the impact they have on leadership. How do worldwide problems affect the way we lead companies? In the students’ opinion, there has been a shift in our mindset, and new approaches have been created, such as the circular and sustainable economy, etc.
“The responses that you have given form part of a strategic framework that, in one way or another, we will have to our behaviour because otherwise we may get the kind of “schizophrenia” that we were talking about”, he emphasized.
The schizophrenia that the Director referred to is the distress caused to our morale that makes everybody talk about the problems affecting the world, such as global warming, hunger, the pandemic, etc. “However, at the end of the day, it is all talk. All we end up doing is continue meeting a set of targets so that some shareholders will be very happy”, he explained.
According to the expert, the new leadership has to start being consistent and take these problems seriously. “Corporate social responsibility has to stop being lip service and marketing. It has to have a real impact”.
Another fundamental issue for understanding what modern leadership should be like is related to the new generations’ perception of work. As Delcor explained, as they cannot accumulate capital like their predecessors did, today’s generations focus on accumulating experiences.
The Director once again handed over to the students. Some emphasized the importance of not simply giving things to people but rather teaching them to earn things for themselves. Others highlighted the importance of changing the culture and adapting conditions to the new demands.
The Director then listed a number of key factors for ensuring effective leadership in disruptive environments:
Our attitude and teamwork are equally vital factors for leading nowadays. The new generations represent a new challenge, so the key is to learn to decipher them and give them what they want to generate a satisfactory atmosphere that boosts output and progress.