The post-pandemic workforce craves a new type of leadership. Are you ready to give it to them?
Leadership today is not just about results, but how you achieved the results. In the post-COVID economy, where digital reigns supreme and remote means more than a device to change the TV channel, your workforce craves good human leadership. After more than a year of stress, burnout, and isolation, they want to be nurtured, listened to, valued, and encouraged.
Effective leadership in today’s work climate demands the human touch.
What is a human leader?
In business, a human leader treats their staff like human beings, as opposed to workers whose only relevance is company- or job-related. Human leadership is rooted in compassion and belonging. These leaders make coworkers feel safe, respected, and protected, and they understand that their role is grounded in self-respect and unconditional love.
Human leaders honor people’s right to equity, dignity, and integrity. They recognize that all people have value and unique contributions to bring to work and life.
6 ways to position yourself as a human leader:
- Be a Human Being First: Show coworkers that you are a human being who cares about them as human beings as well as what they bring to the company. Be a nurturer and communicator. Always try to have insight into others and understand how they feel. If something is stressing them out, then you should know about it. Above all, know what makes your coworkers happy.
- Promote Human Connection and Belonging: in the post-COVID workplace, workers are feeling stressed, isolated, and burned out. Find ways to bring coworkers together and rebuild working structures and relationships. Figure out where tensions lie, internally and externally. Build a work environment where team bonding and communication are encouraged and valued. Foster a greater sense of camaraderie through coordination among different groups, stronger cross-organization cohesion, and general inclusiveness.
- Become a Self-Learner: Always be growing and value the journey as much as the result. In the modern business environment, more data is available and things move quicker than ever before. It’s important to continue to grasp complex business issues and explore multiple angles and many different solutions. You must be able to think critically, solve problems, think in parallels, and multitask.
- Have their Backs: Be compassionate with the intention to bring happiness to others. Make staff feel safe, trusted, loyal, and committed. Empathize with and support your colleagues. Ask them what they need, offer encouragement, and routinely check in with them. When you engage with staff, ask yourself one question: “How can I help this person have a better day?”
- Practice Self-awareness and Mindfulness: Leadership begins with understanding yourself and leading yourself before you can lead others. By knowing your own values, personality, needs, habits, and emotions, you are better able to manage your stress, make better decisions, and ultimately lead others to do the same. With self-awareness, you are able to put your strengths forward and lean into those abilities. Be humble and constantly look for opportunities to improve.
- Always Be Selfless: Realize that it is not about you but the people and organization you lead. Remember to take yourself out of every equation and instead consider the long-term benefits to others. A human leader practices confidence and self-care, and never makes decisions exclusively for personal gain. All decisions are made for the benefit of others.
The future of leadership is human. Leaders that build a culture of human-first behavior run better businesses. Good human leaders develop human workers to their full potential.
METAGROWTH specializes in sales teambuilding through hands-on strategies for hiring, training, and maintaining sales teams. Our innovative firm helps founders take their companies to the next level. For more information contact MetaGrowth today.