In the earliest months of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a dearth of the one thing that every person thrives on that, unfortunately, we had taken for granted for far too long: human contact. Every video conference with older family members, every Friday afternoon virtual cocktail hour, the absence of fun evenings at the local sushi joint down the street…there was always that missing sense of human contact that nipped at the back of our minds as we experienced a crisis together.
While we are clearly out of the “emergency phase” of the biggest health crisis of our lifetime, with vaccines and immunity leading to a more “normal” way of life (barring another serious surge of cases), it doesn’t mean we should be abandoning the newfound focus on aspects such as empathy, compassion, and emotional-led thinking both in our personal and professional lives, however.
The Future of Work Exchange has long been a proponent of empathetic leadership and its many, many benefits. We even wrote about it last week and discussed why the Future of Work movement required more humanity within its innerworkings. It’s with this backdrop in mind that business leadership must continue to evolve; what the Future of Work needs today is conscious leadership.
Enterprise leaders in 2022 sit in a very, very different position than they did just a couple of years ago. And while the pandemic played a very critical role in how leadership has changed for the better, the fact is that the business arena would eventually experience this revolution of leadership simply because the workforce, the enterprise vision, and getting work done all now require a reimagined and strategic approach towards leadership.
“For years we’ve recognized that people’s dedication to their work has shifted: whether that be in time, energy, or emotion spent. People have the opportunity to reap so much from their careers, but only if the environments in which they work recognize and honor that and play an equal part in the relationship,” said Ashley Andersen, Leadership Coach and Partner at 10X Leadership Lab. “No longer are people just happy to have a job. They want and deserve more from their work- they want to use their work to create a positive impact and they want their work to in turn have a positive impact on them.”
The realm of conscious leadership follows a similar path to the one paved by empathy, in that nearly every facet of human contact between an executive and his or her colleagues and staff is rooted in a meaningful, genuine purpose. A leader’s core approaches involve them becoming more aware of their actions, more aware of how kind and, yes, conscious, those actions and insights may be perceived by the organization’s workforce.
Andersen and her 10X Leadership Lab team are focused on helping leaders become more conscious in their overall styles and approaches, augmenting leadership strategies with positive psychology and an emphasis on the fundamental behavioral change that is required for executives to reboot their approaches towards revolutionary leadership.
“At 10X Leadership Lab, we see leadership as a tremendous responsibility and, in that responsibility lies to the opportunity to have real impact – not just on the bottom line, but on the overall well-being of those around you and the systems you work within,” said Andersen. “Think about the last time you felt really heard, seen, understood, and valued at work – what was the impact of that? The leaders who show up in that way are the ones we’re willing to go the extra mile for, the ones we want to stick beside and learn from, the ones whose feedback really matters.”
One of the most critical aspects of conscious leadership is purpose (which we’ve written about recently). Workers desire work that has purpose, that is fulfilling, and aligns with their own specific journeys, goals, and life objectives. Leadership must change and evolve to suit this critical Future of Work tenet. Leadership must have the capability to be influential, purposeful, and deliberate in how it drives the overall vision of its staff, its product, its culture, and the greater organization.
“Everything begins with purpose at 10X, whether you are working with us in 1:1 coaching or at the systems level through our Thriving Culture work, because it’s the foundation that determines how we operate, the decisions we make, the attitudes we hold, the language we use,” said Andersen. “At 10X, our purpose is to make the world better by making business better. If we meet with a prospect who doesn’t share an interest in maximum impact beyond profit, we aren’t the right company for them and we politely part ways. It’s not always an easy decision to make, but it’s one that leaves us standing in integrity, which feels a whole lot different than the alternative. This work isn’t easy, that’s not what it’s about, but it’s always worthwhile. It’s what the Future of Work demands and deserves from us, and it’s what we are most passionate about.”
