The most important leadership trend for 2022
Many organizations are on the brink of a leadership crisis and don’t even realize it.
The type of leadership that is needed now is entirely different than it was just three years ago. Up until now, with just a few slight modifications, traditional top-down leadership has pretty well stayed intact. Its transactional nature is very convenient. I announce my goal and others make it happen.
However, it has two major flaws that will be its downfall. First, this type of leadership creates rigidity (the inability to adapt), is too slow to keep pace (lacks agility), and has subpar results in that the people who do the work and are the experts don’t have input into important business decisions. Financial performance is also lower in organizations that are transactional. Up until now, in many organizations, the convenience outweighed the concerns, but the relentless instability created by CoVid is bringing things to a tipping point.
Secondly, while transactional leadership seems like a good deal for leaders, it’s a horrible deal for workers who have to work in dysfunctional, disorganized chaos with leaders who aren’t paying attention. How unpleasant! It’s a job hunter’s market. Your employees are not going to stick around anymore. To retain and hire great talent, transactional leaders will need to level up.
These two factors are converging to make 2022 a great year for transformational leadership. Transformational leaders pay attention so that they can work with others to proactively respond. When the strategy shifts, transformational leaders get to work throughout the organization to put the strategy to work AND also identify ways that the strategy is not working so that it can be fixed. Transformational leaders don’t just change the organization; working with a transformational leader changes lives. Suddenly, transformational leadership isn’t just an option, it’s an imperative.
What shifts are you seeing in your organization?
About Evolve Your Performance, LLC: Evolve Your Performance, based in College Park, MD, is a change management company that helps clients to take a people-centric approach to solving problems and accelerating success. For more information on Evolve’s Transformational Leadership and Accountability program, please visit https://evolveyourleaders.com/leadership
