Agile Leadership for 2022 and the post-pandemic era

As 2021 drew to a close, many businesses reflected on another year that had been hugely influenced by the Coronavirus pandemic. How had their businesses been forced to change, and what changes would their organisations take forward into 2022 and the post-pandemic era? In particular, how/if leaders need to change their style of leadership to a more agile one to suit post-pandemic priorities.
 
Organisational priorities for CEOs
 
Bain and Company set out their CEO agenda for the post-pandemic era, authored by James Allen and Dunigan O’Keeffe. For them, there are three key actions that CEOs need to take: returning to purpose; finding a new balance, focusing more on learning and talent; and resisting the urge to revert back to pre-pandemic behaviour. Cultivating talent and ensuring purpose are also key areas for Homayoun Hatami and Liz Hilton Segel of McKinsey. In particular, talent needs to be more flexible and diverse, and if an organisation lacks purpose, this talent will leave. John De Yonge of Ernst & Young agrees on the need for resisting a reversion to pre-pandemic behaviour, arguing that the pandemic brought many long-standing trends into sharp focus, shifting business transformation from important to urgent.
 
Another key priority is that of ensuring diversity. Korn Ferry’s report Future of work trends 2022: A new era for humanity, argues that Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DE&I) is becoming vital, with today’s leaders needing to embrace the full diversity of today’s workforces and know how to create a safe space where people feel accepted and empowered to give their best.
 
As well as changes within their organisations, leaders also need to acknowledge shift in customer expectations. Accenture’s report Beyond 2021: How to get ahead and stay ahead argues that customers now demand a more personal experience, particularly in commerce, and as such, business leaders need to rally their entire organisation around customer experience, so that “connected and meaningful experiences become valued above all else.”
 
A new style of leadership?
 
As well as the pandemic altering wider organisational priorities looking to the future, leaders now face far greater scrutiny over their leadership styles in a post-pandemic era.
 
Writing in Forbes, Deborah Lovich of BCG argues that the future of leadership needs to see leaders become more agile. By this, she argues leaders need to move away from a silo structure towards agile squads that focus on project completion. What being ‘agile’ means varies depending on who you speak to, however. In Forbes, their coaches council outlined 12 different ways a leader can be ‘agile’, ranging from fostering creativity and being able to pivot quickly when circumstances demand, to simply staying up to date on aspects such as industry trends and customer sentiment to enable to ability to pivot.

Steve Berger and Ira Gaberman of AT Kearney argue there is now an urgent need to redefine who and what a leader is, with candour, empathy, trust and flexibility among the leadership characteristics crucial for an organisation’s performance. Tami Erwin, Executive Vice-President and Group CEO of Verizon Business agrees that such softer skills are now important, arguing the pandemic has highlighted a new style of leadership – that of the compassionate, caring and curious leader.