Written by: Linda Allen-Hardisty, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Two companies are each facing the new era of leadership realities. Consider these two real-life scenarios that are underway:
“I can’t find anyone who wants to apply for these leadership roles. No one wants the heavy lifting for such a minimal increase in salary. I always wanted to be in this role but that’s not the aspiration I hear from others.”
Contrast to this story –
“I am so excited he asked if I was interested to be in this role. I was always craving direction. I can influence the vision with everyone and work collaboratively in this role. The team is already asking for my opinion”.
Quite possibly the beginning of a new era. What these two years of pandemic life have shown is that leadership roles require a different combination of capabilities now - and what will motivate people into leadership roles is changing big time.
Transformation Into Leadership
Leading during the pandemic was transformational for leaders, in both positive and negative ways. It was a tough go, and for some, the transformation was to leave leadership all together – “this wasn’t the role I signed up for” – and they are right. No judgement here, just acknowledgement that it is acceptable to decide so.
Those who survived – and thrived – were leaders who
gave themselves permission to be vulnerable,
became comfortable with ambiguity and normalized it,
showed empathy more frequently to appreciate the whole person,
kept adapting, often working with a coach or participating in online learning events,
tried new ways to be more inclusive in team discussions, and
got creatively supportive in how to hold people accountable to deliver on the core business.
They grew into leaders for which there was no blueprint or role model to follow.
Motivators Into Leadership
The leadership prototype has been updated, and organizations can’t go back to the same model when it comes to finding and developing people into leadership roles. The path to effective leadership has now been rewritten.
Historically, leadership positions have been filled with people whose resumes show a progressive path (supervisor, then manager, then director, and so it goes), often initiated by the applicant who submits an application and does the interview, with a job offer to close the transaction, with the hiring leader thinking “well he’s been a director, so now we could use his experience in this vice president role.” Transferable skills are considered slightly, yet many hiring leaders struggle with how to effectively garner confidence from anything other than a traditional resume path measured in years and positions.
So here we are now. The best candidates aren’t necessarily the ones who initiate the process or put their hand up to be put into a leadership role. They need to be invited and acknowledged for bringing something to the table they may not have seen before in their own leaders.
The most successful organizations will be the ones who
Work like a symphony to consider all combinations of capabilities. Looking for leaders who think like you will narrow your options – instead, truly look across the symphony seats to all levels of play; everyone has a unique contribution to the outcome
Look for a non-traditional hire as a more common practice. Don’t go looking in the same places for something different.
Change the approach to noticing, inviting, and attracting people into leadership roles will help diversity, and specifically, increase the number of women in leadership roles whose proven capabilities can often challenge the traditional resume path.
While the specifics of this look different within each organization’s culture, closing the leadership gap post-pandemic begins now. Post-pandemic life will come.
Traditions, some say, are either to be preserved or broken. My reframe is that traditions are meant to evolve. It is time to change the path to leadership - or has it already started?
Linda Allen-Hardisty, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Linda Allen-Hardisty, is a leader in executive coaching, emotional intelligence and leadership team performance. After her own corporate leadership experiences left her full of curiosity about development, Linda discovered strategies to dramatically strengthen leaders and their teams. She has since dedicated her professional practice to coaching leaders in the C-suite and on leadership teams to do the inner work of achieving tremendous results. She is President and Founder of Allen-Hardisty Leadership Group, the executive leadership development firm with clients across Canada. Her clients include industries of oil and gas, utilities, aviation, universities, crown corporations, Indigenous business, agri-value, and more. Linda is a lead facilitator in the Organizational Development Program at Queens University IRC, Professional Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation, a keynote speaker and author on emotionally effective leadership, and a national award winner. Her mission: Spark new insights in each coaching conversation
