How has the current crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic changed companies and leadership style? According to Paolo Gallo, one of the leading international experts in Coaching, the changes have been and have been evident:
“The crisis reveals the substance of organizations, people and leaders. So Covid from this point of view was an important test bed".
This also allows us to reflect on the mistakes we had made so far in running companies:
“If you look at the way companies have been managed up to now, the fundamental objective was to try to do better than before. There was therefore a great deal of attention to cost reduction, profit maximization, internal organization, processes, KPIs, which are and remain fundamental. If these aspects are not managed well, time, resources and money are wasted. What came later, this new unpredictable context, however, requires us to think in a completely different way.
Let me give you an example: a technology company with more than 300,000 employees had about 700 people in charge of recruitment, now there are just five.
Now these other 695s are Data Analysts, that is, they interpret the data related to HR ”.
However, the pandemic is certainly not the only challenge facing our societies and organizations in all sectors.
“There are four aspects to manage, starting with demographic changes: the population is getting older and more urban. Secondly, there is climate change, which we do not feel today but which will have great consequences in the future. The third is that of technology which has accelerated all changes exponentially. The fourth is the geopolitical one, this century will be that of Asia and China ”.
The great news of this period is that we are facing a period of both change and transformation:
"We are managing both a change linked to the influence of external factors and an internal transformation: in this new context, leadership changes completely and so does the way we deal with it. which we work. I am not referring only to working from home rather than in the office, which is still a very important change, but certainly not the only one. What does it mean to be a leader in a new context? It means building a system based on trust rather than one designed on control. In fact, if we no longer physically work together but there is no trust relationship, the collaboration cannot work. In reverse, You can't put in cameras or anything like that to keep control. In reverse, we must instead develop a human system of relationships based on trust, on skills, on results that make sense".
This approach can also make it possible to capture young talents, essential for the future prospects of organizations.
“You don't catch young people with red herrings or captivating videos. Capture them with substance: leaders must therefore worry a little more about credibility and a little less about visibility ”,
concludes Paolo.
