As 2022 ended and I switched my attention to 2023, I began reading the emerging articles on 2023 leadership trends. As I did so, I questioned the major takeaways for ordinary leaders; what do these trends mean for the CEO of a small charity or business, a public service team leader, someone in corporate middle management, or any leadership position? Making sense of the patterns became even more difficult for me because there are many disparities among sectors, countries, and organisations. What it takes to be successful in a leadership position in one context may not work in another.
As I thought about these articles, I started looking for common themes and concepts across publications. Given everyone's lack of time, the expanding complexity of leadership, and the difficulty of taking on leadership responsibilities, I felt that summarising these topics in one place may be advantageous.
From all this reading, five themes stood out, these were:
The increasing role of values and purpose in leadership: anyone who has followed the debate on leadership, organisations, and people management will know that how you, as a leader, express your values is becoming increasingly crucial to the motivation of your team, the people around you, and the influence you have. The significance of recognising your values - how they change - and articulating them to the people creates a feeling of purpose and connection between you and your team and their work. It matters that this is more than restating or refreshing corporate values. It is about who you are and finding the balance between being authentic and not being too much yourself.
The impact of hybrid working on leadership: New leadership difficulties are emerging due to the new world of hybrid work. How often should your team members meet together? How do you grow people? What is the most efficient way to employ face-to-face versus virtual time? What exactly is asynchronous communication? There is no correct solution to this issue, yet the trend will continue. To exercise effective leadership in this new hybrid reality, return to excellent leadership practice by articulating clear principles and standards, setting limits, and co-creating a vision of how your team will function.
How you think of yourself as a leader will change: Leaders' positions have been under attack for some time, and it's time to capitulate. The crucial shift is developing leadership qualities over leaders. It is no longer about making decisions but empowering and enabling others to make decisions and grow. Coaching and communication abilities are in high demand. Consider how you are developing yours.
Change your meeting culture: Meetings took over people's calendars during COVID. There were check-ins, one-on-one meetings, and team meetings. Companies and individuals are pushing back from IT giants banning all recurrent group meetings to individuals saying no to more meetings. Yet, we must meet to interact. To be effective, we must change the culture of our meetings. Meetings are only one part of numerous ways to exchange information, share thoughts, and keep people up to speed. We must continue to meet to solve difficulties, connect, mentor, and support one another. However, for other meeting objectives, they are no longer necessary - consider which meetings your organisation no longer requires.
Building outsight: Leadership in 2023 and beyond is as much about connectivity as it is about getting things done. Consider how you might increase your awareness of external trends in your industry and beyond to advance in your leadership role. Seek to develop new relationships within and outside your organisation to exchange ideas and explore potential partnership opportunities. There is no right approach; the goal is to be successful; leadership entails looking out and in.
Over the next few weeks, I will continue to clean up my notes and post short blogs that pull together the blog posts, podcasts, and articles I found of interest in exploring 2023 leadership trends.
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