Soon after the latest crisis known by the current generation, in 2009 to be precise, a relatively simple movie was presenting a hard to believe hypothesis: in concrete, the unpleasant job of mass firing that George Clooney was playing had passed within only 48 hours from one to one meetings into “digital dismissal”. Shock in the movie and amongst fans.
Today this is a mere reality, a fact and it is only the beginning phase of a totally unpredictable scenario.
In between webinars, articles and being live in all forms, we are still Alive handling activity reports from our bedrooms or living rooms. We often hear talks about how Leadership in challenging times makes history, while in real life nobody really knows exactly What they are doing, nor How they will be doing it from now onwards. The functional job description of classic roles has diluted, then compressed and then transformed so dramatically, that in less than a month we are dealing with a chaotic phenomenon that metamorphosizes human resources in individuals, professionals in full-time parents and leaders in creators of untested solutions. Two categories and two extremes are becoming more and more obvious: people are left jobless and people that work twice as much but for less. Whilst nor the first ones, neither the others seem to have options at this time. There are no more trends to follow, no professional wellbeing, not to speak of professional development of any kind. Less and less recruitment, no training, nor mentorship. We all became individuals, wearing at least 3-4 hats simultaneously while in different roles, all within the same 24 hours, but in totally different paradigms and along with the fear for our personal health and safety, as well as our dear ones: freestyle dance on the pandemic wire!
Connecting this new reality with the one of the previous years when the trend was to somehow obtain work-life balance not only results, it now seems that we are looking at life upside down and from this unnatural perspective what specialists call nowadays “right-sizing” seems to be a must-have attribute of “first-line” leadership. Facing it with honesty this new era is a consequence of the long years when instead of seeing talent as an added value to a business, people were equivaled to a resource, just like the material ones, obviously used with maximum efficiency like any other resources.
In these unique times, an organizational development consultant with the mission of sustaining all types of companies in redesigning their HR strategies has daily the feeling with which Clooney has returned to an empty life, but with 1 million miles flown.
In order to minimize the negative effects of socials distancing and stress generated by uncertainty and lack of perspective, leaders become the ones that Can motivate, support and value real talent. The essence of leadership in challenging times comes not only with resilience but with humanity, empowerment, involvement and gratitude. We will then be able to also see the hidden benefits of the times we live in, the incredible opportunities the challenging digitalization and the huge leap that the next generations will be making right on the fundamentally moving sand on which we now redefine life as we used to know it.
In crisis routine so far experience has proved to be the most valuable quality of leaders. But on these unwalked crisis paths we live in Caracther becomes of vital importance. Leaders have now as mission replacing pressure with assumed calm, with systematic detachment in order to be able to address the righ questions and gain clarity. Trust and realistic vision with a touch of optimism these are now the qualities of an authentic leader.
Thus, ask yourself constantly how can we support, value and motivate companies' most valuable asset: talent!
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Anda Marian is a Partner at Iventa Romania and an Executive & Transformational Coach. With extensive Leadership Consultancy experience focused on Assessment, Career Counseling and Organizational Development, she is a senior strategic advisor with more than 12 years of operational and consultancy exposure in multiple industries and, a well-known coach.
Her proven expertise ranges from Organizational diagnosis (culture, climate, teams, stress & time management) to auditing complex HR policies. By using standardized and custom-made instruments, she deeply analyzes the dynamics and talent component of a business. Also, she is highly competent in designing and implementing new complex business development strategies.
Being constantly exposed to career advisory and personal development she easily became a Coach too. Since 2016 she has chosen as approach Transformational Coaching and has since then sustained hundreds of leaders and organizations in their growth.
You can find more about Anda on www.evolvecreate.ro
