Leadership
in times of disruption
and innovation
The market demands speed and creativity
We are experiencing a radical and ever-increasing change: an enormous flood of information and data, increasing market pressure, successful startups that conquer markets with disruptive ideas in a very short time, shorter product cycles, artificial intelligence, new technologies, disruptive services, and a young generation that has different ideas about work, consumption, and life. The previous path to success of companies and the mindset of the players are being put to the test. The credo of the most successful companies on the market today is:
be fast – be flexible – be creative
The main response of companies to this demand: creating tons of new projects, end-to-end processes, digitizing processes, data management, changing structures, a stronger focus on the customer and agile working methods. This path promises more speed.
Here is a quote from Google HR:
“Digitalization will not succeed without cultural change”
The ultimate answer
The ultimate answer to the market’s demand is to create a highly functioning, fast moving, flexible and ever creative team – like a Champions League sports team, where everyone is eager to help each other. However, this massive collective power ONLY thrives in a culture of trust. And trust emerges with trustworthy people – trustworthy, both, on a technical level AND on an interpersonal level. Cultures based on uncertainty or even fear slow down processes and hinder creativity. Success does not occur as expected, and the initial enthusiasm for new goals, new projects and programs often leads to stress, frustration and overwhelm in the workforce. The momentum for change fades. Instead of blaming each other, lets look at the two big issues that need to be tackled.
The two biggest destroyers of trust and success
Egoism & Stress
Unfortunately, both managers and employees have the biggest blind spots when it comes to both destroyers. A passionately successful company will not simply accept these negative consequences.
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Egoism
Egoism flourishes under pressure and stress, but also without stress when I feel self-important and elevate myself above others. Then my egoistic forms of behavior show, such as overpowering, flattering, manipulating, spreading guilt, controlling people with distrust, threatening, lying, letting others down, being righteous, arrogant, etc. Egoism always, without exception, spreads insecurity, distrust, frustration and fear.
Stress
Yes, stress comes from the market, but too often it is also self-created through people’s egoistic behavior (see above). Destructive behavior regularly leads to a destructive counterreaction: communication becomes harsher, conflicts are repressed, meetings become paralyzing, blame is rampant, commitment is subordinated to one’s own security, responsibility is kept unclear and segmented, and thus cooperation and results orientation are increasingly just lip service. Trustworthiness and a culture of trust go down the drain and with them speed, flexibility and creativity. And last but not least, it wears people out and makes them physically sick.
Economic consequences of egoism and stress
Unfortunately, both managers and employees have the biggest blind spots when it comes to both destroyers. They have difficulty perceiving their own behavior, often deny it and therefore cannot see the effect it has on others. In our surveys, managers stated that they spend an average of two hours of their working time every day on workarounds to these problems. This means a loss of 20% of working time and 20% of the salaries paid. In addition to the frustration with the culture, there is also the frustration with unrealized ideas.
A passionately successful company will not simply accept these negative consequences. The time is obviously over when it was enough to have trained technical skills and learn a few tools for the human level – to give better feedback and to present better. But what should be done? It’s obviously about learning new skills and taking existing skills to a new level. But where do the leaders and employees get the learning impulses, the suggestions, the inspiration through examples in order to learn from them. Where is the curriculum and where are the learning units fixed in everyday life?