The world is changing all the time. Paradigm shift is a phenomenon that occurs throughout human history. This 21st century marks yet another great paradigm shift that involves increasingly more technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) than it ever did in the past.
For humanity, this means an increasing integration of technology into everyday life functions, whether we are aware of it or not. At a behavioral level, technology has influenced the way we interact with one another. Collectively, this presents a great behavioral shift of the 21st century.
In light of this behavioral shift, leadership styles may also have to adapt to suit the changing landscape of the workforce and talents. Today, workforces are becoming more and more assimilated with technology and digitally influenced. The traditional leadership style that emphasizes one-way and top-down communication may not be the most effective leadership style in the realm of workforce management in the 21st century.
The progressive development and advancement of technology that occur in a fast-paced manner, may require that businesses are being adaptive to these changes, including being responsive to any surfaced issues that involve technological deployment and human-computer interactions. Traditional one-way communication may not be sufficient to keep up with this fast-paced environment that sometimes requires immediate actions, which can result in businesses losing out on their competitiveness over more adaptive peers, in some critical cases.
The increasing workforce among Generation Z, the people who got exposed to technology and the internet since their early days, presented a workforce population with a skewed distribution for digital savviness and technological competency, to that of their different-generation counterparts. Here, the two-way communicational system that facilitates equal communication between the supervisors, who are largely the people before Generation Z, and the employees who are Generation Z today, can be an effective way to understand the underlying technical issues faced by the frontline employees, that remain hidden costs unaware by top management. By being aware of these hidden costs, decision-makers can then take appropriate actions to resolve the issue promptly and effectively, retaining the business's competitiveness relative to its industrial peers.
This is where Servant Leadership comes in, in the 21st-century digital climate. Servant Leadership is a leadership style that enforces authenticity, ethical guidelines and employee empowerment. The ultimate end-product of Servant Leadership is unleashed creativity in the workforce. In practice, Servant Leadership involves being an empathic listener who understands the needs and pain points of subordinates and takes appropriate actions to address these pains. It also means being a leader who puts the employees first by serving and empowering them for their hidden talents to unlock employees' full potential, for ones to truly thrive. The Servant Leadership style believes that there is more to a person than just a mere employee performing tasks. Servant leadership operates on the basis that everyone has something valuable to contribute and as a servant leader you must be able to recognize and unleash that in your people.
For businesses, effective Servant Leadership is translated into increased trust and creativity, the key foundations to a sustainable innovative culture that reinforces a constant sharing of new ideas and honest feedback to unveil business issues, followed by effective resolution to reduce costs. Without trust, subordinates will withhold information and become less honest in their feedback, deviating supervisors and authorities from truly recognizing the actual underlying problems and delaying the process of effective resolution, which may put businesses behind the competition. Servant Leadership aims to minimize these unfavorable scenarios through the reinforcement of authenticity, transparency and trust, which are first being demonstrated by the leaders to their people.
As a result, Servant Leadership may be a more suitable leadership style of the 21st century than the traditional leadership style, where creativity and trust are keys to sustainable innovation that gives businesses a strong competitive advantage in light of this digital era. Servant Leadership style aims to stimulate innovation from the micro perspective, focusing on the workforce potential, that may serve as a more cost-effective approach to sustainable innovation than mere integrations of expensive tools into the current workflow. Ultimately, it is the people behind these tools who unleash the potential of the tools in producing innovative and effective output for the company.
The early career professionals who are largely Generation Z today always possess new ideas and novel perspectives. Leaders who exercise Servant Leadership principles can unveil this hidden creativity and harvest new ideas for corporate innovation, with more senior counterparts who are largely the people before Generation Z can exercise their rich experience to thoroughly assess the expressed idea for practicality. This is how intergenerational workforce can work in cohesion towards a corporate sustainable innovation, which helps to retain business competitiveness amidst the 21st-century digital era.
There is more to Servant Leadership than what is mentioned. Contact OnlyVenture Consulting today for more information on Servant Leadership, including initial consultation and a chat to see if Servant Leadership can benefit your company. Receive exclusive executive training from the true Servant Leader, for you to take charge of your corporate success through innovation for the 21st century.
Our training is open to all no matter where you are in the world. Contact us today to enroll in the Servant Leadership Executive Program.
Article by Nichanan Supunya, GenZ and Associate Consultant at OnlyVenture Consulting