Especially in the last couple of years more and more people are talking about it: The world is changing. Change tends to create fear and anxiety in people’s minds. This also mainly affects the professional life of all of us. Through these radical and rapid innovations and developments, it becomes more and more difficult to be a good and effective manager and leader. This leads to the topic of this article: How does leadership style have to adapt and evolve to stay powerful and fair in our fast-changing world?
Leaders are experiencing challenges in managing in this changing world
The employees are one of the main assets of every company. If they are not satisfied and motivated, the company will struggle to be successful (Ramamurti, 1990). Besides this, also the way of thinking of employees, as well as the way of doing business itself is changing. So, what are the main challenges, leaders and managers are currently experiencing?
- In order to stay competitive and successful, companies need to be innovative. To assure this, creative thinkers who give innovative ideas and solutions are needed. Employees who only deliver without questioning their tasks, are not wanted anymore in modern companies. Therefore, managers need to be able to change their way of acting. Instead of giving orders and looking down on their employees, a good leader should foster their innovativeness and creativity (Maier, 2016).
- Another big challenge is represented by Millennials. What motivates this young generation and what are they seeking for? An interesting Deloitte survey of 2018 found that the second most important criteria to work for an organization for Millennials is to have a “positive workplace culture”. Their expectations are different compared to previous generations. Why don’t you ask your parents, or even your grandparents about their first job? I’m sure you are going to be surprised of how management and leadership style has changed in the last decades.
- Telecommuters represent one more recently created test. Since the beginning of this century, it is becoming a big trend to hire ‘out-of-the-box thinker’ with different backgrounds and cultures in order to be more innovative. It also represents disadvantages and obstacles. It becomes difficult to create a solid team spirit, as co-workers often communicate via message or skype-meetings, barely being in contact with each other physically.
- This leads to a next challenge. Globalization made it easier for people all over the world to work together in one company. Besides the fact that they often don’t even work in the same office, there are cultural differences making it even harder to work together successfully. Thereby talking about different languages, organizational styles, or of how to behave in a team.
How does the e-commerce industry face the impacts from the changing world?
To get deeper into the topic, we will focus next on the E-commerce sector and how one of the most successful companies worldwide, Amazon, is dealing with all the fast, unpredictable changes.
The E-commerce industry is one of the fastest changing, developing and innovatively acting industries in business. Obviously also because 20 years ago the internet business did not even exist. What is also important to bear in mind: this industry is one of the most closely connected to the customer, making it compulsory to always adapt to changes and knowing of how to directly respond to the needs of customers (Hammersley, 2017).
A famous example of how to stay updated about all new trends is Amazon. It is not by coincidence, that they became one of the most successful companies in a few years. It has been learning years by years to face the impacts and to react correctly to them by using leadership techniques. Rampton describes in his 2018 published article how Amazon’s leadership techniques help to face the worlds new impacts, and to create its massive success.
- First, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos thinks that one of the most important goals in daily business is to give autonomy and a meaningful vision. The main assumption is that these “Liberating leaders” give responsibility to employees to take actions fitting into Amazon’s vision. This “autonomy” technique doesn’t mean that people don’t need a leader, just like Carney and Bretz explain in their paper. (Carney, Bretz, 2018).
- Another very important “secret” for Amazon’s success is that its HR is looking for the “best fit” for the company. Their goal is to recruit leader personalities who are able to operate in a newly developing organizational world. This is also why they are able to give that much autonomy to their employees.
- Still, the most important is to never forget to listen to what the customer wants and how the trends, technologies and needs change. No matter in which area a company is working in, it should never forget to listen to the voice of the customer (Confirmit Team, 2016). A good leader has to train the whole workforce to always be aware of this. Furthermore success, especially in the ecommerce sector, is only possible by adapting and working with change in every part of the company.
What are the key leadership styles and capabilities for the future?
In a context of constant change, the following should be pointed out as well. What will the leadership styles and capabilities look like in the future? By “future”, it implies the industry 4.0. It “represents the current trends of the new data exchange and automation processes in manufacturing technologies, including the Internet of things and cognitive computing” (Hermann, Pentek, Otto, 2016). Alongside, the capabilities of the leaders will evolve in the future. Renjen explained that there might arise the following main leader personalities:
- First, the data driven experts, who are important, as strategic decision-making processes will depend more and more on data-focused approaches.
- Next, if you know how and in which industry to take investments, you will be one step before your competitors. Disruption Drivers understand that strategic investments in disruptive innovations have the power to make the difference in every kind of business.
- Finally, there are leaders who see the importance of employee retraining and preparation programs for industry 4.0 in order to prepare their ‘human assets’ for the future as a long-term success guarantor. This is what we also call the Learning Organizations. This term has been used to describe organizations that learn rapidly and use the knowledge to become more effective. (Yuhl 2010)
Through these coming leader personalities and in the context of the industry 4.0, the agile leadership style could appear more and more. Indeed, working teams will face cultural diversity or virtual teams for example, asking to be flexible for a manager. Just like I mentioned previously, the millennials are also a challenge for the leaders. This generation will actually tend to a more flexible working arrangement and more cooperative structure.
In conclusion, in this world where change is so rapid and so constant, leaders are experiencing different challenges in their organizations. Just like many companies in the e-commerce field, Amazon has been confronted with constant change, but it always knew how to implement measures by using new leadership techniques. The world will continue to evolve, and the future is uncertain. However, the industry 4.0 is already here and executives around the world are beginning to prepare their organizations for this big new challenge. As a result, some new capabilities will emerge leading to a more agile management style.
Eloïse Morel
References:
Carney, Bretz, 2018, Give Your Team the Freedom to Do the Work They Think Matters Most, Harvard Business Review.com
Confirmit Team, 2016, The Inextricable Link Between VoC and VoE
Deloitte Millenial Survey, 2018, Millennials disappointed in business, unprepared for Industry 4.0
Hermann, Pentek, Otto, 2016, Design Principles for Industry 4.0 Scenarios
Jems Hammersley, 2017, Digital leadership: how to drive change in an ecommerce business, econsultancy.com
Ramamurti, 1990, The world is Changing
Rampton, 2018, 10 Leadership Lessons from Amazon’s Massive Success, entrepreneur.com
Steffen Maier, 2016, New Challenges for Managers in a Changing World of Work, workology.com
Yukl, G., (2010), Leadership in Organizations: Global Edition, 7th Edition, Pearson Higher Education
Change Leadership Blog - Management of Change 
Hello Eloïse. Thank you for your analysis about the future of leadership. I liked your part about challenges leaders have to face nowadays, cause I have been seeing them everyday at work… Also, do you think that the leaders in the future will get a stronger “leader awareness”, meaning they will be more aware of their capacity to lead ?
J’aimeJ’aime
Hello and thank you.
This is an interesting question.
Almost everyone agrees on the positive effects that good leaders have had on the organizations. Without leadership awareness, it is and will be much harder to succeed.
Organizations of the future will look for trained leaders to be, people who are really preparing to lead. The challenge is to develop these personal skills in a conscious way (leading change, innovation and creativity, working in a team, the ability to apply knowledge to decision-making, communicating, etc.).
The leader of tomorrow will be aware of their ability to lead, they will reflect on their goals before pursuing them, they will count on their team and will surround themself with the most competent people to achieve the goal. Ultimately, the challenge will be to heal and develop leadership.
Hope that it helped you !
Eloïse
J’aimeJ’aime
Interesting article ! You mentioned that Millenials are a current challenge for managers, I can confirm ! I have a question about this, do you think that we should try to balance the autonomy and the responsibility we give to this category of employees ?
Thank you very much in advance for your answer !
J’aimeJ’aime
Thank you.
Indeed, new to the job market, millennials bring a dynamism and some innovative methods, beneficial to companies. But in order to succeed in working with the rest of the teams and to be able to quickly assume responsibilities, it is important that these young employees first integrate certain uses of the sector in which they fit.
Faced with a new generation of employees, the challenge for managers is to find a balance between their ambitions and this prior learning they must do. To give too quickly autonomy to new employees who do not yet master the work environment may expose them to misunderstandings or errors of judgment. So you have to give them a certain framework, so that they take the time not only to know the values of the company, but also to know themselves. Clear roles and responsibilities, formalized review and validation milestones, or regular feedback are all tools that help clarify this framework.
Have a good evening 🙂
J’aimeJ’aime
Hello, I am a first-year student in business school. I found your article interesting. But I’m a little bit lost between the two words “Manager” and “Leader”. Can you explain me ? Thank you
J’aimeJ’aime
A manager is the one who runs an organization in an organizational framework defined according to specific rules. Conversely, the leader is not in control, but in change.
The term leader does not cover a position but a perception. It is not linked to a hierarchy or a function. Some people manage hundreds of people but are not perceived as leaders. Conversely, others have a reputation as leaders without leading a team.
It is rare to become a leader without having been a manager. On the other hand, some remain managers all their life without becoming a leader.
I hope I answered your question and good luck for your studies.
J’aimeJ’aime