How do you see the term leadership in these days of post, new-normal transition? Has it changed or is it still in transition?  

I think it’s a very good question. Covid did speed up changes in the world, as well as in work environments. I believe this is an era of constant change.  Moving forward, we will need to deal with the change and transition.  For 24 months now, we have been learning how to live in the Covid era. I think this is a learning experience for all of us. I have read an interesting quote that the pandemic brought the biggest leadership change in the past 200 years. That’s a very solid statement, isn’t it?

               The biggest change I observe is that leaders are shifting to a new way of leading. Previously, leadership styles had focused on a hierarchical way of managing people. They focused only on what needs to be delivered and how; most were micromanaging, concentrating on delivering results—more  transactional and unhuman. By contrast, leaders now need to connect with their people, teams, bosses, and peers. They need to be using their left and right brain capabilities more.

Leaders need to create vulnerable connections. They need to go the extra mile to develop deeper connections. It is now normal to show our emotions, and care given to people—and the  entire system—are more humanized. We all live in stress and anxiety since we cannot plan, predict, and control. This creates a lot of pressure, overall. Today, we openly talk about well-being, burnout, psychological problems openly. Leaders show vulnerability much more than they did in the past; they are more courageous and brave. They realize they cannot have a solution for every situation or problem they face. Today, they ask for help, they can say openly “I do not feel well, or I am concerned“. This creates psychological safety leading to an inclusive and safe environment.

That’s what I see as the biggest change in leadership. Has the change finished? No. I think there is still a lot of learning. We still need to observe and look for data to understand what’s required by the new way of working and leadership. After that, we can define more factually what change Covid has brought us.

How would you define the reinvented leadership term from your perspective?

With the current speed of change, people need to be more adaptive and agile then they did in the past. As I always say “ What was valid yesterday is not valid today and will not be valid tomorrow. “

So, this forces people to go out of their comfort zone and search for new solutions. Ready-made solutions are no longer on the shelf.   People must go into vulnerable situations where they need to test, try, fail, and test again. It is evolution to create new solutions and search for new options. I believe mindset of growth is very much needed and relates to what I was mentioning earlier; there are no ready-made solutions. People really need to find new solutions, be prospective, innovative. We cannot stick to the old solutions that no longer work.

Curiosity becomes a very important element of mindset; you need to be curious, always learn; if not, it is very difficult to be successful in this constantly-changing environment.

Lastly, I would like to emphasize the importance of balancing the right and left-brain capabilities, since there are no standard solutions available anymore. In the past, many companies had been following one process and standardizing it for the entire company, using it for its overall workforce. That is not the case anymore. Talking about empathy, creating bonding—you need to go with individual solutions. Each person is unique. That is demanding, but at the same time, it is rewarding. I love that change.

I would like to also highlight the most under-invested leadership skill is listening. Listening is vital for showing your presence to the people, and it helps you to create a deeper bond. Listening says ‘I am here for you, I want to support you, and let me understand you.’ Without listening skills, leaders cannot be successful. It is not natural for human beings to listen to others. We usually listen to answer, to bring our own ideas to the table, to draw the attention to us.

If we are to reinvent leadership, listening is a vital skill.

We often talk about leadership and the importance of the Emotional Intelligence at the workplace. How are they connected?

I would counter whether Emotional Intelligence is enough for success at the workplace. We need to talk about Emotional Agility. In EQ you focus on emotions, what is going on in you and around you. With term emotional agility you look deeper and broader. It is looking at how you can deal with those emotions you notice. With EQ you understand the emotion, however being emotionally agile, you question “How do I deal with my emotions and those of my team, my bosses, and my peers?” How do I shift emotions or utilize them properly? How do I manage my emotions towards a positive evolution? Being emotionally agile enables you to accept emotions and allows you to deal with it. Emotions and emotional agility are the embedded part of leadership as represented by the capabilities of the right hemisphere of your brain. No leader is successful without developing emotional agility. New generations won’t accept a leader who is not emotionally agile. They are not following hierarchical orders. They want to be appreciated, understood, supported.

What is the biggest challenge for today’s leaders?

The biggest challenge of today’s leader is to create time and space for reflection and how to balance between short-term delivery and long-term sustainability. This is a challenge we are all going through right now. Leading in this dynamic environment takes up a lot of our agendas. We have long to-do lists. Should leaders remain working in this manner, both they and their teams will suffer from it and become unhealthy in the long run.

I use the “ dance floor and the balcony“ concept to explain the need to separate the time for execution from that of observation. I always encourage leaders to work on the concept of the “dance floor and the balcony,“ and it’s not either/or, it’s both the dance floor and the balcony.  Both are important.  You will be always busy with execution, and you will need to create very strong awareness and develop the self-discipline to notice when to leave the dance floor and go to the balcony. The balcony means you take time for reflection, balancing and evaluation. You stand at the balcony and ask questions. Is it still going well, how are the people in the hall, do they enjoy what’s going on, is it a team dance, are they listening to and appreciating the music? The best is to watch and observe it all yourself from the outside. Do I enjoy the dance myself? Do I dance in harmony with the music and the others? Or is it that we’re bumping into one another, stepping on each other’s toes?

The metaphor of dancing: this is how we work. Pausing for reflection and being mindful is very important, and I see that many leaders still struggle with reflection. They either do not understand or do not want to implement it. Some see it as a waste of time, but it is a very large responsibility upon each leader, since each leader should be a role model. If you don’t do it, it means you are building a toxic environment for your team and probably you do not allow your team to do that as well. I would say this is the biggest challenge.

Why emotional intelligence and empathic leadership is important? Is it difficult to implement it within the culture of an organization?

Yes, of course it is important, and it is difficult to implement. Empathic leadership and emotional intelligence will take us to a vulnerable place; however, being vulnerable was not well perceived in the past, so people still hesitate to be vulnerable. Vulnerability is very important for psychological safety that creates inclusive environments. If you have inclusive environment; people do feel well in that space and they will deliver to their utmost, and they will not leave. It is good for a team atmosphere, better results, engagement, and overall satisfaction. It helps to retain people, and it helps to attract new talent. So, it is fantastic for a company’s organizational culture. It has a lot of tangible, positive impacts. It is not easy but possible to implement. If an organization does not have such a culture, it is an opportunity for the leaders to be the ambassadors, role models for transformation.

Is relational management key to success? What are the benefits of relational management to the culture and organization?

Adding to my views that I shared above, leaders should invest their time into building great relationships rather than just coming to work and managing task delivery through the defined activities and processes. This makes a huge difference on the culture and how people feel, as well. Imagine people coming to work in a robotic environment where they do not care about each other, and the manager has no interest in people. No one can feel comfortable in such an environment, in addition  no one can flourish and utilize the talent towards the best outcome. When you have a culture based on a strong interest in people, caring for each other, supporting, and building through mutual support, having strong relations make a huge difference. People will wake up every morning, looking forward to going to work because it is fun to go where they have friends and strong bonds with each other. They will go the extra mile for their colleagues and the company.

How do you define leadership success in today’s climate?

Leadership success can be measured with the willingness of people who want to work for you and with you, and they do not want to lose or leave you. If they leave, it is not because they are unhappy with your leadership, but they have different reasons.

When people want to work for their leader it also supports building a happy, satisfied, engaged team which will deliver to their maximum ability. It is profitable for everyone. The leader is more successful as well as company. It’s  seen in the financial KPIs; there is a lower attrition rate, higher retention, and it builds a stronger employer brand—you become a loved brand. They want to join your team and company. I think if someone does not believe that leadership success translates to profitability, then they are not good with math because calculating the tangible benefits are very transparent and very clear.

How can we practice more empathic leadership?

Empathic leadership starts with becoming more human. There are many trainings, lessons, and development opportunities under this topic.  You can get a mentor, a coach, or ask someone who is more experienced. They can help you to clear your blind spots, show you the ways of working differently, how to deal with certain situations and communicate effectively.

It is important to understand that this does not happen over the night. We all have our patterns, biases, and blind spots, and we do many things unconsciously. We must strengthen our reserve of empathy and caring and deepen our emotional agility and become more empathetic.

What helps tremendously is to build a great network around you; even outside of business, ask for their feedback. You can ask them how they feel about you, how they perceive your behaviour, if they have any recommendations, how you could do things differently, what would they like for you to do more and less, or even quit doing entirely.  Honest feedback is key.

You must become vulnerable, humble, and ask for the feedback even when you will not feel comfortable with it and even when you may not understand it and you will not know what to do with it. It is a journey, and every person can strengthen these reserves through practice.

I wish for everyone to find this process critical for one’s inner peace, success, happiness, as well as other people’s happiness, and to find work meaningful and productive.

What would you recommend to the young people who are new to the role of leadership or will be undergoing its challenges?

I think I can give several pieces of advices to young people. One relates to curiosity, ability, and the willingness to learn.

Approach all experience in a humble way in that you must also learn from those around you. I would strongly encourage them to search for experienced mentors or coaches and to create a network of people that they can approach, consult with, share, and seek advice in a secure, confident manner.

As I said earlier, curiosity, humbleness, openness, willingness to learn, and asking for help are key.

It is vital to create open and honest relations around you, where people can come to you and give, openly, both positive and negative feedback.

Renata Mrazova
Chief People Officer at Home Credit