‘Leadership’ Has Been The Most Heavily Tested Skill During Pandemic," Anirban Das

According to you, how can leaders set an agenda that helps their taskforce improve the speed of decision making and enables more productivity at work? Well, the answer isn’t that simple, but it also doesn’t require any earth-shattering strategy. 

Now, in order to throw some light upon the new wave of leadership roles in the post pandemic world, Anirban Das, Chief People Officer, Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan Attorneys shared some detailed insights with BW Businessworld upon the same. Let’s read as to what he has in store for our readers. 

1.How can organizations leverage technology to democratize leadership development across the entire organization, including first-line managers, new managers, and middle managers?

Technology is a great enabler, and we have seen a considerable spike in the virtual training programs during this pandemic. If you are using robust technology, then driving leadership development programs across the organization becomes much more manageable. One must adopt Hybrid Leadership Training programs that are a combination of classroom sessions and online assignments and will allow you to deliver training that integrates structured exercises, audio interviews, and case studies applicable to each participant group. This approach is undoubtedly time and cost-effective as it allows the participants to balance their time while continuing to get supplemented by online exercises.

2.Which leadership capabilities are becoming more critical in the light of the pandemic?

 ‘Leadership’ is undoubtedly one of the most heavily tested skills during this pandemic. Demonstrating Emotional Intelligence and sharing personal impact stories with the workforce by the Leaders is the need of the hour to create an environment of empathy and resilience. The other important trait is to trust your second line of leaders and empowering them to take a few time-critical decisions locally. Also, the leaders should develop the habit of recognizing susceptibility to decision fatigue else they may experience a growing difficulty in assessing the risks and gains associated with a different course of action.

3.How to use analytics to drive leadership development strategy and measure the success of initiatives?

Using Predictive Analytics to drive leadership development strategy is the new buzzword. This strategy involves gathering data, analyzing and taking action. Predictive analytics can allow you to leverage the power of multiple data sets, sort through the complexities, and arrive at the prioritized behaviours that will lead to specific business outcomes. Assuming that a company wants to increase its business by 20% in the coming year, they should analyze and see if their leadership assessment data and people engagement data suggest growing business as a priority. If they see a gap, that is the skill to be bridged.

4. What are the ways to bridge the 'knowing-doing gap' in leadership?

Based on my experience, I can suggest the below steps to bridge the knowing-doing gap in leadership:

i.By taking a systemic approach to creating a high engagement culture that integrates and aligns activities across all levels of system aggregation

ii. By connecting the objective with the deeper meaning of work. In other words, addressing the “Why” part behind every action.

iii. By integrating the learning outcomes from the formal training programs into real work execution.

For the above to happen, a mutual sense of trust and respect is essential to interweave into the company culture.

5.How should companies redesign programs on 'shoestring budgets' for a hybrid-remote workforce and take steps to build a strong bench of leaders?

i.Rather than focusing on conducting many training programs which will increase the budget, please narrow down the training topics based on what is practical and relevant for your leaders.

ii.Host live events and webinar, allowing people to ask questions and share their thoughts with the trainer. Add these webinars to your LMS system to make it content-rich.

iii. Repurpose your existing or old training material try to derive small training modules out of them.

iv.  Launch a user-generated library where people can upload their online training resources. This will save you time and money and allow your leaders to improve their understanding of the subject matter.