Rehumanizing Leadership
Simha Chandra Rama Venkata J
Risk Management/ Business Analytics @ HSBC | Postgraduate Degree
Successful 21st-century leaders will inspire meaning and purpose amid existential uncertainty.
Organizations face an increasing need for leaders who embrace their humanity – or who rehumanize leadership. Those who want to stay relevant and keep up with the rapid pace of change should remember that being human – not mechanistic – will grow increasingly important over time.
Each person’s approach to finding meaning, purpose and empathy will determine his or her performance in a world in which AI, algorithms and information are increasingly pervasive. Society will face a growing crisis of meaning as the global flow of information disconnects people from their familiar touchstones.
“Surrounded by big data, the promise of AI and the unceasing flow of information into the super computer we carry in our pockets and handbags, we are more confused than ever about the deeper questions that refuse to go away.”
Help the people you lead discover their purpose and the meaning of their work through your passion, empathy and mindful approach.
Four factors will shape your experience of work in the 21st century:
Complexity – The 21st century heralds a move away from linear modes of thinking and behaving, such as top-down corporate hierarchies.
Millennial perspectives – Millennials expect leaders to be purpose-driven. Many don’t trust corporate leaders, due in part to their experience of the financial crisis of 2008.Millennials expect to be able to work remotely. They view work as a lifestyle choice, not a route to a paycheck.
Ambiguity – People who feel inundated by information must decide what’s relevant amid uncertainty. Success hinges on coping with ambiguity.
Adaptability – In uncertain times, leaders must be flexible and adaptable. Don’t try to insulate your firm from the rapidly changing world. Respond quickly to change and, when necessary, reimagine your entire approach.
Practice empathy and embrace social responsibility.
People need to feel they belong and have purpose. They experience those feelings when others show them empathy. Rehumanizing leadership requires consciously emphasizing the importance of meaning, purpose and empathy.In firms with an empathetic culture, leaders value the organization’s human networks.
“The journey to empathy is arduous and deeply humanizing as it is the result of dropping self-importance and the delusion of past knowledge.”
Leaders of the future must let go of the dominant social narrative of the past – that human beings are selfish, work only to pursue self-interest and have no concern for others. Leaders should challenge this narrative and embrace an ethos of social responsibility as they tackle challenges ranging from climate change to wealth disparity. Overcome entitlement or the desire to hoard power and resources. Instead, embrace “new power values” such as radical transparency, open sourcing, informal governance, expanded participatory processes and creative problem solving.
Strengthen your ability to take meaningful action and to empathize with both your in-group and your out-group.
Your brain contains mirror neurons, which activate when you perform an action or observe someone else performing the same action. For example, someone smiling at you triggers your neurons that are associated with smiling. Building empathy requires allowing yourself to feel what another person feels and to reflect his or her emotions.
Human brains tend to align with the inner states of those in their in-group – those who share their cultural background – but they have a harder time feeling empathy for those in an out-group. Future leaders need skills in building relationships, managing teams of people from different backgrounds, and working collaboratively and creatively.
“If hatred breeds hatred, empathy breeds more empathy.”
To build empathy, make a conscious effort to identify and overcome your more primitive emotional reactions – anger and fear.Make your empathy productive by directing it toward meaningful action. Complement your empathetic feelings with agency, the empowered sense of acting with purpose.
Become a systems thinker who views problems holistically.
Leaders must mindfully embrace systems thinking in order to develop a holistic perspective on their company’s complex systems.The world is made up of complex systems. Each one contains interconnected parts and displays properties as a whole that aren’t obvious to someone who sees only an isolated, smaller part of the larger system.
Complex systems are self-organizing. They’re adaptive, and they respond dynamically to environmental changes. They’re also emergent, so you can’t predetermine or control their outcomes.
“Life is essentially a complex system; even the simplest system – a bacterial cell – is a highly complex network involving literally thousands of interdependent chemical reactions.”
Human networks are complex systems, too. The actions of a small group can disrupt a complicated network of organizations, consumers and stakeholders. For example, in 2000, farmers protested rising fuel prices in North Wales. Their protest inspired others to take actions on a larger scale, leading to the blockade of major oil refineries in northwest England and Wales. This led to a shortage of fuel at petrol stations, medical supply shortages and grocery shortfalls at stores that ran out of food.
Overcome digital distractions and your desire for top-down power and control.
To navigate complex systems, overcome three organizational traps:
Control trap – Businesses prioritized efficiency and stability in the 20th century and gave a few people decision-making power over whole organizations. Such top-down, centralized systems don’t thrive in today’s networked world with its rapidly shifting contexts.
Power trap – In 20th-century organizations, leaders knew why workers did specific tasks and expected them to execute orders without question. Younger generations don’t respond to this model of conferred power.
Attention trap – Countless digital distractions lead to inattention and distraction. Leaders must train their attention and focus their abilities like a muscle so they can navigate complexity and make mindful decisions.
Don’t settle for work you don’t feel passionate about – discover your ikigai, or purpose.
Embracing purpose gives you and your workforce both a competitive advantage and a pragmatic, intelligent response to the commodification of information. Defining your purpose empowers you to do the right thing. It helps you identify your company’s boundaries by asking which options serve your higher purpose and which ones do not. Your purpose guides your organization’s evolution in response to change and increases its profits as you engage employees and attract and retain customers who align with your values.
“When work becomes unmoored from passion, it’s highly unlikely that it will serve any sense of purpose.”
Be passionate about the purpose of your work, rather than settling for someone else’s version of success. Consider the Japanese ikigai approach, which says your purpose lives at the intersection of four criteria: You genuinely love serving this purpose. You can use your unique skills to serve it. You can align yourself with an organization that needs you to serve it. Your purpose resonates with your narrative of your ideal future.
Ask if the people you lead embody your organization’s purpose and are aligned in pursuing it. Hire for alignment with that purpose. Be sure the purpose your marketing team states for your organization matches its actual mission and function.
Automation will handle many future jobs, so cultivate your uniquely human skills.
Machine learning, AI and robotics will disrupt the future of work. Industry analyst Forrester predicts that by 2030, companies will automate 16% of jobs. Blockchains will replace clerks and bureaucrats, and sophisticated algorithms and AI will disrupt areas such as product design.
“If you are thinking that we’re trying to paint a dystopian picture of the 21st century, the truth is far from it. On the contrary, our position is that the future must be more human than ever before.”
In the face of these developments, businesses must employ a human-centered approach. This entails centering your purpose around those you serve, not what you sell, and cultivating empathy for your customers and your employees.
Vivienne Ming, theoretical neuroscientist and co-founder of the think tank Socos, says that if machines take over mundane, routine tasks, humans should focus on ways to use the power of technology to augment their intelligence. Ming speaks of a future of expanding human potential that derives from combining deep neural networks and AI. She advises people to cultivate skills that machines can’t match, such as creativity and “problem exploration.”
Build a complex, systemic view of your company and its role on a global scale.
Reflect on four guidelines when defining your organizational purpose:
Align your purpose with stakeholder perspectives – Don’t shape your purpose on the basis of internal input alone. Consider external forces and how best to serve your customers, other stakeholders and society.
Consider context – Your company affects society, as the forces affecting society have an impact on your company.
Correlate purpose with business strengths – When identifying your purpose, consider what your business does well and how you serve people best.
Link purpose to decision-making – It’s not enough to hire people who align with your purpose. When making decisions, leaders must reflect on why the company exists and select choices that fulfill its mission.
Use the “purpose framework” to develop four perspectives that can help you align your organizational purpose with economic and institutional logic:
Excavation – Discover the “seeds of organizational purpose” by reflecting on the narrative history of your company and its founding values.
Deep inquiry – Ask why your organization exists. Reflect on what societal needs it serves. Examine your collective beliefs about the world in which you operate and formulate a “proto-purpose,” a working statement of purpose.
Socialization and experimentation – Test your proto-purpose by sharing it to solicit diverse perspectives.
Institutionalizing – To make sure that all levels of your organization serve your higher purpose, integrate it into everything, from strategy to branding.
Be a purpose-driven leader, aligning your team’s purpose with your organization’s mission.
Leaders can align their team’s purpose with their organization’s by taking these measures:
Create a shared purpose – Incorporate team members into your process as you discover and define your organizational purpose.
Bridge everyday tasks to purpose – Help individuals understand how their work helps the firm serve its purpose.
Craft a cohesive storyline – Articulating purpose on an individual, organizational and team level builds a cohesive narrative and enables people to understand their roles in that story.
Show vulnerability – Leaders should share personal stories of how they discovered their purpose.
Reinforce purpose – Don’t create purpose and forget about it. Consistently reiterate it. Creating purpose is a continuous leadership task, not something you define once and put in a brochure.
The purpose-driven leader embraces three tasks:
Connect business decisions to corporate purpose – Explain how your actions, such as launching a new product, connect to your company’s purpose.
Talk about team purpose – Leaders must speak with their teams about how their actions contribute to the corporate purpose.
Unlock purpose on a personal level – Engage team members by connecting them with a personal sense of purpose. Help them discover their intrinsic motivations.
“Rehumanizing leadership and remembering that we are purposeful beings is at the heart of leadership success.”
People benefit from finding a purpose that connects to something inherently good and bigger than themselves.