“I’m doing everything they ask me to do – but still not getting ahead. I see what’s needed, but my executive keeps dismissing ideas to help our team move quickly and progress as an organization. And the feedback I’m receiving lacks the direction and guidance to help me ascend to the executive level. I feel like I’m going nowhere.”
This was the start of a recent coaching conversation with a high-performing professional frustrated about feeling stuck in her current senior manager role.
So the next question I asked was, “What are you being told that will help you get promoted to the executive level?”
Her response was one I’ve heard often. “To keep doing what I’m doing.” In her case, to build key relationships internally, solve problems, bring employees back to the office and retain identified talent.
“You’re right,” I replied. “That is not going to get you to the executive level nor help your organization progress. Here’s what will.”
What followed was a candid conversation about what it actually takes to succeed at the executive level. No one had prepared her, like most, for the great divide between manager and executive.
But there is one, and it’s getting even larger.
The definition of today’s new high-performing executive requires different areas of focus and skills than yesterday’s. Companies that continue leveraging outdated executive requirements (similar to what this professional has been told) will find themselves unprepared for the enormous shift that’s underway. That void of preparedness at the top cascades downhill, dramatically affecting managers and employees, not to mention the bottom line and ability to remain a force within the industry competitive set.
Lack of executive leadership upgrades spells peril for your company’s future.
So what should companies know about this sea change to prepare their next generation executives and leaders?
Here are five major strategic shifts that are upending our existing structures and requirements for current executives and your succession pipeline:
Changing Composition Of The Workforce
Changing core values and beliefs, personal versus professional priorities, diverse religions, personal experiences and genders – the complexity of who is completing the work is quickly transcending past generations. Executives need to make bets on how this disruption and tension can be harnessed to propel their companies forward. Repopulating your ranks with the new inclusive executive leader who will inspire these multidimensional groups toward common goals must become a top imperative in the next one to 10 years.
Attitudes Toward Positions And Power
Generational tensions – baby boomer versus millennial versus Gen X, and now Z and Alpha, are creating friction in the workplace. With the hard-working, “you need to put your time in” corporate ladder-climbing and loyal baby boomers and Gen X on the way out, and Gen Z in, Gen Z is set to dismantle what traditionally has been required of positions and power structures.
Most members of this generation will quit within two to six months if the job isn’t as advertised when hired. A reported 80% of them say it’s acceptable to do so, according to The Muse. They also won’t hesitate to quit and move on if they encounter toxicity, bad bosses, lack of promotion or a poor work environment. Many are being enticed into becoming gig workers instead, abandoning the 60-80 hour workweek for a more fulfilling and flexible lifestyle.
But corporations can still attract and retain them – if they’re willing to advance their cultures and HR ecosystems. Companies requiring a 100% return to work will be the first to repel top talent from this generation.
The Influx Of Women And People Of Color
With more women and people of color with college degrees entering the workforce than ever before, the workplace will be forced to advance. Women are becoming aware of what past generations of females have endured in the workplace, and becoming more astute about what they won’t.
New legislation is on their side, and old work cultures of combativeness, internal competitiveness, workplace barriers and toxic peers that target 100% of high performing women will give way to an influx of women requiring to be promoted into key roles. The result? New, powerful cultures will emerge with an increased focus on maximizing inclusion, delivering top-tier client experiences, creating efficiencies and identifying new markets under their leadership.
Required Transparency
Gone are the days of keeping employees in the dark about company finances, strategic plans and organizational changes. Executives need to invite all employees at every level onto the “team” by building trust and engagement through clear and truthful communication.
Conversations about company performance, how promotions are earned, fair compensation, diversity stats, corporate goodwill and the company’s unique competitiveness within its industry must dominate communications from the top. Great orators must therefore be replaced by great executive leaders with competence who can create profound synergy between the marketplace and workplace.
Rise Of The Gig Worker
According to CNN, workplace experts believe the number of gig workers is growing, and their impact is being felt throughout the economy. The ease with which people can now deploy their talent from anywhere via online platforms challenges the traditional corporate requirement to prove loyalty to one company. Organizations will need to change the way they source and manage the work to be done, requiring a new skill set for their leaders and executives while rewriting policies and team dynamics that adapt to these new work arrangements.
These five seismic shifts are in play and today’s executives won’t thrive in tomorrow’s workplaces.
Organizations need to upgrade to a more skillful executive that encourages strategic alignment and execution through this new, multidimensional workforce that requires increased transparency and inclusion, while embracing their new attitudes about work – and life.
Those who cling to outdated models of executive leadership will only expand the divide in their organizations, crippling the company’s ability to remain competitive.
But companies that embrace the change and upgrade their executives will be met with the enormous opportunity that awaits them, allowing the ability to capture this brighter future of talent and work systems, providing the opportunity to increase their competitive position – and bottom line.
Berta Aldrich is President of Berta Aldrich Consulting.
