SUSTAINABLE WORLD - REGENERATIVE LEADERSHIP FOR FUTURE LEADERS (POST PANDEMIC)

 

The COVID-19 crisis is the largest challenge that the world has faced since World War II. The pandemic has had a distressing impact on businesses, with many people losing their jobs and suffering a loss of income. We don’t know when normalcy will return, and we all have to work through it. The International Labor Organization projected that about 195 million jobs were lost due to the pandemic. Even if the short-term impact ends, the long-term economic effects will linger for years (UN News, 2020). The COVID-2019 crisis has affected all business operations globally. This crisis has led to a lockdown of businesses worldwide. Some businesses were forced to work from home, while others managed to lay off staff and adapt to changes in their operations. Some businesses had to shut down due to insurmountable challenges and weak leadership. Global GDP was projected to be around 87.55 trillion US dollars in 2019; however, due to the pandemic, GDP dropped by 4.5%, resulting in a loss of around 3.94 trillion US dollars in economic output (Szmigiera, 2021).

2.1 Challenges due to the pandemic

The work environment has completely changed due to the COVID-2019 crisis. A report prepared by the World Economic Forum for January 25-29, 2021, states that the International Labor Organization estimated that 93% of workers faced some form of workplace restriction due to the pandemic (Congressional Research Service, 2021). The sudden change has occurred within a short period of time, and businesses have faced challenges and had to limit their operations on a time limit. The aim of this blog is to propose a solution for appropriate leadership and restructuring the workplace for effectiveness. Research by Aczel, Kovacs Lippe & Szaszi found that due to the COVID-19 lockdown, working from home decreased work efficiency for almost half of the 704 surveyed candidates. However, 70% of the participants think that the future would be the same as now or more efficient than before, as if they would spend work-time at home (Aczel, et al., 2021). Another challenge is that working from home leads to disengagement. Before the pandemic, this issue was also prevalent. According to Osborne & Hammoud (2017), employee disengagement costs over $350 billion annually in US corporations. Some research has shown that over 50% of the workforce feels disengaged. This is because many corporations have rigid structures that are not fit for change, yet these rigid hierarchies are stalling new decisions. Fear is often infused in many of these hierarchies. Therefore, employee engagement is lower than it should be. Employees don’t feel trusted, empowered, and many people spend a lot of time hiding valuable knowledge in their pockets. For this reason, corporate hierarchy needs to understand and address these situations to improve the system much faster by providing employee engagement and offering opportunities (The World calls for regenerative leadership, 2020). Working from home gives more flexibility, yet it has challenges, and it is difficult to implement, as there are certain things to consider. According to Harper et al. (2020), due to the COVID-2019 crisis, large businesses are normalizing the concept of flexible working. Large companies such as Facebook and Google previously worked from home, and they find it more effective than physically going to the office. As stated by Kelly (2020), working from home can reduce operational costs, as companies do not need classical buildings and offices to accommodate employees. However, companies can allow a few employees to work in the office to remote control, and they can monitor the work-from-home employees' work. Though there should be a good mechanism and leadership to implement these changes in the business.

 

2.3 Work-from-home benefits

Working from home has various benefits such as not having to commute, easier management of household responsibilities, and family demands. Moreover, personal comfort is a flexibility that is one of the benefits of working from home. A UK nationally related sample of UK’s 30,000 households says that working from home is connected with leisure time satisfaction, resulting in employees who work from home being able to engage in more leisure activities (Reuschke, 2019). Working from home is spreading worldwide, and many companies accommodate remote work to various degrees with greater flexibility and concerns with working hours. Additionally, the growing importance of the gig economy is clear that managing employees will pose new trials due to post COVID-19. Therefore, to make it work successfully while safeguarding productivity and efficiency, leaders must know how to foster solid, organized teams. Empowering factors can be included adapted workplaces featuring more communal work areas rather than designated desk space or processes reimagined for virtual and hybrid teams.

 

When thinking to overcome these challenges, it is known that many organizations have and are practicing traditional leadership styles such as laissez-faire style, trait theory, contingency theory, democratic and autocratic leadership, transformational and transactional leadership, and behavioral leadership. According to De Vries (2001), leaders are the ones who show the path in the road by walking with the followers ahead. They focus on the organizational effectiveness of strategy. Peters states that the component of transformational change definition makes it certainly applicable to sustainability leadership as it is able to respond to any changes and challenges that face along the way (Visser & Courtice, 2011). However, sustainability leadership is not enough when considering the regenerative perspective and future needs of the world.

 

2.4 WHY WE NEED REGENERATIVE LEADERS (OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES)

For the above reason, and the complex VUCA environment such as the COVID-2019 crisis and work from home situations, leaders need to transform their leadership to regenerative leadership for the sustainability of the organization. According to Visser & Courtice (2011), sustainability leaders have seven key characteristics such as systematic understanding, emotional intelligence, values orientation, compelling vision, inclusive style innovative approach, and long-term perspective. The leader under pressure will need to be able to reprioritize without losing the bigger picture of the business. They have to understand the best strategy for them is to bring an expert when time comes as to ensure business decisions are made based on fact-based information and to be transparent. But sustainability leadership is not enough, and we need to create regenerative leaders as recreating and improving conditions for living as not just for one business but for all life. Therefore, for the COVID-19 situation, we can regenerate the situation by creating regenerative leaders as they create a better future (Laura Storm for The Klosters Forum: Regenerative Leadership, 2021). As we need to interconnected stress and frictions in order to be sustainable in triple bottom line.

 

2.5 Conclusion

When moving towards a digitalized business environment, situational adaptable leaders are required more than ever, meaning regenerative leaders who have the ability to react to an ever-changing part in which they are operating such as new situations and updating their knowledge and skills to meet these new demands. The overall pandemic and work from home situation need leaders who can sustainably achieve business goals in any situation the business is going through by looking into Triple-bottom-line the planet, people, and profit.

 

2.6 RECOMMENDATIONS

WFH has complications when the home is not viable for some employees. As employees cannot afford internet and working space in their home. Based on my own experience, there are a lot of distractions, and work is on 24/7, which could reduce the performance level and result in low-quality work. Moreover, it is difficult to influence employees when they WFH, as supervision could be lost to some extent. Therefore, it is essential to understand and think about how the company functions as a leader. This has to be done before making any changes in the organization and the team. Achievable leaders are charismatic, inspirational, and empathetic, and these traits are not learnable. Yet, there are steps that the company can take to develop them as a regenerative leader. Therefore, leaders must understand that life is continuously changing, and work environments hence companies should create transformational quality leaders as regenerative leaders for the sustainability of the planet, people, and profit.

 

Businesses must ensure that important decisions are made and executed during this critical time. If WFH is disrupting performance, these changes impact interpersonal dynamics and organizational effectiveness. Therefore, leaders must adapt agile and resilient strategies to overcome the challenges of the new normal way of working due to the pandemic. Leaders must have the ability to reevaluate the current situation, existing strategies, and competitive forces to achieve organizational goals. Therefore, we need to create regenerative leaders as they have all the leadership qualities that can overcome all challenges.

 

Regenerative leaders build win-win-win partnerships where they win, their partners win, and the greater eco-system we depend on wins. Without win-win-win partnerships, the whole system will not be sustainable, as everything in life is relational and interconnected. With this, we have to understand that we can fix the pandemic situation by connecting and allowing others to win.

 

Companies must consider the Triple-bottom-line sustainability of the planet and the whole system, regarding the production and operation that are competitive but sustainable. Therefore, companies need to create regenerative leaders because they apply life-affirming-circular principles into how they produce their products and ensure everything is recycled-upcycled. They use the circular economy and their materials are based on the nature of culture and R&D. They use the concept of biomimicry and materials that do not harm the ecosystem (The World calls for regenerative leadership, 2020).

 

Businesses can apply a tool called the Regenerative Capacity Index (RCI) to assess the company’s readiness to engage in regenerative practices. From this evaluation, leaders can find the organization's capacity and make it easier to design strategies for regeneration for all levels of its social, economic, and environmental impact on the global community (John, 2011).

 

In regenerative leadership, leaders must consider the people in the community in the workplace, especially during the pandemic, such as paying reasonable salaries, offering shade and healthy workplaces, improving livelihoods, helping to build happier and more progressive communities, and preventing workforce exposure to harmful and unhealthy substances for the future.

 

Regenerative leaders must be concerned for the planet, including things such as the selection of raw materials, promoting innovation that uses eco-friendly delivery methods, and advocating for safe disposal approaches at the end of the product life cycle.