The Latest Insights from Leading NOW

With the launch of our groundbreaking research on Cultural Dynamics, now is a great time to take a look back at our Gender + Diversity Playbook series. Understanding the barriers to building an inclusive culture, and the steps you need to take along the way, are all outlined in our 7-part series, summarized below.

Do you know how your employees really feel about your organization? If you read this question and answered “no”, isn’t it time you asked? And even if the answer was “yes”, do you really know? Do you know how your employees are experiencing your organization’s culture? Do they feel included? Are your company’s leaders demonstrating inclusive behavior? Do your employees see them demonstrating inclusive behavior?

A year ago, when Covid-19 changed all of our lives in so many ways, Leading NOW’s CEO summed up how most of us were feeling with a quote from Greek philosopher, Heraclitus –– “Change is the only constant in life.” Her blog post, Leadership at the pace of Global Change, kicked off a 6-part series on how to deal with change when things are volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). Below, we share a recap of the entire “change” series to help you keep up with the constantly changing world we live in. If you missed the series the first time around, now is your chance to catch up, with tips that will help you lead, manage and navigate during these VUCA times. Read ON!

This is the final post in our current blog series on the core leadership competencies needed to navigate an environment of constant change. So far, we’ve looked at what it means to demonstrate Interpersonal Savvy, Organizational Agility, Dealing with Ambiguity, and Managing Complexity. And today, we’ll conclude with a look at “Resiliency” -- appropriately so, given the change we are collectively navigating across our world. When we began this series back in March, it was just days after International Women’s Day and during the first moments when the reality of the current Covid-19 crisis was becoming clear. And here we are today, globally still navigating change -- one where the power and strength of resiliency has become abundantly clear. Whether we’ve seen this through the visible and heroic demonstrations by essential workers on the front lines of the crisis in healthcare, public safety, education and food services -- or a version that is less visible because it’s happening inside each of our homes as we adjust and navigate work, family, connection, and our physical & mental well-being while in quarantine. Resilience is most certainly essential.

We are continuing our series on the core leadership competencies needed to navigate an environment of constant change. Change that is defined as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). So far we’ve looked at Interpersonal Savvy, Organizational Agility and Dealing with Ambiguity. This week, we’ll take a look at Managing Complexity, which we define as: A focus on achieving results while minding multiple factors including ones like geography, risk, media attention, government regulation & diverse communities.

We are continuing our current blog series on the core leadership competencies needed to navigate change. Change that is defined as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). So far we’ve covered “Interpersonal Savvy” and “Organizational Agility” - and today we are digging into “Dealing with Ambiguity.” “Ambiguity is a type of meaning in which a phrase, statement or resolution is not explicitly defined, making several interpretations plausible. A common aspect of ambiguity is uncertainty.”

We are continuing our series on the core leadership competencies needed to navigate an environment of constant change. Change that is defined as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). Last week we focused on the “Interpersonal Savvy” competency and this week we are highlighting “Organizational Agility.” We define this competency as: “Getting “it” done through formal and informal processes.”

As we look towards another month (at least) of quarantine, many of us may feel like we have settled into some kind of new normal. Whether you’ve drastically adjusted to where and how you work, or you’ve unfortunately been displaced from work due to pandemic related lay-offs, the truth is that leadership in the pace of change today, has never been more important. As we discussed in our recent blog -- change is the only constant in life -- and that is so very true at this present time. While we must accept what’s out of our control and work to settle into a new normal, abandoning any of the core leadership competencies for managing change is not an option. So, today we wanted to share with you info on the leadership competency: Interpersonal Savvy. Interpersonal Savvy is “relating well with all kinds of people - inside and outside of the organization, building support, relationships, using diplomacy & defusing high tension situations.”

Like many of you, our team at Leading Women is navigating in different and challenging work environments due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a global company, our team is accustomed to working remotely and delivering our programs virtually, but we too are having to find new rhythms and practices in order to navigate this season of the Coronavirus. We asked two of our leaders, Erin Defoyd, Director of Strategic Client Solutions (based in the US), and Samantha Furbush Taraskiewicz, Manager of Program and Client Relationships (based in Luxembourg) to share some of their observations, tips, and tricks for finding stability and productivity while confined to home. Erin and Samantha are both married with young children and are, therefore, navigating what it means to have husbands who now work from home 100% of the time, and children whose daycare and schools have been cancelled for the foreseeable future. Here is what each of them had to say…

When it comes to overcoming mindsets that cause the leadership gender gap, one of the practices that we recommend is to require recruiters (internal and external) to deliver diverse slates of candidates for key positions. While companies often focus on senior positions, we recommend this practice be implemented for positions above the diverging point (the point at which the % of women begins to decline and that of men increases).