Nextmapping: Leadership & The Future of Work

The biggest imperative for companies right now is to be ready for the impact of disruptions. Are you and your leaders fully ready to proactively lead into the future of work? Leadership speaker Cheryl Cran is helping audiences build the leadership capacity needed to change the world through business through her ‘Nextmapping‘ model. This system encompasses the entire spectrum of ideation, creative solutions and implementation.

In this guest blog, she explains why the future of work requires inspirational leaders.

The increasing speed of digital transformation is putting more pressure on leaders than ever before.

To fully realize the future of work organizations must make bold changes to their internal cultures. Leaders need to reinvent how people and strategy are interlinked. This requires leaders who can inspire.

Internal cultures are led and created by current leadership. The companies that will win are the ones that have leadership teams that view people and strategy as one.

Work is changing and will continue to change driven by dramatic and irreversible trends in digital and in workforce preferences.

Leaders need to be ready to lead in a brand new and evolving workplace. The skills needed for leaders to lead in the future landscape include flexibility, agility, adaptability and the ability to inspire others.

Workers regardless of their generation are looking for leaders who are willing to help them grow, learn and succeed.

In the past leaders would hire workers for ‘jobs’ and expect those workers to do the job as outlined. If the worker did the jobs as outlined then the leader would give a good performance review.

Those days are quickly disappearing as today the worker is seeking to do work that is engaging and that has a purpose. Today leaders need to provide ‘work’ not ‘jobs’ that inspires and leverages the workers skills and abilities.

Today companies are struggling with attracting and keeping talented people. The solution lies in having leaders who can inspire.

77% of employees surveyed stated that they want to work for companies that are focused on ‘people first’. (Gartner)

70% of companies state that their people are NOT future ready. (Adecco Group)

In order for companies to be future ready now the focus needs to be on the leadership and their ability to inspire others. The future requires inspirational leaders!

Here are a few quick questions to ask regarding your current leadership in your company:

Are we able to keep our high performing talent for longer than 3 years on average?
When people leave our company is it because of culture?
Are our leaders working in partnership with HR to ensure our company is focused on ‘people first’?
Do our leaders provide real-time feedback and ongoing coaching for our teams?

The answers to these questions can help illuminate whether your company has inspirational leaders or whether you as a leader are an inspirational leader.

What does it mean to be an inspirational leader? Someone who…

• Cares about people, values his or her teams and focuses on ‘people first’

• Coaches his or her teams consistently on a weekly or bi-weekly basis

• Invests time in finding ways to help team members learn, grow and succeed

• Engages and asks for input on projects and work on an ongoing basis

• Looks to be evaluated by his or her team and looks for honest feedback to become a better leader

• Holds workers accountable to high standards of performance and provide regular helpful feedback

• Takes care of challenging people situations and poor performance issues in a fair way

• Consistently communicates the vision, the mission and how everyone fits into the vision and mission

• Models integrity, efficiency and willingness to learn with his or her

The future of work is now – organizations need to be providing their leaders with the skills and abilities needed to increase employee buy-in, engagement and loyalty. Here’s how Cheryl applies this Nextmapping framework in her keynote:

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