THE TOP 8 LEADERSHIP TRENDS FOR 2022 AND WHY THEY DON’T MATTER
PHOTO CREDIT: Jacques du Preez
If you have been paying attention then you would have noticed a lot of articles covering trends for 2022 within various industries. These predictions, indicating a general direction of change, identified by experts in their respective fields, empower leaders to forecast, analyze, and determine how they should steer their business.
Thought leader, Erik Kruger spent countless hours investigating and researching the top LEADERSHIP TRENDS for 2022 to share with leaders and entrepreneurs. However, he discovered that the trends don’t even matter.
According to Erik, when he set out to research the top trends for 2022, his hope was that the data would reveal something interesting and novel. It didn’t. “Initially I was disappointed, until I realised that ‘no insight’ is the insight. We are always searching for the hidden. We hope to uncover a secret that might give us the edge. There are no secrets. Instead, the trends are predictable. The information is available to all. The difference won’t be the information you have access to but rather what you do with the information at your disposal. The trends don’t matter if all you do is research trends. Do something with it.”, he says.
To curate the 8 trends below, they started by researching 40 of the best trend reports they could find. Each trend was listed and then assigned a code. These codes were then further categorised for them to create a comparative analysis between the trends. Although he felt they don’t really matter, he does advise that one should not allow the obviousness of these trends to dilute their importance. Certain trends recurred more frequently in their research than others and are ranked according to prominence below.
The Top 8 Leadership Trends for 2022
Leadership Trend #1: Cultivating a Flexible Work Culture
Employees desperately want more say over where and how they work, evident by the 4.4 million people who have quit their jobs and joined the “Great Resignation.” 61% of office workers and more than half of young employees reported they would consider looking for a new job if their employer didn’t offer hybrid work. To alleviate the impact from a high-turnover workforce, and to effectively lead an organization, cultivating a more flexible work culture will be key in 2022.
Leadership Trend #2: Fostering Adaptive Leadership
Prominent within the research is the instability of the workforce. To have a high performing team, leaders will need to create a culture that embraces change and has an adaptable mindset. Adaptive leadership is a practical leadership framework that helps organizations adapt to change to respond to recurring problems. To successfully lead in a volatile and ever-changing market, successful leaders will anticipate the future needs of their company and articulate those needs with their organization to build a collective understanding. Through exhibiting adaptability, leaders will build more dynamic teams that embrace change and create innovative solutions.
Leadership Trend #3: Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Moving into 2022, diversity, equity, and inclusion will remain a critical component to a successful work environment. Due to the impacts of Covid-19 in terms of depression, stress, and anxiety, creating a place where employees feel safe and welcome will be a main focus for leaders moving into 2022. In addition to cultivating a more ethical and enjoyable work environment, research has shown that focusing on DEI can increase profitability. Additionally, in 2022, conversations surrounding equity between remote/hybrid and in-person workers will surface. Effective leaders will be proactive in creating policies and procedures that encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout all areas of their organization.
Leadership Trend #4: Embracing Reinvention and Innovation
2020 and 2021 were years of unplanned reinvention. In 2022, leaders will be intentional with how they adapt and innovate. As more workers report a need for a greater purpose in their work, and a younger generation of professionals enter the workforce, leaders will start thinking about how they can reinvent the workplace to better meet the needs of the people within their organization. Furthermore, effective leaders will embrace technological innovation, and upgrade technology infrastructure.
Leadership Trend #5: Prioritizing Employee Well-Being
A recent study revealed that employees who feel cared-for at work are three times more likely to have job satisfaction. With the rising levels of employees reporting burnout and poor mental health, leaders in 2022 will prioritize employee-wellbeing. This involves creating a supportive environment by focusing on the whole person, not just their work responsibilities. Focusing on offering employees resources that encourage a holistic wellbeing, as well as cultivating skills for discussing mental health within their organization, will be a priority.
Leadership Trend #6: Creating Career Paths and Succession Plans
The Future of Jobs Report stated that by 2022, 54% of all employees will need significant reskilling and upskilling due to rapidly developing technological advancements. In 2022, leaders will spend more time investing and developing employees’ skills. As organizations face the current talent shortage, it is even more imperative to prioritize internal mobility, reskilling, and upskilling their existing employees. Leaders can keep their talent in the pipeline by creating career paths and defining succession plans.
Leadership Trend #7: Focusing on the Employee Experience
Over the next three years, 92% of organizations will be prioritizing EX enhancement to combat the influx of employees who are resigning. In 2022, leaders will work to define an employee experience (EX) strategy to transform the culture of the workplace. Cultivating a positive EX will help organizations build more trust, inspiration, and motivation, which will lead to higher growth and profitability.
Leadership Trend #8: Developing Emotional Intelligence
Developing emotional intelligence, and the ability to identify one’s and others’ emotions and understand how they drive behaviour, will be key to effective leadership in 2022. Harnessing this skill will allow leaders to have better self-awareness, social skills, and resilience. Exhibiting strong emotional intelligence will enable leaders to have increased conflict management, persuasiveness, and they will be better equipped to empower employees to lead organizational change.
Erik Kruger is the founder of Modern Breed, an international speaker, executive coach and author, with a master’s degree in Executive Coaching and trusted as a thinking partner by the likes of the Young President’s Organization, the Entrepreneurs Organization, Discovery, TedX and many more.
His sought-after LEADERSHIP MANUAL for 2022, THE ART OF RECALIBRATION, which focus on the five calibrations (tensions) that individuals and teams must navigate in order to be successful, more about the above trends and his predictions for 2022, will be made available on 24 January 2022 as a FREE download on his website www.erikkruger.com
The aim of this manual is for business leaders, entrepreneurs and HR practitioners to be successful in an uncertain and volatile world, in which they constantly have to realign how they think and how they do things.
Erik believes that 2022 is the year to move out of survival mode. Not because the craziness of the world has subsided. But because it is set to continue. And we cannot allow our potential and performance to be dictated by external forces. But more than that, at a deep psychological level, it’s time to move beyond the powerlessness that was instilled over the past two years. It’s time to find a place of ownership, responsibility, and effectiveness.
“This is not something that we can force on people. But I personally believe that now is the time to extend the invitation for people to reclaim their own sense of power and awe. To do that, individuals and teams will have to recalibrate how they think and behave away from surviving the present towards maximising opportunity ad potential in the future”, he concludes.
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