The pandemic lockdown has highlighted the need for pushing through uncertainty and for better dynamic leadership practices
“Resilient practices” has become the go-to phrase for IT leaders across the world. CIOs are responsible for ensuring the continued operations of enterprises in uncertain times. They are working to enable entire-organizations’ workforce to be remote work compatible at a quick pace. Simultaneously they are pushing for digital transformation initiatives to be the central focus even during the pandemic.
Organizations that rapidly changed gears and navigated the hardship with restructured practices were a testament to the IT industry’s capability to be flexible enough to bounce back from difficulties.
For the enterprises which didn’t deploy an agile approach, the situation has been a crash course on how to practice resilience. Each example has contributed to the best practices- for them and other enterprises to learn from.
The pandemic has turned out to be an alive, global-scale social experiment for organizations across industries. Leaders acknowledge that conventional methods are not successful in the current scenario, and new behaviors must be developed.
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Ensuring that people are prioritized
CIOs point out that open communication is a critical factor in guaranteeing resiliency in the present scenario. Employees are relieved when truthful interaction is encouraged by the enterprise; satisfied and peaceful employees work more productively.
An open exchange will ensure that they are ready for potential changes down the line. It’s encouraged that employees receive positive and negative news from the leadership rather than some other source.
Empathetic leadership is needed; a resilient IT culture encourages putting people first. Emotional well-being was prioritized in the past couple of years, and the notion has gained new traction during the pandemic. A sense of camaraderie is required to ensure better productivity and reduced attrition in organizations.
Keeping connected
Most organizations have increased the number of meetings to compensate for the lack of in-person interaction and seamless connectivity between colleagues. IT leaders are figuring out ways to prevent Zoom fatigue and burnout.
Reduced travel hours for employees who were located off-premise, has resulted in longer work-hours in most organizations. Employees located outside of the headquarter locations are forced to either get up earlier or work later to accommodate other colleagues.
CIOs are working to stop the practice, reducing Friday meetings unless an emergency and encourage the time to be utilized for “strategic analysis.” Better communication is necessary, but alternatives must be identified for communicating with internal teams.
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Leaders propose more meetings, but of shorter durations and end encourage more personal meetings for daily check-ins. Virtual lunch meet-ups have proved to be a suitable medium of catching up, without encroaching on productive work hours.
Identifying common goals
Leaders say that when the work environment proves to be demanding and challenging, enterprises will be encouraged when goals are set. For the IT industry, the mission sense is best taught via developing business value. When professionals feel invested in the organization and connected, resilience is enhanced.
The agile methodology of building products encourages resiliency and productivity compared to the silo methodology of building projects. It also ensures that IT and business develop common objectives, which helps the organization grow.
