Has Leadership Transformed Through Lockdown?

It seems like nothing in the world is still what it was in 2019, and that includes the way we need and expect our leaders to show up. Curious about the shifting perception of leadership I asked 25 entrepreneurs and small business owners how their understanding of leadership has changed throughout running their business and especially in the last few years.

Show Up As Your TRUE Self

In my view leadership has changed in a way that it’s much more humane and empathic — at least that’s what’s expected. I used to think that leadership was acting as if you had all the answers and you had to ‘walk the talk’ which meant you had to be doing everything right. These days, it means you have to show your TRUE self and connect from a deeper level so that people can respect you and follow up with their whole hearts.

Paulina Stankiewicz, Executive and Leadership Coach, CEO and Founder at Coaching Affair ( website | LinkedIn)

Diversity of Thought

Leadership, thankfully, has been going through an evolution over the last 20 years. While command and control leadership still exists, I personally believe that the masses are finally waking up to the fact that this leadership style leads to detrimental outcomes in the majority of business scenarios. When leaders don’t take the time to connect with the people they are leading, miscommunication is often the result. As a female who entered the business world in the early 1990s, I mostly saw men as the ones who were the CEOs, the leaders and everyone else modelled their behaviour in order to climb the corporate ladder and get promoted. Diversity of thought, approach and action were not valued in a leader and, oftentimes, discouraged. In my heart, I always felt that there was an alternative and better way, and when I was given the chance to lead, I approached it as a privilege. My leadership style of choice — was and still is — to lead from within. This approach is more human and takes those who are performing the work into mind when considering change or…