Leadership in a Time of Disruption
Leadership today requires not just new skills, but a new playbook.
To meet mounting and sometimes conflicting stakeholder expectations; to navigate social, political, and economic uncertainty; and to demonstrate value creation beyond the balance sheet, leaders must rethink age-old rules of strategy and make communications and stakeholder engagement a central focus of their thinking.
Five new rules for leadership in 2022:
1. Transformation is a competitive advantage
In an era of disruption, corporations must not only continuously improve, they must continuously transform. Meeting current needs and anticipating future ones will promote a competitive advantage that unlocks value for all stakeholders. Leaders must be able to share stories of transformations that create value through innovation and growth; share value that attracts talent and partners; and deliver value that improves communities and society.
2. Digital fluency fuels innovation
Changes in society, no matter how rapid and pronounced, will not match the pace of the technological advances ahead. We can expect the innovations of the next decade to make those of the past ten years look like stasis. Companies that responsibly apply transformational technologies like Artificial Intelligence to their operations will have a competitive advantage that creates a virtual cycle and extends their capacity to adapt and evolve. The winners in tech’s next era will be those that find opportunity in seamlessly integrating digital and human capabilities across every aspect of the organization.
3. Values drive organizational strategy
A new generation of employees is demanding that employers express and act upon their social values, and both employees and external activists are quick to point out — and criticize — organizations that behave in ways that are inconsistent with their professed values. In an era when social issues spring up seemingly overnight and companies face unprecedented local, national and global challenges, stakeholder loyalty is earned by speaking out on issues that matter to constituents and unfailingly acting upon those expressions. This is particularly important to public companies, whose valuations are increasingly driven by culture, employee satisfaction and other intangible assets beyond the balance sheet.
4. Narrative resilience is the new risk management
While speaking out and acting on core values will be increasingly valued, brands that take higher profiles may find themselves under attack from agents of disinformation looking to inflame cultural tensions for personal or geopolitical gain. This threat will likely become endemic in an environment where more information — true or otherwise — is available to more people in less time. Brands must be vigilant about these attacks and learn how to track and respond to misinformation campaigns aimed at their companies or stakeholders.
5. Reputations are won at the intersections
Today’s leaders, and tomorrow’s, have to drive their companies through the intersections where business, culture, technology and geopolitics meet and perhaps collide. How well leaders manage these sometime conflicting, sometime complementary, vectors will play a significant role in determining organizational performance, building brand and culture and responding to opportunities and threats. The companies that best balance competing stakeholder expectations will enhance their reputations and relevance and be more resilient in the increasingly dynamic marketplace of the future.
As businesses shift to a stakeholder-centric approach, the strategic agenda for many companies is becoming clearer. When companies focus communications on how their transformation creates value and impacts their stakeholders they deepen trust and earn added loyalty from those stakeholders. In so doing, they’ll be able to mitigate the inevitable shocks to come and to succeed in this era of disruption.
Want to work with us? Reach out to Ellen DeMunter at EDeMunter@powelltate.com
About Weber Shandwick Public Affairs
Our global public affairs expert counselors, spanning 25 countries & 36 cities, work with brands to navigate the convergence of government, business, technology and culture. We collaborate with corporate and marketing teams to assess and shape policy issues that drive sales and reputation.
We create impactful, data-driven, breakthrough campaigns that shape the debate, build advocacy and effect change on issues that matter most, from environmental stewardship to access to healthcare to human rights. We also bring political diversity to our work, with global experts coming from the highest levels of government, political campaigns, corporations, media, law firms, NGOs and regulatory agencies.
For more information, visit: https://www.webershandwick.com/expertise/public-affairs/
Our Specialty Public Affairs Unit in Washington D.C. is also known as Powell Tate. For more information, visit: www.powelltate.com
