Is the traditional workplace under threat by the gig economy? While traditional leaders fear this change, modern managers embrace it. Their perspective is that the gig economy is transforming the traditional workplace. After all, this change is being promoted by other people — those who work as freelancers, independent contractors, or those with temporary jobs.
What Defines the Gig Economy?
The key elements of the gig economy are workplace flexibility and mobility. Some contractors are bound to a worksite — and they go where the work is. Others work remotely, either from home or from a coworking hub.
So far, many leaders from the younger generation have a lot of experience in managing and coordinating gig workers. As the strongest trends of the employment market indicate, flexibility and mobility are among the most important benefits young professionals expect.
It Is Time to Rethink the Workplace
Right now, many employees and managers experience the lifestyle of gig workers. In self-isolation, they are working from home and under less control from hierarchical superiors.
Once the (reimposed) lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic are over, things will never be the same. Everyone will emerge with new skills and new expectations. And managers should be ready to embrace this change for the long term.
What Can Managers Incorporate in Their Leadership Style From the Gig Economy?
The first steps towards transforming your leadership style to accommodate new expectation from employees are:
1. Create a Balance Between Managing People and Projects
In the gig economy, each professional is assigned a task with a deadline. It is their responsibility to organize, manage their time, and deliver the completed work on time. Thus, managers coordinating teams of gig workers are less focused on managing people and more on creating the perfect mix of talents for each project.
This can be extremely useful for your organization, even if you are still relying 100% on full-time employees. Such an approach puts an end to micro-management and actually empowers employees to utilize skills that have not been used before.
2. Stop Competing With Other Departments — Collaborate Instead
Some corporate cultures pitch departments and teams against each other. Usually, these departments are in charge of different production lines or different types of customer accounts (such as private consumers and corporate clients).
If gig workers applied the same principles, they would rarely complete a project. Instead, many freelancers and independent contractors establish barters with others with complementary skills. It is not infrequent, for instance, for web developers and content writers to work together on a project pitched by one of them.
The same principle should apply to leaders of different departments in organizations: share knowledge, pitfalls, and opportunities. This will help the entire organization thrive and be more successful.
3. Apply Agile Leadership Tactics
Being agile means several things:
- Reducing the chain of command from the top leader to the team executing a project;
- Being able to respond quickly to unexpected situations;
- Having the capacity to adapt to new market conditions and client requirements.
Gig economy workers are experts at adapting and being agile. They develop new skills and are always on the lookout for market trends. These are valuable lessons for workplace leaders. They should not become too entrenched in rigid corporate cultures and miss out on opportunities, which others take simply by acting faster.
4. Integrate the Early Birds and the Night Owls in Your Team
Flexible working hours — this is what more and more employees demand. Many of them join the full-time employment world after being gig workers. They got used to a style of working where they can balance their professional and personal lives.
Plus, there is a simple fact that everyone has different biorhythms: some people are extremely productive at 6 a.m., others after 4 p.m. As an effective leader you should develop strategies that include all these people and make the most of their skills and talents.
This article was originally published on pldx.org.
