‘The new normal’ has a gender
An optimistic view of post-covid life
For years she had the feeling that the world had become small. It seems like a thousand years passed since the smiles had faded behind the masks. Pity. Few people know how to really smile, you know, those kinds of smiles that are reflected in the eyes.
Sophia lowered the lid of her laptop and looked out the window of her apartment. Traffic had picked up, and people had invaded the sidewalks again. Groups could be seen waiting for a table on the most disputed places. It seemed that the world had turned upside down and at the same time that nothing had happened. According to moments.
“Great time for a challenge” she told herself, a brand new CEO of a technology company. When the position had been proposed to her from the headquarter, she doubted that she was capable of doing it. Reason prevailed. No one gives anything away. If she was chosen, it was because she had the capacity and experience. And also perhaps, a different approach to things.
Women lead with more resilience, simply because they have had to overcome more obstacles to come to power. Management teams with women show greater social commitment and a more participative leadership style, as well as increased profits. Women leaders do not look downwards, but sideways, they lead from the perspective of people and from co-creation, since female leadership is often inclusive. And although they do not stop being firm in their decisions, they are capable of transmitting this firmness from empathy. Or at least, that’s what the big business schools say, Sophia told herself, smiling and shaking her head.
The Covid had challenged a society that until then believed itself invincible, absolutely unaware of its vulnerability. During the confinement the networks were flooded with tweets about the moan of the planet, the madness of globalization, the consumer dehumanization. The economic slowdown caused by the pandemic had hit professionals, entrepreneurs and small businesses hard, in the pocket and in discouragement. Now it was time to stop tweeting and rebuild.
A boy was jumping on the sidewalk, holding his mother’s hand, bored of waiting for the waiter to disinfect the chairs, while she sent an email with the other hand.
With a very different management of the pandemic in each country, several political leaders from countries such as Taiwan, New Zealand, Germany or Iceland had exhibited common features with the common result of a reduced number of deaths: anticipation, determination and communication.
“The female leadership is used to crisis management”- Sophia sighed with admiration, crossing her fingers. She thought she was very lucky. I was going to have the possibility to help society internalize the digital transformation that had come to stay. “We have a good base” she told herself, recalling how the magnificent connectivity in some countries had brought divided families closer in moments of confinement. “Now we have to work to continue being the fantastic people that we are.”
She reviewed the new flexible work models for future employees, empowered and collaborative, accessible from virtualized workspaces in the cloud. Management of hybrid collaborative environments; she was aware that in the boards of directors legislation allows decision-making virtually; in the universities, classes are hybridized with students on site and in virtual assistance; and telemedicine pairs with waiting rooms.
She recalled the once huge doubts of her clients about the cloud as a lever for flexibility, agility in reaching the market and sustainability. Policies came to her mind to ensure the protection of data, the digital identity of people; all cybersecurity tools. And most importantly, data ethics and imperative transparency when applying artificial intelligence and hyper automation.
The digital transformation had been fully intertwined with reality. But not with the help of technology, but with the will of the people to fight against the crisis, the need to survive physically and emotionally, the rethinking of priorities and values and the generation of new social and economic models. Suddenly.
And so there was no going back. Sophia was clear about everything she had to do; in her mind business and social commitment were mixed, and at the same time they went hand in hand. It would take dialogue, participation, generation of ecosystems. Training in digital skills to avoid social exclusion, aiming to generate and retain talent. Work and contingency plans in the face of new realistic and agreed adversities. It would be necessary to build as a society, based on inspirational trust. Add, not divide.
She opened her laptop again and stroked the keyboard. Delusion.
Sophia started writing an email to her team. Tomorrow would be a great day. The first of the rest of a new post-Covid life.
