Important points on the agenda of business leaders in 2023
The last three years have been very difficult for companies in all fields, which resulted in a heavy agenda of business leaders. The transformations are more and more alert. What attracts people to leadership positions has changed. The binoculars of vision no longer see so far. Strategic effort is increasingly democratically distributed to managers.
Even if they themselves are overwhelmed and sometimes demobilized, leaders are responsible for helping their teams overcome increasingly complex obstacles. That’s why it’s important for leaders to know the most important issues facing teams in 2023 and the responses they can take.
Preventing burnout
Unfortunately, exhaustion, or burnout, is one of the biggest problems faced by employees. Highlighted by the pandemic, burnout is the symptom of a permanent desire to cope with change through continuous effort at work.
According to the Global Leadership Forecast 2023, leaders continue to experience high rates of burnout, with data showing that 10% more leaders now say they feel more burned out compared to 2020.
In addition to their own burnout, leaders are also concerned about burnout in their teams. Employee burnout is the challenge 85% of leaders say they feel least equipped to handle. This indicates that they need help.
What can companies do?
How well a company manages burnout is a process directly influenced by its leaders. Front-line managers, in particular, need to know how to show empathy, provide coaching and support their teams. And leaders must help them by encouraging open lines of communication between all levels of management and employees.
When leaders connect with their teams on a human level with empathy, they are more likely to identify burnout and other risks to people’s well-being. That is why it is essential for companies to support the development of empathic and compassionate skills.
By offering mindfulness training companies help management teams to reduce stress at work and leaders to manage their own feelings and emotions. Moreover, with the help of the HR team, management can facilitate and promote programs that increase mental health awareness or implement specialized psycho-emotional support programs for employees.
Another important direction is supporting leaders through coaching sessions and task delegation courses. With these well-developed delegation skills, leaders can ensure their teams have growth opportunities, balanced workloads, and resources to achieve their goals without burning themselves out.
Solving the confidence crisis
At the base of successful professional relationships is a single emotion: trust. But the Global Leadership Forecast 2023 report shows that only 46% of employees trust their line manager and only 32% trust senior leaders in their organization. It is clear that there is room for improvement in the trust between the management team and employees. And the increased level of trust will lead to increased employee retention, at a time when a lot is being invested in attracting and developing talent.
How can leaders build trust?
Leaders must understand that trust is crucial to building a healthy organizational culture in the company. That’s why it’s good to include questions about trust in employee engagement surveys so they understand how they’re doing.
Building trust must be prioritized at all levels of leadership. Trust is fragile. It is easy to lose and hard to win. Top management leaders have fewer opportunities to build trust directly with employees, so it is critical that they take full advantage of every opportunity to do so.
Effectively manage hybrid teams
Amplified during the pandemic, remote work has a strong growth trend in Romania. If we also take into account the fact that more and more employees work in a hybrid format, the cumulative percentage of virtual teams in Romania exceeds 60%. This creates new challenges for leaders, especially when it comes to how they connect with their teams. In the same study, Global Leadership Forecast 2023, only 27% of leaders say they are very effective at leading hybrid or virtual teams.
What are some ways leaders can be helped?
Companies need to help leaders see clearly their role in creating a fair and inclusive work environment by assessing their skills and reinforcing behaviors that reinforce this way of working. To promote equal opportunity and fairness, leaders must create visibility for their teams.
Leaders want more meaningful, formal learning and development experiences that connect them with their team and peers. In hybrid workplaces, leaders must be able to help their colleagues build a strong connection with the workplace and with other colleagues. When leaders develop these skills, teams are high performing, cohesive, and innovation can increase.
Florentina Șușnea este Managing Partner în cadrul companiei PKF Finconta. Experiența ei profesională de peste 26 de ani cuprinde domeniile de audit statutar și IFRS, consultanță fiscală, probleme de rezidență fiscală, restructurare financiară și fiscală, documentație și politici de Transfer Pricing, fuziuni și divizări, M&A, expertize judiciare, contabile și fiscale, due diligence de achiziții. Florentina este membru acreditat al următoarelor organizații profesionale: Camera Consultantilor Fiscali, Camera Auditorilor Financiari din România, Camera Expertilor și Contabililor Autorizați din România si Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists. A absolvit Facultatea Finanțe-Contabilitate din cadrul Academiei de Studii Economice, București, Facultatea de Drept din cadrul Universității ”Titu Maiorescu”, programul MBA de la Tiffin University din SUA, este doctor în economie și a urmat numeroase cursuri naționale și internaționale în domeniul fiscal. florentina.susnea@pkffinconta.ro
