The competencies of a successful leader during uncertain, challenging and new times

During the chaotic and fast time in which we live as leaders and managers, you need more versatile support. Nowadays you no longer get 100% solutions from traditional structures, on the contrary. How do you ensure that you keep improving and transform yourself, the company and/or department? How do you choose the right course? How do you deal with unexpected changes?

Today's world demands new creativity and dynamics from you as a leader and as a company. This applies to any company, including corporate and multinationals. During unpredictable and rapidly changing times, it is essential that a leader and his/her organization can adapt to them.

In this article I will mention two topics that are essential in this context:

• Competencies of an Authentic Dynamic Leader;

• Adaptability to a VUCA environment.

Authentic Dynamic Leadership

Authentic leaders create, based on knowledge of group dynamics, communities and cultures that work. They encourage (professional) friendships between colleagues to connect people, so that they have something else - and someone else - to work for than just themselves and a salary.

When people work with a truly authentic leader, they often give their whole heart and soul to his/her vision and the cause.

In these situations, a culture of teamwork and loyalty can spread throughout an organization, resulting in high morale and extraordinary results. Authentic leaders instill confidence in their (self-managing) teams.

Competencies of an authentic and dynamic leader:

• Self-awareness, knowing who they are;

• Accept others as they are, take employees seriously and stimulate their personal development;

• Have/develop high emotional intelligence;

• Are good at relational transparency and empathy;

• They really and clearly express themselves;

• See a better future in all circumstances;

• Striving for logical and smart efficiency, not perfection;

• Knowing how to deal with fear, for themselves and to help others with it;

• Have a balanced processing;

• Have an internalized moral perspective;

• Always ask for a second opinion.

The Adaptability to a VUCA environment First of all it is important to know where VUCA stands for:

• Volatility, the nature and dynamics of change, the nature and speed of change forces and change catalysts;

• Uncertainty, the lack of predictability, the prospects for surprise, the sense of awareness and understanding of issues and events;

• Complexity, the multiplex of forces, the confounding of issues, no cause-and-effect chain and confusion that surrounds organization;

• Ambiguity, the haziness of reality, the potential for misreads, and the mixed meanings of conditions; cause-and-effect confusion.

Nowadays we (aim to) work from the effectiveness paradigm (instead of the time paradigm), effectiveness is the level of urgency combined with creativity with which we respond adequately to unexpected circumstances.

Adaptability is the new continuity and commodity in the new world.

Success nowadays is determined by our adaptive capacity and it is essential that leaders / managers can initiate, set up, develop and manage this in their organizations. This is the biggest challenge for leaders/managers. To do this, the organizational culture needs to be transformed into a dynamic one. This transformation helps the leader/manager and the organization reduce the 'chaos' to a qualitative simplicity that everyone understands.

As a result, the organization has a dynamic structure in which space has been created for self-managing colleagues. This is because it is not about following the prescribed work instructions, but about a framework of work to guarantee effectiveness (output), of course in line with the objectives, customer wishes, laws and regulations. It involves vigilance for signals of change and recognizing early signs of opportunities or threats. Leadership/ management listens to internal and external experts who share and discuss their information so that timely preventive or offensive action can be taken. In addition, the entire organization understands the "dynamic working method" and mutual dependencies on each other.

Working in a VUCA environment is therefore challenging, but fascinating, with endless new situations and opportunities.

In order to stay on course, the authenticity of the leader/manager is needed and courage to set decisive goals. It requires continuous navigation and adjustment and sometimes a change of course to avoid a rock.

The competencies that a successful leader/manager must have to transform the organization into an adaptive dynamic organization are the following:

• a clear vision on what it will take to grow the business in the future, how customers are dealt with and what kind of "dynamic and adaptive" organization you need for this;

• a good idea of what he/she still needs to change. Understand how the new "dynamic and adaptive" environment looks like and how to realize it in the company;

• clarify why it is necessary to grow into an "dynamic and adaptive" organization, what it delivers and means for the organization in terms of innovation;

• ability to set up an adaptive and agile organization together with his/her people in an agile and collaborative manner.

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