Choose What You Carry Into 2021

A difficult year. The new normal. Disruption. As we continue to hear the same phrases describing the 2020 experience we should also be asking ourselves, what hasn’t changed? What will we still be carrying into the coming years, perhaps with renewed appreciation?

As leaders, one of the key things we have to present to our colleagues and stakeholders is consistency. Something which is at odds with new normals and disruptive difficult years. If however we are to continue to grow, to develop from the situation we have experienced, we need constants to guide us. From the most basic levels of personal development to advancing our leadership styles to achieving organisational successes, we need to carry forward things that were important before the pandemic.

Of course, the future holds different ways of working, collaborating in new ways, communications that take in multiple platforms beyond email and phones, but this was always likely to happen. The pace of digital development, software as well as internet capabilities, has delivered commercial positives in the last few years and this has been greatly accelerated by 2020.

If nothing else, the revisions to how we work and collaborate have removed the need for a business to hire from within their catchment area. From now on the net can be cast a little further, the talent pool available will be a little deeper.

These accelerated changes can have a freefall feeling to them, it can be hard to adjust, but it is by keeping our core principles in mind that we assure consistency of experience, for ourselves and for those around us.

We also have a rare chance to make changes that we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to make. Those policies that have always seemed a little out of place, or didn’t quite chime with the rest of the working structure, now is the time to ease them out and replace them with something that works better. A core part of leadership is the continual improvement of ourselves, and the structures and people around us. This year certainly gives the savvy leader a chance to advance some of the alternative ideas for their work.

There is nothing about the events and experiences of 2020 that should cause us to change our foundational ideas, only how we express them, or what we can build on them. As leaders, there should be almost nothing that changes our desire to support those around us, to guide stakeholders and institutions to better places, to achieve more and to help others achieve more.

As with all large-scale events and changes in our lives, personal or professional, 2020 has given us an opportunity to reflect on what we do, how we can do better and what we can leave behind. However, it also allows us a chance to reaffirm what is important to us, what is fundamental to who we are and the leadership work that we do.

2020 is nearly over. We can continue to ruminate on what it has shown us at work, in life and across our societies. Let’s all focus now on what we’re taking into 2021, and how those things will carry us forward for years to come.

Sue Winton is the founder of Open2Change and a developmental leadership coach interested in helping you further develop your confidence, expertise and skills to transform your working environment and become known as someone others want to work with and for. If you or someone from your organisation would like to have a no obligation conversation about how Sue may be able to help, please email her directly at suewinton.open2change@gmail.com.