What are the new leadership models?
They are different approaches to managing teams and understanding how to work as a team, requiring specific skills that adapt to the challenges and changes that have occurred over time. These new leadership models focus on people, change and an increasingly complex environment.
Key characteristics
In the new leadership model, the leader is at the service of the team, not the other way around.
The boss/leader is a facilitator who uses empathy and emotional intelligence to explain the purpose of their goal. It is understood that when an employee has all of the above, what they need at their fingertips and a point of reference, their commitment grows and they are able to achieve goals that would have been unthinkable in other models.
Other key characteristics are agility, teamwork, cross-functional collaboration and promoting autonomy for people’s own development.
The benefits they bring
This type of model is in a constant process of improvement, of collaboration both within and outside its area, as well as achieving the agility required by today’s times, where immediacy is a characteristic of those who advance in the market. They provide other benefits such as greater productivity or even motivation, a collaborative working environment, and an environment where talent is nurtured and retained.
Like everything else, it has to evolve as paradigms change and adapt to new circumstances, new working models, new ways of dealing with problems, and new forms of business.
In today’s business environment, where digitalisation is the norm and there is greater uncertainty and change, leaders are needed who, in addition to achieving financial results, have the ability to build resilient, motivated teams.
How leadership models have evolved over the last few decades
Like new working models, the way we lead has changed in recent years. The old management model, also known as Management 1.0, was rigid and hierarchical, with a boss who was an authoritarian figure who imposed tasks and control.
This later evolved into a more person-centred approach in the Management 2.0 model. In the new leadership models, the boss is placed in a different position. In 3.0, the boss is positioned as a leader. In the transition to 4.0, the leader is in the midst of a digital transformation.
The influence of new technologies
To a large extent, since the inclusion of new technologies implies constant change, such as the coexistence of hybrid working models, the use of cutting-edge technologies such as AI, and many other changes that have become established in our times. As a result, new leadership models are moving away from what we knew in more rigid models and towards constant change as well.
New technologies require faster decision-making, which implies a similar leadership model, where teams are managed according to more objective and agile approaches.
We are currently in an era where people are at the centre of everything.
