Cs the day – what does leadership look like in 2021 and beyond?
New study looks at understanding the 4Cs of leadership – Conductor, Catalyst, Coach, and Champion.
Research confirms that, “the pandemic has accelerated a pre-COVID-19 shift in how individuals and teams do intellectual work.”1
Since the onset of the pandemic, our collective notion of leadership has come into scrutiny and rightly so. The pandemic calls for collective trust, empathy and inclusion. It demands a re-prioritisation of purpose and values. It is clear, we need to pivot old definitions of leadership, to form a new vocabulary – perhaps, we need to scrutinise our collective aspirations and set an imaginative, responsive and bold direction.
To quote the article reporting the study, “To be successful in this new era, team leaders must learn to adapt the four roles of multimodal leadership: Conductor, Catalyst, Coach, and Champion. These four roles provide a framework for leadership effectiveness in the post-pandemic world of work.”2
According to the article, adaptability and resilience are key characteristics to meet challenges, however operationalising the 4Cs – Conductor, Catalyst, Coach, and Champion – to succeed in multi-modal environments could look like this:
- Catalyst – Think strategically and create alternative ways to proceed
- Conductor – Build robust relationships by instinctively figuring out how different people can work together productively
- Coach – Activate to make things happen by turning thought to meaningful action
- Champion – Maximise and achieve by stimulating personal and group excellence and drive initiative for shared success
“Multimodal workplace is changing the types of skills required to lead teams virtually and in person successfully.”3 The four roles remain key to leaders adapting to manage a hybrid workforce across different interactions, be it managing performance through one on one sessions, being effective at driving team wide initiatives and or external championship. However, a common an integral aspect of all four roles, is the ability to build and sustain meaningful connections and trust whether it be virtually or in person.
Are you ready to lead in a multimodal workplace? Join us at First 100, to explore how.
1, 2, 3. R. Hooijberg and M. Watkins, “The Future of Team Leadership Is Multimodal” MIT Sloan Management Review, 9 February 2021, accessed 19/02/21 <https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-future-of-team-leadership-is-multimodal
