Our new title, Chief of Staff, is a big nod to the increasing leadership roles being taken on by assistants but, simultaneously, organisations are said to be struggling to prepare their leaders for the unparalleled changes in the business world. Rose Cartolari, an international leadership consultant, shares her thoughts on current trends that could lead to great opportunity for high-level EAs;
“The 2017 Mercer Global Talent Trends Report revealed that 93 per cent of companies interviewed rated reshaping corporate structure as a top priority and many are looking to flatten their organisation, decentralise decision-making and extend authority.
This means the days of command and control are gone and, due to rapidly changing tech and trends, leaders are no longer automatically the expert – to be successful, ensure you surround yourself with experts in a variety of fields, and focus on inspiring, empowering and mobilising them.
There’s a lack of ready leaders and, although there’s talk of increased spending on leadership development, companies worry about talent scarcity, and how to find leaders strong in the skills and abilities they need for growth.
Thankfully, however, the likes of reflection, empathy, connection and dialogue – natural EA skills – are finding their way into business strategy as companies move past catchy taglines and ensure they’re practising what they preach.
Leadership development still isn’t seen as a massive strategic priority (largely due to the difficulty in measuring the impact) so 2018 should be all about making sure such training programmes are ultra-relevant.
Encourage the boss to:
- Combine traditional business- acumen skills with coaching and mentoring
- Find ways of personalising learning experiences
- Look for sustained learning methods that ensure outcomes and experiences are brought back to the workplace and integrated into everyday working life
- Look at personal and professional growth in areas such as self-awareness, intuition, empathy and communication.”
