New Work & Leadership: Not hype, but a necessity
New Work & Leadership: not hype, but a necessity
January 17, 2023 – The latest leadership trend barometer from IFIDZ shows: Many companies are already intensively dealing with the topic of New Work and have implemented some approaches in their organization from the perspective of their leaders. The fact that so many companies are currently engaging with the topic of New Work is not a "fashionable hype", but a "business necessity". This is the conclusion of the current leadership trend barometer from the Institute for Leadership Culture in the Digital Age (IFIDZ).
New Work is primarily a cultural and not a structural issue
A total of 177 executives participated in the online survey. Of them, 75 percent believed that dealing with the topic of New Work is not a "nice to have" for companies, but a necessity due to changing conditions. Additionally, 62 percent expressed that New Work is for them "primarily a cultural and less a structural issue", which is why for the majority of them (72 percent), the topic of New Work is also "inseparable" from the topic of New Leadership.
The topics of New Work and New Leadership are interconnected
This response behavior corresponds with the fact that only 14 percent of executives see the engagement with the topic primarily as a reaction of companies to the changing expectations and needs of generations Y and Z. Rather, in their view, the causes are more complex and profound. As essential drivers of this process, they consider, as in-depth interviews with about 15 percent of the respondents show, factors such as advancing digitization and the changing challenges that companies face in the rapidly changing and less predictable VUKA world; also, the increasingly noticeable shortage of skilled workers and leadership. This forces many companies to fundamentally rethink their personnel policies.
Executives are often still seekers in terms of "New Work"
Surprisingly, in this context, the initiators of the survey found that 59 percent of participants stated they already know "what the term New Work entails and what aspects are associated with it". Because this contradicts the statements of Barbara Liebermeister, the head of IFIDZ, "largely the experiences we gather in our daily work in communication with the executives of companies". In this, IFIDZ perceives companies and their executives as still largely "seekers" and not as individuals or organizations that have already found the solution – "also because this change and transformation process is occurring in a dynamic environment".
New Work is already partially practiced in half of the companies
According to IFIDZ, it is encouraging that 49 percent of respondents stated that New Work approaches are already being practiced in their company, area, or team; furthermore, that only 12 percent of them say that while there is much talk about New Work in their company, "little changes". This shows, according to Barbara Liebermeister, that many companies are currently seriously addressing the question of how, alongside work, the work and communication relationships in their organization should be structured and designed in the future, even if there are no final answers to these questions yet.
Author: Barbara Liebermeister
About the author Barbara Liebermeister
Barbara Liebermeister is the founder and director of IFIDZ – Institute for Leadership Culture in the Digital Age. As a management consultant, coach, and speaker, she combines business experience with scientific depth and has coined the term Alpha Intelligence®, a concept that captures the essential skills of modern leaders.
With many years of experience in leadership positions and as a coach for top decision-makers, she has been supporting companies of all sizes on their way to contemporary leadership for over two decades – practical, strategic, and effective. Insights from her work have contributed to several books on the topics of self-leadership, networking, and leadership in the digital world.
Barbara Liebermeister is a lecturer at RWTH Aachen, Kempten University, and others, and also serves as a mentor at universities in Hesse. She studied business administration, holds a master's degree in neuroscience, and has completed training as a business, management, and sports mental coach.
Outstanding work: For her pioneering efforts, she was nominated for the #digitalfemaleleader Award in 2017. In 2018, the analysis tool LEADT developed by her institute, which measures digital leadership maturity, was awarded the prestigious Wolfgang Heilmann Prize at Learntec.
