Over the last 27 years as a highly accomplished Director of Sales and Chief Business Officer Amarvijayy has built a natural ability to build new businesses with concrete foundations, result-oriented teams and leadership that guides the organisation toward success. Loyalty toward clients, vendors and external business partners has allowed him to create a network of people who are passionate about spearheading the goals of our organisation. Currently, he is leading a team at BYLD Group managing a portfolio of multiple brands to consistently reach the assigned Sales revenue targets of over INR 250 million and leading a team for 30 team members. He has learnt, grown, and developed himself previously as a Sales and Marketing Director in Hilti Vietnam.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.
The unprecedented COVID-19 has posed an enormous challenge for leaders across the world. The uncertainty has made leadership even more complex. It has changed the nature of work and the relationship of managers with their employees. The hybrid work culture has altered the way workplaces communicate, connect and collaborate. Thus, completely transforming the role and responsibilities of a leader in an organisation. Acknowledging the profound change in priorities of employees, leaders have to reinvent themselves to stay relevant and embrace the change to inspire confidence and motivate the employees.
The new-age leadership requires new mindsets and leadership competencies to lead, manage, implement, and accept change. This can be achieved by leadership development aimed to increase the abilities and qualities of a person to become a resilient leader. Leadership development reinforces the growing awareness of the organization’s function as a social enterprise rather than just a business.
Role of Learning & Development (L&D)
Leadership development is critical for the success of any organisation. These past couple of years have been a testing period for leaders across organisations Leaders have been struggling to cope with the changing leadership roles The difficult times faced by the leaders do not imply that they are not capable of handling the changes. But the pace at which the change is occurring is overwhelming for the leaders to adapt to the changes even if they are predictable and inevitable. Also, the workplace is dominated by Millennials and Gen Z taking on leadership roles. 76% of Gen Z believe that learning is essential to success. Furthermore, 51% of millennial employees want to learn new skills to perform a new job function. (2022, Statista)
It is true that to drive change, leaders must develop a new mindset. “Everything DiSC is a psychometric assessment tool that is backed by decades of research and helps leaders in a personal development learning experience. It not only helps an individual to understand his/her strengths and weaknesses but also helps them to understand how to deal and communicate with their team members. The DiSC Workplace can help to build a strong company culture and connection with one another, as well as useful suggestions to build better and deeper relationships with the employees.
The disruption in the workplace has made companies rethink and reinvent their work culture. The change has affected the efficiency and productivity of the employees and companies. The leaders often find themselves struggling to manage the hybrid teams. The Five Behaviours®, a program offered by Wiley, is oriented toward adapting to changes by reinventing oneself and rethinking their approach to teamwork. This helps in being flexible to understand and tackle the traps which simultaneously create roadblocks.
Another programme offered by Crucial Learning (formerly known as VitalsSmarts) called Influencer also plays a catalyst in learning techniques that can alter ingrained human behaviour. This helps in designing and implementing large-scale initiatives for lasting behaviour.
Success as a leader depends on the ability to manage disruption in the workplace. The VUCA environment prevalent in the current times has made it imperative to change the focus and methods of leadership development.
The pandemic has demonstrated the need to include automation in the workforce to streamline the hybrid work model. Likely, Leadership has to develop to keep up with the changing workplace environment. Leadership development will help inspire confidence and develop the necessary skills to adapt to the change and work efficiently. Blanchard’s Behavioural and leadership development programs provide end-to-end L&D solutions. These solutions act as a life skill to bring out the best in individuals and organizations.
At the same time, an evolving workplace is filling employees with uncertainties and a sense of distrust among the employees. Effective leadership stems from developing strong collaborative bonds with their teams in such dire times.” Leading people through change” teaches leaders how to respond during a predicament. It prepares executives and managers to lead successful change initiatives by involving others throughout the process of change and disruption.
Status of L&D in India
India is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Corporate enterprises are enabling opportunities to work and exhibit leadership qualities. Learning and development have the potential to make successful leaders and efficient workplaces. Despite the dire need, India’s corporate spend is less than 2% on employee skill and leadership development programs, which is much less than the developed countries which spend between 10 to 15%.
Also, India lacks a skillful workforce as the Indian education system somehow fails to provide skill orientation properly. Every year, more than half of all graduates in India are unable to find work due to a lack of necessary skills. A strong learning and development system is conducive to a skilled workforce with the necessary skill sets, mindsets, and knowledge to work and contribute efficiently.
Future of leadership development in India
This year’s budget has addressed the issue at hand with the hybrid work culture setting in and how the entire work environment and setup have changed. Upskilling has become the most crucial element in any industry and sector. The government is putting its focus on skill development by reorienting the skilling programs and partnership with the industry to promote continuous skilling avenues, sustainability, and employability; this is the immediate requirement in the current dynamic industry. Various initiatives mentioned in this year’s budget, which will focus on empowering the citizens to skill, reskill and upskill themselves through their programs will lead the professionals and citizens to become a more digitally empowered country. This will have a ripple effect in the industry sector which will lead to a flourishing workforce.
The Indian government indeed recognises the value of L&D with the “Skill India” program, which aims to provide skill training to 500 million people by 2022. According to the Ministry of Skill Development, about 1.07 crore candidates have been trained across the country as of January 19, 2021, under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).
According to the IMF, India will become the world’s third-largest economy by 2030. If this comes true, at least 100 Indian corporate giants will make the Fortune 500 list in the next 10 years. This will tremendously increase the demand for a skilled workforce. The Indian training and development industry will prove to be the ultimate driving force for this growth.
Conclusion
The pandemic has given us a new normal. Due to the given situation, we can adapt to a new perspective and dimension, which has further acted as a catalyst in the present industry dynamic. To thrive, organisations must revamp their approach and integrate L&D to develop new-age leadership skills. L&D is expected to serve as a guide for leaders to find more effective ways to direct and invest in building these capabilities for the future. The way forward is to embrace the change and pave the way for new initiatives, allowing the employees to create a cohesive and positive environment for a resilient workforce and organizational growth.