Big Think video | Becoming a fluent leader: The art of flexing in theory with Jane Hyun, Founder and President, Hyun & Associates and co-author, Flex: The New Playbook for Managing Across Differences
Today in “not-really-news-to-anybody”: The workforce is changing fast, toward greater diversity in gender, culture, and age. Yet businesses are failing on a grand scale to engage these new and different employees, resulting, according to Gallup, in a $500 billion loss to industry in 2015.
Why? According to Jane Hyun, co-author of Flex: The New Playbook for Managing Across Differences, many managers need to work on their “flex” –– their ability to work effectively with people who are significantly different from them in some way.
Flex: The art of switching between leadership styles to better communicate with people who are different from you.
- Multicultural workers, women, and millennials are responsible for key demographic shifts in the workforce. Managers must learn to engage and motivate new kinds of talent. In the U.S., the cost of disengaged employees in this diverse, modern workforce is about half a trillion dollars per year, according to a Gallup poll.
Power gap: The amount of social distance that exists between people in management and other employees.
- Managers who are egalitarian and who see themselves as guides or coaches, have a small power gap with their employees.
- Managers who are hierarchical, and who see themselves as authority figures, have a large power gap with their employees.
- Get to know the dynamics of the power gap in your position to become a more fluent leader.
Fluent leader: Someone who can effectively manage people who are different from them toward the best business results.
Critical traits
- Self-and-other-awareness
- Comfort with ambiguity and complexity
- Adaptability
- Positive regard for all employees
- Ability to flex across the Power Gap
- Innovative and can inspire others to innovate
