It is in this situation that poor leadership becomes very apparent
because it is difficult when you cannot pigeon-hole people,
but there are these incredibly diverse desires and requirements for the workplace.
So in the end, it is about continuing to have a focus on really good leadership
– both on-site leadership, but also to a large extent remote leadership.
Handling the very varied requirements of the employees is naturally a huge challenge for our leaders.
One of the things that became clear to us was that our competent leaders actually did quite well in a remote setup.
However, it was also clear that the leaders that never put it on the agenda and perhaps were not the best leaders were the ones that had a really hard time.
So the whole leadership side has simply become clearer in a new setup.
Some of what had really changed in relation to COVID is the whole discussion surrounding mental health.
It was clear to us along the way that we could not simply ignore how our employees were doing, even if they were at home.
So we had to introduce a number of activities that had to do with how you cope when things are hard.
This is both in relation to providing the tools for the employees but also to a large extent providing tools for the leaders
since the fact that the employees were suddenly at a distance meant that there were other things to focus on
and they had to get closer to the employees in order to get a better sense of where they were
because they weren’t as close physically as before COVID.
Our leaders simply have to engage in more planned and candid dialog with the employees.
They have to find a way to get closer because otherwise you cannot practice good leadership from a distance.
Change leadership has always been important. I believe that the whole situation surrounding COVID
has just pushed it up higher on the list of priorities.
But I don’t see it as something that has become more important. I just think it has become clearer
in relation to the huge changes we have been exposed to in a short time.
However, it is just as important as it has always been because otherwise we won’t bring our employees into the future.