Practical Advice On How To Lead An Empowered Workforce

Have you noticed that our rhetoric surrounding the epidemic is still concentrated on "going back" rather than "moving forward"? "During the pandemic, many people felt their lives had been thrown off course. So understandably, people desire to get back on track. However, much of the transformation during and after the pandemic has been positive. Might we think about it as "moving forward?" Author Heather McGowan's new book, The Empathy Advantage: Leading the Empowered Workforce, co-written with Chris Shipley, points out many of the ways we've changed for the good--moving forward--since the pandemic. But there is still a way to go. Once Heather pointed out the "going back" language during our interview, I couldn't help but notice that it is present in many conversations regarding the future of work. So many leaders are asking how to get things back to the way they once were rather than asking how to harness the change to achieve greater things. Insert almost any hot topic, be it generational differences in career priorities, gender norms, or attitudes toward how work fits into our lives. You'll see as many people pushing back on the "return" language as you do pushing for "moving forward" change. As Heather says, "You can't put the toothpaste back into the tube now." Gender norms are something applicable to all organizations when it comes to the future of work. When surveyed, Millennials and Gen Z say you shouldn't have fixed, exclusionary gender markers in your language, in your restrooms, in your customer offerings."