As we bid farewell to 2023, my colleague and friend Elizabeth McCourt and I wanted to share our reflections on what has shaped the last 12 months and lead us into the new year. We asked the KDVI global community of coaches and leadership development practitioners to reflect on the key themes they observed in their work with hundreds of leaders and organisations in more than 15 countries during 2023, and to look ahead to what they anticipate leaders and organisations will be thinking about in 2024.
Our unique post-pandemic year included several pivotal global events, from escalating climate disasters to the continuation and outbreak of conflict, spurring humanitarian crises across regions. Global economies continue to be impacted by lingering pandemic aftershocks, labour market shifts and the rising costs of living. Technological transformations, namely rapid AI advances, hold both promise and concern. Social justice and accountability incidents spotlighted systemic inequities worldwide.
In a workforce evolution, we recognise that organisations today face increasing complexity amidst great uncertainty. Leaders are both tasked and challenged to guide their organisations through periods of constant change and disruption.
Understanding this year's emergent themes provides insight into what may be on the horizon for 2024 and beyond. By examining their interconnections and trajectories, we offer an opportunity for continued dialogue as to how leaders might prepare their organisations to navigate ongoing uncertainty and turbulence ahead.
2023
Whilst many of the themes were not very different to previous years, including stress and workload, collaboration, DEI and the classic themes of managing up and down, some new themes did emerge more strongly.
A. Managing complexity and turbulence:
The volatile global events of 2023 exacerbated the complexities leaders were already facing. By necessity, leaders focused on building trust and resilience, fostering transparency, providing stability and direction, and communicating with compassion. They increasingly prioritised mental health & wellbeing support for workers facing burnout. However, many leaders struggled under increasing complexity, often resorting to micromanaging teams rather than empowering self-direction. Mastering paradoxical thinking, systems leadership and change management took priority in leadership development programs. Organisations discovered that successfully navigating turbulence requires balancing strategic skills with emotional intelligence, vulnerability, and human-centred leadership. The good news is that leaders and organisations recognised the need for support and intervention and coaches found them even more open to our methods of psychodynamic team coaching and intervention, along with some creative approaches, which was exciting.
B. Increased divides and tensions:
With increasing divisions playing out in economies and in politics, we observed these tensions playing out in organisations through increasing complexity, competing commitments and an increase in incivility in the workplace. Generational divides continued in 2023. When Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012, entered the workforce in full force this year, they brought perspectives shaped by a digital era surrounded by escalating world turmoil. With 5 generations in the workforce, each bringing different values, attitudes, expectations, and work styles, learning how to foster cross-generational collaboration is becoming an increasingly pressing priority. In addition, keeping the knowledge of those leaving the workforce while engaging with new ideas and technological savvy continue to be critical to organisational survival and profitability.
“Global political turmoil has created a lot of tension between different groups.”
Vaseehar Hassan Abdul Razack, KDVI Associate, Malaysia.
C. Restructuring Fatigue:
Persistent uncertainty and market pressures triggered a new wave of restructuring initiatives across many industries, aimed to cut costs and drive efficiency. In some sectors large scale restructures continue, for others it is streamlining teams. After several years of Covid-induced furloughs and operational whiplash, change-weary employees exhibited growing resentment and declining engagement with each restructure. Constant reorganisation of teams, structures and resources becomes exhausting for leaders and destabilising for teams. Leaders feel they are in constant transition, coping with a never-ending reorganisation. It is exhausting especially because the mindset is still: “one more change and we will be done.” Dealing with the consequences of redundancy takes energy from other topics.
“Even if restructuring is complete, the ghosts of layoffs remain.”
Betina Rama, KDVI Associate, Argentina.
D. Resistance returning to the office:
In 2023, hybrid work models continued to evolve as organisations navigated balancing demand for flexibility with desire for connection and visibility. Hybrid working, essential in the pandemic, is now a source of tension and push-back with a demand for flexibility versus a requirement of “in-office.” While many companies instituted flexible policies during the pandemic, 2023 saw leaders grappling with normalising these models long-term. We saw a push by many organisations to mandate a fixed number of days in the office creating ongoing tensions between organisational and individual needs, and often an erosion of trust. But despite debates and inconsistencies, flexible hybrid work has largely become key for attracting and engaging talent. There is an ongoing recalibration of what hybrid working looks like and means, with leaders still structuring a work paradigm shift sparked by the pandemic with no one-size-fits-all policy. Finding a new balance of hybridity isn’t something ChatGPT can answer, it’s up to humans to figure it out.
“Leaders feel like Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the mountain.”
Ann Houston Kelly, KDVI Associate, USA.
E. Stress and burnout
The extraordinary pressures of the past few years took their toll in 2023 as stress and burnout reached critical levels within organisations. Remote and hybrid models mean employees reported working longer hours with fewer boundaries between personal and professional lives. Organisational restructures mentioned above led to job insecurity and hiring freezes left talent gaps unfilled. For leaders, persistent change and uncertainty was mentally and emotionally draining. Many organisations struggle to curb cultures of overwork or address root issues like lack of role clarity, toxic management styles, and poor work-life balance.
“With stressed employees reaching their breaking point, burnout presented as one of the top workforce crises in 2023.”
Caroline Rook, KDVI Associate, UK.
In essence, organisations and leaders grappled with complexity, the pace of change, stresses on the workforce, and strategically aligning for the future. There is also a focus on culture, inclusion, wellbeing and ESG to help organisations align values amid challenging environments.
2024
“Plan for a challenging year ahead. There is a need to be bold, fast and inclusive.”
Nicole Scherf, KDVI Associate, Germany
Whilst we don’t have a crystal ball, early conversations with our clients do suggest the following as key themes that are emerging.
· Ghosts of the Pandemic: Leading through uncertainty and living with continuous anxiety and pressures. Questions around optimising performance, working effectively, hybridity, along with managing restructuring while retaining profitability and strategic focus.
· AI – Technological Shifts: Integrating AI and new technologies whilst handling the associated uncertainty and anxiety for people working with an impacted by change and the possibility of being replaced rather than upleveled by AI.
· Rebuilding Social Capital: Motivating and connecting the workforce. Fostering collaboration, engagement, shared vision especially across generations and differences. Creating and retaining future ready talent and leadership
· Developing Resilient Leadership: Building skills to lead through crises, ambiguity, and constant change. Embedding reflection and ethical, humane leadership
· Sustainability in business models and leadership: Prioritising sustainability, community responsibility and governance alongside profitability and revenue growth.
The core themes centre on leading organisations through economic, technological and demographic shifts and uncertainty, while retaining focus on people, ethics, purpose and sustainable performance.
“Any intervention makes a difference and that makes our work fulfilling.”
Margot Schumacher, KDVI Associate, Netherlands
Reflective questions for Leaders.
As the new calendar year approaches, here are some key questions we believe leaders and organisations will be grappling with in 2024. Many of them stem from tensions and paradoxes inherent in the complexity of work, which those leading businesses will need to make sense of.
· How to foster engagement, motivation, and a shared vision in times of complexity and ambiguity?
· How to optimise team and organisational performance without constant restructuring?
· How to understand and integrate younger generations, differences, and tensions?
· How to maintain strategic focus while being humane and profitable?
· How to implement AI and new technologies effectively whilst considering the human impact?