A few years back, when I entered my office, I heard a voice addressing me as “Boss” I looked back and saw a manager from my finance department, who wanted to hand over some reports. I asked myself why people use the term Boss – the most abused term in the corporate world. In the movies, particularly Bollywood movies – “Boss” is always a villain or a gangster and always beaten up by the hero in the end. In my opinion, no one should address a person who leads a group of people as a “Boss” unless he or she behaves like a villain. The term Boss had taken a real beating in recent times for almost all businesses.

Also, in my recently concluded management meeting, I saw my leadership team challenged on managing the teams that have a mix of experience and Millennials. People are grappling with the situation on how to work and succeed in this fast-changing business world. This is the challenge I think almost all companies are facing today. Today’s leaders need to change the style of functioning to succeed in this complex corporate world. Gone are the days when leaders use to sit behind the desk and drive the company’s operation.

We need leaders who are more mentors who can bring spark actions in the teams. I call such leaders as Synergist leaders or, to put in management jargon, a Catalyst Leader. These leaders represent a new emerging standard in leadership – Energetic, forward-thinking, high action-oriented, and great mentors. We all live in an emotion-laden world where people need high interactions. Social media also have not made life easy to lead. It comes up with its challenges. We, as leaders, cannot use these channels to communicate what we think is right – but to understand what others think is right and then take appropriate decisions or actions.

A successful leader will never hide behind a keyboard solving problems, but instead, he connects with his teas by really listening to their challenges and showing empathy. This connection builds trust in the team, shows respect, and increases productivity. A leader’s future success will depend on his/her ability to become one of the Synergist leaders.

Also, sometimes people use the phrase “Innovative leaders make companies great.” I also heard some smart people say that Organizations that do not innovate more likely fade out. I tend to disagree with both of these statements. In my opinion,

1. Organizations cannot innovate, but people can.
2. There will only be one type of leaders – Catalyst Leaders who spark the environment of innovation

In today’s world, leaders need to win the trust of their employees. As businesses escalate their adoption of employee-focused Big Data analytics, leaders need to step up to a new role for which few are prepared. Leaders must address this and intervene to become Data Stewards on behalf of the workforce. If left unchecked, the severe consequences for employee trust, well-being, and retention stemming from inaccurate and misleading employee data will worsen in the future. Only proactive, data-savvy leaders will have the know-how and credibility to make sure every data point gathered from or about their employees is truthful, meaningful, and fair.”

I am sure that the next generation of leaders will be well prepared to handle the fast-changing corporate world.