November 22nd, 2024
In a marketing & leadership setting, we have entered a connection gap, shown both in a leadership & marketing context. When I researched recent data for a keynote on the impact of empathetic leadership based on that connection gap, I was surprised to see the triggers leading to this connection gap we are currently experiencing:
Overwhelm, disengagement, and a drop in well-being lead to higher needs for personalisation, workplace safety, and the formation of new work models.
The connection gap is reflected in:
Engaging with audiences when building marketing strategies & engaging with teams in a leadership context.
As empathetic leaders, we use our emotional intelligence to close that connection gap through active listening and transparent communication.
It's essential to create a safe space for employees, leading them to high performance.
When creating friction points with audiences through brand strategy, we use active listening and trust-building to build long-term growth for companies and brands.
Emotional intelligence is important when building teams and following the bigger picture. On the other hand, artificial intelligence helps leaders build leaner teams, while improving efficiency & turnaround time.
As humans, we connect over values and shared interests. Audiences and teams crave authenticity, genuine connection, and trust more than ever.
Because: People want to be understood, and listened to. It lies in our human nature.
The more you feel understood & connected, the easier it is to build trust, and trigger a certain action.
Engagement & empowerment can not happen through control & within a short time frame. They need time to fully develop, based on trust and common understanding.
People follow people, who create trust and a cause or need they can build a connection with.
High expectations & high goals are feeding egos. When we focus purely on results and numbers, the context of the WHY, broader picture, and analysis of cause and effect gets lost.
The ego & elbow can diminish genuine understanding, and collaboration.
We miss the full picture - operating in a small box, using black & white thinking, over empathy and understanding.
Switching from head to heart is essential for effective collaboration & team building. The head is needed to follow our vision & goals. The heart is needed for collaboration & achieving team goals.
On top of this, hybrid & flexible work models have challenged leaders to find new ways of engagement.
To build thriving teams, efficient onboarding processes need to be setup, so everyone feels involved on purpose, vision, and overall strategy.
While hybrid has shaved the path for new work models to be created, flexible models must be set up to build diverse, and inclusive teams.
This includes building the right environments for introverted, and extroverted employees to be treated equally. Setting up the right environment for neurodivergent individuals is essential.
As leaders we need to ensure, that everyone is communicated to in the most inclusive way possible, so individual & team growth can happen.
Introverted individuals might want to open up more in 1:1 settings, than in group meetings & prefer written communication over verbal. These are all circumstances, we need to respond to as leaders. Neurodivergent team members (ADHD, HSP) might need quieter surroundings, or more creative space for their work to be completed.
It's not because these individuals are antisocial, but because most likely higher information processing is taking place. When it's not regulated and the right spaces are created, overwhelm and exhaustion can happen.
Other team members might need more stimulation to meet goals - a unique approach to meet these needs is required.
We'll need to leverage each individual's unique strengths and abilities when building diverse, and inclusive teams.
Your team will work for you, when trust, appreciation, and understanding has been created.
The shift towards using AI, bite-sized content, and new technology has had a huge impact on how information is consumed. Competition has become higher, while a new form of content production through the use of AI has taken place.
The selection process on which type of the amount of content to consume is still based on: trust, emotional connection & added value.
Audiences crave connection, feeling heard & listened to. When I applied active listening, and personalisation (with the assistance of AI) for building international marketing strategies, engagement tripled within a short time frame, compared to previous results.
The more time we dedicate as marketers to understanding our ICP (pain points, people, and individual contexts), and respond to those needs, the better the campaign, strategic results and ROI will eventually be.
In the future we will be engaging more & more with communities, based on aligned values, and interests. This shift is happening among networking and partnerships as well - take LinkedIn as an example!
It's also happening as part of new forms of audience segmentation being created, in a marketing context.
GymShark is a great example on how to build a strategy based on brand & community activation, engaging with global audiences.
While personas and archetypes can only scratch the surface, marketers who gather data, based on active listening, and genuine relationship building will have their advantage over the "Who shouts the loudest wins."- types, and will be able to engage with highly loyal communities.
Here positioning, differentiation, and genuine engagement are key drivers.
Again, these learnings can be applied to both a marketing & leadership context.
Because: We are still speaking to people, not raw data & numbers. Momentum can only be created when we truly understand the audience's desires & pain points.
Empaths naturally possess the traits of active listening and genuine relationship building.
Empathetic leaders can create safe spaces for employees, based on transparent communication. They build trust, and understanding.
Here are some steps to take to build thriving teams:
Creating Understanding, Alignment & Growth
As leaders, we need to understand each individual's pain points and guide them in the right direction to enable the best possible development, so employees can thrive in their roles.
Bottom line: This is the role we hold as leaders.
Coming up with a pre-defined development plan, or pushing something on people, before listening to their needs (top-bottom is seriously outdated).
Every individual needs a different space & opportunities to grow.
An extrovert high-achiever might need room to unfold in a group setting, while more introverted individuals might need more time during 1:1's.
Both traits have to be respected, and we need to create individual spaces for employees, so they can best unfold their unique potential.
People will overperform in their jobs, if they are given the right environment to do so.
They will underperform when they are not listened to, but controlled, and micromanaged.
And right so, will eventually leave the company - mentally through quiet quitting & at some point physically.
Staff shortage is in many cases not an employee issue, but a leadership issue.
High staff turnover is a red flag.
Growth Happens Through Empowerment
Listening and understanding, given through empathy, are not enough for a company's growth.
They are the base and fuel for effective strategy and leadership.
Guidance and following actionable steps are needed to get from A to B in the best way possible.
When following big goals, vision needs to be broken down into smaller steps.
This avoids team overwhelm, and smaller goals can be celebrated along the way to keep on track, and work towards the common goal.
Promoting a "Yay!" bubble without following strategy.
Yay, we're all happy and a family. Nope!
A team is never a family. It's a community working towards a common goal.
Work culture needs to be part of the strategy. It's not a standalone.
It helps you get from A to B, IF you have a strategy, and plan in place.
Every department follows their strategy & way of thinking. Somehow we will find our way together!
It's the job of CEOs to build alignment and break down the overall business strategy across different departments.
This is where understanding, and alignment come into play & the common goal can be achieved.
When CEOs start becoming the lighthouse of their organisation, real magic happens.
This is WHY soft skills matter.
This is WHY empathetic leadership & emotional intelligence matter.
Bridges need to be built so everyone can achieve the best possible outcome.
We need to fully understand context, audiences, and people before investing in the rollout of strategy across channels or taking action on decisions.
The quick wins will help you short term.
Building genuine understanding, and creating trust, will make you loved long-term.
If we go back to the roots and make Human2Human happen,
the greatest things will unfold.
All in a marketing, personal, and leadership context.
