Thought leaders representing the corporate world share their thoughts on the theme of a post-Covid ‘new normal’ with an onus on forward thinking
Elisabetta Galli, Former Global Head of Knowledge, Development and Team Management, Banco Santander (now at Lightsource BP)
‘At Santander, developing a new ecosystem for learning is about encouraging employees to sit in the driving seat and be the owner of their development and training.
‘They select what they want to do every day through the learning experience platform in order to develop their profile to do a better job. They can also use creativity and curiosity to explore and acquire new skills in other areas. What is important today and will be more important in the future is to grow a new generation of leaders that are flexible and that possess a wide variety of skills and competencies. Leaders need soft skills to go with the flow and adapt to different situations. The world is changing so fast that you need to develop your ability to adapt and be successful in different positions and in different environments.’
Rob McCargow, Director of Artificial Intelligence, PwC
‘We are going to have multiple phases throughout our careers where we reinvent ourselves. I think the ability to constantly restock is a necessity, not a nice to have.’
‘It’s very hard to get spotted [in the employment market], so for me it goes back to what you do in terms of soft skills. There’s a phrase which has been used a lot in the last couple of years around the personal brand. You don’t have to be an extrovert to develop a personal brand, but you do have to put a lot of work in to get one. What I mean by that is that the best people navigating this market at the moment are, of course, still sending 10 applications off a week, but they are also doing much more beyond that. They are developing a brand – they might be doing this by using social media, running their own podcast, writing thought leadership for industry journals, for example, or they might be going to conferences.’
David Ssegawa, Former Global Director of People, Oxfam International Africa; Global Chief People and Culture Officer, Living Goods
‘In the last 12 months, I have seen changes in the way people lead, and I think this is going to be sustainable in the future. I have seen three key flavours of leadership in particular.
‘One is adaptive intelligence – most organisations have had to become comfortable with uncertainties.
‘The second flavour is contextual intelligence – this is a time when we’ve realised that you can never have a recipe that applies to all your markets, you have to keep rethinking and re-imagining the solutions for each location.
‘The third one is emotional intelligence. I think we’ve seen some of the most arrogant leaders become humbler and more caring about their employees because they have had no choice but to do that.’
