In a conversation with NASSCOM, Neeraj Goyal, Executive Managing Director, NAB Innovation Centre India, talked about the need for adaptive leadership. He emphasized the importance of developing resilient teams and how that translates to prioritizing emotional intelligence, diversity, and continuous learning, as those are crucial to the successful management of today’s technology driven challenges and sustainable organizational growth. Following are the key insights.  

In today’s volatile business environment, it is the organizations led by adaptable, visionary leaders, that are not afraid to learn and think agile, that are becoming the ones that thrive. The traditional management skills are not enough, and a firm understanding of the complexities pertaining to workforce development, innovation, and the balance between technology and emotional intelligence is needed in order to be an effective leader. There are three crucial strategies that future-ready leaders can employ to build resilient organizations: a diverse pipeline of leadership, a culture of continuous learning, and the art of balancing technological innovation with emotional intelligence. These are the strategies organizations need to use to adapt to move forward into a complex, changing future.

The "Build and Buy" Strategy

In the fast moving world of business, it is essential that businesses build a strong leadership pipeline. The “build and buy” approach comes into play here. It’s a twofold strategy. The first is “building” — nurturing internal talent, making sure high potential employees have access to developmental programs that match their career aspirations. Internal talent development helps organizations groom leaders who are familiar with the organization’s culture, understand the organization’s objectives and values, and use that understanding to guide the organization’s work.

The internal talent development program is successful if it provides mentorship, cross functional project involvement and leadership training that prepares the employees for more complicated roles. By doing so, it empowers people to take the ownership of their career development which in turn creates a commitment from people to the organization. Additionally, promoting from within creates a culture of loyalty; employees can see clear paths for career advancement.

The second aspect, 'buying,' involves bringing in external talent to bring new perspectives, skills and experiences into the organization. External leaders from different backgrounds can bring the team out of the rut, inject some innovation and help the organization adapt to new market trends. One of the main reasons why external hires become such an important part of an organization is because they bring fresh problem solving approaches and prevent an organization from getting too insular in their thinking. Organizations can create a diverse and goal-oriented leadership team by strategically balancing internal talent development with external recruitment.

Fostering a Culture of Continuous Learning and Adaptability

Organizational agility is fundamentally based on continuous learning. As industries now change seemingly overnight, leaders must encourage learning to be a continuous endeavor versus a one-time event. The beauty of this approach is that it not only keeps employees’ skills relevant but also keeps them curious and open minded, and adaptable. Continuous learning is only reinforced if leaders model it and reinforce this value through their own actions.

This culture must incorporate the idea of "learn how to learn." Employees are encouraged to develop skills which enable them to find out knowledge for themselves and adapt to new situations, rather than placing all reliance on formal training courses. Promoting self-directed learning enables organizations to develop employees in a way that is tailored to the employee’s specific role, needs and interests.

In practice, a continuous learning culture could look like access to online courses, peer learning groups, and experiential projects, but it really comes down to practice. These options give organizations the opportunity to allow employees to take ownership of their learning paths and explore any areas that enrich them professionally and personally. Continuous learning is supported by leaders who promote interdisciplinary collaboration so that employees can learn from a wide range of teams, spark innovation, and encourage creative problem solving.

Psychological safety is indispensable to make adaptability a core organizational trait. Leaders create a path to a more resilient organization when they foster a supportive environment where employees feel safe taking risks and trying new ideas. This means to openly welcome failure as an opportunity to learn, help people try new things, and applaud successes that came out of looking at things in new ways. Finally, an adaptable culture enables organizations to rapidly respond to changes in the market and seize on new opportunities as they come along.

Balancing Technological Innovation with Emotional Intelligence

Despite a changing workplace, the human element is still the key to a sustainable success. Leaders need to find the right balance between technology and emotional intelligence (EQ) in their teams. Although technology (like artificial intelligence, data analytics, or automation) can be used to improve efficiencies and enable smarter decision making, emotional intelligence is still needed to create a collaborative and motivated workforce.

Those with high EQ are leaders who can empathize, listen actively and build great relationships with their teams. They understand the value of knowing why and how their employees feel, what they face, and what they dream of. It allows them to create a feeling of belonging and psychological safety in their teams, which is key to high performance. The ability to manage change and navigate emotional intelligence is also important in change management as leaders stay ahead of employees concerns.

Balancing technology and EQ is using technology to enhance, not replace human interaction. For instance, AI frees up time for employees to do work that requires creativity, critical thinking and collaboration rather than boring routine tasks. Furthermore, technology can offer leaders the real time insights into how employees are performing and how engaged they are and make data driven decisions to improve team dynamic and productivity.

But when you rely too much on technology and don’t balance it out with EQ, you risk disengagement and also a lack of trust. Technological use that practices only surveillance or performance tracking to track employees can make people feel like numbers, rather than as individuals. Technology can be used by leaders to help mitigate this by using it as a tool to empower their teams to create a work environment where technology works as a force multiplier for human strengths and as an enabler for emotional connections instead of being a threat to them.