It’s a Brave New World for Leadership Inside and Outside the Greenhouse
July 24, 2021 
We lived in a complex world pre-pandemic. Now that we’re reaching the other side of the disruption, the world is even more convoluted. In many cases, it’s back to business as usual; in other ways, change needs to happen. That has never been more true where leadership is concerned.
The typical set of leadership skills that once got the job done need a reboot and a refresh for leaders to be effective. It’s a crucial, necessary shift we’ve been slowly moving toward over time that has taken on a greater sense of urgency thanks to the pandemic.
Strategic skills top the list of expertise leaders now need to make sense of the changing business environment we inhabit and leap back and forth between where their company is headed in the future and the day-to-day execution that will propel it there. It is not enough anymore to get the strategic plan down on paper. How a company works the plan and what steps are involved carry equal weight.
Leaders will need to be more decisive and unafraid of making hard decisions, such as getting rid of legacy programs and processes that no longer work or chasing hard through uncharted territory in pursuit of a new business opportunity. They would do well to add qualities such as out-of-the-box thinker, visionary, and innovator to their resumes.
New leadership styles will include more emphasis on recruiting new employees and retaining existing ones. Gone are the days when leaders can let the Human Resources department be the only ones worrying about these tasks. Strong leaders will be an equal partner, mindful of employee engagement, retraining, onboarding strategy, and the like, and how all of these things play into strategy overall and on a day-to-day basis.
Leaders need to develop and build upon existing skills that help their company successfully navigate organizational changes. They’ll need to become better communicators and more active listeners. Beyond that, skills in research, analysis, and measurement of outcomes will be assets to them in determining the best way to implement change across the company and measure whether it is effective.
It’s a brave new world out there. Leaders will need to view their company’s history at critical intersections of past, present, and future to see their way forward with clarity. That’s not an easy task.
The more involved I become with planning for our new GROW Executive Summit event, an executive-level gathering for modern greenhouse operators to be held in Charlotte, NC, December 7-8, the more I see the need for strong business leadership skills at the highest levels. Why? Because leaders lead. When they do it well, their employees are behind them 100%, engaged in working together toward a common goal. When they fail, low morale and high turnover result, not to mention the impediment it puts on a company’s long-term sustainability. Bad leadership is like a plague that infiltrates and degenerates the entire organization from the inside out.
As Warren Bennis, pioneer of the contemporary field of leadership studies, liked to say — “leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” I believe GROW Executive Summit is the perfect venue to support leaders in this endeavor. I hope you’ll save the date for the Summit and stay tuned for more details on how the event can help you “know the way, go the way, and show the way (John Maxwell).”
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