As the hybrid world of work is changing, it becomes imperative for leaders to keep up with evolving skills as well. Leadership by example will hold true only if the leader himself/herself adapts to the changes quickly and learns fast.

In this keynote session at People Matters L&D Conference, Siddarth Mehta, MD & CEO at Freecharge shares some lessons on building resilient, empathetic, and agile leaders for the future world.

• Communications hold an important role for leaders. A leader should not just be able to converse and communicate via town halls but should also be approachable by employees at any given point in time. This is crucial as it keeps the employees engaged and rooted.
• Empathy is another element which COVID-19 actually brought out in leaders. Every organization went out of their way to help their employees at the time of emergencies, provided medical aids & most importantly made their employees feel secure.
• Listening skills. The ability to listen is interconnected with all other skillsets for the leaders. It is not just merely listening to react but crucially listening to act
• The art of giving the right feedback is another aspect every leader should know. Continuous feedback is integrated with the idea of empathy. Listening skills play a huge role here. Feedback should be both ways so the leaders being able to take feedback and provide feedback as an input will be an important part of the overall perspective, as we go forward in the hybrid workplace.

“One of the biggest challenges I think as a leader is how you spend time, and how you invest your time in actually judging the emotional side of your employees, knowing their challenges, their motivation levels, their concerns, is an important factor,” Siddarth further added.

Ultimately, if we look from an overall perspective at the hybrid work environment, all skills that leaders used to have earlier, continue to exist and will keep on evolving as the world of work takes new shapes.