Understanding the future of leadership, teaming, remote work, and strategy
In September 2020, The Predictive Index surveyed 160 CEOs about their top priorities and concerns. Their answers provide a window into the minds of executive leaders during one of the most trying times in recent history.
COVID-19 has upended the nature of work. Employees are burnt out and disengaged after months of dealing with increased workloads, altered business strategies, and ambiguity. Parents are camped out at the kitchen table, trying to concentrate on work while their children are remote learning beside them. Essential workers are servicing their community while wearing masks and worrying about getting sick. And entire industries are preparing for a future where remote work isn’t a stopgap but a permanent reality.
For CEOs, these are unique challenges—and they beg important questions. How are CEOs feeling, months into the pandemic? How’s senior leadership holding up? Are teams prepared for the work ahead? The following study dug deep into these issues, revealing a common thread:
Executive and critical teams are struggling to get along and deliver on strategy.
With 2020 nearly in the rearview mirror, CEOs are focusing on what’s ahead. The stakes are high, there’s work to do, and teams must accomplish more with less. To succeed, leaders will need to rely on their people more than ever and build dream teams that get the work done—no matter what the future holds.
96% of CEOs shifted strategic direction in some way since COVID-19.
CEOs have had to navigate entirely new business circumstances due to the pandemic. From supply chain disruptions to evolved buyer cycles, COVID-19 didn’t just alter the landscape; it redefined it. And CEOs adapted.
The study asked CEOs to answer the following:To what extent has the strategic direction of your company shifted since March 2020? A whopping 96% of respondents said they changed direction due to the pandemic, with 50% indicating their strategy shifted to a “great” extent.
Fewer CEOs believe their employees understand the mission and strategy now than before the pandemic.
As CEOs make critical decisions about the future of their business, the shift in strategy hasn’t been without bumps in the road.
Respondents were presented with the following statement and asked to respond via a 5-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neither agree nor disagree, 4=agree, 5= strongly agree): Employees across the company clearly understand the company’s mission and strategy. Researchers asked CEOs to answer twice: once for how they’re feeling now (September 2020) and again for how they felt back in March 2020.
As of September, 83% of CEOs said their employees are clear on the strategy. That’s a 4% decline since March—and an indication there’s growing confusion among employees about the mission at hand.
Use the link at the top to read the rest of the report.
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