With the accelerated rate of change and the ever increasing complexity of our world, we are most certainly in unchartered territories, where old approaches simply no longer work. This calls for us to step back and adopt a more holistic mindset, emphasising the integration of all parts of ourselves, and our life, into a state of coherent wellbeing.
People often say how exponential the rate of change has become in recent times, but in reality change has always been exponential, only now it is accelerating. There are reasons for this: The first part of an exponential curve is quite flat and change happens at a reasonably sedate pace, it is only towards the second part of the curve that change accelerates. In addition, the acceleration of change has been triggered by exponential technological advancements in areas like artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy, and quantum computing.
What does this mean for human beings as we try to navigate an increasingly complex landscape punctuated by a torrent of often unresourceful emotions, such as fear, anxiety, anger and despair? And what does this mean for leaders who are tasked with the unenviable job of sustainably leading others and their organisations into the future?
Well, it is not all bad news, this is a time of a great awakening. A time where to remain unconscious and operate out of old fixed mindsets and conditioned programming means to distract ourselves from the deeper spiritual lessons we are being presented with. Just like it requires more and more effort to keep a beach ball submerged, it will require more and more effort to remain unconscious of our own limited and unresourceful mental programmes. We are being called to grow in these areas, and while the process may be painful, what lies beyond is joy and freedom.
Until recently we have predominantly been in the flat part of the exponential change curve, and hence we have been operating out of the erroneous assumption that change is incremental. Therefore, with this slow rate of change, should you face a problem you would simply draw on what worked before and apply the same approach. As such experience and best practice often remained relevant over years, and even decades.
We now find ourselves in a highly complex world, moving at blinding speeds and faced with completely new problems and challenges that threaten many of the assumptions and ideas upon which we have built our businesses and lives. Yet often we continue to doggedly act out of these old and outdated mindsets in the desperate hope that because they worked in the past, they must work now.
To lead a culture of wellbeing, leaders need to stop trying to approach new problems with old and irrelevant solutions and begin to take a holistic view on their employees and businesses, accepting that all things affect each other. If a person’s relationships are in turmoil, their physical health has been neglected or they’re having difficulties with their kids, they simply cannot be as engaged, creative and productive at work as they could be under more favourable conditions.
Online coaching is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing industries, and is well positioned to cater for an individualised approach that meets a person’s unique needs and journeys them on a sustainable growth path. The Sterkla Coaching App offers innovative solutions for implementing online coaching across an organisation at scale, helping employees establish and maintain a state of wellbeing. It offers the added benefit of not only automating the entire process along with trackable feedback, but enabling employees to choose a coach that best matches their unique needs and personality.
Investing in an employees’ wellbeing by offering them access to a world of coaches in their pocket, and allowing them to choose a coach who can best support them in their areas of need, even if those sit outside of what we historically considered work related, is both smart and visionary leadership.