Promoting an integrative corporate culture or how can managers help shape the future?

It is groundbreaking to observe the direction in which a wide variety of business leaders are thinking about the companies of the future and the world of work.

Jean-Christophe Deslarzes, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Adecco Group, spoke in the NZZ am Sonntag of 22.1.2023, about what the working world of tomorrow should look like and outlined his answers to the current shortage of skilled workers in Switzerland. As one of several important steps, he mentions that companies should create comprehensive coaching, education and training for managers and employees and that in a digitalised world, the improvement of social skills in combination with an empathetic leadership style are decisive factors to be able to sustainably meet the challenges of today.

Empathic or holistic leadership begins with an inner journey to understanding the “self” and living and acting out the deepest connected values. The journey inevitably crosses one’s own idea of meaningful and self-determining action, also in the daily world of work In a company, the aggregation of this interaction and resonance can be found and allows companies to act more ethically, sustainably and consciously in the future without removing the economic basis.

An attitude emerges that goes beyond one’s own limitations and forms a higher form of holistic understanding.

Today’s world is characterised by growing dynamics, complexity and contradictions on a wide variety of levels and have changed the framework conditions and demands on leaders. No one would dare to climb Mount Everest without training, and this raises the question of how managers can get fit for everyday business. Many leaders have lost their inner compass in today’s pressures and responsibilities and are slowly burning out internally, suffering or anxiously clinging to old roles.

It takes courage and discipline to change. Every leader has the mental and spiritual abilities to adapt to challenges and to act in a goal-oriented and solution-oriented way by acquiring authentic and mindful leadership skills. This prerequisite supports managers or management bodies to help shape a values-based and inclusive corporate culture. Companies as value-based learning worlds bring forth a diversity of ideas and innovations and the whole social capital becomes sustainably visible. On the breeding ground of mindful and holistic leadership, a wonderful and creative force can develop that welds the whole company together and increases the well-being of each individual. The studied benefit of moving into such processes and dealing with this issue cannot be denied and will decide the future of a company.