2022 was a challenging year. The pandemic has subsided, the effects can still be seen in places, but travel was at quite high levels, around 85% of 2019 levels. Many seemed to want to make up for the time they were forced to stay home.
The war in Ukraine has scarred the lives of many Europeans and brought added unpredictability, anxiety, to an already unstable economic landscape.
Energy prices have risen dramatically, which has hampered recovery efforts in an economy already anemic from the pandemic.
At the corporate level, 2022 was a year marked by several major concerns:
Mental health and wellness continued to be major themes on leaders’ agendas. These concerns grew throughout the pandemic. Given the state of constant uncertainty, the constant need for change, the difficulty of delineating work space and time from personal time, stress levels increased, people’s ability to reposition, adapt, did not always keep pace, and the feeling of overwhelm, of too much, too full, too hard, gnawed at the insides of even the most resilient.
Hybrid working has increasingly taken hold, which has challenged leaders’ usual way of communicating with their teams, collaboration between people, trust between employees, organisational culture, performance.
Connections and teamwork have suffered. Working from home, poor communication, vague expectations from all parties involved, low engagement, attending meetings, classes, behind closed doors, all led to an alienation of interpersonal relationships and the perpetuation or re-emergence of silos within teams.
The difficulty of attracting and retaining people in companies is a theme that has been a problem for HR people and managers. The existence of multiple generations, with different expectations, such different behaviours, the redefinition of the role that work plays in a person’s life, the fractured connection between the very young generation and the others, the hierarchical mindset, the lack of massive investment in leadership development, mean that camps continue to be split, with organisations struggling to attract valuable people.
Diversity and inclusion remained concerns for all companies. We talk about diversity of all kinds though, be it gender, race, age, nationality or other. But I would venture to say that it is a long way to go before a company creates a sense of inclusion.
The pressure to continually change, to adapt, has made all plans fluid, ready to be revised at any time. But mindsets change more slowly. A concern of leaders has been in the area of open thinking versus closed thinking, learning to plan versus nailing down plans, thinking strategically versus just executing, being proactive versus being reactive.
What’s next in 2023?
All of the above will remain, plus the need to reposition ourselves, to think differently, to stand crooked and think straight, whatever that means. I would say that we will need to be more united, to stop thinking that we are in different camps but that everyone has value, can make a contribution, and that we can create something together that goes beyond individual interest. As Matthew Barzun says in his book, The Power of Giving Away Power, we are a star in a constellation, each one shining, unique, but it is the whole that amazes and creates something memorable.