The fourth industrial revolution will potentially lead to significant changes in the approaches to leading and managing the workforce, as well as to organizing working processes and activities. In this context, it is important to be aware of the personal readiness for the potential changes in the business world that are associated with the fourth industrial revolution. In this paper, the reflections on the concept of future-ready leadership and personal preparedness for related challenges and opportunities will be presented and discussed in detail.
After conducting the assessment measuring the readiness for the future, it is important to analyze the received score in 95 points. The personal readiness, as a leader, for particular promises and pitfalls of the fourth industrial revolution can be evaluated as average. There are certain barriers to accepting the realities of the changing world, but in order to address and remove these obstacles, it is necessary to act as a leader. Still, at the current stage, the readiness for the fourth industrial revolution can be described as average, and it means that much attention should be paid to changing the vision of working processes and understanding the role of an individual in activities. The promises associated with the changes mean that a new business and organizational reality will become unique in terms of accentuating the collaboration of human resources and technologies, flexibility, adaptability, and human-centered approaches, and it is possible to be ready and open to them (Groscurth 7-9). However, the readiness for pitfalls cannot be discussed as satisfactory because of the lack of experience in managing possible challenges in this area.
The preparedness of the team can also be viewed as medium because the active integration of technologies, the reference to required flexibility, and the focus on collaboration are not at the highest possible level currently. The adaptation of teams to the digital era will depend on the adaptation of each unique member of a team in order to be able to realize the principles of network-centric business models and promote further effective collaboration (Groscurth 113-116). Thus, it is possible to assume that more education and training are needed in order to help people acquire specific skills that are necessary to succeed during the fourth industrial revolution. More work is expected to be done in order to make the cooperation in a team rather ethical, supportive, and agile to address modern tendencies.
The readiness of the organization can also be described as questionable and average in spite of the fact that there are many organizations that are even less ready to coming changes. To succeed in new unique realities, it is critical to develop the principles of agile organizations and integrate technologies in order to support the work of individuals. Nevertheless, at this stage, it is necessary to overcome many obstacles associated with the organization of remote work, the provision of more jobs, data security, and the realization of ethical principles (Groscurth 62-66). The discussed organization needs to become more agile in terms of applying the concepts of direction, speed, and acceleration, more focused on responsiveness, and more oriented toward the collaboration of human resources with technologies to support their work.
To prepare for the realities of the fourth industrial revolution, one should concentrate on developing personal leadership skills to become a consultative and supportive leader, and additional training is also required. Another thing to help to prepare for the changes is the focus on choosing discernment instead of decision-making in a new era, as it is reported by Groscurth (146-148). Traditional decision-making will not work in the future, and discernment as specific judgment and ethical choice is expected to be applied. The team can easier adapt to challenges and opportunities with the help of accentuating the shared vision and promoting the dialogue. The organization should also complete some steps in order to become more prepared for the changing world, and the first step in this context is the focus on smart collaboration (Groscurth 94). As a result of this approach, employees take more responsibilities for their activities, and it becomes easier to overcome certain problems because of effective organization and discipline. The second step is the improvement of the data security management in the organization in order to be prepared to one of the key challenges in the digital era.
To conclude, it is important to note that future-ready leadership depends on changing perspectives of collaborating in organizations. Now, it is possible to observe the shift from managing and leading individuals in order to achieve the set goals to cooperating and supporting each other working in networks in order to realize a certain vision and a particular mission. In this context, each employee should become more responsible and oriented toward collaboration, and each leader needs to become more ready for dialogues, consultative, flexible, and transformational. The effective implementation of technologies in multiple procedures requires the adjustment of organizational processes and the adoption of a new approach to leadership in order to achieve high results.
Work Cited
Groscurth, Chris R. Future-Ready Leadership: Strategies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. ABC-CLIO, 2018.