Hello and welcome to my session of today where I am honored to introduce my clear framework for leadership in the remote and hybrid working world. I'm Pria Lawrence.I am an executive uh leader and business consultant at the PD A group and I have enabled organizations and teams worldwide to achieve their growth objectives. I am absolutely passionate about bringing humans together to enable connections and long lasting relationships. And um additionally to my full time job, I am also leading the Dach chapter. Dach stands for Germany, Austria and Switzerland for Women in Sales Enablement. I'm a mentor, executive coach and as mentioned before, the creator of the beautiful framework for clear, feel free to ask any questions in the chat. Throughout the presentation, I will have an eye on it and try to answer them once we are finished. All right. So 14 years ago, I experienced the scariest moment of my life. I was a young mom. Emma was three and Elias just turned 11 evening, I got this weird feeling to make sure everything was ok. I went to the kid's bedroom and found Elia's blue faced, struggling for her panicking. I called for help. And the first responder instantly connected with me. She got me to focus on my tasks and I was calm and able to support my son until the ambulance arrived.

The entire conversation was by phone. This was the first time I came in touch with virtual leadership. The first responder led me with her empathetic nature, clear, directive communication and help me accountable for my tasks. It's an example of how mastering the art of virtual or remote leadership can impact the performance of others. And we need to rethink how we can make our soft skills, our superpower in leadership. I created this acronym for my framework that supports you to navigate your leadership in the highly remote working era C squared LE A squared R C scrub le. What isn't that clear? Collaborative communication, learning, empathy, authenticity and accountability and responsibility.

I have been speaking to hundreds of managers and C level executives over the past months. And the consensus answer was that building relationships and leading remotely can be done and it can be done effectively and efficiently. Additionally, I have been surveying more than 250 managers worldwide to support my framework working remotely was nothing new to me when the pandemic hit, I have been working and leading in a hybrid setting for almost two decades now. But what, what it actually did is it opened the doors for the discussion on virtual leadership. I want to invite and encourage you to rethink your leadership approach and how you can make your soft skills your superpower. 41% of the survey participants named collaborative communication as the most important skill. And it is paramount in the toolbox of a modern leader. Active listening techniques and questioning techniques are key to success. Mastering these two communication skills requires an open mindset showing up on camera like now or picking up the phone doesn't automatically mean that we are active listeners. Although we tend to say we are listening to all the time. The truth is we are not, we need to listen, to understand, to do so. We not only need to hear the word said, we also need to observe the body language, our facial expressions and the level of eye contact.

The second crucial piece of communication is questioning again, not as easy as it might seem, try to ask simple questions. One question at a time and fewer questions less is more. The second principle of my framework is learning. And I dare to say lifelong learning is the fuel for development as a person. And as a leader, learning is not limited to the educational or academic activities. Awareness, recognizing and identifying the gaps in skills and behavior is one of the keys to pursue further learning requires agility, flexibility and an open mindset. Again, we need to adapt quickly to the new situations, challenges and opportunities, learn from failure feedback and rise again, learn how to master yourself, lead yourself before leading others. I love a twist on a child's poem that I came across recently. And I think it's a wonderful analogy on how to deal with and learn from failure and not so happy moments. What we actually encounter once in a while, mirror, mirror on the wall. I will always get up after I fall. And whether I run walk or have to crawl, I will set my goals and achieve them all. Walk the talk thrive nurture and foster a learning culture to inspire, to develop a passion for personal development and growth.

Coming back to the survey, 34% named empathy as another important skill. And it's the third pillar of clear empathy is a superpower, but it takes energy since it takes hard work to be established, it is the basis to build connections, relationships and trust. Some examples that show that you are an empathetic leader based on my experience are that you are good at active listening. People come to you to tell you about their problems. You are good at picking up on how others actually feel and people seek for your advice. You also care for the others. You don't just pretend although you want to be an empathetic leader. My personal opinion is that you must set boundaries to stay balanced for yourself even if it might be difficult. At some many times, I have been asked, can I practice learn and strengthen empathy. There are awesome TED talks out there, for example, from Brennan Brown and I would say dare to be empathetic and yes, you can learn, practice listening to people without interrupting, pay attention to their body language and other types of non verbal communication. Try to understand people.

Even when you don't agree with what they actually say or what they do, ask clarification questions to learn more and imagine yourself in the other person's shoe. The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example. Today, our personal and professional lives are blended more than ever before working in a remote world does grant so many opportunities to hide, to be a modern leader. You have to stand out. People want to see you your face, your true self, uh not a mask. I highly encourage you to let go of your guard and be yourself. You will immediately feel how this will resonate with your team to become an authentic leader, increase your self-awareness, assess test and stay true to your own values, take exam and don't shy away for us to to ask for your support there to ask for help. Another effect we see in the remote world is that our teams are feeling more and more isolated, master emotional intelligence, the ability to hold yourself and others accountable. And the best way to foster a culture of accountability is by gives giving support, provide resources, transparency, collaborative, clear and simple communication by leading authentically, you can create a culture to empower your team to hold themselves accountable for their actions.

Last but not least leading in the hybrid world is not much different as it used to be before to be successful. You have an impact as a leader claim responsibility to develop your people into a winning team. Take the ownership for talent development and support and foster a growth mindset. Coming back to the story I shared in the beginning, the first respond responder is a role model for my framework on how we can make our soft skills, our superpower, she collaboratively communicated provided support with her empathetic nature, her clear and simple directions empowered me to hold myself accountable to be responsible in today's world.

We must act as a role model, give direction there to be true to ourselves and our teams lead yourself first and uncover the secret of modern leadership. Clear. Thank you very much, everyone.