A team of four working together

How leaders can help teams thrive by combining technology with emotional intelligence

Johanna Winqvist

Johanna Winqvist

Microsoft, Modern Workplace

Read Time, 2 min.

The old boundaries between work and life are collapsing.

Today, we network on LinkedIn while on the train, collaborate on presentations with colleagues on the other side of the world, meet friends for lunch between office meetings – then order dinner on an app while on a Teams call.

How we create, collaborate, interact and communicate have all changed beyond recognition – not just over the past 50 years, but the last five.

For leaders, this creates new challenges. How do you equip your team for this new culture of work? Are your teams inspired to be creative? Do they feel connected to your organisation’s mission, even when working remotely as nearly half of all workers soon will? How do you ensure productivity doesn’t boil over into stress and burnout?

The School of Life

These questions are on the mind of every business leader. That’s why Microsoft has partnered with The School of Life, a global organisation dedicated to developing emotional intelligence, to create an all new kind of whitepaper. For the first time, The School of Life have applied their unique thinking on emotional skills and human dynamics to the changing world of work.

Drawing on life lessons from unexpected places – including War and Peace, Charles Darwin and the philosopher Socrates – The School of Life examine the trends transforming the workplace as only they can:

“It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

Charles Darwin

In this new report, Microsoft and The School of Life explore:

  • How technology is transforming work and why this requires a culture that values emotional skills to help people adapt and thrive.
  • How leaders can help build emotional skills to help teams thrive in times of change.
  • How the right leadership can help teams adapt to new modes of collaboration, creativity and influence.

The whitepaper is essential reading for leaders who want to nurture a workforce that feels inspired, empowered and confident – and who want to meet the expectations of a new generation of workers, while ensuring modern technology empowers teams to bring their best selves to everything they do.

Free whitepaper: Intelligence at work

Learn how to combine technology and emotional intelligence to build teams that thrive in the New Culture of Work.

Discover more related articles per industry:

Education

Government

  • a man and two women standing in front of a brick building

    Ajuntament de Lleida: transforming the public sector with a modern, virtual workplace

    “At Ajuntament de Lleida, we think differently. We embrace new technology. And when we see that it could add real value to the work we do, we find a way to make it happen.” Carles GinéSabaté, Systems Implementation Planning Manager at Ajuntament de Lleida, is reflecting on his organization’s open-armed approach to digital transformation and […]

  • How VR Group is using automation to secure Finland’s railways

    How VR Group is using automation to secure Finland’s railways

    “Being at the helm of a critical piece of infrastructure, we have a huge responsibility towards our partners and clients. That’s why safety and security are crucial elements of what we do and how we operate.” Mikke Maronen, CISO at Finnish railway company VR Group, is talking about the importance of protecting his business from […]

Healthcare

  • NorthWest Clinics building

    Northwest Clinics: A new era in virtual healthcare

    “I am generally quite modest – I don’t like to brag about my achievements too much. But in this case, I want to make an exception. I want to tell the world what we have done.” For Ed de Myttenaere, CIO at Northwest Clinics hospital (Noordwest Ziekenhuisgroep) in the Netherlands, breaking with tradition is becoming increasingly normal. In responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, his team have implemented a virtual consultation solution that has the potential to redefine […]

  • Two female nurses having a virtual conversation through Microsoft Teams

    Belfast Trust: Reimagining patient care

    “There have been many heroic actions by our staff but we’re not heroes for what we’ve done – I’m just glad we could do our bit to help.” Paul Duffy, Co-Director of IT and Telecommunications at Belfast Trust, is talking about the monumental impact COVID-19 has had on the healthcare sector and how virtual consultations […]

Manufacturing

  • a woman smiling for the camera

    Etex Group: Future-proofing employees to work anywhere across the world

    When COVID-19 spread across Europe in early 2020, businesses entered a new digitally-dependent age. Social distancing measures had asked offices of all shapes and sizes to close their doors, sparking organizations to quickly find other virtual ways for colleagues to meet and collaborate remotely. But for Belgium building material specialist Etex, this was a step they were ready for – having already implemented a cloud-based infrastructure and collaboration tools […]

  • Etex

    Etex uses modern tools to unite its business and better focus on customers

    When it comes to construction, all components must come together in a timely manner in order to produce the optimum product. While Etex, a Belgian building solution manufacturing company, helps make this a reality on a day-to-day basis, it wanted to find a way to enhance productivity and collaboration internally. With locations across more than […]

Retail

  • GDPR and Retail: Four GDPR requirements and how Microsoft can help

    GDPR and Retail: Four GDPR requirements and how Microsoft can help

    Learn how we can help you meet GDPR requirements with solutions available today: Assessing your current risk profile “How do I understand where I am already compliant and where I need to focus next?” This is one of the most common questions from retailers in regard to the GDPR. It’s also one of the hardest to […]

  • HeadBrands is ready for the future with Microsoft 365 Business

    HeadBrands is ready for the future with Microsoft 365 Business

    Since its creation in 2010, HeadBrands has continued to grow, rapidly becoming the leading retailer of hairdressing products in Scandinavia. HeadBrands needed a modern IT solution to increase its business productivity and improve collaboration, both within the company and externally. Its response to this challenge was to replace most of its previous services with Microsoft […]

Discover more related articles per dossier:

Customer Stories

Digital Transformation

  • a person preparing food in a kitchen

    Humanitas-DMH: empowering key workers with a secure digital support

    “Our goal is to create an environment where people with mental disabilities can feel safe, secure and happy.” Marcella van Kraaij, Digital Transformation Advisor at Dutch healthcare provider Humanitas-DMH, is discussing her organization’s key objectives – and how the technology her team recently adopted is helping it to achieve them. Every day, the carers and […]

Security & Privacy

  • a group of people looking at a laptop

    Securing your business when staff are working from home 

    In times like these, cyber security may not be at the top of our priority lists. But it’s important to be aware of the threats that switching from on-premises to remote working conditions pose to organizations across the world. As we seek to rapidly deploy cloud-based collaboration services to help professionals work from home, we […]

Tips

  • a man in a striped shirt and looking at the camera

    The top 9 ways Microsoft IT is helping its employees to work from home

    From Milan to Puget Sound, tens of thousands of Microsoft employees have begun working from home as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Many of our customers have asked us to share the details of how we enable collaboration and remote working for such a large workforce. Here are the nine most important factors from a compliance […]