CMI Magazine - Issue 7

WINTER 2021 / ISSUE 07 THE MAGAZINE FOR CMI MEMBERS

THIS IS NOT A DRILL ---------

The realities of climate change call for a new kind of leadership

Welcome

This is our responsibility now...

ANN FRANCKE OBE CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CMI

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As CMI approaches its 75th anniversary, there’s one reality forcing us to reassess our leadership responsibilities the cmi family operates all around the world. Climate change – and the measures agreed at COP26 to mitigate it – affect all of us.

Now that COP26 is over, a large part of the responsibility for climate action passes over to managers and leaders. Yes, the politicians will continue talking on a regular basis – and they have a lot of work still to do! – but it’s our job to start putting effective plans and actions in place.

In this CMI magazine, we’re taking a look at how managers can and should step up to this responsibility. Up until now, you may not have seen addressing the effects of climate change as a core part of your role; you may even feel that you don’t have the necessary knowledge. That is quite understandable. But, as our lead story argues, we all now need to educate ourselves, to start measuring and monitoring our organisation’s impact on the climate and, at least, to start taking small steps.

As CMI Companion Richard Nugee says in the piece, we also need to change our behaviours and mindsets. Leaders, he says, need to set “a clear narrative as to why we need to act”.

I really recommend Fiona Harvey’s article.

She has been covering the environment and the impact of climate change on business for many years. As you’ll see, she literally had --------front-row access at COP26. She makes some powerful, practical points, particularly in “ Putting it off will be good for conclusion: “Putting it off will be good for no no one: not for the planet, one: not for the planet, not for your company, not for your company, and and certainly not for your career.” certainly not for your career”

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Contents

05 — rethink For educators, COVID changed everything.

What if exams no longer fit the bill?

11 — Net-zero leadership

Fiona Harvey reports back from COP26 on

what managers and

leaders need to do next 20 — A little humility goes a long way...

NatWest’s Alison Rose, winner of CMI’s Gold Medal, only has to look around her for inspiration

If you don’t act, your employees may force you...

I’m sure there aren’t many CMI members who aren’t committed to making a positive impact when it comes to climate change. After all, there’s so much determination and conviction behind this and other causes that it will be very difficult for managers and leaders to remain bystanders.

You’ll also find a major feature piece in this edition about what employee activism means for you. The fact is, your colleagues aren’t robots; they’re real people who feel passionately about all sorts of causes and convictions. And trying to stamp out conversations about these issues is likely to have the opposite effect.

CMI has long advocated clear, honest communication between managers and team members. Today, those conversations need to embrace a much wider set of issues.

Some of these – for example, race, the menopause and, again, climate change – may feel uncomfortable and difficult.

But we need to have these conversations, and CMI is here to help you engage with them in a well-informed and appropriate manner. We already have many resources to help managers and leaders address issues such as race, ethnicity, gender and disability. As we move into our 75th anniversary year, we’ll be building on these, and giving CMI members the tools you need to be a truly modern manager.

Finally, we’d love to get your input, so please join the conversation over on our 75th anniversary webpage.

22 — Power to the people?

On climate change, race, gender and more, employee activism is on the rise. Megan Reitz explores your options 36 — Show, don’t tell For Starling Bank’s Anne Boden, leadership means setting the mood and then getting out of the way 40 — Kindness is key Pinky Lilani, CMI’s Lifetime Achievement award winner, explains the value of kindness in your management mix 44 — The Future Leader Jacob Morgan, author of our 2021 Management Book of the Year, outlines the skills you’ll need for the next decade 50 — Conversations Luke Birkett believes his dyslexia makes him a better manager 55 — CMgr

Meet the managers

tackling blocked sewers

and self-sabotage

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DO YOU HAVE AN AWARD WINNING STORY TO TELL? CMI Awards champion excellence and set the standard for great management and leadership, whilst recognising outstanding achievement and contribution both individually and to an organisation.

Judged by industry leaders and senior experts, our awards determine who is exemplifying best practice and the highest standards the profession can offer.

Nominations for CMI Awards 2022 now open!

NEW CATEGORIES ANNOUNCED ENTER NOW

Awards like these really help to drive people with a passion to be “ better managers and leaders. They can be real positive motivators for those,

“

like myself, who want to thrive and get their hard work acknowledged.

Simon Cyhanko CMgr MCMI Head of Wastewater Networks, Northumbria Water Group Winner of Chartered Manager of the Year 2021

To win this award feels fantastic, it’s been many years that we’ve “ been working on CMI qualifications for staff, but the reason we’ve applied

for this award this year is that we are now embedding the CMI qualification into our student population and giving them access to all the benefits of being a member.

“

Danny Benton

Head of People and Organisational Development, University of Huddersfield Winner of Outstanding HE Training Provider of the Year 2021

WANT TO SEE THE HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR PRESIDENT’S DINNER FROM THE CMI AWARDS 2021?

WATCH NOW

FIND OUT ALL ABOUT OUR CMI AWARDS 2021 SHORTLISTERS AND THEIR INSPIRATIONAL STORIES FEEL INSPIRED

rethink

“C OV I D -19 SPE L LS T H E E N D OF E X A M S A S W E K NOW T H E M .”

DIS C US S

Packing sports halls full of nervous students was never going to work amid an airborne pandemic. But what if in-person exams never really worked anyway?

Thankfully, new digital tools and changing attitudes to assessment mean that the disruption caused by COVID-19 might actually be an opportunity to build a kinder, fairer and more “authentic” exam experience.

Here’s what that might look like…

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Words / James Sutton

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THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE HOW A B OU T GI V I NG S C HO OL S A N D T E AC H E R S T H E AU T ONOM Y T O SE T T H E I R OW N GR A DI NG S Y ST E M ?

01

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When COVID-19 hit last year, education providers scrambled to come up with alternatives to exams. The result? A mishmash of teacher-assigned grades and hastily assembled online tests. In Ireland, though, a pragmatic, bottom-up approach prevailed. For the Junior Certificate final exams, schools were allowed to simply provide a report outlining what each learner had achieved, with an assessed grade from the teacher. Schools had total

autonomy over how they arrived at those grades, with most opting for either final presentations or open-book tests. According to a survey of school leaders by the Economic and Social Research Institute, both teachers and learners appreciated this freedom – especially the extra scope for problem-solving, critical thinking and self-directed learning – but three-quarters still felt that students had “disengaged” when the exams were cancelled.

rethink

S PAC E-AG E T E ST I NG PROF E S S OR A N T HON Y C R I DE R FAVOU R S “E PIC F I N A L E ” E X PE R I E NC E S 02

Technology really is a wonderful thing, and Anthony Crider, professor of astrophysics at Elon University, North Carolina, has been putting it to good use in his end-of-year assessments. He has been trying out various “experiential exams”, including role-playing debates, greater use of video and VR, and even an “epic finale” puzzle based on 2001: A Space Odyssey (complete with an inscrutable alien monolith). Crider calls his experiential exams “golden” because they require students to “demonstrate their understanding of a topic rather than merely answering questions about it on a piece of paper”.

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DE S IG N YO U R OW N A S S IG N M E N T I N G A LWAY, I R E L A N D, T H E Y ’R E T RY I NG OU T C R E AT I V E C A SE-ST U DY V I DEO S BA SE D ON C OU R SE M AT E R I A L 03

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Mechanics and applied mathematics sound a little dry, right? Not if you’re being taught by Dr Giuseppe Zurlo at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Having noticed that his first-year students were struggling to engage with the subject while learning from home, Zurlo introduced tenminute weekly slots called “Mechanics Tales” – a series of real-world case studies taking learners beyond the abstract concepts on the syllabus. The idea was an immediate success. Then, instead of an exam, Zurlo challenged his students to create their own Mechanics Tale exploring any topic in the module, in the form of a two-minute video, a PowerPoint presentation or a scripted text (depending on their access to technology). They were graded on their understanding and creativity rather than the production values.

“The result was astounding,” Zurlo says. “The whole class genuinely engaged with this new type of test, proposing kaleidoscopic, deep and funny tales.”

rethink

ONG O I NG E VA LUAT ION SA L LY BROW N A DVO C AT E S ONG OI NG F E E DBAC K , SE L F-R E F L E C T ION A N D A N E N D T O “SU DDE N DE AT H ” E X A M I N AT ION 04

For Sally Brown, emerita professor of higher education at Leeds Beckett University, exams are too often based on “mistaken premises”: that all students should be ready for assessment at the same time, or that any departure from strict exam conditions simply permits cheating. “I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh, we’ve got to do an exam because we rented the exam hall six months in advance’,” she says. “Often there’s no real reason why it’s got to be done in that way.” Instead, she’d rather see assessments built around compassion for learners, with a focus on ongoing feedback, self-reflection and putting an end to the “sudden death” expectation that students perform on a single occasion.

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rethink

TA K E AWAY E X A M S AT BRU N E L U N I V E R SI T Y, ST U DE N T S H AV E BE E N T RUST E D W I T H “ TA K E-HOM E ” E X A M S 05

When exams were suddenly cancelled last year, lots of education providers turned to third-party proctoring and invigilation tools to help them retain control over their new online tests.

Brunel University, West London, went in the opposite direction.

About 20 per cent of students were already doing bring-yourown-device exams when COVID-19 hit, so it was a no-brainer for exams to become a fully open-book, take-home affair, without locked-down devices or remote proctoring. Some questions were revised for suitability and some assessments were changed to include longer pieces of work, but, fundamentally, the university took a leap of faith and trusted its learners.

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Embrace the disruption Here’s an interesting thought… A 2007 study found that the 1968 student riots in France, which resulted in the cancellation of in-person exams and the lowering of the pass thresholds, actually enabled more learners to pursue extra years of higher education, resulting in increased occupational levels and wages in the long term. And that effect is even visible in the educational performance of those learners’ children.

Who knows what effect COVID-19 will have?

N E T-Z E RO S I X T R U T H S F O R T H E M O D E R N M A NA G E R

L E A DE R SH I P “This is an all-hands-on-deck situation.” So what’s the appropriate management response to COP26?

We asked a leading environment correspondent who attended the global conference for her analysis ---------

Words / Fiona Harvey

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Fiona Harvey is an award-winning journalist who has covered the environment since 2004, at the Financial Times and subsequently for The Guardian. She has written extensively on every environmental issue, from air pollution and biodiversity to ocean plastic and climate change.

Her assignments have taken her as far afield as

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he cop26 climate summit, held in Glasgow over two weeks in November, was the biggest governmental event ever hosted on British soil, with more than 30,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries, more than 120 heads of state and government, and representatives from thousands of businesses in attendance. At the conference, nations agreed that holding global heating to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels was a scientific imperative, and set out plans for sweeping cuts to greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade.

While not everything was resolved in Glasgow – the emissions targets set out would lead to 2.4°C of heating, so countries need to return to the negotiating table next year to revise them upward – it still marked a watershed moment.

Governments representing more than 90 per cent of the global economy have now made pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Some of those plans are detailed and some barely more than aspirations, but the direction of travel is clear: the world must embrace a low-carbon future, and there is no the Arctic and the Amazon, going back to the high-carbon past. and she has attended For the UK as the host nation, a key almost every UNFCCC COP since 2004, including step taken in advance of the conference reporting live from the and set out more clearly in Glasgow 2015 Paris conference. was an eye-catching pledge to cut She has twice won the emissions by 68 per cent this decade Foreign Press Association award for Environment and by 78 per cent by 2035 (compared Story of the Year, and in with 1990 levels), and to reach net 2020 she was named in zero by 2050. Those targets will be a the Woman’s Hour Power stretch, as the government’s advisers List of 30 Top UK women, focusing on Our Planet. have warned that we are not yet on the right trajectory and emissions from key areas such as transport and heating remain stubbornly high.

U N D E R S TA N D T H AT N E T Z E R O I S N OW A C O R E PR I N C I PL E --------every company will have to make sweeping changes to meet those targets. Yet there is still widespread confusion about what it will all mean. Lloyds Bank found, in research published shortly after the COP26 conference ended, that about half of SMEs in the UK already have a net-zero target, but so far only 34 per cent have introduced measuring and monitoring of their environmental impacts. Four in ten say they do not know what the government’s net-zero target means for them.

McKinsey also published advice recently on how managers should think about net zero. In a paper following up on how “COP26 made net zero a core principle for business”, the authors Harry Bowcott, Daniel Pacthod and Dickon Pinner noted: “In many instances, net-zero commitments are running ahead of companies’ own plans to meet them. Relatively few businesses have yet to make clear, detailed plans for how they will achieve net zero. That must be what leaders focus on now: investors and regulators expect them to do so.”

They point to plans from the UK government, set out by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in Glasgow, to require listed companies to lay out climate plans by 2023. Smaller, unlisted companies will also face a cascade of pressure: even if Company Little escapes formal regulation, its client Company Big will expect to see a detailed net-zero blueprint, because its performance depends on seeking answers on carbon output from its whole supply chain. As McKinsey puts it: “The basis of competition has changed, and there is now a premium on sound net-zero planning and execution.”

Finance companies of all kinds also want to see more action from the companies they invest in. The communications company Edelman recently conducted a survey of UK investors and found that eight in ten thought companies with a clear net-zero plan deserved a premium from their financial backers, and nine out of ten financiers expected all companies they invest in to establish and communicate a net-zero plan in the next ten months.

With such a strong signal from the banks, managers in all companies need to take note. Iain Dey, managing director of Edelman Smithfield, said: “The data tells us that investors are paying closer attention to what companies are doing, not just saying. Simply disclosing standard ESG [environmental, social and governance] metrics is no longer enough. Stakeholder and employee activism is on the rise, and welcomed by investors. Understanding and adjusting to these new dynamics will be critical for companies wanting to build and maintain trust in a fast-evolving market.”

A green briefcase is all well and good, but are the policies there to back it up?

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E D U C AT E YO U R S E L F --------for all managers, the key advice is to make a start. Educating yourself on some of the jargon helps here. Something you will hear many times in any discussion on net zero are “Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions”. These refer to a standard way of reporting on greenhouse gas emissions from businesses. Scope 1 covers direct emissions of carbon, methane or other industrial gases from sources that your company owns or controls, such as emissions from factories, and from vehicles owned. Scope 2 covers indirect emissions, chiefly the emissions generated by the electricity or other fuels that you use. Scope 3 is the widest, which covers all the indirect emissions from the products and services you sell, which includes the emissions generated by your customers as a result.

Controlling Scope 1 emissions is something all companies ought to be doing by now as a matter of course. Many companies have also embarked on or are exploring Scope 2, which requires companies to seek out renewable or other low-carbon sources of energy, for instance by signing an energy contract with a green supplier. Scope 3 emissions will vary the most from one company to another; an accountancy firm helping individuals or small companies to file tax returns, for instance, may have a much smaller Scope 3 carbon footprint than a company making hair dryers or motorbikes.

S E T S OM E AC H I E VA B L E TA R G E T S --------even if the scale of the task may seem daunting, it is important to grapple with it. “When creating a climate strategy, take a look at where you can actually deliver results,” advises Richard Chiumento of The Rialto Consultancy, who has mentored high-ranking executives on the issue.

“This might be a series of quick wins to get you started, as well as some longer-term initiatives that will be rolled out over time.

But everything you are proposing needs to be achievable. No business is going to reach net zero overnight, but every organisation has small actions that they can take to start working towards that goal. Take an honest look at your business and where you can improve, and start there.”

Also remember that while some ways of cutting emissions, such as switching your vehicle fleet to electric cars and vans, may involve upfront costs, many are also likely to save cash over time. Energy efficiency is a key way for companies to save money, and cutting down on all forms of waste – from raw materials to food in the canteen – will reduce a company’s carbon footprint and add savings to the bottom line, particularly in today’s world of high inflation and supply problems.

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M E A S U R E T H E I M PAC T S O F YO U R B U S I N E S S ---------steve evans, chief executive of XeroE, an emissions-free transport platform, recommends that managers start with measurement, to understand the impact of their business, perhaps using some of the many tools available online. “This will help you identify where the quickest savings can be made. It will also give you a benchmark, so that managers can demonstrate the progress they have made to their stakeholders,” he said.

He gives the example of companies that sell their goods online: they are likely to discover that as much of 93 per cent of their emissions are from the outbound delivery of their products. Conducting thorough preliminary investigations into where emissions come from will pay off.

But managers also need to understand that there may be costs involved in embracing net zero, Evans adds, and be prepared to stick to their guns. “[This] is going to have a cost investment. Other stakeholders in the company may be against the change, and you will need to defend it. Managers will also need to decide who is going to pay for this,” he said. Some businesses could choose to absorb any costs, he adds, treating those costs as an investment in their marketing and brand equity, and some may pass them on to customers, for instance through a premium for a green version of their goods and services.

DEV ELOP A N EW M I N DSET --------as well as setting targets for the whole economy, the UK government is also working to decarbonise. Each government department will have to draw up plans. At the Ministry of Defence, Richard Nugee CMgr CCMI points to changing mindsets as a key element: “We need to change the behaviour, and ultimately the culture, of Defence throughout its operation. To do this, we need strong leadership at all levels, a clear narrative as to why we need to act, to adopt formal mechanisms, processes and structures, to enable the change to be embedded, and then to train the staff in the skills to be able to maximise the impact in their specific area.”

That need for cultural change extends far beyond governments, adds Dave Munton, head of UK markets and clients at Grant Thornton. “There needs to be a change in mindset in which sustainability moves from being something ‘side of desk’ to something that is ever-present and a factor considered in all key decision-making. We know from recent research that one of the main barriers holding back mid-sized businesses in particular from

Richard Nugee led the Ministry of Defence’s climate change review between March 2020 and May 2021

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progressing their ESG agenda is a lack of understanding of what is required. Measurement is fundamental. To make meaningful change and understand where to focus, you need a true understanding of a business’s current impact, plus continual monitoring and reporting.”

Managers worried that they lack the skills to enact net-zero policies can also seek help from their peers. Groups such as the Race to Zero, spearheaded for the UK’s COP26 presidency by business champion Nigel Topping, offer the support of an international network. Many existing business groupings and professional membership bodies now offer help and advice to members on meeting the challenges.

The urgency stretches beyond national governments to “non-state actors” such as regional governments, cities and other organisations.

Topping, a UN climate champion for COP26, told the High-Level Event for Global Climate Action during the second week of the talks that: “The momentum among non-state actors is only set to grow. That is clearly welcome given the mountain left to climb. The science is clear. We’re not transitioning nearly fast enough. Turning today’s momentum into implementation is absolutely the order of the day.”

Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg and the UN secretarygeneral’s special envoy for climate ambition and solutions, backed up his call: “Climate change is a challenge that can’t be solved by federal governments alone. It will also take cities and states, businesses and universities, tribal nations and faith organisations, and everyone in between – because this is an all-hands-on-deck situation.”

N EV ER, EV ER GI V E U P ---------

Watch now

Former Unilever CEO Paul Polman CMgr CCMI tells Ann Francke why firms that take net zero seriously are set to thrive

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the key thing is not to give up. Thanos Papadopoulos and Maria Elisavet Balta, management academics at the University of Kent, say that this is particularly important for smaller businesses: “For SMEs, which constitute around 99 per cent of all businesses, the path to net zero is far from easy. Although SMEs may have a relatively modest footprint related to their short supply chains and fewer employees, they continue to share facilities, outsource manufacturing and other supply chain nodes, and pay energy bills themselves. This makes the transition to other types of energy particularly challenging.”

They warn: “SME owners may feel overwhelmed when it comes to knowing where to start and how to set priorities on sustainability targets, which may lead to their abandonment.”

But abandonment is no longer an option. The outcome of COP26 may have been mixed, but the direction of travel is clear, and the imperative to meet the legally set carbon budgets of the next decade and beyond is unarguable. Managers must comply with the law, and the law stipulates reaching net zero. Putting it off will be good for no one: not for the planet, not for your company, and certainly not for your career.

This COP felt different “Walking around the halls of COP26 in Glasgow, bustling with the entourages of world leaders, business moguls and even the occasional royal, the sense of a massive global occasion was clear.

I have been attending UN climate COPs, some major and most minor, almost annually since 2004. This was my 15th. But it was clear from the start that this was going to be different.

I was at Joe Biden’s press conference one day, interviewing China’s head of delegation in a cramped windowless office the next. I queued for an audience with Barack Obama, and I rushed across the halls to be in the front row as Bill Gates urged businesses and financial institutions to back up the tech leaders in the fight against climate chaos. The place crackled with energy, purpose and urgency, but also an undercurrent of fear.

Would it all be enough?”

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“

Simon Cyhanko CMgr MCMI Head of Wastewater Networks, Northumbrian Water Group.

Be the best you can be

Chartered Manager of the Year 2021

Being a member of CMI gives you professional recognition, alongside a vast array of career enhancing benefits and resources to help you achieve your goals and become a #BetterManager.

I AM SUPPORTED “I receive trusted guidance, encouragement and support from an experienced CMI Mentor.”

MORE >

I AM CONNECTED “Live streams, podcasts, webinars and the social media community, help increase my network.”

MORE >

“

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP

Being a member of CMI gives individuals professional recognition and development opportunities that are not available elsewhere. As part of my membership, I always enjoy the magazine, picking up leadership tips on things that have worked for others and I can apply myself; that’s been the most frequent and regular benefit for me.

I AM INFORMED “Insights and thought leadership delivered direct to my inbox, keeps my finger on the pulse.”

MORE >

I AM ON TRACK

I AM KNOWLEDGEABLE

I AM IN CONTROL

“The career development centre advice will help me to get my dream job.”

“Thousands of on demand, current validated resources, keeps me up to date.”

“Access to the Kooth mental health platform helps me manage my wellbeing.”

MORE >

MORE >

MORE >

NOW AVAILABLE

THIS IS JUST A FEW OF THE MANY BENEFITS WE OFFER TO OUR MEMBERS SEE WHAT ELSE IS ON OFFER - managers.org.uk/memberbenefits

#BetterManagers

“

Simon Cyhanko CMgr MCMI Head of Wastewater Networks, Northumbrian Water Group.

Be the best you can be

Chartered Manager of the Year 2021

Being a member of CMI gives you professional recognition, alongside a vast array of career enhancing benefits and resources to help you achieve your goals and become a #BetterManager.

I AM SUPPORTED “I receive trusted guidance, encouragement and support from an experienced CMI Mentor.”

MORE >

I AM CONNECTED “Live streams, podcasts, webinars and the social media community, help increase my network.”

MORE >

“

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP

Being a member of CMI gives individuals professional recognition and development opportunities that are not available elsewhere. As part of my membership, I always enjoy the magazine, picking up leadership tips on things that have worked for others and I can apply myself; that’s been the most frequent and regular benefit for me.

I AM INFORMED “Insights and thought leadership delivered direct to my inbox, keeps my finger on the pulse.”

MORE >

I AM ON TRACK

I AM KNOWLEDGEABLE

I AM IN CONTROL

“The career development centre advice will help me to get my dream job.”

“Thousands of on demand, current validated resources, keeps me up to date.”

“Access to the Kooth mental health platform helps me manage my wellbeing.”

MORE >

MORE >

MORE >

NOW AVAILABLE

THIS IS JUST A FEW OF THE MANY BENEFITS WE OFFER TO OUR MEMBERS SEE WHAT ELSE IS ON OFFER - managers.org.uk/memberbenefits

#BetterManagers

“THIS AWARD REALLY GOES TO ALL MY COLLEAGUES W HO INSPIRE ME TO BE A BETTER LEADER”

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The 2021 winner of CMI’s Gold Medal award is Alison Rose, chief executive of NatWest Group. Speaking at this year’s President’s Dinner, she said that the future of leadership would be about working together, being humble and learning on a constant basis.

True leaders, she said, recognise that they don’t have all the answers and give people the confidence to be inquisitive, to fail, to challenge and to learn from each other.

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Watch Alison’s inspirational speech in full opposite

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THE RISE OF EMPLOY EE ACTIV ISM IS BRINGING A NEW LEV EL OF COMPLEXITY TO THE M ANAGER’S JOB Words / Megan Reitz

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ore and more, we’re seeing managers – not just senior executives – getting drawn into subject areas well beyond the traditional remit of team performance and quarterly targets.

My research (with John Higgins) over the past couple of years has focused on the rise of employee activism and how managers should respond. We’ve also looked at how to feel more comfortable with, and even curious about, the “activist” conversations that are steadily increasing in volume inside and outside of organisations.

W H AT ’ S B E H I N D T H E R I S E I N E M P L OY E E AC T I V I S M ?

----------a constellation of factors has come together and instigated a change in the conversations that take place in the workplace – and those factors aren’t going away.

First, there are the big pronouncements. Stimulated by global events and shareholder pressure, organisations have started making commitments on topics such as their carbon footprints and diversity targets. Employees – in particular millennials and Gen Zs – listen intently to these and will speak up if they see no action. Social media and platforms such as Organise are helping them do this collectively and anonymously. This expands the reach of the message and reduces the risk to the -------individual employee activist.

Why now for employee activism?

Take Waterstones. The bookshop chain “Activism” is a loaded term. We was criticised for not sharing profits know this because we’ve asked sufficiently with black authors and was thousands of people what they petitioned by employees to financially associate with the term. They support the Black Lives Matter movement. say everything from “passion”, Meanwhile, in the US, some employees “purpose” and “change” to quit the software company Basecamp after “violence”, “idealism” and it banned political conversations at work. “protest”. What one person The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase considers essential activism also experienced employee walkouts when another considers destructively rebellious behaviour. Our definition of employee activism is: “Voices of difference that challenge the status quo as to who gets heard and/or what should be included in the formal organisational agenda”.

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it mishandled its internal conversation following the murder of George Floyd. In all these cases, leaders quickly found themselves facing a reputational as well as a talent crisis.

Another reason why the pressure on corporate leaders has intensified is that many employees no longer trust governments and institutions such as trade unions to deal with societal and environmental issues.

Finally, an increased focus on diversity, equity and inclusion means that a wider variety of topics is seen as important and relevant in the workplace.

---------

“Another reason why the pressure on corporate leaders has intensified is that many employees no longer trust governments and institutions”

Megan Reitz is professor of leadership and dialogue at Hult International Business School. Her 2019 book Speak Up (with John Higgins) was shortlisted for the 2020 CMI Management Book of the Year Award 26 — WIN TER 202 1

S I X WAY S M A N AG E R S (T E N D T O) R E S P O N D T O E M P L OY E E AC T I V I S M ----------managers are on the front line dealing with activist voices in their teams on a day-to-day basis. We’ve identified six classic approaches that they tend to take.

Which have you experienced and which do you respond with?

NON-EXISTENT Employee activism is simply off the agenda

SUPPRESSION Activist voices are threatened or banned overtly or more subtly

DEFENSIVE ENGAGEMENT The minimum action is taken – for example “counting the numbers” for a diversity initiative

DIALOGIC ENGAGEMENT Leaders genuinely engage and want to learn. Decision-making is opened up on what needs to be done

Which response you choose depends on all sorts of factors: where power is seen to sit within the organisational hierarchy, whether the issue directly concerns the manager or organisation, whether managers and their organisations regard themselves as activists, whether other stakeholders are exerting pressure to act in a particular way, and how much bandwidth there is to take on this broader remit alongside the day job.

FACADISM Leaders make pronouncements but show little commitment

STIMUL ATING ACTIVISM Leaders specifically recruit, recognise and support activists, usually regarding themselves and their organisation as agents of change.

Two examples here are ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s and the outdoor clothing company Patagonia.

M AN AGER S .ORG.UK — 27

G E T C O M F O R TA B L E W I T H T H E U N C O M F O R TA B L E ----------managers can’t be expected to take a stand on every issue, so how do you determine what’s “in” (if anything) and what’s “out”? Well, there are a few different approaches...

Some leaders and managers (as in the Coinbase and Basecamp examples) move to ban “political conversations”, to attempt to demarcate what can and what can’t be talked about. Or they claim that they are “apolitical” and need to stay out of particular conversations (as the Wayfair CEO did in the US, responding to an employee walkout over sales to the controversial detention centres at the US border).

This path contains two big traps. First, it’s impossible to draw a line (that everyone understands, let alone agrees with) between what’s acceptable and relevant to speak about in the workplace and what isn’t. Second, suppressing differences and challenges doesn’t get rid of them – they are simply likely to pop up in other ways, most likely in dysfunctional behaviour or team members deciding to leave.

An alternative path is to engage with employees and determine with them any action that should be taken. A global retailer I’ve worked with claims to take this stance. It has built a team of employees from across the organisation, --------specifically charged with working through “An alternative path is to the often thorny questions of how to respond engage with employees to activist issues. One example was whether and determine with to drop a key supplier embroiled in the them any action that treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. This had should be taken” huge consequences for the organisation’s relationships with Chinese customers.

Geopolitical flashpoints can affect workplaces thousands of miles away

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If you want to avoid “facadism”, managers must be willing to do four interrelated things. Each may feel scary and utterly out of the ordinary:

STEP OUT OF THE “EXPERT” ROLE The common narrative is that managers and leaders should be the experts; they need to be in control and know what to do. While this is sometimes valid, it can get in the way when managers engage in topics outside their traditional territory. Stepping out of the “expert” role means being comfortable in not knowing and in being prepared to share decisionmaking. It’s much easier to say than to do in most cases.

BE GENUINELY CURIOUS There are no pragmatic “Five steps to become more curious” to offer here. Rather, curiosity is an orientation, even a philosophy. It’s about having a desire to learn and understand, a fascination with the experience of others. Linked with the first point, this requires managers to inquire, not simply to advocate.

HELP OTHERS TO SPEAK UP Managers are more intimidating than they realise. You may think of yourself as approachable, but the more senior you are, the more you are likely to be in an “optimism bubble” where you overestimate the degree to which others speak up to you. This means you underestimate the challenges your employees face.

Helping them to speak up means you take care to provide them with the opportunity, the environment and the signals that help them to feel psychologically safe.

MAKE MISTAKES If you move into new experiences, then you must expect to make mistakes. We cannot expect ourselves or others to enter into challenging conversations without being inarticulate or even offending others. One senior manager even confided in us that he felt there was no space to be “clumsy” amid his organisation’s zerotolerance policy, so he stayed silent and withdrew.

Whether it’s climate change, racism, gender equality or human rights, managers will need to navigate topics that they haven’t been presented with previously. You won’t be able to bat these away with “Oh, that’s not work-related”.

As a manager, you will choose to ignore, feign interest in, or genuinely engage with these issues – and the team members to whom they matter so much. All these responses are fraught with danger.

Getting off the fence is as risky as trying to stay on it. But the risks of ignoring or pretending seem increasingly untenable.

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Hamilton said he was “proud” to participate in Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020

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TAKE A STAND

SIR LEW IS H AMILTON IS A PRIME EX AMPLE OF AN ACTIV IST CH ANGING AN ENTRENCHED ORGANISATION Words / Mark Gallagher

M AN AGER S .ORG.UK — 31

london, on 21 June 2020, the Black Lives Matters march that was winding its way through central London was well attended. It was one of many that took place across the UK following the killing of George Floyd by policeman Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis less than four weeks earlier. Unnoticed in its midst, thanks in part to a bright yellow COVID mask, dark sunglasses and a black beanie pulled down over his ears, was Lewis Hamilton (since knighted in the New Year’s Honours list).

As Formula One’s biggest superstar, with 31 million followers on Twitter and Instagram – more than his key rivals combined – Hamilton has supercharged motorsport’s transition away from being “pale, male and stale”. More than that, he has used his profile and the leadership role that comes from being the sport’s statistically most successful driver of all time to push for initiatives around gender diversity, gay rights and environmental sustainability.

For Formula One’s leadership, there was an instant realisation that change was --------needed. Hamilton’s rise to prominence “Four-time world champion caused a major rethink about the sport’s Sebastian Vettel has supported lack of ethnic diversity and, in particular, Hamilton’s campaigning how few black people work in motorsport. and is now championing Some key figures were wrong-footed, environmental causes such insisting the sport was not inherently racist. as sustainable farming” That the sport had singularly failed to reach

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out to black fans and those from ethnic minorities, or to question why its employee demographic did not reflect the society it serves, was a topic seldom debated.

Hamilton changed all that. Buoyed by the positive response of his fan base to his blunt social media posts, he pushed the door to debate wide open, emboldening others to follow suit. For example, fourtime world champion Sebastian Vettel has supported Hamilton’s campaigning and is now championing environmental causes such as sustainable farming and tackling the blight caused by litter.

It’s worth noting that when social media began to make its presence felt more than a decade ago, Formula One, under thenoctogenarian Bernie Ecclestone, tried to ignore it or at least retain its primary reliance on mainstream media to reach its global fan base. Hamilton, together with a new generation of millennial and Gen Z drivers, has helped to transform that. Liberty’s takeover of Formula One in 2017 led to a rethink of social media both in terms of communicating values as well as listening to the views of stakeholder audiences.

By the time the COVID-delayed World Championship started up again in July 2020, the sport had accelerated its strategy in relation to diversity and inclusion. At the start of each race, drivers bowed their heads or took the knee. Formula One also introduced the #WeRaceAsOne initiative and joined with the FIA’s #PurposeDriven campaign, aimed at ensuring that motorsport plays its part in tackling major societal challenges around diversity and inclusion, the environment, community development and health and safety.

In hindsight, the November 2019 announcement that Formula One will abandon the use of fossil fuels in racing by 2026 and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 could not have been better timed.

In short, the sport’s leadership just about managed to avoid trailing in the wake of Hamilton’s campaigning.

What’s clear from Formula One’s experience is that leaders have a choice to make when tackling the issues that are important to engaged and socially connected employees, suppliers and customers.

You can choose to play your part in driving positive changes that will ultimately benefit your business, or you can become a passenger on a journey of change over which you have no control.

Hamilton’s campaigning has caused some awkward moments in the paddock

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THE PERSISTENT RISE OF THE ACTIVIST LEADER AROU ND THE WORLD, MORE AND MORE PROMINENT LEADERS ARE TAKING U P SOCI AL CAUSES Words / Matt Gitsham

Amanda Blanc, Aviva

Amanda Blanc has been chief executive of UK insurer Aviva since July 2020. Born and raised in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales, Amanda has held a series of senior roles across the insurance industry. As chair of the Women in Finance Climate Action Group, she has been vocal in calling for insurers to use their influence to ensure that the businesses they invest in are on a net-zero trajectory, as well as ensuring they don’t provide insurance to high-carbon industries. She has also called for more women in leadership roles at the World Bank and the IMF and has been a long-standing advocate for gender equality in the workplace.

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Tim Cook, Apple

Tim Cook has been chief executive of Apple, one of the world’s biggest companies, since 2011. Originally from Alabama, Cook has been a high-profile advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, for example tweeting in 2015 to criticise Indiana’s new anti-gay law and to call for the Arkansas governor to veto a similar proposal there: “Apple is open for everyone. We are deeply disappointed in Indiana’s new law”.

More recently, he called for the US Senate to expand federal legal protection from discrimination to LGBTQ+ Americans. Cook is also an outspoken advocate for climate action. In 2020, Apple announced its intention for its supply chain to be carbon-neutral by 2030, and Cook has frequently called for more ambitious government action on climate change, publicly criticising the Trump administration’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement in 2017.

Matthew McCarthy, Ben & Jerry’s

After 13 years at Unilever, Matthew McCarthy became chief executive of Ben & Jerry’s, a Unilever brand, in 2018. As the boss of a brand that’s well-known for its activism, McCarthy has been a vocal advocate for action on several issues. In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, for example, he called for white supremacy to be dismantled and committed Ben & Jerry’s to supporting the fight against systemic racism through advocacy for a bill investigating slavery reparations and a bipartisan task force looking into police reform in the US.

Hamdi Ulukaya, Chobani Billionaire and Kurdish activist Hamdi Ulukaya disrupted the US dairy industry in 2006 when he popularised Greek-style yoghurt through his newlyfounded Chobani brand. The Chobani recipe, inspired by his childhood in a Kurdish sheep-farming community in Turkey, is now one of the best-selling yoghurts in the US. His leadership challenges

Julian Richer, Richer Sounds

Doug McMillon, Walmart

traditional capitalist principles.

Forbes has even described him as a “socially responsible CEO”. Ulukaya called himself the “anti CEO” during a 2019 TedTalk. Around 30 per cent of his employees are immigrants or refugees. Ulukaya also set up The Tent Partnership for Refugees, a coalition of businesses that provides employment and training opportunities for refugees.

Ester Baiget, Novozymes

Julian Richer set up the UK hi-fi retail chain Richer Sounds in 1978. Early on in his entrepreneurial career, he embraced a radical new leadership philosophy that focused on job security, wellbeing and corporate responsibility. He has written about his outlook in The Ethical Capitalist. In 2019, Richer gave 60 per cent of the company’s shares to his employees, and 15 per cent of company profits are given to charity. Richer regularly speaks out against zero-hours contracts and corporate greed, and he has set up an investigative think tank called TaxWatch to expose corporate tax avoidance.

Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Doug McMillon’s family moved to Bentonville, Arkansas when he was a teenager. There, he took a summer job in a Walmart distribution centre. Thirty years later, he became chief executive. In the early years of McMillon’s leadership, Walmart took a number of steps to adopt more responsible gun-selling practices. Then, in 2019, he took the step of speaking publicly against gun violence, announcing that Walmart would end the sale of handguns and also some bullets used in handguns and assaultstyle weapons, and also calling for the US Congress to pass stricter gun control laws.

Jesper Brodin, Ikea

Jesper Brodin has been chief executive of Ingka Group (formerly IKEA Group) since 2017. Brodin has been a passionate advocate for action on climate change and the circular economy within IKEA and has called on EU leaders to step up climate action. He has also backed the ambition set out in the European Green Deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 per cent by 2030 (versus 1990 levels).

Speaking at the UN Climate Action Summit in 2020, he said: “We have a responsibility to lead change as we’re a big business with a big impact, and by actively engaging we use our voice to ask governments and other businesses to step up.”

Ester Baiget became chief executive of Danish biotech company Novozymes in February 2020. She originally trained as a chemical engineer in Spain, but she is now a member of The B Team, a group of business leaders seeking to drive change for people and the planet by focusing on better ways of doing business in their own organisations. That involves using their influence to call for governments and others to work together to address some of the key sustainability challenges.

Matt Gitsham is director of the Ashridge Centre for Business and Sustainability, part of Hult International Business School — Additional reporting

by Mark Rowland

M AN AGER S .ORG.UK — 35

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S H O W, D O N ’ T T E L L The only model of leadership that can work today is one where those at the top focus their energies on setting context ---------

Words / Anne Boden

e are, without a doubt, in a new age of work. Whether it’s fully remote working, or a hybrid model of a couple of days a week in the office, this new, flexible model is here to stay. Trust, respect, collaboration and connectivity are what dictate employee performance today.

The old model of command and control is completely redundant in this environment.

Not that some leaders haven’t tried to maintain it, whether by ordering everyone back to their desks at the earliest opportunity, or by conducting business as usual with a slew of daily Zoom or Teams meetings to “check in” on the team. These measures have fallen flat because employees, unsurprisingly, don’t enjoy the implicit accusation that they can’t be trusted to do their jobs properly.

Leadership needs to evolve to embrace the opportunity this new way of working has presented to us. The only effective model in this environment is one where those at the top focus their energies on setting context. Rather than telling people what to do, we need to describe the circumstances, outline the environment a task needs to be completed in and any challenges the organisation is facing. We don’t need to direct --------every single move thereafter. We must trust that members of our teams are the experts in their field, “ Trust, respect, which is why they were appointed in the first place. collaboration and No one can work effectively if they are left connectivity are what completely in the dark and just told what to do. Given dictate employee enough context and left to get on with it, individuals performance today” are much more likely to make sound decisions.

Not only is this more motivating for everyone involved, it also produces better results. Individuals will inevitably have more time to think about a M AN AGER S .ORG.UK — 37

problem than a leader who is juggling dozens of different things at once. This translates into being more agile and responsive in a changing environment.

For many leaders, this will involve a big change in outlook. Those who fail to evolve will simply become a bottleneck in their organisation. None of us can be everywhere in a hybrid world – it’s impossible. Full disclosure, I have experience of the negative outcomes of being a bottleneck; fortunately, it was at the beginning of my career. I was in my first “big job”, acting as a consultant running a significant project in a City trading room. I tried to control everything, from planning to decision-making, while also liaising with all the stakeholders. Unsurprisingly, things slowed to a snail’s pace. It took one of my colleagues to tell me, somewhat bluntly, that while I felt I was doing a great job, I was actually holding things up. This was the start of a change in leadership style for me. I realised that working smarter meant setting context.

An important first step is to clear away the notion that a great leader can do everything.

Or, more specifically, is the best at everything. I come across this a lot. There will be, say, a technical specialist who is promoted to lead a whole group of technical specialists. Almost overnight there will be a noticeable change. They believe they need to do a much better job than all the other technical specialists. Yet their capabilities have not changed. If anything, they are lessened because they have less time to devote to their role as a technical specialist, since they are time-constrained by the leadership role.

There are countless experts at all levels at Starling who know far more about their subject areas than I do. It is my role to release this talent, and I do this by letting them know I respect their judgment. I’ve also aimed to create an environment where people can talk. This doesn’t mean a series of one-toones. I never sit down and say, “Let’s discuss targets and objectives.” When I’m with the team, we talk about real issues. I set the context and let them tell me how they believe we can move things forward.

Knowing when to step away and when you can add value is a crucial leadership trait when it comes to hybrid working. I’m open to expanding my own knowledge all the time so I have the tools to set the right context and can contribute where needed. I listen closely to people at all levels because they have analysis and insight that I might not yet have.

During online conversations, I frequently add to my knowledge by Googling things as I go.

--------The new world is the opposite from what went “ An important first before, when objectives were set at the top level step is to clear away and then cascaded down through the organisation. the notion that a Believe me, though, there is far more pleasure in great leader can giving teams context and letting them be awesome, rather than trying to control everything from the top. do everything” And it’s much more effective, too. • — Anne Boden MBE is the founder and chief executive of Starling, winner of Best British Bank at the Best British Bank Awards for the past four years

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CELEBRATING

75 YEARS OF BETTER MANAGERS

As CMI looks back at our impact over the past 75 years, and how the role and values of professional leaders and managers have changed, we want to understand what is next for workplace leadership.

CMI is embarking on a landmark new project, looking at what’s next for great workplace leadership, and how we can ensure equality, diversity and inclusion are right at its core.

We will be asking you to share your experiences and practical ideas on how CMI can drive change toward a fairer, more inclusive and equal workplace, and in doing so, help to boost economic recovery and future growth in all parts of the UK. Using our members’ experiences and insight from high profile leaders, we will share the practical actions which managers are using today. At the end of 2022, this project will feed into a major piece of thought leadership.

GET INVOLVED WITH OUR LANDMARK NEW PROJECT Share your experiences on the key themes and feed into our latest thought leadership:

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ARE YOU OR DO YOU KNOW AN INSPIRATIONAL ROLE MODEL DRIVING CHANGE? Chartered Companions are a select group of great leaders and managers around the work: they are pioneers and role-models. We are looking to strengthen our own diverse community - help us discover and celebrate excellence by nominating a leader that inspires you to be a Companion.

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“YOU H AV E NOT LIV ED A PERFECT DAY UNLESS YOU’V E DONE SOMETHING FOR SOMEONE W HO CAN NEV ER REPAY YOU” Kindness alters the chemistry of leadership, says CMI’s 2021 Lifetime Achievement award winner Pinky Lilani ---------

Words / Matthew Rock

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ull disclosure: I’ve known Pinky Lilani OBE, this year’s winner of CMI’s Lifetime Achievement award, since 2000. She was introduced to me as a potential business partner and came to my offices for an introductory meeting.

Diminutive, highly alert, spruce, instantly warm – you got the sense that this was someone around whom positive things happened. We worked together for the next 15 years.

Pinky had already established the Asian Women of Achievement Awards by this point.

She hadn’t launched the awards with the backing of a big organisation or a team of event planners. Instead, she’d orchestrated it from her home in Surrey, drawing on the resources of family, friends and contacts. Cherie Blair QC, wife of the then prime minister, came to the awards wearing salwar kameez, along with many other A-list guests. The paparazzi loved it. The event gained international media coverage, and it still does today.

Over the next two decades, Pinky has built an events portfolio that embodies our changing society. The Women of the Future programme, launched in 2006 and now also running in south-east Asia, gives a platform to young women from all walks of life. Many candidates will tell you that the confidence and connections they’ve gained from being involved have been life-changing.

Pinky has an extraordinary gift for spotting connections, and is constantly introducing people who, she feels, will benefit from being brought together. She hosts regular lunches and dinners at her home to help the process along. Her conferences, summits and awards events feel like large-scale family gatherings.

Her other shining characteristic is kindness. This, as CMI’s own research has shown, has been a crucial aspect of management during the pandemic. On a daily basis, Pinky hands out chocolate coins to strangers just to prompt a smile and a moment of connection.

Her recent Leading Light venture specifically recognises kind leaders. As she put it when receiving her CMI Lifetime Achievement award: “When leaders are kind, they go from being successful to being significant... Through kindness, --------leaders can get more done because kindness alters the chemistry of leadership. People do things not Meet all the award winners because someone has instructed them to, but because and enjoy the highlights from they feel motivated to.”

CMI’s President’s Dinner 2021 Like the very best leaders, Pinky’s MO is never to appear to be leading. As she recalled at CMI’s 2021 President’s Dinner, when she first came to the UK, she was often asked, “As a good Muslim woman, do you walk two steps behind your husband?” To which she always replied, “No, I walk ten steps behind him, so he doesn’t know what I’m getting up to.” • M AN AGER S .ORG.UK — 4 1

GET INVOLVED with CMI events, designed to help you learn, network and be inspired by leaders and managers at the cutting edge of their profession.

CMI hosts a wide range of events, incorporating professional development opportunities, thought leadership and regional discussions, as well as events centred on our key networks covering equality, diversity and inclusion, and our weekly Better Managers Briefings.

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DIGITAL EVENTS LIBRARY Catch up on our previous digital events recorded for you to watch at your leisure. Covering key topics and thought leadership for your continual professional development (CPD).

Monday 13th December • 13:00 GMT

Tuesday 11th January • 09:30 GMT

A discussion providing insight on how menopause impacts women’s progression into leadership roles and how best to support staff throughout this experience.

Find out more about the Chartered Management Consultant (ChMC) Award and hear from those who have been through the process.

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Join us as we explore the causes and implications of the Gender Pay Gap, what women can do at work and what businesses are doing to address the issue.

Take a deeper dive into what you need to consider when setting up your business and your approach to delivering your services.

CMI’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY LEADING LIGHTS Join us for a new series of livestreams involving inspiring leaders who are helping us to focus on the needs and challenges of managers to commemorate CMI’s 75th anniversary.

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FIND OUT MORE: managers.org.uk/events

GET INVOLVED with CMI events, designed to help you learn, network and be inspired by leaders and managers at the cutting edge of their profession.

CMI hosts a wide range of events, incorporating professional development opportunities, thought leadership and regional discussions, as well as events centred on our key networks covering equality, diversity and inclusion, and our weekly Better Managers Briefings.

HERE’S A FEW OF OUR UPCOMING EVENTS

VIEW OUR FULL PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

FUTURE EVENTS A host of online events every month, providing practical insight into critical issues for our membership community and those looking to improve their skills, nurture high-performing teams and help pave the way for the next generation of managers and leaders.

INCASE YOU MISSED IT You can now catch up on the CMI Awards 2021 - The Highlights, for an unmissable celebration of outstanding management and leadership.

DIGITAL EVENTS LIBRARY Catch up on our previous digital events recorded for you to watch at your leisure. Covering key topics and thought leadership for your continual professional development (CPD).

Monday 13th December • 13:00 GMT

Tuesday 11th January • 09:30 GMT

A discussion providing insight on how menopause impacts women’s progression into leadership roles and how best to support staff throughout this experience.

Find out more about the Chartered Management Consultant (ChMC) Award and hear from those who have been through the process.

Wednesday 26th January • 18:00 GMT

Monday 11th April • 10:00 BST

Join us as we explore the causes and implications of the Gender Pay Gap, what women can do at work and what businesses are doing to address the issue.

Take a deeper dive into what you need to consider when setting up your business and your approach to delivering your services.

CMI’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY LEADING LIGHTS Join us for a new series of livestreams involving inspiring leaders who are helping us to focus on the needs and challenges of managers to commemorate CMI’s 75th anniversary.

Every Wednesday @ 12:00 - 13:00 GMT JOIN NOW

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FIND OUT MORE: managers.org.uk/events

T H E F OU R M I N DSET S + F I V E SK I L LS OF T H E F U T U R E L E A DE R To explore the future of leadership, the winner of this year’s CMI Management Book of the Year interviewed more than 140 chief executives (collectively employing more than 7 million people around the world) and 14,000 employees. The result is a uniquely comprehensive project to define the mindsets and skills of the future leader. These are the notable nine...

---------

Words / Jacob Morgan

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M I N D SE T S T H E E X PL OR E R 01

Sir Ernest Shackleton once said, “The only true failure would be not to explore at all.”

Throughout history, explorers have risked their lives and have travelled to the farthest corners of the Earth and beyond. Exploration is part of human nature.

As a leader, one of the most effective things you can do is ask questions and challenge the status quo. It’s likely that your organisation has certain customer or employee policies, procedures and ways of doing things which have been around for decades, long before you ever joined the organisation. But if, as the world’s top business leaders have identified, the pace of change is one of the biggest trends shaping leadership and work right now, then it’s time to revisit how work gets done and how we lead.

If you ask questions and challenge conventions, then so will your team members.

M AN AGER S .ORG.UK — 4 5

M I N D SE T S

THE CHEF 02

Any great chef will tell you that one of the things that makes a dish amazing is the balance of ingredients. Too much of any one ingredient will throw off the entire flavour profile. Creating the perfect dish and balancing flavours and ingredients is as much an art as it is a science. Leaders of the future must have the mindset of a chef.

At the core of this mindset is the understanding that your job as a leader isn’t just about making the business more money. You need to look beyond the organisation to see how the work you are doing is affecting society, local communities and the world.

Simply listening or collecting data will only get you so far, though. As a leader, what you do with the feedback you get is just as important as getting the feedback.

What good is the information if you don’t do anything with it? If you want to practise the mindset of the chef, then make sure that those around you are going to hold you accountable.

T H E SE RVA N T 03

Being a leader doesn’t mean that you get to sit at the top of the pyramid and tell everyone else what to do. It means that you stand at the bottom of the pyramid and help prop up everyone else.

Ask yourself these questions on a regular basis and you will find that they will change your behaviour: — What did I do to help my leader today?

— What did I do to make the lives of my customers easier and better?

— What did I do to help make employees more successful than me?

— What did I do to make sure that I am taking care of myself and allowing myself to be the best leader that I can be?

— Did I have fun at work today?

T H E GL OBA L C I T I Z E N 04

Leaders who embody the mindset of a global citizen are able to think globally, lead a team of diverse and distributed employees, spread ideas and messages across the globe, and find and attract the best talent regardless of where they might be. In today’s connected and rapidly changing world, it’s almost impossible to think locally, regionally or even nationally. Instead, you must think globally.

You should also actively seek out others who are different to you. The emphasis here is on the word “actively”, because it’s not just about being OK as a part of a diverse team. Instead, you need to ask for it and demand it.

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SK I L LS T H E F U T U R I ST 01

T H E T R A N S L AT O R 02

Leaders of the future must be translators, which means that they are great listeners and communicators. Even though these are perhaps the most basic and timeless traits for great leadership, they are also the ones that we have struggled with the longest and the ones that have changed the most in recent years.

As a leader, ask yourself the following questions when you communicate with others in your organisation: — What are the best channels to use to get this information across?

— How does the way I communicate make those around me feel?

— Am I communicating in a clear, open, passionate and humble way?

Am I being human?

— If someone communicated with me in the same way I am communicating with others, what impact would it have?

Futurists help make sure that individuals and organisations are not surprised by what the future might bring.

Thinking like a futurist is about looking at different possibilities and scenarios, as opposed to picking one and sticking with it.

In a sense, you’re actually looking around many corners so that when your path takes you down one of them, you will know what to expect.

The best way you can start thinking like a futurist is by asking yourself a series of questions when presented with a decision you need to take: — Why might this happen or not happen?

— What else might happen?

— What do I want to happen and how can I make it happen?

— What factors might influence why this will or won’t happen?

YODA

Leaders of the future must learn to channel their inner Yoda, which means being emotionally intelligent, specifically being able to practise empathy and self-awareness.

Empathy is controlled by a part of the brain called the supramarginal gyrus, and researchers have found that when decisions need to be made quickly, this region doesn’t always function correctly. This is why it’s crucial to start with listening and taking some time to pause and reflect before responding or taking action.

When it comes to self-awareness, the biggest piece of advice that Tasha Eurich, an organisational psychologist, has to offer is to move away from asking “why” to asking “what”. Focusing on the “what” is more effective when it comes to helping you develop a plan. Then you can start asking yourself questions like, “What am I going to do in the future to make sure I don’t feel this way?” or “What can I do to make sure that I make better decisions in the future?”

03

M AN AGER S .ORG.UK — 4 7

SK I L LS T H E C OAC H 04

Future leaders must be great coaches. This means that you need to know how to motivate, engage and inspire people. That way, you can create other leaders, work across generations and cultures, and put together effective teams.

At the very core of being a great coach is truly believing that your job and your privilege is to help other people become more successful than you.

Another crucial aspect of being a great coach is the ability to connect with the people you work with to truly understand them as human beings, instead of just as workers. Try asking yourself a few basic questions about the people you work with: — What excites them the most?

— What stresses them out or drains them the most?

— What are they most passionate about?

— What are their strengths and weaknesses?

— What are their hobbies or interests outside of work?

— Do they have a family? If so, do I know anything about them?

— What are their professional and personal goals?

— What do they think of me as a leader?

T H E T E C H-SAV V Y T E E NAG E R 05

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Whenever parents can’t figure out a certain technology, the first person they turn to is usually their teenager (if they have one). Why is that? It’s because teenagers are technologically savvy and digitally fluent. Leaders of the future must be the same.

Leaders don’t need to understand the details of how the technologies will be deployed, but they do need to understand what impact a particular technology might have on the business. They need to be able to have these conversations and should be able to answer questions like: — What does the general technology landscape look like? What are some of the emerging technologies out there today?

— Which technologies are going to affect my industry?

— How might my organisation use various technologies to improve things like customer satisfaction, the employee experience and productivity?

— What might happen if the organisation doesn’t make investments in technology?

— How are customers and employees using these various new technologies?

This is an edited extract from The Future Leader: 9 skills and mindsets to succeed in the next decade, by Jacob Morgan (Wiley, 2020). It was recently named CMI’s 2021 Management Book of the Year

Setting Industry Standards, for a new era in consulting.

Chartered Management Consultant is the first Chartered professional award in the management consultancy profession.

• Chartered is proof of expertise, assures quality and recognises experience.

• Chartered helps firms attract the best of talent and commits to professional development.

• Chartered is good for clients guaranteeing the highest of standards.

More than 500 consultants have already been awarded Chartered status with thousands of others on the journey.

To start your journey visit: managers.org.uk/chmc

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Conversations

How dyslexia became my management superpower Luke Birkett CMgr MCMI was diagnosed with dyslexia while at secondary school. An enthusiastic learner in primary school, his grades and concentration had been plummeting. His dyslexia was mild – he could read and write – but it made the academic approach to learning favoured by his school difficult to grasp.

His dyslexia was a source of shame. “I hid my condition for a lot of my school and college life and then even into the start of my management career,” he says.

“I was ashamed of it because I thought I might be seen as stupid.”

After leaving school, Luke was drawn towards more practical learning. He started a bricklaying apprenticeship with housebuilder Taylor Wimpey. He thrived. He won apprentice of the year for the south-east region.

As he started to climb the career ladder, his opinion of his condition changed. It stopped

Let’s talk about neurodiversity

Once Luke Birkett was ashamed of his dyslexia. Now he believes that it boosts his abilities as a leader ---------

seeming like a burden and began to feel more like a strength.

“I would understand how things go together practically and how to solve problems, contributing to and leading team activities with my ideas and solutions.

Those were my strengths, but the academic stuff was my weakness.

I had to learn to bridge the gap.”

Over time, Luke found himself competing with managers who came armed with a degree. To stand out from this crowd, he was going to need some new qualifications. During this process, he developed techniques to overcome any weaknesses as a result of his dyslexia. For example, he was so determined to avoid any spelling or grammar errors that he would re-read everything he wrote countless times. As a result, he has become an excellent proofreader.

“When I proofread someone’s work, people don’t believe I’m dyslexic because of the way I am able to point out spelling and grammar mistakes. I am dyslexic, but I’ve learned ways to overcome it.”

He has also developed an enthusiasm for learning. He continuously throws himself M AN AGER S .ORG.UK — 5 1

into new courses. He is currently completing a doctorate in business administration.

“If you had told me when I was a young lad that I would be doing something like studying these courses and training qualifications and moving onto a doctorate, I would have laughed and said, ‘No that’s not for me.’ I’m so proud of my achievements. I’ve managed to do something that someone from my background wouldn’t normally choose to do.”

A different approach to leadership It’s not that most dyslexic people couldn’t do a doctorate, Luke says; they’ve just been conditioned to believe that they can’t. He’s currently working with organisations including CMI, the Chartered Institute of Building, the Chartered Association of Building Engineers, the Association for Project Management and Go Construct to change the prevailing view of what dyslexic people are capable of.

“Even though dyslexia is officially branded as a learning disability, I prefer the term ‘learning difference’,” he says.

This is also the preferred term of the British Dyslexia Association, Dyslexia Scotland and many of

Luke’s fellow association members with dyslexia.

Dyslexic people tend to have excellent problem-solving skills, creative skills and a very practical approach to management, Luke says. They are also great at managing people and projects.

Many people, however, still have the misconception that you couldn’t trust a dyslexic person to manage numbers or communicate effectively with a team.

In reality, there’s no reason why those people couldn’t excel within any kind of management or senior leadership role, even when their dyslexia is severe. Luke mentions an acquaintance – the managing director of a large construction company – who can barely put an email together, but who is a very effective, respected and trusted

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“ It has made me a tougher person, and it has also helped to drive me further. I knew it was a weakness that I had, and I didn’t want to have a weakness” leader in the sector. “Because of his practical thinking, his people skills and his management skills, he’s really highly regarded. He has people who support him with his weaknesses, but he’s still a great asset to the business.”

Let’s look at this a different way...

Many of history’s brightest leaders and thinkers – Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Steven Spielberg and many entrepreneurs – have been dyslexic. In many situations, dyslexic people can provide valuable diversity of thought.

The stigma attached to dyslexia can hold people back from putting themselves forward for career progression. Managers can help break that stigma by recognising the strengths and benefits that dyslexic workers can bring to their teams and organisations. Some employers are already making improvements in this area, and the need for diversity of thought has become a hot topic for managers and leaders.

“It still has got to evolve further,” says Luke. “I’d like to see businesses create a support network for people who struggle with any learning processes. They need to create user-friendly documents, processes and systems that people of all backgrounds and differences can easily use.”

Luke is now running his own high-end housebuilding business, Future Homes Design and Build.

He’s channelling all of his unique skills and experiences into his role.

His experience of processing his feelings about dyslexia has left him with the resilience that he needs for the role.

“It has made me a tougher person, and it has also helped to drive me further,” he says. “I knew it was a weakness that I had, and I didn’t want to have a weakness.

I didn’t want it to stop me from achieving things in life. I turned that negative into a positive and used it to drive me further forward in my career. I probably wouldn’t have done that if I was naturally academic.”

M AN AGER S .ORG.UK — 5 3

Different thinkers According to a study by Julie Logan, professor of entrepreneurship at Cass Business School, more than a third of US entrepreneurs and a fifth of UK ones have dyslexia. Dyslexic entrepreneurs are more likely to start more than one venture and grow them at a faster rate -------

Bill Hewlett

Anita Roddick

Charles Schwab

George Patton

Cher

Jamie Oliver

The co-founder of Hewlett-Packard suffered a lot in his early education due to his undiagnosed dyslexia. However, he trained himself to memorise everything he heard at school and figured out that he learned better if he took a hands-on approach. At the end of his school education, he was able to get into Stanford and achieve two Master’s degrees in engineering. He continued to take a hands-on approach even once the business had really taken off.

US Army general George Patton couldn’t read or write until he was 11.

The academic element of West Point Military Academy was also a struggle; Patton was formally expelled in his first year, before being allowed to re-enter the following year. He excelled at the practical elements of his training, however, and developed a resilience and creativity that served him well during World War II.

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The founder of The Body Shop faced many of the classic struggles that dyslexic people experience at school, but that left her with a strong desire to start someting new. She opened a restaurant and hotel in 1970 with no prior experience, and later founded The Body Shop. She opened her second location within six months, and the brand grew from there. She has also advocated for a more responsible approach to business: “It should be about public good, not private greed.”

Cher is very outspoken about her dyslexia. The singer found out she was dyslexic at the age of 30, having got no support in school. “I got really bad grades, Ds and Fs and Cs in some classes, and As and Bs in other classes. In the second week of the 11th grade, I just quit.” Instead, she decided to channel her talent for singing and acting into a massively successful multimedia empire and several philanthropic interests.

Investment banker Charles Schwab, founder of the Charles Schwab Corporation, discovered he was dyslexic late in life, after his son was diagnosed with the condition.

He has a net worth of $6.2bn and has put considerable amounts of time and money into a foundation to support the parents of children diagnosed with dyslexia.

The TV chef has created several businesses to support his restaurant chains, TV shows and books. He has also spoken out about his dyslexia and how his teachers were not equipped to deal with it. “I never really had anyone to help who understood dyslexia and who could bring out my strengths.” He has also talked about the many advantages that dyslexia has given him: “If I’m in a meeting, I just see the problems differently and I obsess about things differently.”

CMgr THE W IN NER: M E ET C M I ’S 2021 C H A RT E R E D M A NAGE R OF THE YEAR

ON E WOM A N ’S JOU R N E Y F ROM HOM E L E S SN E S S TO CH ARITY L E A DE R SH I P

THE MAN W HO T E AC H E S PE OPL E HOW T O ST OP SE L FSA B O TAGI NG

SEC TION EDITOR / MARK ROWL AND

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M AN AGER S .ORG.UK — 5 5

Our 2021 Chartered Manager of the Year is preventing floods, one wet wipe at a time ---------

How Simon Cyhanko flushed out a serious problem

When Simon Cyhanko CMgr MCMI became head of wastewater networks at Northumbrian Water Group (NWG), he was tasked with making a “step-change improvement” in the sewer system’s flooding performance.

Sewer flooding is a pressing issue for the water industry.

Flooding has a huge impact on the general public and hits water companies’ bottom line. NWG’s sewer flooding performance was among the worst in the industry when Cyhanko took on the job.

“I definitely felt the pressure,” he says. “When you’re given a task like that, you take a bit of personal pride in trying to make sure you achieve it. That comes with a bit of a fear of failing and of letting people down.”

The first step in addressing the problem was to bring the right team together. Cyhanko gathered experts from around the business to get their opinions on how to tackle the issue. This consultation process involved managers, technical experts and frontline operatives. The output was a plan of action to move things forward.

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Some parts of the plan were relatively straightforward changes in processes and operations – for example, a risk assessment process to reduce the risk of operational flooding. Elsewhere, Cyhanko’s team surveyed sewers and fixed defects in the system.

Flushing wipes blocks pipes A key part of Cyhanko’s plan was getting his team to play detective, using sensors across the network to identify – even to the individual household level – who was flushing wet wipes and other items that shouldn’t go into the system. These create the “fatbergs” that can block sewers and cause flooding.

“Our team knocked on customers’ doors, telling them that the wet wipes had come from their property and that, if it happens again, they will be liable for our costs and will be prosecuted under the law.”

The pilot project looked at 1,000 properties near Middlesbrough. Over the past 18 months, the team has expanded to 15 people working full time, covering 150,000 properties.

Cyhanko’s sewer flooding project involved lots of public-facing work and then won him CMgr of the Year

The biggest challenge of the project was to change the mindset of the staff. Sewer flooding has not always been a strong focus for the business.

Work was needed to change the culture across the organisation so that everyone was on the same page. Cyhanko achieved this by making flood prevention part of everyday conversations.

“Managers and team leaders were talking to their teams about it every single day: ‘What has flooded? Why is it flooded?

What do we need to do to stop it happening again?’ When you start doing that day in, day out, you start building a culture and an appreciation that sewer flooding is important.”

Although the process took time, Cyhanko and his team were able to land some early

Congratulations to our other CMgr of the Year finalists:

— Payal Gaglani-Bhatt CMgr FCMI, CEO and founder, The Little Gurus — Emma Finney CMgr FCMI, innovation manager, South Eastern Regional College — Daniel McKay-Smith CMgr MCMI, regional sales director for the UK & Nordics, Mintel Group

wins. These helped to build trust around the organisation and took some of the pressure off.

COVID-19 delayed progress but, as essential workers, Cyhanko and his team were able to keep things moving.

The hard work is paying off: flooding numbers for the regulatory year 2020/21 suggest that external flooders fell from 4,697 to 3,862; internal flooders from 472 to 244; and repeat flooders from 97 to 25. Those are 18, 48 and 74 per cent decreases respectively.

“We’ve been quite brave with some of the things that we’ve done,” says Cyhanko. “Particularly with our initiative tracing wet wipe offenders. Nobody in the industry had tried something like that.”

It’s this boldness that put Cyhanko in the running for Chartered Manager of the Year, and having his work recognised outside the organisation has been encouraging. “It means a lot to know that somebody is looking at the work you’ve done and saying you’re doing the right things.”

M AN AGER S .ORG.UK — 5 7

In 2015, Rachael became a homeless single mother.

Her fight to get out of that situation has informed her approach to her new business ---------

How Rachael Jones overcame the ultimate resilience test

As the pandemic took hold on the UK economy, Rachael Jones CMgr FCMI watched her work opportunities dry up. As a freelancer in the charity sector, she was seen as an unnecessary extravagance. When two major contracts were cancelled, it became clear that the work just wasn’t there anymore.

Jones was no stranger to adversity; five years previously, she had been homeless, hopping between friends’ houses and landing in council-funded temporary accommodation in a Travelodge, while bringing up two young children.

At one point, she only had enough money to buy either a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk to feed her children. Her youngest child had just turned one. That kind of experience makes other hurdles seem easier to overcome.

“Once you’re in that position where all of your stuff genuinely fits in a carrier bag, you realise that anything above that is actually not that bad,” she says. “Certainly not in the bigger scheme of things. It puts things into perspective.”

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Jones had previously cofounded PANDAS Foundation, a charity offering advice and support for those suffering from pre-and post-natal depression.

She set it up in 2011 after suffering from post-natal depression herself after the birth of her son. She was young and had no formal qualifications, but was able to turn the charity into a prominent force for change, winning a Good Morning Britain Community Health Star.

She decided to take a CMI work-based course in 2014 because she often met resistance for not having professional qualifications. “I never wanted to go off to university, that didn’t work for me. The happy medium was to do something where I could learn on the job.”

After her marriage broke down, she became a single mother and had to step back from her charity. She took on work as a script adviser for the TV show Emmerdale while living at the Travelodge, and kept working on her CMI qualification. “When you’ve got children, you have no choice but to be motivated. They

won’t allow you to kind of wallow in self-pity and stay in bed.”

Jones’s tutor and mentor stuck with her throughout this difficult period. This helped her to stay focused. She was also driven to prove to herself that she could get back on her feet.

“Once you’ve lost something that you’ve created and that was important to you, you feel like you need to prove to yourself that it wasn’t a fluke.”

There were moments where she thought about quitting, but she stuck to her guns. She achieved the qualification and started piecing her life back together, taking on freelance work and lecturing at the University of Hertfordshire and Birmingham City University. She became Chartered in 2019. “That was a real confidence boost. I always wanted to aim for it, but I didn’t know how possible it would be.”

In 2020, after her freelance work dried up, she founded Third Sector Experts. It’s a consultancy helping people to launch charities, social enterprises, NGOs and community groups.

To her surprise, it has grown

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“ When you’ve got children, you have no choice but to be motivated.

They won’t allow you to kind of wallow in self-pity and stay in bed” rapidly; by June, the business was turning over £100,000, and Jones was profiled in The Sun. “I thought it would be a slowburner, but I’m still waiting for that quiet moment!”

Her experience of homelessness has influenced her management style. It has helped her to be more understanding, she says, and it has taught her to deal with things that are outside her control. It has also shaped how she works with people. She likes to take a supportive, trusting and “non-managerial” approach.

“I manage the company, the workloads and clients, but I don’t manage people. I’m there for help, support and leadership.

They can manage themselves.”

Rachael is now working on a scale-up plan for year two. And even if everything doesn’t go to plan, she knows she’ll be able to adapt and adjust.

M AN AGER S .ORG.UK — 59

Damian Culhane helps clients slay their inner self-sabotage “dragons”. He learned how through bitter personal experience ---------

How Damian Culhane learned to stop self-sabotaging

In 2005, Damian Culhane CMgr FCMI’s son was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It was a devastating blow. Culhane felt it was up to him to hold it together. “I had to be positive for my family, even though I was crushed and crumbling inside.”

But his son’s health made him reconsider his priorities. It was the push he needed to start his own coaching business. His specialism would be compassion and empathy. It was a far cry from the intense sales and targets environment he was used to working in. He was ambitious and successful – but only to a point. Promotions would often be followed by underperformance, and he sometimes struggled to get on with his managers.

“I would often move company before I was pushed out,” he recalls. “But I didn’t realise it was a pattern until much later.”

Culhane obtained several coaching, management and NLP qualifications and became a Chartered Manager in 2007.

All seemed to be going great.

But while he was helping other people improve, he’d never 60 — WIN TER 202 1

considered himself. He was still repeating the same selfdestructive patterns. In 2015, his marriage of 24 years ended.

“I wallowed in self-pity,” he says.

“Then I gradually realised that I had put myself in this situation.

I had sabotaged my marriage, which affected my relationships with my sons. I remember thinking ‘Now, why did you do that?’”

Culhane had this epiphany during a personal growth workshop in 2017. He realised how much of a self-saboteur he was and where he’d been going wrong all this time.

Self-sabotage is linked to our fight or flight response within our reptilian brain. It’s designed to keep us safe from all sorts of real or imagined threats.

Culhane subscribes to Stanford lecturer Shirzad Chamine’s “Ten saboteurs” model for identifying how you sabotage yourself.

In that model, the self-critical Judge is the strongest, followed by accomplice saboteurs: Avoider, Controller, Hyper-Achiever, HyperRational, Hyper-Vigilant, Pleaser, Restless, Stickler and Victim.

Saboteurs will question your

natural ability and are triggered by the judgment of yourself, others and your circumstances.

“Learning all this was like waking up from the Matrix,” recalls Culhane. “I realised I didn’t have to accept the way I’ve been.

I was always ambitious in my career, but I’d been holding the underlying belief that I wasn’t capable or wasn’t good enough, which is why I kept moving on.”

Now Culhane has transformed his thinking and behaviour, using the benefit of his experience and knowledge to help others change their mindset. “It’s about

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“ I had sabotaged my marriage, which affected my relationships with my sons. I remember thinking ‘Now, why did you do that?’” making a positive difference to people’s lives so they can be the best version of themselves,” he explains. “The best managers are the ones who can unlock people’s potential through guidance and support, and that means offering compassion and empathy while transforming someone’s thinking.

That’s what I love to do.” • M AN AGER S .ORG.UK — 61

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Published on behalf of CMI by: Think Media Group, 20 Mortimer Street, London, NW1 5DH 02037 717200 — editorial@managers.org.uk — CMI is incorporated by Royal Charter and registered as a charity (No. 1091035). CMI does not necessarily agree with, nor guarantee the accuracy of, statements made by contributors or advertisers, or accept responsibility for any statements they may make in this publication.

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