Leadership Excellence - August 2022

AUGUST 2022 • Vol. 39 • No. 08 (ISSN 2562-0711)

HOW LEADERSAS-COACHES CAN COMBAT IMPOSTER SYNDROME IN THEIR TEAMS - Melanie Ho,

Speaker and Facilitator, Strategic Imagination

10

17

Coaching Leaders Effectively Through Post-Pandemic Fatigue

What Leading With Emotional Intelligence Looks Like

Compassionate Leadership Is Key To Company Growth

Is A “Great Reckoning” For Business Leaders Coming?

Multi-Health Systems Inc

EI Experience

Next PR

Hinge

- Brady Hansma,

- Carolyn Stern,

24

- Geri Johnson,

31

- Lee W. Frederiksen, PhD,

INDEX

Leadership Excellence AUGUST 2022

Vol.39 No.08 (ISSN 2562-0711)

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How Leaders-asCoaches Can Combat Imposter Syndrome In Their Teams Ensure self-doubt doesn’t harm organizational objectives

On the Cover

- Melanie Ho,

Speaker and Facilitator, Strategic Imagination

Articles Sponsored

13 Deskless Workers Are Quitting Because Too Many Executives Are Living In A Fairy Tale - Amber Biela-Weyenberg, Senior Content Marketing Manager, HCM Global Campaigns, Oracle

36 Why Startups Are Better Positioned For Building A Corporate Soul Startups have the energy and the spirit - Ralf Specht, Visionary Global Business Leader

and Creator, Soul System™

20 Breaking The Cycle Of Resistance To Change 40 She-Roes Who Are Shifting The Narrative In 3 points every leader should consider The Black And Latino Community - Dr. Dawn-Marie Turner, Turner Change Management Inc. 27 What Business Leaders Can Learn From The NBA And NFL Diverse representation at the top - Aaron Epting, Partner, Consulting, Root In.

Having diverse women in leadership can benefit the community and the workplace - Rikki Roehrich, Author

44

Energizing Employee Recognition, Appreciation, and Inspiration HR.com Professional Education Team

Top Picks

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INDEX

Coaching Leaders Effectively Through Post-Pandemic Fatigue Empathy is a skill that many leaders pay less attention to compared to other emotional skills - Brady Hansma, Psychometrician, Multi-Health Systems Inc

17

What Leading With Emotional Intelligence Looks Like

24

Emotionally intelligent leaders can see the opportunities in every challenges - Carolyn Stern,

President and CEO, EI Experience

Compassionate Leadership Is Key To Company Growth Why putting your people ahead of profits pays off - Geri Johnson, Chief Operating Officer, Next PR

31

Is A “Great Reckoning” For Business Leaders Coming?

Offer leadership programs for managers at all levels across your organization - Lee W. Frederiksen, PhD,

Managing Partner, Hinge

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EDITOR’S NOTE Editorial Purpose Our mission is to promote personal and professional development based on

Babitha Balakrishnan

Debbie Mcgrath

Editor, Leadership Excellence

Publisher, HR.com

constructive values, sound ethics, and timeless principles.

Excellence Publications Debbie McGrath

CEO, HR.com - Publisher

Dawn Jeffers VP, Sales

Sue Kelley

Director (Product, Marketing, and Research)

Babitha Balakrishnan and Deepa Damodaran

Excellence Publications Managers and Editors

Leadership Excellence Team Babitha Balakrishnan Editor

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Design and Layout (Digital Magazine)

Vibha

Putting People First Helps Leaders Achieve Their Goals In today’s disruptive world, organizations need: 1. a culture, where people feel valued and 2. leaders, who build trust with their people.

Rather than managing people, leaders should don the mentor’s cap, especially in today’s hybrid working world. Managers need to give their people a feeling of confidence and reassurance during a time of uncertainty. Trusting employees and providing them with opportunities to improve their skills will empower them.

Also, being a leader with emotional intelligence will help to foster a workplace culture that is healthy and productive.

Although there is ample information available on how a leader should handle a crisis, it is equally important to know how leaders have fared through the pandemic.

How have they been managing?

Magazine (Online Version)

Submissions & Correspondence Please send any correspondence, articles, letters to the editor, and requests to reprint, republish, or excerpt articles to ePubEditors@hr.com.

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Leadership Excellence

The August issue of Leadership Excellence includes expert articles that focus on leadership skills and strategies that will help transform cultures and workplaces.

As leaders struggle to retain talent, imposter syndrome among their teams can increase departure risk. A coaching mindset is critical for leaders to combat this. Leadership consultant, Melanie Ho, Ph.D., in her article, How Leaders-asCoaches Can Combat Imposter Syndrome In Their Teams, explains how leaders can counter self-limiting beliefs and help all employees thrive.

In his article, Coaching Leaders Effectively Through Post-Pandemic Fatigue, Multi-Health Systems Inc.’s Brady Hansma highlights how the pandemic has affected the emotional intelligence of leaders and how it can be improved.

"Putting people first always pays off," says Next PR's Geri Johnson. In her article, Compassionate Leadership Is Key To Company Growth, Geri emphasizes putting your people ahead of profits and leading with compassion for overall success.

What leadership lessons can we learn from the NBA and NFL? Root Inc.'s Aaron Epting writes about that.

In brief, being a leader in this uncertain world involves a lot of unlearning and adapting. If an organization wants to thrive, leaders should improve their leadership skills and create an inclusive and diverse workplace for a positive culture and employee experience.

We hope you enjoy reading all the articles and find some helpful tips and takeaways from this issue of Leadership Excellence.

Do let us know your thoughts, suggestions, and feedback on our articles.

Happy Reading!

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COVER ARTICLE

How Leaders-asCoaches Can Combat Imposter Syndrome In Their Teams Ensure self-doubt doesn’t harm organizational objectives

By Melanie Ho, Strategic Imagination

M

ost experience “imposter syndrome” at some point in their careers, but feelings of self-doubt are most acute during times of rapid change. Due to shifts in the market landscape, employees at all levels now must take on challenges with no precedent or playbook. Faced with burnout, demands to do more with less, and continued uncertainty, even high-performers are more likely to question their own competence.

As leaders struggle to retain talent, imposter syndrome among their teams can exacerbate departure risk. Imposter syndrome can lead employees to self-sabotage, resulting in lower job performance. Finally, imposter syndrome can make it hard for managers to differentiate between employees that require concrete skill development vs. those needing assurance that they already have what it takes.

A coaching mindset is critical for leaders to combat the rise in imposter syndrome in their organizations.

Here are three ways that leaders-as-coaches can combat self-limiting beliefs among their teams.

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1. Normalize Trial-and-Error as a Necessary Part of Uncertainty and Change It’s normal to fear failure when we take on new responsibilities. What’s even harder is when we’re facing so much uncertainty and change that as soon as we get a handle on a problem, the situation shifts.

Complexity theory can help explain why imposter syndrome is on the rise today. Rick Nason’s It’s Not Complicated: The Art and Science of Complexity for Business talk about the distinction between complicated vs. complex problems. While complicated problems aren’t easy to solve perse, at least they can be addressed through predictable processes. By contrast, complex problems have too many unknowns. There’s no standard rule book, and plans need to continuously evolve. This can exacerbate imposter syndrome, as employees internalize what’s challenging about the situation—one where trial-and-error is necessary, and the goal post keeps moving—as their own fault.

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How Leaders-as-Coaches Can Combat Imposter Syndrome In Their Teams

employees who are promoted to the same position.

The firm’s congratulatory memo applauds Mike for the revenues he’s brought in, and Mara for the brownies she bakes for meetings. Moments like this give Mike an extra confidence boost for his revenue ability, and can lead Mara to question whether she’s only valued for her baking skill.

When there aren’t replicable processes or single right answers, it’s even more critical for the leader’s role to be coach, mentor, and guide—not an all-knowing expert. In coaching employees to navigate the twists and turns, leaders-as-coaches emphasize the importance of trial-and-error. They guide employees to think about pilot phases and how to assess and course-correct after calculated risks. They also celebrate failure as a key element of cultures of innovation, such as by holding “ideas funerals” or displaying “failed ideas hall of fame.”

When leaders normalize—and support employees through— trial-and-error, individuals understand that growth necessitates failure and risk, rather than feel like imposters when things don’t go perfectly right away.

2. Diagnose the “Why” Employees Are Experiencing Self-Doubt Push for systemic solutions, especially those needed to support women and employees of color.

Leaders-as-coaches look to diagnose problems, rather than assume one-size-fits-all solutions. While imposter syndrome impacts everyone, the challenges can be especially acute for women and employees of color. To combat this discrepancy, leaders-as-coaches need to understand the “why.”

In my book, Beyond Leaning In: Gender Equity and What Organizations are Up Against, we look at several fictionalized case studies that demonstrate how women’s confidence gets unintentionally whittled away. In one example scenario, we meet two

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In interviews with hundreds of professional women, I’ve found that women often wonder if they did something wrong in these situations, blaming themselves for their wide range of talents not being seen as recognized. Many leaders assume women arrive in the workplace with a “confidence gap,” rather than looking at how imposter syndrome can be created, or at least exacerbated, by these types of unintentional biases. Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey’s viral 2021 Harvard Business Review piece “Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome,” has recently started bringing more attention to the systemic bias and exclusion that lead women of color to feel self-doubt. They argue that employers need to address the underlying systems rather than assuming the solution is to “fix” the women.

Leaders must foster psychological safety with their employees, helping staff feel comfortable raising their experiences with bias, rather than internalizing it as their fault. Honest conversations—paired with the leader’s own work of learning what biases are most prevalent in the workplace—can help leaders know where they need to develop systemic solutions. For example, this can include codifying expectations of different roles so that women do not take on disproportionate office housekeeping tasks, or doing a “bias check” on formal communications.

3. Develop Clear Expectations and a Coaching Plan for Team Members Assuming Complex New Roles or Tasks Imposter syndrome can spiral when employees aren’t sure what constitutes success. Some may overwork to the point of burnout in a quest to prove themselves.

Others may suffer analysis paralysis and indecision due to fear of being exposed. Leaders can help by setting clear expectations as to what “victory” looks like at the end of a process or project.

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How Leaders-as-Coaches Can Combat Imposter Syndrome In Their Teams

Expectations also need to include a coaching plan, or how the leader—and others in the organization— will support the team member along the way. Too many leaders end up worsening imposter syndrome when they throw their employees into the deep end.

To develop a coaching plan, leaders need to ask themselves questions like: ●● What are the “new” things the team member needs to learn, and which will be harder than others? ●● How will the leader phase coaching, support, and expected independence accordingly? What needs to happen in the first two weeks vs. three months or beyond? ●● Where will the leader provide targeted training, draw on other leaders or the employees’ peers within the organization, or expect the employee to pursue self-directed learning? ●● Does the employee know where they’re accountable for their own development, while also feeling comfortable asking for help? ●● What does success look like in 30, 90, 120 days? How will goals be course-corrected as organizational needs and context evolve?

to stay in place. Self-doubt is a natural byproduct of these constant shifts. However, by normalizing trial-and-error, addressing the systemic biases that exacerbate imposter syndrome among different groups, and prioritizing clear expectations and a coaching plan, leaders can counter self-limiting beliefs and help all employees thrive.

Melanie Ho, Ph.D. is a leadership consultant, keynote speaker, and workshop facilitator who has worked with leaders at Fortune 500 companies, leading universities, and small start-ups on organizational design, future visioning, leadership development, and DEI. She is also the author of Beyond Leaning In: Gender Equity and What Organizations are Up Against, a 2022 recipient in the Axiom Awards recognizing the world’s best business books.

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TOP PICK

Coaching Leaders Effectively Through Post-Pandemic Fatigue Empathy is a skill that many leaders pay less attention to compared to other emotional skills

By Brady Hansma, Multi-Health Systems Inc.

T

he pandemic has taken us, our relatives, friends, and organizations through various ups and downs. In the early days of this pandemic, our focus was on adapting to new protocols and isolation and thinking it should all be over soon—a few months at most. More recently, it has morphed into bouts of malaise, depression, burnout, bewilderment, and “The Great Resignation.”

People everywhere have taken time to re-evaluate their lives, values, and work over the last two years and many have made big decisions on where to take their next chapter. Millions of people from front-line contributors up to C-level executives have made bold moves into new frontiers, many decisions occurring without even a quarter of the due diligence they would have ordinarily (pre-pandemic) carried out.

What about those who weathered the storm? How have leaders fared through the pandemic? While it’s not over yet, and it may be too early to draw any definitive conclusions, we’re starting to see some hints. As the world’s leading assessment company for emotional intelligence, and the first to start measuring it, we have accumulated millions of evaluations of

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emotional intelligence over the years. We were, like many of you, curious as to what impact the pandemic had on overall emotional intelligence. We looked at two independent samples of leaders assessed for their emotional intelligence pre-pandemic and two years into the pandemic. These individuals were all assessed using the Emotional Quotient Inventory 2.0 (EQ-i 2.0®), the first choice for many of today’s leading organizations.

How Has the Pandemic Affected the Emotional Intelligence of Leaders?

What is different in the emotional intelligence skills of these two groups of leaders? How may the pandemic have affected leadership? Do they show more emotional intelligence after having to cope with the crises? Or have they been burned out and displayed lower levels of emotional skills.

Our two samples included 114 leaders’ results recorded pre-pandemic and 104 different leaders’ results recorded one year into the pandemic (March 2021). They are all from the same company in the financial services industry.

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Coaching Leaders Effectively Through Post-Pandemic Fatigue

According to our data, there are no statistically significant differences among the two groups of leaders we examined (this follows the same pattern we found when we examined a sample of thousands of customers who completed the EQ-i 2.0 from March – November of 2020: average EQ-i 2.0 scores remained unchanged during the height of the pandemic).

However, within our samples of leaders, while there were no significant increases or decreases, there were trends, both positive and negative, that we can observe and learn from.

The most notable differences were observed for the subscales Self-Regard, Assertiveness, and Stress Tolerance. It seems that leaders have become more self-confident. Successfully navigating your way through a crisis helps build self-confidence. You feel stronger after managing to deal with complex life events. Covid certainly provided leaders with their share of obstacles.

Whether it’s dealing with people who are struggling or in difficult situations—such as supply chain shortages—leaders tended to show greater confidence during this time period.

Another aspect of dealing with crises as a leader is maintaining your ability to be assertive. Maintaining assertiveness could include expressing how you are coping and sending clear messages to your teams and contributors on your expectations of them during the crisis. Good leaders know how to express themselves well and keep everyone in the loop.

It should be no surprise that leaders who have continued leading through these times have stronger stress tolerance skills. These skills, of course, are essential for getting through situations like this pandemic and being an effective team leader.

Managing their stress and those around them has proven to be a valuable skill.

However, a few emotional intelligence skills seem to be less pronounced in the second cohort of leaders (that is, those studied two years into the pandemic).

These are the skills of Empathy and Emotional SelfAwareness. In times of stress, it seems many leaders

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tend to lose some of their focus on understanding their own feelings and the feelings of others. There may be a need or urgency to get things done and keep things moving, and less of an inclination to check one’s own feelings and the feelings of others. This scenario is a time when empathy and understanding how those around you feel can be essential for leaders. Empathy is a skill that many leaders pay less attention to compared to other emotional skills. The payoff for empathy is not always immediate.

Caring about others tends to pay its dividends further down the road. This skill is one of those supposedly “soft” skills that is harder than it seems. When things are in crisis mode around you, often the last thing you want to do is listen to someone else’s problems and how they may be feeling about them right now.

But feeling understood by someone else really builds the bond that people need to become engaged with their leaders and believe more strongly in their team and mission.

Coaching Leaders Effectively Through Post-Pandemic Fatigue If you coach leaders, there are several takeaways from this data. Of course, as always, focus on your client’s own strengths and scores, following their lead with what areas they wish to improve on.

1. An excellent place to start is with selfawareness. We all have some degree of stress related to the pandemic and its effects on work. Try and get a sense of where your client is at. ●● How have they been managing? ●● Have they taken any rest or breaks? This has been a time of self-reflection for many people. ●● Have there been any changes in how they see themselves coping – at home, at work, among friends? What has it been like emotionally? How are they dealing with those emotions? ●● How are they spending their off-work time?

Are they satisfied with their amount of off-work time?

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Coaching Leaders Effectively Through Post-Pandemic Fatigue

2. Then check out their empathy experiences. ●● Have they been able to connect with peers, subordinates, and supervisors? ●● Are they aware of how others around them are coping? ●● Have they taken any steps to deal with other people’s challenges? Have the leader tell you about some of the experiences their subordinates and peers have had dealing with the pandemic. Discover what those experiences have meant to them. Is the leader fully appreciative of what others are going through? ●● How can they be more aware of others in their orbit? Just making leaders aware of others and what they may be experiencing can open the door to increasing their empathy.

3. Take a temperature check on any key strengths as well.

These are challenging times for all of us. The effects of the pandemic are unprecedented in our lifetime.

Fortunately, tools like the EQ-i 2.0 provide us with both a baseline and a gauge of our clients’ emotional management during these times. As a coach, helping others find their balance can be stabilizing for you as well. Some coaches have reported how energizing it was personally for them to assist others in navigating these times. So, use the latest and most relevant information to help drive great outcomes for you and your clients.

Brady Hansma is a Psychometrician at Multi-Health Systems Inc, where he employs a wide range of statistical methods to help ensure their assessments are valid, reliable and fair.

He has worked on products spanning the Clinical, Education and Talent divisions.

●● Are they being overused? ●● Are leaders being overly assertive at the expense of empathy? This is where the balancing parts of the EQ-i 2.0 reports come into play. Talk about the healthy balancing of skills.

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Deskless Workers Are Quitting Because Too Many Executives Are Living In A Fairy Tale

By Amber Biela-Weyenberg, Oracle

O

nce upon a time, in a not-so-distant land, the relationship between companies and their people was quite different. Some rulers at corporations, large and small, believed that workers didn’t need much to be happy. In fact, many argued that a steady paycheck should be enough to bring a smile to their faces.

US businesses have increased wages for deskless workers by 7 to 10%, but they keep leaving.1 The question is, as an organization, how do you begin to repair the employee experience for these people?

First, your mindset must shift in three critical areas.

However, some of the people were discontented. Far too many toiled away day after day in jobs that didn’t bring them joy for years, just to avoid the job hopper stigma. These workers resigned themselves to settle.

You must put people first. Many issues deskless workers experience stem from the fact that some organizations don’t think of their frontline employees as people with genuine needs and real-world problems. Case in point: Only 13% of the 2.7 billion deskless workers worldwide—who make up 80% of the labor force—have paid sick time.2 A worker on the front lines might find themselves reporting for duty sick because otherwise, they’d struggle to feed their family. Yet another person who happens to work in the office for the same company would likely get paid time off.

Now, that time seems like the stuff of fairy tales— familiar yet unrealistic by today’s standards. It took a disruptive worldwide event to shake people from their apathetic fog. As priorities shifted, employees dared to dream of better lives and began to expect more from their employers.

Over only a few years, this radical transformation left many executives out of touch and stuck in the past.

They don’t understand what talent wants or how the tide could shift so quickly and dramatically. Deskless workers—historically, the most overlooked group in the workforce—continue to be an afterthought when it comes to the employee experience. It’s no surprise they’re quitting in record numbers.

While more money is appreciated, money alone isn’t the answer. Since the start of the pandemic,

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Be Human

Why? If we’re being blunt, snobbery is part of the problem. Some executives and managers mistakenly believe that deskless workers, who sometimes don’t have a degree, are easily replaceable and less valuable than other employees. Instead of giving them the support they need, these organizations choose to cut costs by denying them paid time off for vacation, benefits, and sufficient breaks during the day—even in physically demanding roles.

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Deskless Workers Are Quitting Because Too Many Executives Are Living In A Fairy Tale

However, this belief is flawed. We’ve all seen what happens when frontline employees are removed from the equation—empty shelves, canceled flights, reduced restaurant hours, stores going out of business, and supply chain complications. Early in the pandemic, this was often due to COVID-19-related isolation and quarantine, but now, it’s related to high quit rates. And the standard way many organizations have operated for decades greatly influenced the current situation.

When companies don’t support their deskless workers’ needs as human beings, their employee experience suffers. With recent shifts in worker expectations and the labor shortage, these organizations now struggle to hire and retain talent because they’re no longer competitive. However, if you support your people, you’ll be an employer of choice.

Be Inclusive Truly inclusive organizations realize that inclusivity branches out beyond race, gender, ability, etc., and includes every workgroup too. HR’s responsibility is to ensure that each employee is treated fairly, which is difficult if your organization’s policies aren’t created with deskless workers in mind. For this reason, Josh

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Bersin recommends that HR designs hybrid work policies in tandem with a new deskless employee experience to give everyone similar opportunities.3 For example, one of the tenants of hybrid work is greater flexibility. A store clerk can’t work remotely as a marketing coordinator can, but they can work longer hours, which means working fewer days a week.

Frontline employees could also work at different locations or stagger their hours for more work-life balance.

It’s worth noting organizations that make everybody report to the office in the name of equality aren’t following a winning strategy for overall talent retention. Plus, this approach doesn’t improve the employee experience of your deskless workforce.

The key is to tailor opportunities to every workgroup, so everyone wins. Making intentional decisions like these regarding policies and workplace opportunities helps deskless workers feel like they’re a respected part of the team—like they belong. As a company, you must also figure out what matters most to employees on the front lines, and the best way to do that is to listen.

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Deskless Workers Are Quitting Because Too Many Executives Are Living In A Fairy Tale

Listen Some wants are universal, such as flexibility, autonomy, adequate training, and good management.

But you need to survey and listen to feedback from your deskless workforce to understand their unique wants and how well you’re delivering on all fronts as an organization. HR can use frequent pulse surveys to gauge employee sentiment and solicit feedback on new initiatives and policies.

Read the ebook “5 Steps to Create a Better Employee Experience for Deskless Workers” for insights on how to protect your organization, the global economy, and the supply chain by improving the experiences of your deskless workforce. *Disclaimer: The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality and

Managers are in a prime position to help their companies understand deskless worker priorities, but many don’t have meaningful conversations with employees. If a supervisor only ever asks about day-to-day work, it may feel awkward to bring up other topics, such as advancement opportunities or voicing a concern. Workers may even be more likely to leave than risk an uncomfortable conversation or assume the manager, and therefore the company, doesn’t care.

should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, timing, and pricing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products may change and remains at the sole discretion of Oracle Corporation.

1

Deborah Lovich, David Welch, Julia Dhar, and France

Joris, “Why US Frontline Workers Are Quitting,” Harvard Business Review, March 14, 2022, hbr.org/2022/03/ why-u-s-frontline-workers-are-quitting.

Oracle ME, part of Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, includes a powerful continuous listening tool and action channel called Oracle Touchpoints* to help managers foster stronger relationships with their direct reports.

Oracle Touchpoints* encourages frequent one-on-one conversations, and the Nudges feature recommends actions to engage the workforce. Managers can send quick pulse surveys to their teams and track real-time sentiment, allowing them to address concerns immediately.

2

“New Bersin Research Unlocks the Secrets for Creating

a Supportive Environment for Vital Deskless Workers,” PR Newswire, November 17, 2021, www.prnewswire.com/ news-releases/new-bersin-research-unlocks-the-secrets-for-creating-a-supportive-environment-for-vital-deskless-workers-301426389.html.

3

The Big Reset Playbook: Deskless Workers, The Josh

Bersin Company, October 2021, joshbersin.com/wp-content/ uploads/2021/10/BigReset_21_10-Deskless-Workers.pdf

When managers are invested in their people, it builds trust, boosts retention, and makes it easier for individuals to grow. Arguably, supervisors and managers have the biggest impact on an employee’s experience. A Gallup study found that managers account for a 70% variance in employee engagement scores.4 To improve the deskless workers’ experience as an organization, you must empower managers with the proper training, tools, and encouragement to build relationships and help employees thrive.

4

Austin Suellentrop and E. Beth Bauman, “How Influential Is a

Good Manager?” Gallup, June 2, 2021, www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/350423/influential-good-manager.aspx.

Amber Biela-Weyenberg is the Senior Content Marketing Manager, HCM Global Campaigns at Oracle. She's passionate about writing, dogs, lifting others, and personal growth.

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TOP PICK

What Leading With Emotional Intelligence Looks Like Emotionally intelligent leaders can see the opportunities in every challenges

By Carolyn Stern, EI Experience

I

n today’s day and age, soft skills are equally as important as—if not more important than— hard skills.

According to organizational consultant and author Warren Bennis, EI is the biggest factor in workplace success. “Emotional intelligence, more than any other factor, more than I.Q. or expertise, accounts for 85 percent to 95 percent of success at work… I.Q. is a threshold competency. You need it, but it doesn’t make you a star. Emotional intelligence can.”

Technical skills and intelligence are the price of admission as you move up the proverbial corporate ladder, but their importance starts to wane as you advance throughout your career. We all know that IQ isn’t everything; being a genius doesn’t automatically equal success.

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As the old saying goes, “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.” But allow me to offer a spin on the phrase: “It’s not what you know; it’s the strength of the relationships you have with who you know.”

Leading with EI is the magnetic attraction that captures everyone’s

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attention and moves teams forward. Professionals with high EI have exceptional selfawareness, better control of their actions, and more empathy for others. An increased level of EI can also help individuals manage stress better, build healthier relationships, and be more successful in work and life.

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What Leading With Emotional Intelligence Looks Like

emotional well-being has on their organization and their life.

To be an emotionally intelligent leader, you do not have to be perfect. But you do need to start to recognize, understand, and learn how your internal emotions are influencing your external results. But how do you do that? By being courageous enough to explore and share what lies beneath your surface so that others will feel safe to do the same.

Excerpted from The Emotionally Strong Leader: An Inside-Out Journey to Trans-

A leader with high EI builds mutually beneficial and nurturing relationships based on trust and compassion. They actively listen, can put themselves in other people’s shoes, and see things from perspectives other than their own.

Those who lead with EI show humility in their actions. They admit publicly when they make a mistake. They ask for input and help. They give specific praise and constructive feedback to their teams so they can grow and develop and are always open to feedback on how they can be better as a leader. They model the way and confidently speak up in meetings—encouraging everyone to do the same. This prevents the team going along with unilateral decisions.

A key to EI leadership is the fostering of a growth mindset.

Emotionally intelligent leaders

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can see the opportunities in every challenges. They commit to noticing, articulating, and regulating their emotions, so their teams will do the same.

They bravely lead their teams during challenging and uncertain times, and even though their emotions are heightened, they know how to regulate their behaviors and responses. They use emotional information to help solve problems. These leaders can think objectively and not let emotions cloud their judgment.

They do their research and gather the facts, first to weigh the pros and cons and then to come to an informed decision.

Leaders with high EI set clear boundaries, especially when physical boundaries are blurred between their work and home life.

They model the way by investing in, and boosting, their physical and mental health because they understand the positive impact

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formational Leadership by Carolyn Stern.

Copyright © 2022 by Carolyn Stern & Associates Inc. Excerpted with permission from Figure 1 Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Carolyn Stern is the President and CEO of EI Experience—an executive leadership development and emotional intelligence training firm. She is a certified Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Development Expert, professional speaker, and university professor.

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CHART YOUR PATH IN OUR UNCERTAIN WORLD OF WORK 16-17 November 2022 ExCeL Venue, London

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Breaking The Cycle Of Resistance To Change 3 points every leader should consider

By Dr. Dawn-Marie Turner, Turner Change Management Inc.

C

ompanies spend huge amounts of money and resources on change initiatives that fall short.

Leaders state that resistance and a change-resistant culture are two of the biggest barriers to organizational change1.

The notion that people resist change has become a familiar and largely unchallenged belief that has shaped our thinking and approach for over six decades.

However, the belief that people resist change doesn’t make sense in a world defined by constant change.

Every day we talk about, read articles, and hear leaders discuss the constancy of change. Employees are burning out, overwhelmed, and fatigued by all the changes. If people resisted change so adamantly, change would be rare, but it is not.

The problem is not that people are resistant to change. The problem is that leaders believe people are resistant to change. As a result, they make a significant mistake and overlook a simple fact: Not everyone will be at the same level of readiness at the same time.

Here are three key points to consider when leading any significant organizational change:

1. Leaders Have a Head Start The initiator of any change starts their transition before others in the organization, and any differences in response are not an indicator of resistance but readiness.

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The problem is not that people are resistant to change. The problem is that leaders believe pe ople are resistant to change

For example, I was asked to help one executive team.

They had announced a significant manufacturing change to the employees and wanted help to manage what they perceived as resistance. A short conversation with the VP of HR revealed the problem was not employee resistance. Instead, the executive team had failed to recognize and take into account the head start they and other leaders had gotten to prepare themselves for the change.

The executive team had spent almost 18 months thinking about the problem, analyzing possible solutions, and getting used to the changes needed.

They were expecting their employees to implement the solution in eight weeks.

The employees were surprised by the announcement and didn’t understand the problem. When they raised concerns, questioned the timing, and expressed doubt that it would work, they were labeled as resistant.

As we talked about the time executives had to prepare and get ready for the change, they realized it was unrealistic to expect their employees to adopt a change in eight weeks that they had spent 18 months preparing for.

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Breaking The Cycle Of Resistance To Change

The Solution: Adopt a Readiness Mindset™ Readiness drives the pace of every change, whether in nature or in your organization. Our ability to adopt new activities is not driven by a lack of resistance, but instead by our level of readiness. Resistance and readiness can’t coexist. That’s why adopting a Readiness Mindset is so powerful.

2. Readiness is a Process that Doesn’t Happen Simultaneously for Everyone

A Readiness Mindset is grounded in the belief that every person has the innate ability to adapt to and adopt new ideas, activities, and behaviors. Leaders who work with a Readiness Mindset know how to create the conditions that build readiness and reduce the discomfort needed for people to move through the change process.

As spring comes later to locales farther north than south, people move through change at different speeds. Failure to adequately assess readiness and account for the differences among different groups and people in your organization is one reason organizational change initiatives fall short or fail.

When you adopt a Readiness Mindset, you realize that people will move toward something new and different once they understand the need and feel prepared, capable, and supported. This allows you to engage with curiosity to seek feedback, prepare, and guide people through the change process.

Similar to the transition from winter to spring, the time needed to get ready for any change follows a predictable pattern and is dependent on external and internal conditions. Factors such as the language used to describe the change, your organization’s history with change, the current operational conditions, and trust all influence the time needed to build readiness.

Note:

3. Stop Labeling Lag Time as Resistance That’s what’s happening in many organizations.

We label the employees who do not demonstrate the expected level of enthusiasm, ask too many questions, or are slow to embrace the idea of change as resistant. We mistake the lag time between our level of readiness and that of our employees as resistance.

Best Practices in Change Management 2018 ProSci Benchmarking Report

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Dr. Dawn-Marie Turner, author of Launch, Lead, Live: The Executive’s Guide to Preventing Resistance & Succeeding With Organizational Change teaches stories, techniques, and the science to take your team from change-resistant to changeready, from stressed-out to resilient.

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When that happens, it’s easy to set in motion a toxic cycle of change grounded in the belief that people resist change. This can sabotage your current and future change efforts.

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Compassionate Leadership Is Key To Company Growth Why putting your people ahead of profits pays off

By Geri Johnson, Next PR

A

fter just a few days of working with a new client, a team member came to me exhausted and visibly stressed. We hadn’t even received our first payment yet and the client was becoming a nightmare already.

This account seemed like a fit for our agency and promised a hefty retainer, but the client began making outrageous demands like scheduling last-minute calls at 10PM, insisting on only communicating with our CEO and rudely dismissing our team’s seasoned counsel.

It was clear we had to walk away. While we missed out on a payday, we were not willing to burn out our team to make a buck. We chose to protect and prioritize team member wellbeing over profits, and this business philosophy has made an immeasurable difference in the success and growth of our company.

Where Empathy Meets Action I’ve always considered myself an empathetic person.

I easily relate to people, understand what they’re going through and feel the impact of their joys and concerns. But as a business executive, putting that empathy into action – being a compassionate leader – has become an essential strategy.

It hasn’t always been this way. For years, companies have pushed employees to work harder and longer, to

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sacrifice their personal time, health, goals and family obligations for the organization. They’ve put company performance ahead of their people and set unrealistic expectations and standards.

It’s still this way in many organizations. I can’t tell you how many applicants I’ve interviewed who ask, “If a client quits, do I lose my job?” I’m always stunned!

It has never occurred to us to act that way or even consider fostering a fear-based environment.

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Compassionate Leadership Is Key To Company Growth

Across every industry, organizations have felt the sting of this company-first attitude as employees have resigned in droves, seeking better, more flexible and more compassionate environments. The Great Resignation has inspired companies to offer new benefits to recruit and retain employees, but they should have been doing that in the first place. You need to come from a place of authenticity and the rest will follow – you must find ways to put your people first.

Putting Compassionate Leadership in Practice Compassionate leadership can’t come from a place of panic as you begin to lose employees or fear The Great Resignation. It has to come from a place of authenticity. If you truly want to implement compassionate leadership, you need to go beyond trendy office amenities like a ping-pong table or espresso machines. Consider higher-level strategies you can implement across the organization. Here are some that have worked at our organization to keep our retention rate far higher than industry average.

1. Feel good, do good. It’s essential to prioritize employees’ physical and mental well-being – when they feel good, they do their best work.

We embrace Peloton’s mantra that self-care is not selfish, and we take care of ourselves first so we can help others. This makes us much more agile and resilient to deliver for our team and clients. To support physical wellness, our company provides free health insurance and gifted our entire team Peloton bikes. To support mental wellness, we offer generous PTO, flexible hours and remote work opportunities.

We also foster a supportive atmosphere with ample parental leave and adoption benefits.

2. Ensure psychological safety. PR is a creative endeavor, and our team is most innovative when they have the freedom and flexibility to push the envelope and experiment. We encourage them to try new things; if they make mistakes, we recognize it as part of the growth process. Prioritize creating a safe place for

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everyone to experiment, speak up and share their ideas without fear. Your team will learn together and be stronger as a result.

3. Share the wealth. Our philosophy around net income is simple: The more revenue we bring in, the more we can spend on each other.

As leaders, we’re not trying to pad our bank accounts. Our priorities are to 1) tell stories that change the world and 2) provide fulfilling jobs that are fun, engaging, and don’t feel like work. How do we get there? By offering generous performance bonuses, providing new business commission opportunities to all team members, sending quarterly gift boxes, and sponsoring team-building events from happy hours to ziplining excursions and more. You need to invest in your people first.

4. Take a pause. Listening is a lost art – too many of us spend most of a conversation formulating responses instead of truly hearing what the other person has to say. During a recent Center for Compassionate Leadership Summit, “Where Compassion Meets Leadership,” I learned the value of taking a pause: creating an intentional space between hearing and reacting. Adopting this practice has helped me be more careful in the language I use – for example, asking team members to, “Tell me more,” instead of asking, “Why?” to avoid the perception of judgment. It has opened doors to more insightful conversation.

5. Create touchpoints. With so many remote team members, creating touchpoints with your team is crucial to help them know they’re valued. And it doesn’t have to be elaborate.

I love sending little GIFs to team members just to say, “Hello!” or personalized snail-mail to spread positivity and let them know I see and appreciate them. When one of our team members spent the final weeks of her pregnancy in the hospital, I sent her favorite cheese basket to her room. She shared later how much it meant to her, to know we truly cared about her and her family.

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Compassionate Leadership Is Key To Company Growth

6. Give team members a voice. To do their best work, your team needs to know they can come to you with challenges, and you’ll do your best to help solve them. On one of our recent all-team Monday Huddle calls, our CEO told the entire team that if there’s a client who makes you dread coming to work, let her or your manager know, and we’ll discuss options for ending the relationship. Our team knows we won’t force them to work with horrible clients – they have the safety to come forward and not suffer in silence.

7. Choose clients wisely. One of our core business principles is to work with clients we believe in and who align with our values. Sometimes that

means walking away from a potentially lucrative deal or choosing not to renew a relationship in order protect our team. By being selective, we ensure our team members won’t feel forced to promote something they don’t support personally, fueling their passion to work hard for clients they genuinely want to help succeed.

Putting your people ahead of profits and leading with compassion doesn’t just make your company a great place to work, it also fuels business success. By cultivating a compassionate environment, we have increased profits during one of the toughest economic times on record. This is powerful proof that putting people first always pays off.

Geri Johnson is Chief Operating Officer at Next PR. Geri has over 20 years of experience in the Fortune 100 financial services industry and is a Prosci-certified change management expert. For Geri, leading enterprise-wide transformation is more than a hobby, it’s a lifestyle.

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What Business Leaders Can Learn From The NBA And NFL Diverse representation at the top

By Aaron Epting, Root Inc. 73% of NBA players are Black. Currently, 50% of NBA head coaches are Black.

58% of NFL players are Black. To start next season, 9% of NFL head coaches will be Black.

One of these institutions mandates that each team “interview at least two external minority candidates for open head coaching positions,” and has had a form of this mandate for two decades. The other organization has never had such a requirement.

Can you guess which organization has the mandate?

If you chose the NFL, you are correct. Since 2003, the NFL has had various versions of this mandate (known as the “Rooney Rule,” after former Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney). But 20 years later, the racial demographics of the league’s head coaches do not at all reflect the demographics of the broader employee population.

This issue is reflected in the business world too, with many organizations acknowledging the same thing: their leadership does not at all reflect the demographics of the broader employee population.

Three Ways to Help Your Organization Emulate the NBA While the NBA is far from perfect when it comes to representation in leadership, and progress has not been a straight line, we see several important things for leaders to consider:

1. Lead with an Inclusion Vision and Conviction, not Diversity Rules and Mandates ●● Visit the NBA’s diversity and inclusion landing page, and you see the headline: “Basketball is for everyone.” ●● Visit the NFL’s diversity and inclusion landing page, and you see the headline: “The Rooney Rule.”

Certainly, an organization’s culture consists of much more than its website. But for the NBA, this vision, that “Basketball is for everyone,” is much more than a slogan. The NBA has an inclusion conviction that permeates its dialogue, from how the commissioner talks, to the initiatives that receive attention and dollars, to yes, marketing efforts as well. The vision is persistent and consistent.

So, what can we learn from the NBA and NFL?

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What Business Leaders Can Learn From The NBA And NFL

In stark contrast, the NFL continues to lead with the Rooney Rule, the mandate to interview candidates of color. In year three of the Rooney Rule, the league celebrated that Super Bowl XLI – played in February 2007 – was coached by two Black men (with Tony Dungy’s Colts defeating Lovie Smith’s Bears), with an all-time high of seven teams led by Black head coaches (22% of positions). But this leadership representation has never been replicated, despite strengthening the mandate over time.

Quite simply, the NFL has lacked a genuine inclusion vision and conviction. While yes, organizations can see positive outcomes from requiring diverse candidate slates for open positions, it’s time for the NFL to consider taking bigger, more substantial steps that leave less room for subpar representation. If your organization looks more like the NFL than the NBA, it’s time to ask yourself: Are diversity rules and mandates at the center of your organizational dialogue? Or do you as a leader persistently and consistently lead from an inclusion vision and conviction?

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2. Amplify, Don’t Muzzle, Employee Voices and Perspectives In March 2012, the NBA’s Miami Heat took a team photo in hoodies to support justice for the killing of Trayvon Martin. Their team’s first comments: “Our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of Trayvon Martin for their loss and for everyone involved in this terrible tragedy. We support our players and join them in hoping that their images and our logo can be part of the national dialogue and can help in our nation’s healing.”

In August 2016, the NFL’s Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem to bring attention to policing reform in communities of color. The NFL commissioner’s first comments: “I don’t necessarily agree with what he is doing. I support our players when they want to see change in society, and we don’t live in a perfect society… On the other hand, we believe very strongly in patriotism in the NFL. I personally believe very strongly in that.”

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What Business Leaders Can Learn From The NBA And NFL

Both responses claim to “support our players.” Yet, in practice, one organization followed through on this support, and one organization didn’t.

a little bit frustrating [lack of women coaches]. It’s an area you look around here, and you’d like to see more representation here with all aspects of our business.”

Four years later, only after George Floyd’s murder, did the NFL commissioner redefine what support should’ve looked like, telling former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho:

In 2021, here is how the NFL introduced its ninth annual Diversity and Inclusion Report:

“The first thing I’d say is I wish we had listened earlier, Kaep, to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to.”

As a business leader, are you listening to what employees are trying to bring attention to? As you listen, are you then amplifying employee voices (like the NBA’s Heat did) or muzzling them (like the NFL commissioner)?

3. Be Authentic and Avoid Celebrating Faux Progress In summer 2021, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver conducted his typical pre-NBA Finals news conference. When asked about increasing representation of Black and women coaches, here’s what he said: “It’s something that requires our daily attention. We aren’t going to rest on our laurels. … It’s

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“Since the first Diversity and Inclusion Coaching Mobility Report in 2013, it has been noted that the NFL has led the sports industry by intentionally hiring a diverse and inclusive workforce, as well as increasing opportunity for minority coaches.” “While improvement is evident, there must be an ongoing effort to break mobility barriers and establish a cultural norm of opportunity for all. The NFL recognizes these challenges and is committed to taking practical steps to ensure concrete results.”

The “NFL has led the sports industry by intentionally hiring a diverse and inclusive workforce?” This just isn’t authentic. The statistics speak for themselves, and to reiterate the stats stated earlier, 58% of NFL players are Black and for the upcoming season, just 9% of head coaches will be Black. The NFL has had a history of celebrating faux progress, and this contributes to sentiments like, “Well, we’re doing the best we can.”

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What Business Leaders Can Learn From The NBA And NFL

Don’t get me wrong – organizations should celebrate real progress and should not focus 100% of energy on what’s not working well.

But it’s not enough to feel victorious about the small steps when the organization has such significant steps still to make.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell struck a better balance in his pre-Super Bowl news conference in February 2022. In his remarks, he acknowledged the small steps the NFL had made and spoke with much more candor as he laid out specific ways the NFL would seek to make much bigger steps. But it takes time to earn back credibility from stakeholders when the tone has been overly rosy and inauthentic for so long.

As a business leader, do you strike the balance of communicating that your organization is further than it’s ever been (if genuine), but not yet where you want to be? Do you assess how your authenticity and celebration of progress are perceived by others?

are you more like the NBA or the NFL? As you hold up a mirror, how are you and your organization doing on each of these principles?

1. Lead with an inclusion vision and conviction, not diversity rules and mandates.

2. Amplify, don’t muzzle, employee voices and perspectives.

3. Be authentic and avoid celebrating faux progress.

Creating an inclusive and diverse workplace is critical to creating a positive culture and employee experience.

Aaron Epting is a Partner, Consulting at Root Inc. where he works alongside leaders to create more diverse, equitable, and inclusive organizations.

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Are You Like the NBA or NFL? When it comes to seeking more diverse representation among leadership in your organization,

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Is A “Great Reckoning” For Business Leaders Coming?

Offer leadership programs for managers at all levels across your organization

By Lee W. Frederiksen, PhD, Hinge

T

he Great Resignation shows no signs of slowing down.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the United States alone, 4.4 million employees quit their jobs in April 2022.

That’s a problem for professional service firms. As many Baby Boomers reach retirement age, entry-level and mid-career professionals fall short of filling the gaps. But that’s not all.

Hinge Research Institute’s recent report, “Navigating the Mid-Career Talent Crisis,” found that 30% of mid-career professionals (between 30-45 years old) quit their jobs over the past year. A third of those left without another job lined up.

Their reason? For more than 70% of respondents, frustration with their boss and company culture were the top two reasons for quitting. This news may surprise senior executives who fail to recognize the effect on the employees of their leadership and the culture they help create.

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We believe a middle-management crisis is, in many ways, a leadership crisis. It’s time for senior management to take a serious look at how this talent turnover will impact their firms for years to come.

Meet Your Mid-Career Employees Mid-career employees are the rising stars of your organization. They often possess the skills many firms rely on, especially as firms adapt to rapid market changes and disruptions.

Yet, this group finds itself in a precarious position.

They are accountable for implementing senior management’s strategies and goals. They also carry the burden of creating a supportive, visionary and fun work environment for their teams, sometimes in a remote or hybrid work environment.

Who supports this employee segment? It’s not senior leadership.

Our study showed that only 48% of mid-career respondents are satisfied with their current jobs. Many individuals are now passively or actively looking for new opportunities—especially those that promise to involve a more favorable culture..

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Is A “Great Reckoning” For Business Leaders Coming?

Leaders often write off this turnover as nothing more than employees wanting more money. However, we discovered that only 44% of those surveyed left their jobs for a higher salary.

Instead, we found: ●● Nearly 8 out of 10 were frustrated with leadership/management at their old job ●● 72% desired a better company culture ●● 51% wanted a better work-life balance ●● 48% felt their work was unfulfilling These individuals aren’t focused solely on financial compensation; more than half of these mid-career employees are looking for emotional compensation. In our study, 94% of respondents didn’t feel comfortable sharing these thoughts with leadership.

Without an open and safe communication channel between middle and upper management, how will leaders know the pressures they place on these critical employees?

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The Divide Between Upper and Middle Management Of course, senior leadership wants their employees to be happy, resilient and productive.

But toxic company cultures aren’t new phenomena.

Employees in past generations have felt disrespected and mistreated, especially regarding race and gender.

Mid-career employees, however, are often expected to solve their problems and the challenges of those who report to them. Deciding to share issues with upper management might be met with nonchalance or, worse, an impression that their confidence in the employee might be misplaced.

Covid and a new generation of workers are changing things. Two years into the pandemic, many people are rethinking the value of work and the importance of work-life balance. It’s a conversation whose time has come at all levels of an organization.

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Is A “Great Reckoning” For Business Leaders Coming?

We also have one final question: When was the last time your senior leadership received management training? Most executives move into positions based on their experience and accomplishments, not their leadership and communication skills.

Consider if leadership assessment or training would be helpful to your organization. While it’s essential to start with your top executives, consider offering leadership programs for managers at all levels across your organization.

Our study also uncovered that mid-career employees at larger organizations were more likely to feel unappreciated or overlooked. Moreover, a toxic culture hits employees hardest in our new remote or hybrid working environments, leaving individuals feeling isolated like never before.

What’s to be done? Middle management has ideas.

How to Move Forward When we asked this employee segment what they value, in-person social events and mental health days were at the top of their lists. These individuals are itching to catch up with peers and friends. You shouldn’t underestimate the power of this type of socialization to enhance communication and loyalty.

These employees are also the chief advocates for mental health days, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and employee recognition. This is in stark contrast with only 8.8% of senior executives in our study who believed in the value of mental health days.

Long-term employee stress leads to a lack of productivity, directly affecting a company’s bottom line. Mental health significantly impacts an employee’s focus, memory and ability to connect with teammates—at all levels of the organization.

This training shows mid-career employees that you value their contributions and support their rise through the organization. Our hunch is that these investments won’t break the bank, and you’ll see a substantial return.

Putting the Pieces Together

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reported that, on average, it costs a company six to nine months of an employee’s salary to replace them. But the loss of mid-career employees costs even more in terms of short-term productivity and long-term organizational growth.

Taking a hard look at your company culture can help you rejuvenate your employees—and your leadership’s—enthusiasm for work. Ensuring all employees are valued and challenged can lead to many more rewarding years of work and success.

Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D., is a former tenured professor in organizational behavior turned Managing Partner at Hinge, the leading research-based branding and marketing firm for professional services.

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If you have the budget, champion these initiatives in your firm. These programs will directly impact your ability to retain and attract top talent.

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Why Startups Are Better Positioned For Building A Corporate Soul Startups have the energy and the spirit

By Ralf Specht, Soul System™ “We have lost our mojo” – how often have you heard this when long-time colleagues summarize about how they feel at the workplace. It is not unusual, as many companies do not put enough emphasis on corporate culture. Leaders who realize that something has gone lost often contemplate “I wish we were a startup and could do things from scratch again.” Because startups do have one thing that many companies lack: the energy and the spirit that founders bring into any business. They think that their firm is about more than the business model. And that is the starting point for a corporate culture which creates that critical sense of belonging to their workforce.

I still remember to this day when we founded Spark44, the unique industry-first joint venture with Jaguar Land Rover. When the green light came, us founders sat in a room thinking about the culture we wanted to see develop in our little firm. It´s been actually those hours in the conference room of a befriended agency in London which allowed us to create an environment to grow the company to a global revenue of $100+m and 1,200 employees before it was acquired with Accenture in 2021. In that room, we defined the spirit of the firm – the intended culture of the workplace and created a fundamental alignment of all founding partners.

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There´s so much talk about purpose, vision, mission and values. What is lacking is that conversation about spirit. It is different to “just” values. A great example is LinkedIn. One of the very few companies that got it right from the get go. Back in 2009, the company defined their shared purpose and created a shared understanding about vision, mission, values and spirit.

Their definition of culture is “the collective personality of the organization.”

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Why Startups Are Better Positioned For Building A Corporate Soul

LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky put it this way: “Your Vision – your “why” – is something that should rarely, if ever, change. But your Culture and Values – your “how” – need to constantly be evaluated.”

A lot had changed around LinkedIn from when they were founded in 2003 to the still early days in 2009 when their purpose “to facilitate professional networking” was agreed and the vision “to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce” and their mission “to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful” were defined. All of these guided LinkedIn through the days of the Microsoft acquisition in 2014 and served the company well. But now, they asked themselves three fundamental questions: ●● Are our Culture and Values still applicable in the current environment? ●● Do they help us achieve our Vision? Do they help us achieve the “why”?

Because this is what happens in a founder-led startup.

The purpose, the vision, the values – all of these are omnipresent in a startup. Especially in the early days.

And that often is the moment, when leaders in large companies say “I wish we were a startup again”. Take Lego for example. According to Jørgen Vig Knudstorp who took the CEO position at the Danish company in 2003 during their existential crisis, Lego had lost its soul. In an interview he shared what had to happen to get it back: “So, while we need to make money, the LEGO Group has a deeper purpose than that. (…)

In the past we had “religious” people, if you like, who believed in the purpose of what we did, but we also had “realists” who saw this purely as a business. I wanted to combine the two in individuals—people who could succeed in the marketplace and also reflect the spirit, purpose and energy of the company. This goes to the soul of our company.”

●● Do we cite them frequently and with clarity?

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Why Startups Are Better Positioned For Building A Corporate Soul

Thinking about the soul of the company and taking the necessary actions has been the eureka-moment for Lego. Interbrand recently evaluated them as the #71 in their Best Global Brands study and quoted their brand value increase just in the past year with 21% up to $9,1 bn. But it is more than money. If you check Lego out on Comparably, you find a stunning 100% approval rate on the question “Are you proud to be part of your company?”. 98% of all Glassdoor ratings approve the current CEO Niels B. Christiansen. Only LinkedIn´s Jeff Weiner ever got a 100% approval rate on Glassdoor.

His successor, Ryan Roslanky, concluded the work that has been undertaken this way: “Rather than a list of cultural tenets, we’ve taken the spirit of our culture and codified it in an aspirational statement that is simpler to feel and understand: ´We aspire to create a trusted, caring, inclusive, fun, and transformational world of work, not just for ourselves but through our platform for every member of the global workforce. ´” And every word here is chosen very carefully. It starts with the first one – Aspire: “We set the bar high – not only should culture always be aspirational, but by starting our culture statement with this word, it’s a reminder that we set the bar high as a company. We play up.” This continues.

And while LinkedIn is turning 20 years in 2023, they have been able to keep this startup mentality and focus on what matters to grow their culture with their business. At the end of their statement, they have added an important sentence that says “and through our platform for every member of the global workforce.” Roslansky: “Any time we’d talk about our

Culture and Values over the last 13 years we’d add this line because it’s not only how we operate inside of LinkedIn, it’s the thinking we bring when we build products for the members and customers using our platform. (…) What I love about this is that it keeps the spirit of what is so special about who we are, but raises our level of ambition to meet the moment we are building towards. And it creates a clear distinction between our Culture and our Values.”

Startups are better positioned on day 1. They face the challenge as they scale. If you are not taking care of it as LinkedIn did, you are facing the a real existential uphill-battle as Lego did. But when they turned their eyes to the key drivers that made the company successful in the first place, they got their soul back.

Since then, they are a prime example not just for how much culture drives performance, but also on how much tender, love and care are required to build a corporate soul.

Ralf Specht is a visionary global business leader and creator of the Soul System™, a framework that framework that powers culture and success for any business. As a founding partner of Spark44, he was the architect of an innovative, industry-first joint venture with Jaguar Land Rover which grew under his leadership to a global revenue of $100+m and 1,200 employees before was acquired by Accenture. He is the author of Building Corporate Soul: Powering Culture & Success with the Soul System™ (Fast Company Press). Beyond The Startup - Sparking Operational Innovations For Gllobal Growth (Radius Publishing).

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She-Roes Who Are Shifting The Narrative In The Black And Latino Community Having diverse women in leadership can benefit the community and the workplace

By Rikki Roehrich, Author

B

ecoming a business leader is difficult. However, if you are a female and/or a minority, it can be even harder. The reality is that many minority females don’t reach the status of success without having to be on top of their game 100% of the time. And even then, they still have to deal with the pressure of biases in the workplace which can many times leave them, and other minority talent left behind.

In fact, Dr. Toinette Gunn, Executive Director of Chicago Debates shared, “In my 20+ years in nonprofit leadership, I’ve encountered a number of challenges as a Black woman. However, as I reflect on the most impactful, those were experiences where I was taken less seriously, professionally, and/or viewed as being less qualified. Most times these actions were subtle, but other times more visible when being overlooked for opportunities given to less experienced White counterparts. Sadly, part of being Black in this country means learning at a very early age that we will experience racism, injustices, inequities, and often subjected to stereotypical views.”

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And Tania Haigh, Founder of Kids Too shared, “The challenges I’ve had to overcome as Latina throughout my career have been primarily around stereotypes about our culture. For example, as Latinos it’s ingrained in us to have our head down and work hard.

Since we’re known for being hard workers, typically managers like to keep us in the same role, doing the same work. There comes a point to advancing into leadership roles that go beyond working hard; it’s about seeing the landscape of opportunity more strategically.”

Even statistics prove to be disheartening… ●● White women hold almost a third of all management positions, but this figure for Black women and Latinas is only 4.3%. ●● At the current rate of progress, women may only hold one percent of leadership positions ten years from now.

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She-Roes Who Are Shifting The Narrative In The Black And Latino Community

Despite the overwhelming number of challenges that minority women face in business, many have been able to press beyond any difficulties to still realize success.

perspective, I also make it a point to hire young Latino talent via internships and entry-level positions to help shape the next generation of high-performing individuals.”

Furthermore, those companies that embrace diversity are also able to realize tremendous success from the benefits of having women in leadership and ensuring that their voices are heard at the table.

Having women of color in positions of leadership can also greatly drive social impact as these types of leaders tend to pay it forward and work to give back in some way to their own communities.

Having diverse leaders in an organization brings a unique perspective that can aid in business planning and decision-making in ways that can make a difference and help the organization grow. The benefits of inclusion in leadership also mean that your diverse customers are able to see examples of themselves inside of your organization which can inspire them to stay brand loyal.

For instance, Dr. Gunn has dedicated her entire career to helping Black and Latino youth in the community where she lives.

Haigh went on to share, “There are so few of us Latinos in leadership and in visible places. As a leader, I take pride in representing the Latino community in places where there aren’t very many of us. I leverage my influence to always provide perspective and insight into Latinos. From a career development

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Dr. Gunn stated, “Having been a Black low-income first-generation college student, I experienced firsthand how access to quality educational programs can bridge the opportunity gap and break the cycle of poverty. I have dedicated my life and career to providing Black and LatinX youth with quality educational opportunities. Through my years in leadership, I have helped thousands of Black youth and families to positively change the trajectory of their lives.”

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She-Roes Who Are Shifting The Narrative In The Black And Latino Community

Dr. Gunn continued by sharing, “I am proud to serve as the first Black Executive Director in the 25-year history of Chicago Debates where I am using my role to help Chicago Public School students to build critical academic, social-emotional, career, and life skills that will ultimately strengthen their future economic stability, break cycles of poverty, and promote civic engagement.” And Haigh shared that she is committed to protecting kids’ safety online through Kids Too. She believes that all children of all backgrounds need to have a safer environment, especially since In 2020, there were about 606,140 victims of child abuse in the United States with about 143,307 children of Hispanic origin reported to be abused in this country.

The bottom line is that having diverse women in leadership can benefit the community and the workplace in a number of ways, such as: ●● Providing better business insights: Firms that increased their proportion of female hires by 10% saw an average spike of 1.5% in overall fund returns and had 9.7% more profitable exits. ●● More innovation: Companies that prioritize a diverse and inclusive culture are far more likely to be innovative. By staying ahead of change, they can be twice as likely to hit financial targets. ●● Increased organizational collaboration: Women are more inclined to collaborate with peers and with helping stakeholders to reach an agreement. This trait can lead to better negotiations, increased collaboration, and better decision-making. ●● Driving empathy in the workplace: Women leaders tend to showcase support skills for staff members including…

The reality is that there are many benefits to supporting diversity and inclusion. Unfortunately, minority women are often overlooked for these positions despite being qualified. However, leaders such as Tania Haigh and Dr. Gunn are showing the world just how important it is to fill these roles. And it’s not just good from a social perspective; it’s also a great business decision.

Dr. Toinette Gunn, Executive Director of a leading student debate organization that is not only helping thousands of students, including Black and Latino youth to exercise their voice and speech capabilities – but also teaching them distinct life skills, providing career preparation experiences, as well as confidence building and academic achievement.

Tania Haigh is the Latino founder of the KIDS TOO Movement (www. kidstoo.org) and co-founder of Parents Against Child Sex Abuse (P.A.X.A.). After five years of taking on one of the toughest epidemics impacting children, Tania has disrupted the child protection space by launching the #KIDSTOO movement in November 2021.

Beyond the hashtag, KIDS TOO builds on child sexual abuse, online safety and child poverty.

●● Providing emotional support ●● Checking in on overall wellbeing ●● Helping to ensure workloads are manageable ●● Helping to balance work-life dynamics ●● Helping to mitigate burnout

Rikki Roehrich is a seasoned content creator for a variety of small business brands. She has a passion for writing white papers, blogs, articles and educational materials on a variety of emerging trends in the marketplace.

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Energizing Employee Recognition, Appreciation, and Inspiration

By HR.com Professional Education Team

A

ttention HR folks, this article is meant for you to share with managers in your organization who want to become the best leaders they can be.

Employees who love working for you are wonderful to have around. You have three main tools to make working for you a delight: recognition, appreciation, and inspiration. These three approaches are all related, but there are some distinctions worth paying attention to. Recognition is usually tied to specific accomplishments such as being employee of the month, having reached a 10-year anniversary, or making a special effort to help a client. This is good for reinforcing desired behaviors. Appreciation, which has to be heartfelt to be effective, involves frequently letting the employee know that you value their hard work, their contributions and that you’re aware of the difficulties they

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overcome each day. This is good for building commitment.

Inspiration is about setting an example and a vision that encourages employees to reach a new standard of excellence. This is good for elevating performance over the long run. What these all have in common is that they help employees love working for you and encourage them to perform well as a result. As a manager, you will be more successful if you learn the simple skills of recognition and appreciation.

You will be very successful if you master the art of inspiration.

We are going to have to apologize for HR here. HR will talk to you about “Total Rewards;” they’ll also talk to you about “Rewards and Recognition.” You’re probably thinking it’s nothing new as you have already learned about rewards. Not so fast. When we say rewards, as in “total rewards,”

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we usually mean something kinda different from when we just say rewards, as in “rewards and recognition.” It’s confusing, and to make matters worse, not everyone uses the terms in the same way.

It’s just one of those things. Let’s explain as best we can. First, your company may have a VP of Total Rewards (that’s the same thing as a VP of Compensation and Benefits, but it sounds cooler).

They will devote almost all of their effort to base pay, different kinds of incentive pay, and benefits.

These are the big ticket items that are the main reasons employees show up on Monday mornings.

Secondly, the concept of Total Rewards includes everything that employees value including things like good learning opportunities and a great workplace. Normally the VP of Total Rewards doesn’t handle those other things, they just work in compensation and benefits.

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Energizing Employee Recognition, Appreciation, and Inspiration

Finally, rewards and recognition programs usually refer to things where employees who accomplish something get: ●● Small awards (such as a gift card or merchandise) ●● An employee of the month plaque (or similar public acknowledgment) ●● A token for years of service ●● Simply praise for a job well-done Recognition may be managed by HR, but it might also be managed

by Operations or some other department; it varies from place to place. Sorry for that long explanation, but it’s best to get the confusion out of the way. (Whew!)

Why Give Recognition?

Look, you’re paying someone right? Why do you need to tell them they’re doing a good job?

The answer, as is so often the case in management, is that employees are human. Maybe a monthly paycheck should be enough to keep them motivated, but the fact is you get a lot better performance if you at least give people the occasional pat on the back--and all the better if that pat is accompanied by something tangible, like movie tickets.

Even more important than general motivation is the specific behavior that you give them a pat on the back for. If there is a behavior you want to see more of, then you have to encourage it. You encourage it by showing some recognition when you see desirable behaviors.

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Who Is Responsible for Rewards and Recognition?

(Mainly you.)

Your company might have a formal rewards and recognition program. Often there is a website you can use to give a spot award to a deserving employee.

Sometimes these are points systems where employees are given recognition points that they can cash in for a gift of their choice. Okay, that’s what someone else was responsible for setting up. What are you responsible for doing? You are responsible for using recognition in an effective manner. This is the case whether or not there is a formal rewards and recognition program. If you don’t have a website that issues awards, you can always give a word of praise, a handwritten note, or buy a pizza for a hard-working team.

The success of recognition in driving the right behaviors is almost entirely up to you. It’s a powerful tool, but only you can make it an effective tool for your team. Let’s talk more about how to do that.

What Makes Recognition Work?

Let’s do a mini-exercise here to make a point. How do you feel when: ●● You’ve moved mountains to keep a client after someone mightily screwed up. The next week you see an email from your boss telling you that you earned 100 reward points.

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●● Your boss tells you, “Yeah, you’ve done a decent job on a bunch of stuff over the past few months, so good work.” ●● At your 20-year anniversary, you find a cheap plaque on your desk entitled “20 Years.”

How Recognition Programs Can Go Wrong If you don’t put any personal care and genuineness into recognition awards, they can be ineffective.

Worse still, they can actually do harm. Here are some questions to ask yourself: ●● Do employees believe that recognition is based on favoritism? ●● Do employees who don’t get recognized feel demotivated? ●● Do employees who get recognized feel like they are being treated like children being rewarded with a cookie for good behavior instead of a professional who does excellent work as a matter of course?

What’s the easy way to avoid these problems? When you find out, please let us know! The best advice we can give is to be sensitive to these concerns.

You know your team so use your instincts to avoid missteps. Note how people are reacting and make sure people understand your intention. When they understand your intention, they are more likely to interpret recognition in a positive way.

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Energizing Employee Recognition, Appreciation, and Inspiration

yourself. What inspires you? Who inspires you? Think about people you actually know, not a historical figure.

We want you to be inspiring, but we don’t expect you to be Martin Luther King Jr. Next, ask your employees. Who in their life do they find inspirational?

When have they been inspired?

You’ll learn a lot about inspiration that way. You’ll also learn a lot about your employees.

Appreciation (a deeper level)

There is a different way of approaching recognition. It’s the idea that what we want is to show appreciation for the person and their work. There is just a subtle difference here. Recognition can be seen as a kind of quid pro quo; for example, if I come in for four weeks with no absences, then I earn a box of donuts. Appreciation emphasizes the personal side.

What you are trying to communicate is that you, as their manager, genuinely appreciate the effort your team makes to arrive on time every day, that you are grateful for the work they put into that presentation, and that you appreciate the fact that they’ve been loyal to the company for 20 years.

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Appreciation and recognition programs can go hand in hand. Just keep this idea of appreciation top of mind; we think you’ll find that it makes you a better manager.

Inspiration

(the highest goal) Would you like to develop into the kind of manager that inspires people? That’s an ambitious goal, but a goal worth striving for. You might think it takes some sort of inborn charisma to be able to inspire others, but that’s not the case. The ability to inspire is a skill you can develop.

Let’s think about how you might embark on the path to being inspiring. As is so often the case, a good place to start is with

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This article is an excerpt from HR.com’s book, HR Fundamentals for Non HR Managers which is part of the reading materials for the course HR for Non HR Managers. This course was developed to enhance a manager’s partnership with HR, improve team performance and avoid headaches in complying with national, regional, and local labor laws, or as we like to put it, “the stuff that your HR department wishes you knew or wishes you were doing as a manager”.

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