Edge Autumn 2017

INSPIRING GREAT LEADERSHIP

AUTUMN 2017

The diversity myth WHY OUR NATURAL BIAS IS TOWARDS UNIFORMITY Plus Fearless leadership The truth behind the AI hype Northern light: lessons from Sweden

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Contents AUTUMN 2017

Update 8

All the latest developments in leadership and management

Debate 13

Mailbox

14

Guest columnist Simone Roche praises role models

15

Our regular LBGT+ columnist Christopher Hallas discusses asexuality – the emerging orientation

Insider INSIGHT FROM THE INSTITUTE OF LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

17

Driven by digital Chief executive Phil James on the Institute’s new leadership development platform

18

News AGM and Board of Trustees; new staff recruits; member obituary

21

Getting around the table Kate Cooper, head of policy and standards, on the link between conversations and leadership development

22

A day in the life of Tibisay Vera; events update

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23

In the Hot Seat Christine Carter, headteacher of Burton Borough School, talks about her biggest leadership and management challenges

The Edge Interview 24

Edge meets Rupinder Singh, director of Ward to Board Consulting and a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership & Management

Spotlight DIVERSITY

30

Great minds don’t think alike Creating a diverse leadership pool

34

The next frontier for diversity and inclusion

36

Coaching across cultures A differing concept of ‘self’

38

Case study Carillion’s employee-led networks

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5

30 Making it Happen MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE

82

53

Mind your own business Why health and safety is a critical workplace issue

54

Get your project back on track

58

Vision

The line manager’s role in learning transfer

SETTING THE LEADERSHIP AGENDA

Beyond Borders

41

Making the most of minorities How to turn BAME networks into a competitive advantage

42

Fearless leadership

46

Transferring military leadership and teamwork skills into civilian life

48

Colourful boardrooms: shades of consciousness

50

Digital detox Amazing things happen when managers ditch their devices

INTERNATIONAL INSIGHT AND BEST PRACTICE

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MANAGING MENTAL, PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL WELLBEING AND DEVELOPMENT

61

77 Coaching column Jeff Matthews

62

78 Management Dilemma Is it ever acceptable to manage someone out?

Combatting decision fatigue Is Sweden as perfect as it seems?

66

79 Simple yoga exercises to regain inner balance

Future of Work

80 Listen like a leader

Powerful lessons from Germany’s business practices

STRATEGIES FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS

82 How to run a one-to-one meeting

69

Why meaning matters

83 Inspiration Directory Your go-to development resource

70

84 Book Club

72

86 Leadership Legend Charles Hampden-Turner wrestles with the mystery of exponential growth

Five myths of artificial intelligence

42

Live & Learn

Cybersecurity know-how

74

Managing remote workers

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Contributors

ANDRO DONOVAN

SANDRA GREEN

BABAK HODJAT

Andro Donovan is a popular facilitator, speaker and author. She specialises in coaching high-performing CEOs, entrepreneurs and individuals who want to become more effective leaders or desire more meaning in their lives. She helps her clients to gain greater influence, effectiveness and perspective, and is known for creating safe environments where deep personal transformation can happen.

Sandra Green is the founder of the Women Leaders Association, a network and leadership development programme for senior-level women. She is also a certified executive coach, with a passion for supporting senior female leaders to break through the glass ceiling. In 2016, she published her first book, Handbags in the Boardroom: 36 reasons why women don’t make it to the boardroom.

Babak Hodjat is a co-founder and chief executive of artificial intelligence company Sentient, based in Silicon Valley.

Previously he was senior director of engineering at mobile computing technology provider Sybase iAnywhere. A published scholar in various fields, including artificial life and agent-oriented software engineering, he holds a PhD in machine intelligence from Kyushu University.

NITIN KUNCHUR

CHRIS LITHERLAND

SIMONE ROCHE

Nitin Kunchur is the head of product delivery at Capita One, part of the outsourcing giant Capita. An experienced IT professional, he has worked in a range of industries including aviation, mobile telephony, software security and local government services industries. He has led teams based in Europe, North America and Asia to deliver software programs to customers in countries all over the world.

Chris Litherland is an executive coach and the founder of Mariposa Consulting.

Based near Dusseldorf in Germany, he specialises in helping global organisations to address strategic challenges in areas such as employee engagement, employer branding, mobility, organisational performance, recognition and rewards, and talent management. He has held senior international HR roles with a number of major corporations.

Simone Roche is the Institute of Leadership & Management’s Vision Ambassador. She is also the founder of Northern Power Women, a campaign that connects and engages with people on the issue of gender equality by recognising the north of England as a force for good in achieving gender balance. She started her career in the military, then held roles at Aintree Racecourse, the Arena Convention Centre Liverpool and the Olympics.

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29/06/2017 16:57

Editor’s Letter

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Diversity begins at home We should practise what we preach By

E

arlier this year, research found that humans unintentionally start to develop racist tendencies at the tender age of six months old. According to two studies by researchers at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, six- to nine-month-old infants demonstrate racial bias in favour of members of their own race, and racial bias against those of other races.

I mention this research because the theme of this issue is diversity, a topic that I am passionate about. Yet recently I have been reflecting on the fact that while I – along with so many others – believe that diversity is crucial in the workplace, my home life, by contrast, is a model of homogeneity. Most of my friends are the same gender as me and of a similar age, background, sexual orientation and level of education.

Of course, I am far from being alone in having a social circle that is notable for its lack of diversity. Virtually everyone I can think of socialises with similar people. The question is, does that even matter if we are all diversity champions in the workplace? I think it does, because even the best-thought-out policies and unconscious bias training sessions will never overcome thousands of years of human tribalism. People bond over a good gossip, so communication and social integration – at a deep and enduring level – will inevitably be more effective at changing perceptions than initiatives rolled out by the HR department.

Sally Percy On a final note, it struck me that the UK’s vote to leave the EU last year was – in very crude terms – a vote against diversity. It wasn’t just a rejection of diversity of people, which is part of the anti-immigration argument, whether we like to admit it or not. It was also effectively a rejection of diversity of ideas. The EU, which has had to balance the views of 28 different member states until now, is the embodiment of diverse thinking.

Of course, some people will counter my argument and say that leaving the EU potentially exposes the UK to greater diversity – for

DIVERSITY IS SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS AT WORK, BUT NOT AT HOME example, we will be freer to trade with the rest of the world and bring in skilled immigrants from other regions (provided they meet tight criteria, of course).

Yet Brexit, with its focus on the UK setting its own rules, essentially takes the conundrum I described above to a national level: diversity is something that happens at work, but not at home. We are happy to trade with a diverse range of countries, provided their citizens don’t have the unconditional right to live in ours.

This difference between our outer and inner attitudes to diversity is something we should all reflect on, since we are essentially the same person, regardless of whether we are in the sitting room or in the office. sally.percy@lidpublishing.com

Edge is brought to you by: LID Publishing Editor Sally Percy sally.percy@lidpublishing.com Assistant Editor Kirsten Levermore Art Director Kate Harkus Chief Subeditor Luisa Cheshire Digital Reporter Matt Packer Account Director Niki Mullin Editorial Director Ben Walker Publisher Martin Liu Institute of Leadership & Management Pacific House, Relay Point, Tamworth, B77 5PA. Chief Executive Phil James Head of Research, Policy & Standards Kate Cooper Head of Membership Janet Payne For advertising sales, please contact Niki Mullin on niki.mullin@ lidpublishing.com Publishing Published in the United Kingdom by LID Publishing, 204 The Record Hall, Baldwins Gardens, London EC1N 7RJ Disclaimer Copyright 2017 The Institute of Leadership & Management and LID Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without permission of the publisher. While we take care to ensure that editorial is accurate, independent, objective and relevant for the readers, Edge accepts no liability for reader dissatisfaction rising from the content of this publication. The opinions expressed or advice given are the views of individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Edge, The Institute of Leadership & Management or LID Publishing Ltd. Edge takes every effort to credit photographers but we cannot guarantee every published use of an image will have the contributor’s name. If you believe we have omitted a credit for your image, please email the editor Printed by Asendia www.asendia.co.uk

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Update

8

Boards are invisible and out of touch

I

t seems that corporate leaders must do more to raise their profiles, since four in ten UK employees cannot name a single member of their board.

A survey of 1,000 UK employees, conducted by TLF Research for technology firm eShare, found that 18% of respondents say their board is barely visible, with a further 17% claiming the board is not visible at all. Around seven in ten respondents believe their board could do more to be visible to employees, while more than half think that it is out of touch with day-to-day operations.

Unsurprisingly, the chief executive is most visible to UK employees, although only 36% can name them. The least visible is the chairperson, with just 8% able to identify the individual in that post. A mere 14% know who the chief information officer and chief financial officer are, while 13% are familiar with the chief marketing officer.

64% of employees are unable to name their chief executive

Worryingly, almost a third (31%) of respondents did not understand what their company’s vision and values are. Around half of those surveyed were in the dark about board decisions, and felt those decisions were not clearly communicated to the rest of the company.

More than two-thirds of those surveyed were positive about worker representation in the boardroom, while respondents also highlighted the lack of board diversity. More than a third (37%) said there was not a woman on the board at their organisation, while 58% revealed there was no one under the age of 40, and 55% pointed to a lack of ethnic diversity.

Commenting on the results of the TLF survey, Alister Esam, eShare CEO, said: “Many boards in the UK must do more to demonstrate transparency, to engage better with their employees and communicate their vision more effectively.”

British mothers take a £11,000 pay cut to work around their kids More than half (59%) of British women don’t return to their previous career once they’ve had children. A survey of more than 2,000 mothers by money-saving website www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk found that women who don’t return to their career either switch jobs to one with hours that will work around their children, or choose to stay at home with their kids. What’s more, the poll found that the average British mother who leaves her career for a more flexible job takes a pay cut of £11,000 a year.

The top five jobs that mums picked to better suit their family were a role in a supermarket, an admin position, a teaching assistant or another position in a school, a shop assistant or a cleaner, the survey found. The top reasons respondents gave for not returning to their previous career were the high cost of childcare (45%) and lack of job flexibility (39%).

Commenting on the findings, George Charles, founder of www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, said: “Unfortunately, mothers have it a lot harder than fathers when it comes to managing a career and raising children; and many feel that the best thing

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for their family is to leave their career and find something more suited to their families. Unless businesses are more accommodating, then it’s going to continue to be the norm.”

For more on diversity, see Spotlight, starting on page 29

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Internet of Things will transform industries A wide range of industries, from healthcare to manufacturing, should be able to use data gathered from the Internet of Things (IoT) in predictive applications. This is a key finding from a research report by the Centre for Information Management at Loughborough University, The impact of the internet of things on managing work. In particular, the report suggested that IoT could potentially be used to monitor the health of patients and the performance of equipment, allowing organisations to switch from reactive to proactive interventions.

Yet the report also raised concerns around data security and surveillance activity, giving the example of wearable fitness devices that record movements both within the workplace and outside. It noted: “There is a lack of clarity around data ownership, especially where IoT devices

that capture the data may perform multiple roles depending on time and location.”

Another issue highlighted was the need for new theories and concepts to be developed to “help understand the complex interconnected nature of IoT”. It said: “IoT transcends multiple disciplines and domains, and this complexity needs to be reflected and embraced in future research, through studies that are multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional.”

The report also noted that governments, businesses and the IT community should take an active interest in guiding the direction of IoT growth. “It is human technologists, not robots, which are leading these developments,” it said. “Therefore, humans should be able to influence how IoT impacts on workplace and society.”

See more on the future of work, on page 69

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Employees don’t ask for help for fear it won’t be helpful Employees may avoid asking for help in the workplace because they doubt it will be effective. This is the finding of a study

by Daniel Newark, assistant professor of management and human resources at business school HEC Paris.

The research, which was co-authored with Vanessa Bohns and Francis Flynn, found that on top of the discomfort and stress of requesting help, people’s expectations about the outcome also determine whether they even ask for it in the first place. Before they request help, they weigh up the anticipated likelihood of

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getting it, but also the anticipated value of it – how helpful will the help actually be?

Additionally, the researchers found that help-seekers underestimate the lengths that others will actually go to when they agree to help us – usually they will go further than we think.

“We feel a sense of responsibility, an obligation to follow through,” said Newark. “At some point, most of us come across tasks that we’re not sure how to carry out.

Help – both giving and receiving it – makes us feel good, reminding us that we are part of a community.”

ARE LINE MANAGERS SUPPORTIVE OF STAFF WITH POOR MENTAL HEALTH?*

34% of staff with a mental health problem in last five years felt well supported at work by their line manager

50% of managers feel confident they could recognise staff who aren’t coping

64% of staff with mental health problems support zero tolerance of stigma

73% of staff who have had a mental health problem would know what to say to a colleague struggling to cope

40% of managers who have not had mental health issues would not know what to say *Source: The Mental Health Foundation and Unum

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International Update

10

Tech is no silver bullet for workplace learning

By Kate Cooper

Although technology will have a transformative effect on employee development, it is not a silver bullet for education. This was the standout takeaway from the OEB Summit on technology-supported learning and training, which took place in Reykjavik, Iceland, in June.

Experts from around the world discussed the impact of technology on education, exploring topics such as open online courses. They said greater access to technology will mean leadership training is no longer the preserve of a privileged few but widespread in workplaces and formal education systems. Technology can also offer bespoke learning and training, which is suited to a variety of learning styles, they said.

The broad application of technology to education brings risks as well as opportunities, however.

Entrepreneur Andrew Keen ques-

tioned the ‘power relationships’ that are inherent in technology. In the context of education and training, he asked who is accountable for the ways in which technology determines the agenda of education and the curriculums that underpin it.

Inge de Waard, senior instructional designer at sustainable energy company InnoEnergy Europe, pointed out that a narrow group of wealthy people in Silicon Valley and other tech hotspots steward the code that underpins our digital learning.

Dr Mairéad Nic Giolla Mhichíl, from Dublin’s National Institute of Digital Learning, queried whether ‘hidden curriculums’ might exist.

Helen Keegan, a fellow at Coventry University, considered whether the traditional ways of measuring educational outcomes might be disrupted by digital innovation. Budget constraints and people management issues can hinder uptake of technology, she said.

Women overlooked for international roles Women are missing out on crucial international experience that could help them to secure leadership positions, new research suggests. According to a study by the Boston Consulting Group, 55% of women surveyed said that they would be willing to move abroad for a job assignment. Children did not seem to be a deterrent, since 44% of women with children were willing to move abroad. Yet, despite their enthusiasm for international assignments, less than 30% of women willing to move had actually done so, compared with 40% of men in similar situations.

The report made four recommendations for companies looking to ensure that both men and women take on international assignments. The first is develop mobility programmes that target high performers early in their careers before they have children. Secondly, they should consider offering more short-term international assignments. Next comes logistical

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support to families, such as helping them navigate education, healthcare and tax systems. Finally, for women who have high potential but are not able relocate, leaders should look for other opportunities for them to build international experience, such as ensuring that they are members of international teams.

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A leader decoded Jeremy Corbyn Who is he? As the leader of the British Labour Party, he heads up the official opposition to Her Majesty’s Government. The son of peace campaigners, Corbyn, 68, has served as the MP for Islington North for more than 30 years. Before he became leader, he repeatedly voted against the Labour whip, to the extent that he was the most rebellious Labour MP in Parliament between 1997 and 2010.

Leadership style: Corbyn pretty much epitomises authenticity. He sticks rigidly to the socialist, pacifist principles that he has held throughout his adult life and won’t waver from them to curry short-term favour. Described by a former colleague as “saintly”, he lives a frugal life, does not own a car and won’t indulge in personal attacks. He is inclusive and extremely loyal.

Greatest triumph: Denounced as unelectable by his detractors, which included many of his own MPs, he astonished just about everyone when he gave Theresa May a good run for her money

in the general election. Not only did the Labour Party emerge from the election stronger and more united, with 30 extra seats, but Corbyn managed to completely demolish May’s reputation as a safe pair of hands.

Leadership philosophy in a nutshell: “It is the job of leadership to hold open the space for dissent, new thinking and fit-for-purpose policy.”

THREE CHALLENGES FACING HR LEADERS OF MID-SIZED ENTERPRISES*

87%

Putting people at the heart of the business

In brief

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Culture and language are barriers to working abroad Adapting to new cultures and speaking foreign languages are the two biggest barriers facing employees who want to work abroad, HR managers believe.

A global survey of hiring executives, graduates and students carried out by employer branding expert Universum and CEMS (the Global Alliance in Management Education) found that only one in five (19%) of HR managers rated the geographic mobility of their young employees as

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84%

strong. This will come as a disappointment to the 92% of undergraduates who are keen to work abroad in the early stages of their career.

The research emphasised the value of overseas experience, however, since 36% said that taking on international assignments helps to boost the career growth of young professionals.

Data scientists are in high demand across the world Global demand for data scientists has leapt by 57% in one year, according to a Big Data Analytics and Business

Recruiting the right talent

70%

Intelligence Observatory run

by Politecnico di Milano School of Management. The research found that industries such as banking, media and big pharma are looking for people who can help them to exploit advances in big data analytics. “As big data analytics grips the world of business, and as companies increasingly understand the merit of using this valuable information in their decisionmaking processes, the role of the data scientist is increasing both in popularity and in availability,” observed Alessandro Piva, research observatory director, Politecnico di Milano School of Management.

*Source: Sage People

Keeping talented people

Make better use of the staff members you’ve got The biggest HR opportunity for businesses in the near term is ensuring that they have the right people in the right roles.

A poll of over 3,000 senior HR professionals carried out by recruiter Alexander Mann Solutions found that 25% of senior HR professionals believe that improving lateral hiring internally will serve as companies’ best weapon for talent retention in the immediate future. What’s more, this statistic climbs further for sectors that are already experiencing skills shortages.

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Update

12

A pleasing office boosts productivity

E

mployees are more productive when they are based in a nice working environment, new research suggests.

According to a survey from workplace consultants and office designers, Peldon Rose, an overwhelming majority (91%) of workers believe their office environment directly impacts their productivity.

Unfortunately, however, less than half (43%) of workers say their current office environment enhances their productivity, while a fifth (20%) say that it hinders their productivity.

The survey findings also revealed that just 32% of workers say their current office environment supports their wellbeing, while 59% believe their company could do more to make their office healthier.

Worryingly, despite the clear importance of the office environment for the productivity and wellbeing of staff, 81% of workers feel that the

workplace is not a high priority for their senior management team. Furthermore, just 10% of employees are involved in discussions about problems with the office layout.

FROM THE BLOG

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Catch up with the latest Edge thinking online at: www.institutelm.com/researchnews/edge-articles.html. Here is an extract from a recent article: How can leaders more effectively harness their employees’ creativity?

Small, creative enterprises in the UK are surging, according to research from think-tank Oxford Economics and online retailer notonthehighstreet.com – with the Yorkshire Post reporting the findings as evidence that workers are looking to “ditch the nine-to-five treadmill”.

Speaking to the Post, notonthehighstreet founder Simon Belsham said: “In the past ten years, thousands of small, creative businesses have emerged throughout the UK … creating jobs, driving wealth creation and contributing significantly to the overall UK economy.

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These businesses are highlighting the huge change underway in the UK workforce, a transformation that is seeing more women in work, and more people turning to selfemployment and flexible working as they shun the traditional nine-to-five model.”

All of which should give leaders at larger, more established firms pause for thought. Could these findings indicate that there is now effectively a ‘brain drain’ of creative talent from organisations into self-employment? Does this mean that companies aren’t doing enough to harness their workers’ creativity? What can they do to ensure individuals feel their creativity is more valued in a corporate context?

“Innovation is frequently identified as vital to business survival, vital for keeping up with increasing customer expectation, and something that any organisation will say it values and prides,” says The Institute

of Leadership & Management’s CEO, Phil James. Nevertheless, he adds this caveat: “If you want people to innovate and have new ideas, the only way you’re going to see whether they work is by testing them.

And testing means that some of the time, they won’t work. We’re seeing people leave organisations to exercise their ideas and test them in an environment where they’re accountable only to themselves. It’s clear that this creative potential is within almost everybody.”

He continues: “If organisations are to retain these individuals and harness their creativity, they must therefore strike a balance – allowing people to learn from their mistakes, while providing structures and frameworks that comply with various internal and external regulatory requirements.”

To read this article in full, see bit.ly/2sQ283J

29/06/2017 16:55

Debate MAILBOX

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SHARING THOUGHTS AND IDEAS 13 Mailbox

14 Simone Roche

W

hat a fantastic surprise in my mailbox today – the summer issue of the new-look Edge. Crammed with eye-opening articles (I loved the ones on conscious leadership and neuroscience, in particular), snappy pieces to provoke thought, and a broader scope to include fascinating aspects of international cultures, it’s a journal that looks professional, feels great in the hand and reads brilliantly.

As a result, I’ve found myself using it more as a reference source worth hanging onto, rather than simply as a magazine. In fact, I have gone back to pick it up more than a dozen times already. You’ve got the balance of advertising just right, too. Well done to the Institute of Leadership & Management, you’ve truly excelled here. I can’t wait for the next edition.

Andrew Sharman, FInstLM, chief executive, RMS

15 Christopher Hallas

Revamped Edge gets rave reviews

NEW-LOOK EDGE INSPIRES GREAT LEADERSHIP

I must say that the reinvigorated, new-look Edge does what is says on the can: it inspires great leadership. Articles are varied and refreshing. They reach out to all levels of leadership, from line managers to CEOs. Congratulations. I am looking forward to the next edition.

Stefan Drew, FlnstLM

CPD should matter in recruitment We all know that targets drive behaviours.

We also know that sometimes they drive the wrong types of behaviour. With diversity targets, what we are really trying to combat is unconscious bias, and the best way to do that is to bring it to the fore. The more we talk about the underlying irrationalities that bring us to bias, the better our chances of eradicating it. On the subject of career breaks, there is a general failure to give weight to continuing professional development (CPD). Properly managed and

COMBAT UNCONSCIOUS BIAS

BY BRINGING IT TO THE FORE

recorded, CPD can account for significant learning, which contributes to a candidate’s abilities – yet how many times is it even considered in the recruitment process? As a member of many professional bodies, I keep a record of my CPD for submission and evaluation. Have I ever submitted it for a vacancy or, indeed, have I ever asked a candidate for it? Perhaps the Institute of Leadership & Management needs to be raising this issue?

Blane Judd, FCGI CEng, executive director, BLTK Consulting

GET IN TOUCH If you would like to share your views on leadership or management, or content that you would like to see in Edge, please email the editor at sally.percy@lidpublishing.com. Letters may be edited for publication.

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29/06/2017 16:54

Debate SIMONE ROCHE

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Leading the way in gender equality Role models create a better working world for all

H

ow can you tell if someone is a visionary leader? Here’s my answer to that question: you know when you’ve met one if people follow her because they want to, not because they have to.

A visionary leader acts with authenticity, inclusivity, integrity and purpose. She also understands that the world doesn’t revolve around her needs – instead she looks to create the best working environment for her team and to actively contribute to the wider community.

I founded Northern Power Women in 2015 because I wanted to recognise, celebrate and showcase the many visionary-leader role models who help create a better working world. I also wanted to establish the north of England as a centre for good in achieving gender balance. My campaign provides a platform for phenomenal women – and men – who can inspire up-and-coming leaders to dare to accomplish great things.

Equality is absolutely not a women’s issue – it is gender-neutral.

There are many male leaders who create environments in which women can thrive. Yet they are often modest about their achievements.

That’s why half the categories in the Northern Power Women Awards are open to men.

I believe there should be as much transparency as possible around workplace diversity, which is why I support gender pay reporting. But diversity extends way beyond gender. Women from black and minority-ethnic backgrounds face not just a glass ceiling, but a double-glazed one. Fortunately, awards exist that highlight their achievements and help to create role models – initiatives such

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By

Simone Roche

as the Asian Women of Achievement Awards, and the Precious Awards for black and Asian businesswomen. Progress is being made in both legislation and society – just not as fast as it could be.

When I think about businesses that stand out for their vision in areas of diversity and inclusion, large professional services firms such as EY and PwC are leading the way. They are constantly evolving their diversity strategies and exploring how they can attract people from a broad range of cultures. Other exemplars include Brother UK, Sage and Vodafone.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to embedding diversity within organisations. What works for one business won’t necessarily work

EQUALITY IS ABSOLUTELY NOT A WOMEN’S ISSUE – IT IS GENDER-NEUTRAL for the next, so leaders need to focus on their own company culture to set a vision that moves it in a different direction.

At the 2017 Northern Powerhouse Conference, which brought together businesspeople from across the North of England, only 13 women featured on the event’s list of 98 speakers. I am working with the conference organisers to ensure the line-up for next year has a more even gender balance.

While I enjoy helping to influence change, the best part of my advocacy role is raising the profile of all gender-diversity visionaries. I believe they are the people others will follow; the people who will lead us to a better place.

Simone Roche is founder of Northern Power Women.

Follow her on Twitter @SimoneRoche

29/06/2017 16:54

Debate DIVERSITY

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The emerging orientation Why don’t we recognise people who prefer not to act on their feelings?

I

n my previous column we looked at the acronyms LGBT+, LGBT*, LGBTQ, and the much longer LGBTQQIAAP (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, allies, asexual, pansexual). We discussed the importance of ‘allies’ in the latter term last time, so now let’s explore the second ‘A’ – asexual.

At the most recent LGBT+ staff network seminar held where I work (the University of Greenwich), the co-founder of the Movement for Asexuality Awareness, Protection, Learning and Equality shared experiences of people who identify themselves as asexual.

Asexuality, asexuals, aces and attraction Asexuality is a sexual orientation, just like heterosexuality or homosexuality. It is characterised by how someone feels towards others. Asexuals typically have no sexual feelings or desires towards any gender. Some asexual people refer to themselves as ‘aces’, and this is reflected in much of the symbolism developed to raise awareness of the

ASEXUALS ARE ESTIMATED TO COMPRISE APPROXIMATELY 1% OF THE POPULATION orientation. Asexuals are estimated to comprise approximately 1% of the population, although it is difficult to make an accurate assessment due to low levels of awareness and understanding of what asexual means.

Asexual people are diverse. They can be of any sex or gender, age, ethnic background, social standing, religion or political affiliation – essentially there is no such thing as an asexual ‘type’.

Additionally, it is not uncommon for asexuals to

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experience romantic attraction – although they may feel no need to act on their feelings. Instead, they may just feel a desire to get close to someone.

Asexuals who experience attraction will often be attracted to a particular gender, and may identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or straight.

Myths and misconceptions By

Christopher Hallas

When they hear the word ‘asexual’, some people may make assumptions, often based on stereotypes. Fortunately, understanding what something is not can help us to understand what it is.

Asexuality is not: Celibacy – a deliberate choice to abstain from sexual activity.

A gender identity – such as ‘non-binary’, identifying as neither female nor male.

Intersex – a condition in which a person is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not seem to fit the typical definition of female or male.

Some form of medical or mental disorder – such as a hormone imbalance or fear of sexual relationships.

Recognition and rights A lack of awareness and understanding means asexual people are often not recognised. This lack of recognition is highlighted by the absence of provisions in the UK Equality Act 2010. The Act provides protections for people of all sexual orientations – homosexual (lesbian, gay), bisexual and heterosexual (straight) – except asexual. This is because the Act conceptualises sexual orientation with reference to a gender that an individual is attracted to. It does not – yet – recognise asexual orientation.

Christopher Hallas is director of student and academic services and senior LBGT+ champion at the University of Greenwich

29/06/2017 16:53

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29/06/2017 17:12

Insider

17

NEWS AND VIEWS 18 News AGM and Board of Trustees; new staff recruits; member obituary

21 Setting the Standard & Webinars

22 A Day in the Life 23 In the Hot Seat

Driven by digital

I

t’s amazing how digital technology is enabling us to return to our roots as a professional body – to the guiding principles that arose when groups of likeminded professionals first started clustering together for peer recognition, mutual support and the sharing of knowledge. If we go back to the days when ‘digital’ referred only to fingers or toes, we find that actually surprisingly little has changed in terms of the basic function of a professional institute such as the Institute of Leadership & Management. Yet what has changed is the meaning of that word ‘digital’ and its impact upon our ability to fulfil our purpose.

First stop, digital credentials. In my experience of professional bodies, I’ve never liked the issuing of membership cards or certificates. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in celebrating the achievement of professional qualifications. For me, though, membership of this Institute should not merely be a sign of past achievement. It should be a demonstration of your currency as a leader and a future commitment to developing yourself and those around you. As the paper certificate on the wall starts to fade with age, so does its ability to represent who you are today.

Since a digital badge can be withdrawn or suspended, your membership of the Institute of Leadership & Management can be publicly celebrated as a live and current credential that can be tested in real time by anyone

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Ongoing engagement in learning is critical By

Phil James

who interacts with you, bringing enhanced credibility to your post-nominal letters.

Next up is our new digital platform for leadership development, which will be launching soon. We’re changing the face of traditional continuing professional development, and challenging the idea that your learning is completed once you have left a classroom or conference hall. We’re emphasising the critical importance of ongoing engagement in learning and having this verified by your peers. Stay tuned for our

NEXT UP IS OUR NEW DIGITAL PLATFORM FOR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT announcements about the launch of this platform and information on how to get involved as a member. And finally, a very warm welcome to the Institute’s new Board of Trustees. At the time of writing, I don’t know who our new board members are, but the response to the advertisement for new trustees was fantastic, and candidates were clearly unfazed by the prospect of producing their election videos, which really brought each person’s application to life. Thanks to your participation, your new trustees have been elected with a mandate to act on your behalf for the future of the Institute. I feel certain that future will be driven by digital.

Phil James is chief executive of the Institute of Leadership & Management

29/06/2017 16:52

Insider

18

J

Members elect Board of Trustees

une was an exciting month for the Institute since we held our much-anticipated board elections for new trustees and a deputy chair.

The response from our membership was huge, with many people applying from both within the UK and overseas. All candidates were asked to produce video statements for shortlisting, which could be viewed on our

website. Our AGM was held on 27 June, and the following six candidates were selected to be your new trustees: Andrew Sharman (deputy chair), Stella Chandler, John Gavin, Annabel Graham, Joy Maitland and Karen Waite.

Both the response to voting and attendance at the AGM and our Leadership Conference, The Multi-Dimensional Leader, proved how passionate our members are about our mission to ‘Inspire Great Leadership, Everywhere’.

Shutterstock

Institute welcomes three experienced staff recruits The staff of the Institute of Leadership & Management has been boosted by three new hires – Jay Ludditt, head of digital strategy, Juliet Kampasi, events and research coordinator, and Kim Knight, marketing and social media coordinator.

Jay has an impressive track record, most recently as co-founder and COO of UNiDAYS, the world’s leading student network connecting a verified global audience with relevant brands and services. He took the company from start-up to a multimillion-pound digital marketing and technology business, operating in 32 countries, with over eight million users. Prior to that, he worked as a mentor and speaker at Nottingham Trent University, advising on entrepreneurship and business.

Juliet has a diverse and multi-faceted range of experience. She has been involved with organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund and major events such as TED in Greece.

Juliet says she is looking forward

018-019_EdgeAutumn2017_InsiderNews.indd 18

Clockwise from left Juliet Kampasi, Jay Ludditt and Kim Knight

to the new challenges that the Institute of Leadership & Management has to offer.

Kim joins the marketing team from Staffordshire University Students’ Union, where she held the role of marketing coordinator. She has a wealth of experience across online and offline marketing activity.

In particular, she has expertise in developing and managing social media effectively as part of integrated marketing campaigns, and has achieved measurable results – increasing web usage and social media traffic and engagement.

SHARE YOUR RESEARCH If you have undertaken any research into leadership and management, written a paper or participated in a best practice case study, we want to hear about it. We may even be able to feature it in Edge.

Email us at: research@ institutelm.com

29/06/2017 16:52

News

Richard Tucker honoured with an MBE The Institute is very proud to announce that one of its early members, Richard Tucker, has received an MBE for services to business and the community.

He is a businessman, originally from Plymouth but now based in Darlington, who helps former servicemen back into work.

Tucker, 58, served in the RAF for 20 years and saw action during the first Gulf War. In 2006, he set up a property management company, based in Newton Aycliffe in County Durham. From that grew his Caring Caretaker business, which provides handymen – many of whom are ex-services personnel – to landlords, commercial companies and the public sector. He works with similar organisations such as Groundwork North East, X-Forces and Veterans at Ease. Over the years, he has helped at least 70 former servicemen to find their feet in ‘Civvy Street’.

Commenting on the MBE, Tucker said: “I am extremely proud, pleased and honoured – it is a tremendous acknowledgement and privilege.”

Tucker is married to wife Pam, and has two children and two grandchildren. He has been a Fellow of the Institute since 2007.

The Institute is conducting research into how service leavers can effectively transfer their leadership and teamworking skills into a civilian environment. See page 46

19

MEMBER OBITUARY

Frank Lambert: Founder member Frank Lambert, a founder member of the Institute of Leadership & Management, died in March 2017, a year before he would have achieved the milestone of 50 years of membership. A success in the fields of personnel and industrial relations, he enjoyed the confidence of huge workforces, trade union leaders, ACAS officers and board directors due to his grasp of the law and his appreciation of the general mood within the workplace.

JJ Thompson, OBE, MIPM and a past director of arbitration service ACAS, said of Lambert: “He tactfully negotiated changes that did not always receive immediate support from one or other of the sides – management or trade union.”

Stephen Johnson, a colleague and friend of Lambert’s, noted: “Frank spent time developing a deep understanding of people around him and what motivated them, and thus became able to help them to achieve more than they thought possible.” He is survived by wife Yvonne Lambert, son Paul Lambert, daughter Sandra Tyson and her two sons, Christopher and Michael.

MEMBERS LOVE...

Top five document downloads from the Learning Resources section 1 Understanding Yourself 2 Is My Team Effective?

3 H ow to Adapt your Leadership Style 4 A n Introduction to Leadership Styles 5 M entoring vs. Coaching – Do You Know the Difference?

To access the resources, which are exclusive to members, log in to your web account

018-019_EdgeAutumn2017_InsiderNews.indd 19

1,970 Student member activations from April to May

193

New members from April to May

1,018

Visits to the new Edge blog articles, with ‘The challenges of looking after your employees’ happiness’ being the most read article.

Edge magazine has also attracted great Twitter feedback on its new look

29/06/2017 16:52

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29/06/2017 17:12 04.11.2015 15:42:50

Insider SETTING THE STANDARD

21

Exploring leadership Many important lessons can be learned from personal history

A

By

n important part of our recent research activity has involved inviting people to discuss various aspects of leadership at a series of roundtables. One roundtable was asked to consider how leadership and teamwork capability could be transitioned from a services culture to other cultures. For this event, we received support from Help for Heroes and the Officers’ Association among other organisations. For another roundtable, we partnered with conservation coalition Wildlife and Countryside Link to explore how collaborative leadership, which is vital to many charities, is understood and aspired to in that sector.

At the end of May, we also held a roundtable on diversity. We worked with Simone Roche, founder of Northern Power Women and our Vision Ambassador, to engage with the broader issue of inclusivity and diversity that was exposed by the under-representation of women and other groups at the Northern Powerhouse Conference in February.

What struck me most about the contributions that people made at this event was how intensely personal the experience of leadership is, and how our talking about

Kate Cooper

leadership is invariably grounded in experience and rarely in abstracts.

Many of us use models of leadership to improve our understanding of the process of leadership. Yet when talking about leadership with others, it is our personal history we frequently draw on. Roundtable participants spoke most authentically on their learning about leadership, the mistakes they had made along the way, the people they aspired to emulate, and others who had provided profound lessons in ‘how not to lead’.

There was a great deal of awareness about the challenges that today’s leaders face given how much is changing. At the same time, there was recognition that the importance of nurturing relationships is a constant.

These discussions reminded us once more how crucial role models are in the learning of leadership, and of the power of conversation in its daily enactment.

The roundtables highlighted here are just the beginning. We will be holding a series of further events over the next few months, inviting additional contributions from our members and other interested individuals before publishing a series of white papers.

Our aim is to have 100 such conversations in total. We are already half-way there, so please do contribute to the next 50.

WEBINARS The Institute runs free ‘Learn at Lunch’ 30-minute webinars most Wednesdays from 1-1.30pm. To find out more, visit www.institutelm.com/events/ webinars.html

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Check out these Coaching webinars, which you may have missed: Coaching for a virtual reality 31 May 2017 bit.ly/2sATxlL

Coaching at a distance 24 May 2017 bit.ly/2rzfTE6

Coaching in 3D virtual worlds 17 May 2017 bit.ly/2tvwjtK

29/06/2017 16:52

Insider

22

Events

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF

Tibisay Vera

I

usually wake at around 7am, unless I have to deliver an early training course.

I come from Venezuela where people eat a lot of fruit so I like to start the day with a natural juice. I spend around 15-20 minutes every morning cutting fruit. Fruit has very good nutrients for the brain.

If I am running a training session for a client, I am usually onsite, ready to start, at 9.30am. Most of my clients are financial services businesses or blue-chip companies, although I also work with some smaller organisations and individuals from different walks of life.

I started my neuroscience-based coaching consultancy in 2012, soon after I completed a master’s degree in clinical neuroscience. Before that, I worked in financial transformation for a large American bank.

My training sessions typically last between four and six hours, and they are very dynamic. I use the first 30 minutes of each session to explain how the brain works, then we do exercises and start applying neuroscience to leadership and performance. I spend a lot of time moving while in the classroom. Lunch is a quick sandwich. I usually finish training at around 3.30pm or 4pm, which means I can pick my seven-year-old daughter up from school and take her to the tennis club or give my two-year-old son a trip to the

Brains need fruit and sleep

playground. On the days that I’m not delivering training, I spend a lot of time at the British Library or St Mary’s University Library doing research. St Mary’s is close to where I live, in Richmond. I tend to have a big feast of meat or fish for lunch when I'm not training, because I believe lunch should be the biggest meal of the day. Normally I finish at around 6pm or 7pm. I try to fit in a one-to-one coaching session with an individual client after I have finished my research.

We eat as a family on Tuesdays and

AFTER DINNER, I PRACTISE MINDFULNESS AND SPEND 20 MINUTES REFLECTING ON THE DAY Fridays, at around 7pm. The other days, my husband and I tend to dine once the children are in bed. After dinner, I practise mindfulness and spend 20 minutes reflecting on how the day went. Mindfulness is my top tip for relaxation. It is important for our brains that we get eight hours’ sleep, so I try to go to bed by 11pm.

Tibisay Vera is founder of Sparkling Performance, a neuroscience-based coaching consultancy

If you would like to feature in A Day in the Life, email sally.percy@lidpublishing.com

EVENTS CALENDAR The Institute of Leadership & Management has a busy events programme lined up for the autumn. Our free webinar series, Learning at Lunch, will continue from September, with a series of webinars on international leadership.

We will discuss sport, along with the findings from our white paper, The Elusive X, in Portsmouth on 13 September. Then, on 8 November, we will return to Manchester Metropolitan University to discuss what authenticity looks like on a daily basis. In addition, we will hold events and discussions on a range of topics including

collaboration, diversity, faith leadership and how service leaders can transition their leadership and teamworking skills. Our financial services group will also meet on a bi-monthly basis.

Events are set to take place all over the UK, in locations including Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford and York. If you are interested in partnering with us at these events and helping us to fulfil our mission to inspire great leadership, please get in contact with jane.nicholson-biss@institutelm.com

For more on events, see www.institutelm.com/events.html. To view recordings of past webinars, visit www.institutelm.com/events/webinars.html

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29/06/2017 16:51

Insider

Member Q&A

23

IN THE HOT SEAT

Christine Carter This month, Edge meets Christine Carter, headteacher of Burton Borough School

What does leadership mean to you?

and GCSE grading. As it is an unsettling time, the message that teaching is a brilliant job gets lost. Yet, for me, there is nothing more rewarding than to see students grow up into young men and women who are using the skills that we have given them to succeed.

Leadership is about creating a vision for your organisation, setting an example by modelling the behaviours you expect from colleagues and guiding them in the direction you want them to go. Great leaders can communicate their vision well and generate a sense of moral purpose so that those working with them understand the rationale behind their vision. Leadership is about making tough decisions and sticking by them in order to achieve the best outcome for your organisation – in my case, for over 1,000 students and 160 staff at a secondary school.

What are you personally focusing on now from a leadership and management perspective?

By its very nature, teaching is a constant learning curve since you come across new challenges every single day. I continually learn from others and I am looking into networking and research as part of my own development.

What are your biggest leadership and management challenges?

How are you developing your people?

The biggest challenges facing the teaching profession at the moment are teacher recruitment and retention, and budget restraints. Recruiting excellent teachers in certain subjects, such as mathematics and science, has become progressively more difficult since there is a shortage of new recruits and people are not staying in the profession. Teachers are working twice as hard in an already demanding job to cover vacancies, which can impact on morale and affect students.

Schools must become more creative about solving these issues so that they can balance the books.

In the past, staff members have had the opportunity to select from a menu of professional development opportunities. We also have 20-minute professional development sessions on Thursday mornings, where colleagues present initiatives that have had a positive impact on student outcomes.

How does the general context of education feed in to those major challenges?

On top of the staff and budget challenges, there have been changes to examination specifications

023_EdgeAutumn2017_MemberQA.indd 23

THE BIG CHALLENGE IS GIVING EMPLOYEES A SENSE OF PURPOSE

Where would you like to see the Institute focus its future efforts from a policy perspective?

I have learned so much since joining the Institute and would love other people in education to be a part of it. I would like to see the Institute engage with more educators and encourage them to become members.

Would you like to feature in In the Hot Seat? Email sally.percy@lidpublishing.com

29/06/2017 16:51

The Edge Interview

24

Emergency service Rupinder Singh’s background in NHS improvement means he can support healthcare providers in financial, operational and strategic distress Writing Sally Percy

Photography Tom Campbell

F

ew organisations arouse as much passion as the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). Its fans tend to revere it as a worldleading healthcare system that employs some of the most capable clinicians on the planet.

To its detractors, however, it is a complex, inefficient juggernaut that sucks public money into a never-ending black hole.

Wherever the truth lies, there is no denying that the NHS operates in an extraordinarily difficult economic, political and social landscape. Not only has it embarked on a major restructuring programme following the Health and Social Care Act 2012, it is also wrestling with real-term funding cuts, new models of care, and the risk that Brexit will make it harder for the organisation to hire clinical staff from within the EU. Then, of course, there is the issue of the ageing

024-027_EdgeAutumn2017_Interview.indd 24

population. The NHS already deals with over one million patients every 36 hours. Yet the UK’s life expectancy has risen by 13 years on average since the service was founded in 1948, and will increase further as more people live until they are 100.

Ward to Board Rupinder Singh, director of Ward to Board Consulting and a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership & Management, is only too aware of the challenges that the NHS faces, having worked in, and with, the healthcare system for more than a decade. He joined the then newly established arm’s-length body, Monitor (now NHS Improvement), from the private sector in 2004, excited by the possibility of working in a field where people cared for others.

NHS Improvement is responsible for authorising, monitoring and regulating all

29/06/2017 16:51

Rupinder Singh

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25

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The Edge Interview

LEADERSHIP LESSONS Who has been your real-life leadership inspiration?

“My late father, Atma, who passed away in 2015. My parents suffered horrendous racial abuse, but my father always taught us to turn the other cheek, work hard and treat others with respect. I hope my children learn the same from me.”

What does a good leader look like?

“A good leader adapts to the challenges around them and changes course based on a healthy dose of evidence. Good judgement, communication skills and listening skills are all important. In the NHS, leaders also need to strike the right balance between accountability and support. Lastly, presence is absolutely critical. A leader should be active within the organisation, ready to lead and inspire, and able to gauge sentiment.”

What’s the greatest challenge you’ve faced as a leader and how did you overcome it?

“My greatest challenge came when I was an interim strategy director in Manchester. An absence of effective leadership had created a hugely defensive culture at the trust – from the board down. A highly capable CEO and COO joined the board at the

foundation trusts and NHS trusts, as well as independent organisations that provide NHS-funded care. While he was there, Singh worked in a wide range of roles that gave him a broad perspective of the NHS. In the early days, he had the job of assessing whether NHS trusts had the right financial, clinical and corporate governance in place to become NHS foundation trusts. Later, he led the creation of the Continuity of Services Framework to oversee distressed healthcare providers.

“During my time at Monitor, I learned that leadership and governance tend to be defining factors in the quality of healthcare delivery and regulation,” he recalls. Yet he also discovered that NHS leaders often do not have the support they need to “navigate their way through the challenges”.

A particular challenge is, of course, money.

Over half (51%) of England’s 240 NHS trusts and foundation trusts have planned to end the 2016/17 financial year in deficit, according to the King’s Fund, with nearly three-quarters of these trusts being acute hospitals. Under pressure to make ends meet, NHS leaders are having to take a more innovative approach to care – for example, shifting away from the traditional, hospital-based model of care towards arguably more cost-effective community and home-based care. They are also looking at how they can make better use of technology.

024-027_EdgeAutumn2017_Interview.indd 26

IF YOU DRILL DOWN INTO EVERY NHS ORGANISATION, YOU EFFECTIVELY HAVE 30 OR 40 DIFFERENT BUSINESSES

“Growth in the use of science and technology is pushing the conventional thresholds of clinical, operational and financial productivity,” observes Singh thoughtfully.

The sheer size of the NHS also makes life very complicated for its leaders. It employs over 1.5 million people, making it one of the world’s five largest employers – along with the US Department of Defense, McDonald’s, Walmart and the Chinese Liberation Army. That’s a vast workforce to recruit, manage, motivate, discipline and retain.

“The NHS is a huge organisation, and to think of it as just one organisation is probably wrong,” says Singh. “Every single NHS organisation is very different in terms of how it runs, how effective and efficient it is, and its leadership. Then, if you drill down into every NHS organisation, you effectively have 30 or 40 different businesses within each one, each with its own culture, leadership and strategy.

That’s why changing culture or mindset within the NHS takes years.”

Nevertheless, he is clear that the NHS does have some excellent leadership across the spectrum, from the board through to senior management and clinicians. “The best NHS organisations are creating a clinical voice that connects the ward to the board,” says Singh. “In the past, many organisations developed clinical strategy through the

29/06/2017 16:51

Rupinder Singh

same time as me. Together, we introduced a more evidence-based approach to a clinical strategy, and built more constructive relationships with other providers in the region. We also rebuilt trust with clinicians so that we could constructively discuss options for reconfiguring services.”

What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve ever learned?

“Do your homework and know the person you are speaking to – what drives them and where incentives might align. Learning about leadership, developing skills and demonstrating good leadership is a lifetime job.”

What’s the secret to your own success?

“I would say that I can understand and recognise the underlying drivers of issues and formulate credible strategic solutions.”

How do you like to relax at the end of a long day?

“When I am working away from home, I tend to run or swim in the evenings, Skype my lovely family and then watch Netflix. When I’m at home, it’s all about my wife and children.”

chief executive, the finance director, and maybe the director of commissioning, sitting round a table in a darkened room. That’s shifting now.” He cites the example of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which developed a clinical policy group – a body of clinicians that has direct conversations with the board and help to shape clinical strategy.

“It’s a great model that needs to be replicated across other NHS organisations.”

Life on the other side In 2014, Singh decided to leave Monitor and use his regulatory experience to help healthcare providers.

He set up his own consultancy practice to support providers in financial, operational and strategic distress. He also works with organisations that are developing new models of care. “Initially, it felt like being thrown from the shallow end into the deep end with no armbands,” he recalls. “Thankfully, I quickly learnt to swim. My primary motivation is having the ability to deliver genuine change and become a disrupter.”

He spent the first 14 months of self-employment acting as interim director of strategy and partnerships for the University Hospitals of South Manchester NHS Trust. In this role, he was responsible for developing the trust’s long-term

024-027_EdgeAutumn2017_Interview.indd 27

strategy, and fostering relationships with privatesector organisations. “It was a steep learning curve for me,” he says. “It is difficult, when you work for the regulator, to appreciate the wide spectrum and complexity of the challenges faced by providers.

But I helped the trust to understand what the regulator expected of it, and to gain valuable breathing space to deliver necessary changes.”

Since then, Singh has gone on to work with numerous other organisations, directing complex projects related to clinical strategy, financial turnaround, leadership reviews, new models of care, peer-to-peer groups and system transformation projects. He is also chief commercial officer of Kraydel, a provider of in-home monitoring systems that support the elderly to live safely and comfortably in their own houses. “My views and understanding of leadership have considerably matured during my post-regulator life,” he comments.

Like father, like son Singh admits that his biggest personal and professional inspiration was his own father, a civil engineer who moved his family to the UK from India in the 1960s. “He worked seven days a week,” he says. “And he always tried to set an example in terms of how you should treat others. If a tradesman fixed something in the house, he always paid them more than they asked for, to show appreciation for what they had done. That’s always stuck with me.”

The family lived in London to begin with, on a street where all their neighbours were white. “I saw racism as normal when I was growing up,” Singh explains. “I remember stones and bricks being thrown through our windows almost every week. When my mother went outside, children would often bounce footballs off her head. It could have pushed me towards being negative about particular people, but my father used to say: ‘All of this is born out of ignorance. None of it is personal.’ He was determined not to move, and he taught me not to give up. Some of the people who made our lives a misery then are among our best friends today.”

In his own career, Singh has never felt discriminated against, although he says that some of his Asian friends working across different sectors have experienced discrimination. He admits that his own perspective has been heavily influenced by his involvement with the NHS, however. “The NHS has a long history of being populated by the best, regardless of their race and gender,” he says. “But, even so, I’m not saying that discrimination doesn’t exist. I’m just saying that I have not personally experienced it.”

27

CAREER TIMELINE 1992-1998 Senior consultant with Arthur Andersen 1998 – 2004 Held finance and business analyst roles with various private-sector organisations 2004 – 2007 Assessment manager, Monitor 2007 – 2012 Senior regional manager for North East England and South West England, Monitor 2012 – 2013 Head of continuity of services implementation, Monitor 2013 – 2014 Head of monitoring project for independent providers, Monitor 2014 – 2015 Interim director of strategy and partnerships, University Hospitals of South Manchester NHS Trust 2014 – present Director, Ward to Board Consulting; chief commercial officer, Kraydel

Sally Percy is editor of ‘Edge’

29/06/2017 16:51

Promote your training and courses to over 10,000 leadership professionals in Edge Are you interested in promoting your courses to over 10,000 members and learning development professionals at preferential rates?

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29/06/2017 17:10

Spotlight

29

DIVERSITY 34 The next frontier in diversity and inclusion

36 Cross-cultural coaching and the concept of ‘self’

38 Diversity is driven from both the bottom and the top at Carillion

Shutterstock

30 Great minds don’t think alike: building a leadership pipeline

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Spotlight

29/06/2017 16:50

Diversity

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Great minds don’t think alike It takes more than diversity to deliver commercial success – differences must be embraced Writing Sandra Green Illustration Nick Shepherd

A

tremendous amount of evidence shows that greater diversity of people delivers better commercial results.

Diversity takes many forms – we have differences in ability, age, gender, religion and sexuality, but we also have diversity in thinking styles. Take the psychometric profiling tool Myer Briggs. That measures 16 different personality preferences. The list goes on.

Diversity doesn’t mean that we should adopt a ‘Noah’s Ark’ approach to leadership, where we bring two of every kind into the workplace, however. Increasingly, organisations are using the word ‘inclusion’ to imply a positive way of embracing difference. It’s not having a diverse workforce or leadership population that really counts; it’s the way in which that difference is embraced.

The evidence for embracing diversity is compelling. Take the 2016 report by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, together with professional services organisation EY, which found that companies with a senior management team that is 30% female could expect to have up to a six-percentage-point increase in net margins compared with similar businesses that had no female leaders. Or 2015 research by consultancy McKinsey entitled Diversity Matters, which found ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to outperform financially compared with the national industry average. Another report, Innova-

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tion, Diversity and Market Growth, by the Centre for Talent Innovation, found that when teams had one or more members representing their target user, they were 70% more likely to capture new markets and 45% more likely to improve market share.

Yet despite evidence that shows diversity is good for business, the reality is that leadership is far from being evenly distributed among diverse groups. Currently there are only seven female chief executives in the FTSE 100 and four from British black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds. We no longer have an openly gay chief executive since Burberry’s Christopher Bailey left that role in July. These statistics show that the leadership of our largest businesses does not truly reflect the make-up of British society today.

The role of unconscious bias The number one challenge facing would-be female leaders and other leaders from disadvantaged groups is unconscious bias. Everyone has unconscious bias, which is not easy to shake off or change.

The judgements we make of others are based on years of conditioning, cultural norms and personal experiences. According to Freud, the unconscious part of our brain collates and processes 200,000 times more pieces of information per second than our conscious brain. Effectively, we all create our own internal book of rules or ‘operating manual’ – and it is this that makes unconscious bias a very tricky problem to solve. Let’s look at some examples.

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The CV experiment Chicago University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sent out 5,000 identical CVs to 1,250 employers. There was one difference. The names. Emily Walsh and Greg Baker were replaced with Lakisha Washington and Jamal Jones. Significantly, the CVs with the white-sounding names received 50% more call-backs than those with African-American names. In a similar experiment, Jennifer was deemed less competent than John.

WE ALL SEE THE WORLD THROUGH OUR OWN PARADIGMS

HOW WHITE MALE LEADERS CAN NURTURE DIVERSE TALE

1

The first thing to understand is that diversity brings different ways of thinking, different ways of seeing the world and different decisionmaking styles. Accepting these differences can be very uncomfortable, especially when we are under pressure and we think we know the right way to do things.

2

Let’s take leading women. Broadly speaking, women think differently from men. Study after study shows that women embrace collaboration, connection and a deep desire to make a difference.

They are less bothered about competition and being the best. Sometimes this can make a woman look

American CEOs Less than 15% of the US population is over six feet tall, yet 60% of corporate chief executives in America are above that height. How can that happen? Some say it’s because we expect leaders to have presence and therefore to be tall and commanding. Unconscious bias strikes again!

Performance review bias Additional research in the journal Academic Medicine found that women who expressed anger were evaluated negatively, while men who did the same were rated positively – for them, expressing anger was seen as a strength. I have coached women who have been told that they are too ‘aggressive’.

In fact, separate research by Kieran Synder found that there is a word commonly used to evaluate women but not men: ‘abrasive’. This is yet another example of the unconscious bias that exists in the workplace.

Drive for diversity How can we overcome the challenges that different groups face? In my opinion, several parties have important responsibilities here. Firstly, the organisation has to create policies and processes that enable diversity to flourish. Let me give you an example. If you are employed at Google, you get some choice as to what you work on. So you spend 70% of your time on current assignments, 20% on a related project and 10% on any project you wish.

Plus, you can attend any management meeting.

Now that’s embracing difference.

At a basic level, organisations can introduce unconscious bias training. Next, they can look at setting up committees and working groups to look at where bias exists in practice within their organisation. The answer is not to get a woman to run the women leaders group, or the ethnic guy to be responsible for diversity. We can only change our own perceptions of the world by starting to see the world through the lens of another.

Next, we have to engage the men. Statistics firmly show that it’s men who are running our

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Flexible working: Goodbye nine to five This research report by the Institute of Leadership & Management found that flexible working is now a mainstream business practice that benefits both male and female employees. Almost all UK organisations (94%) offer some form of flexible working. Four in five managers said they had taken advantage of flexible working practices in the past four years. As many men as women are now working flexible hours or working from home.

Download the report from www.institutelm. com/resourceLibrary/ FlexibleWorking.html

organisations. A couple of years ago, I was privileged to hear the brilliant Dr Michael Kimmel speak on this very topic. He’s the professor of Gender Studies at Stony Brook University, New York, and a leading expert on masculinity. He used a brilliant expression during his very enlightening talk: “Privilege is invisible to those who have it.”

This is the key problem. We all see the world through our own paradigms. How on earth do we begin to share or appreciate what it’s like to see the world through different eyes? We have to find a way for men to not think this is ‘old news’ or to feel threatened. One way to access the topic of gender equality is to remind them of their daughters and

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Diversity

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E DIVERSE TALENT weak or emotional. I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to take the time to get to know what’s important to every member of your team – female and male. Learn how to listen. Learn how to acknowledge and appreciate difference.

3

Next, consider the current make-up of your team.

How gender diverse is it and how many people on the team are from a different background, whether that’s education, nationality, race or religion?

What is the level of innovation and performance within the team? When you are next recruiting, shortlist a broad range of individuals.

Better still, remove the names from applications

TAKE THE TIME TO GET TO KNOW WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO EVERY MEMBER OF YOUR TEAM

so you are not biased before you even meet the candidate.

4

When leading millennials, be mindful that they think differently. They want more fun at work, teamwork, regular and ongoing feedback, and a better work-life balance. Many have been brought up to believe that they can be, do or have anything they want. This in itself can create issues in the workplace.

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Finally, volunteer to get involved in diversity initiatives, whether that’s by supporting HR, sponsoring and mentoring younger talent, or setting up a working party.

GETTING MORE WOMEN ON BOARD The good news is that since 2010, the percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards has risen from 12.5% through to 27%, according to the 30% Club.

This has largely come about through the recruitment of female non-executive directors, rather than through more women landing executive positions.

Organisations are waking up to the fact that having a diverse board is invaluable to the decision-making process.

When boards are recruiting for new directors, they take technical expertise as a given. So it is critical that nominees have a proven track record and have delivered impressive results. This can sometimes be trickier for women, who find it more difficult to articulate their achievements and their leadership experience.

Yet it is important that boards appreciate the benefits that female board directors offer. They typically bring greater collaborative thinking, for example.

They engage more readily in the wider strategy, and in understanding and engaging with their peers. They also see the whole as greater than the sum of its parts. Another benefit that women bring to boards is greater commitment to transparency of information and dialogue. Many are keen to align role model behaviours and values that create a culture of trust.

Boards that are genuinely committed to gender diversity must avoid falling into the ‘token’ trap – in other words, “we have appointed a woman so we can get back to work”. As Halle Tecco, angel investor and adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, tweeted: “One woman on a board is a token. Two is a presence.

Three is a voice. Four is power.”

granddaughters. According to the World Economic Forum, it’s going to take 170 years before we achieve gender equality.

Finally, what can the individual do? Last year I wrote a book called Handbags in the Boardroom.

In that book, I shared many of the reasons why women don’t make it to the top, together with some ideas for addressing the problem. Here are two of the ideas:

1

Be visible. There is a problem known as the Tiara Syndrome, which is where people keep their heads down and wait to be noticed. The most successful leaders (irrespective of difference)

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make themselves visible. They get to know people inside and outside of their organisation. They get remembered – positively. Also, they find out what is important to others and help them.

2

Constantly learn and grow. The most successful leaders keep learning their craft.

They aim to be the best in their field and they are constantly developing their experiences, knowledge and skills. Above all, they tell others about them, as well. How do you expect others to value and respect you, if they don’t know about you?

Sandra Green is an executive coach and author of ‘Handbags in the Boardroom’

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Spotlight

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Survival strategy What’s the next frontier when it comes to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace?

Writing Kirsten Levermore

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beacon pointing the way towards an economic revival, the Northern Powerhouse connects and showcases the very best of the north of England’s industries, innovations, productivity, business networks and transport links. It was all going well, until the Northern Powerhouse fell victim to that plague of the modern economy: a lack of gender diversity.

The Northern Powerhouse Conference – the pinnacle event for this elite club of businesspeople, public policy practitioners and executives of the north of England – advertised 15 ‘key’ speakers for its 2017 conference. And every one of them was male. In fact, out of the 98 speakers who were invited to address the two-day event, only 13 were women. When asked to explain themselves, organ-

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isers reportedly blamed the companies for putting forward male speakers.

If it is not the job of organisers to make sure that a conference has a diverse speaker line-up, then whose job is it? And why is it important?

Diversify to thrive

OUT OF THE 98 SPEAKERS INVITED TO ADDRESS THE EVENT, ONLY 13 WERE WOMEN

The assignment of roles and status by gender has historically dominated societal practice. But in today’s world, with improved technology, education and childcare facilities, the modern woman can (theoretically) achieve anything the modern man can. And research would indicate diversity should be encouraged in the workplace. Why? Organisational survival.

Diversity among creatures helps to ensure that life on Earth will continue in the face of any possible event or disaster. This same rule applies

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Case for Diversity

INSTITUTE TAKES ACTION ON DIVERSITY In response to the Northern Powerhouse debacle, the Institute of Leadership & Management organised a roundtable discussion in Manchester in May 2017. It invited voices from politics, business and education to discuss concrete solutions to gender inclusivity issues in the UK. Among the participants were leading educationalist Dame Kathy August, Atiha Chaudhry, chair of the Manchester Black and Minority Ethnic Network, Flick Harris, chair of Manchester Disabled People’s Access Group, and Simone Roche, the Institute’s vision ambassador and founder of Northern Power Women.

Explaining the rationale for holding the roundtable, Phil James,

the Institute’s chief executive, said: “Quite a lot of what we hear about the importance of driving diversity is focused on the ‘regular’ issues. Why aren’t there enough women? Why aren’t there more women on boards?

Why is there not enough ethic diversity on boards, and so on? The Institute wants to move the conversation on a bit. We want to ask the more probing questions – not just the traditional questions that are asked about boards, but really try and get under the skin of the issue.”

The white paper containing the findings of the roundtable, hosted by the Institute in association with Carillon, will be made available later in 2017.

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where 46.4% of the workforce is female). Yet somehow, 34% of global businesses still do not have a single woman in senior management, according to research published by Grant Thornton in 2017.

Dr Fiona Creaby, a researcher from Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Manchester, says underrepresentation of women in leadership could be down to any of the reasons listed below: Biases (both conscious and unconscious) and outdated stereotypes A lack of female role models Unsatisfactory work–life balance structures Lack of access to opportunities

But with bright results from companies that incorporate and encourage gender inclusivity, it’s clear to see that both the time and excuses for companies that persist with all-male boards are running out.

Slow but steady within organisations. Diversity in leadership and in the workforce allows an organisation to find solutions and survive, regardless of the challenges.

Numerous case studies reveal the positive impact of women in leadership. One, a six-year global study of more than 2,000 companies from Credit Suisse’s Research Institute, suggested that, on average, it was better to have invested in corporates with women on their management boards than in those without. Companies with one or more women on the board delivered higher average returns on equity and better average growth.

Women may be better in a crisis Writing in Social Issues Policy Review in 2014, Bruckmuller et al highlighted what they called “the glass cliff”. The most female senior appointments are made when an organisation is facing a crisis or challenge. Women are seen as “marshals of social resources” and their appointments a “signal for change”, the study suggests.

One potential explanation for why women might be better in business crises is that they are thought to possess so-called ‘feminine’ traits, such as relationship-oriented actions and democratic tendencies, as opposed to ‘masculine’ assertive and task-based behaviours, potentially leading to a calming, people-focused solution (Haslam & Ryan, 2008).

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The workplace in 2017 Today, women make up 39% of the global labour force (a figure even more pronounced in the UK,

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DIVERSITY IN LEADERSHIP AND WORKFORCE ALLOWS AN ORGANISATION TO SURVIVE

Progress might be slow, but change does seem to be happening. Grant Thornton found that the number of top positions held by women globally has shifted from 12.5% in 2010 to a more palatable 25% in 2017.

“It’s a snowball,” says equality and diversity consultant Tara Hewitt. “Big firms don’t want to be left out after another firm develops its equality work. So initial development carried out for the benefit of a community can spark a domino effect in an area or industry, out of competition. Alternatively, when you have a courageous and inclusive leader, that person can step up and act before the organisation reaches an uncomfortable level of discrimination or inequality… which can likewise inspire competition among other companies.

And, because someone else has done it first, those companies think the whole thing is easy to achieve, so, again, dominoes tumble.”

Nevertheless, it would be misleading to suggest that movement towards gender inclusivity and diversity takes a steadily upward trajectory.

Research by executive search firm Egon Zehnder found that the number of women at executive committee level in FTSE 100 companies and on UK boards had either stagnated or worsened between 2014 and 2016.

Sarah Hopes, commercial director of construction services company Carillion, is optimistic, however: “We’re on the last hurdle now, to true inclusivity,” she says. “People don’t realise that we are on the final hurdle, that we have already taken 20 steps down the path. Now, it’s just about the endgame.”

Kirsten Levermore is assistant editor of ‘Edge’

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Coaching across cultures Leading in a global context means appreciating different norms and different concepts of ‘self’ Writing Jenny Plaister-Ten

T

he world and its institutions are extraordinarily complex.

So they require us to avoid binary decisions and the ‘black and white thinking’ that emerges from unconscious bias and leads to stereotyping.

In a coaching relationship, it is important to hold space for potentially conflicting values and beliefs. Opposing viewpoints can be powerful in eliciting a ‘both/and’ perspective – one that has the potential to encourage creativity and ‘innovation of thought’ in multicultural teams and global organisations.

I coach leaders – often remotely – who are moving around the world, or working in multicultural teams. Based on my work and the research I did during my masters degree in coaching and mentoring, I have developed an approach to operating in an intercultural context that is rooted in the following five key elements:

HOW MUCH OF YOUR CULTURAL SELF DO YOU BRING INTO THE COACHING RELATIONSHIP?

Hall, Geert Hofstede, Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars, have all contributed enormously to the field of cultural awareness. Yet research suggests they may have also contributed to ‘sophisticated stereotyping’. We need to understand the cultural norms of the people we are coaching, the context in which they work, and the people they work with. Yet we also need to bracket this awareness so that we enter into any coaching from an unbiased perspective. This requires holding opposing values at bay in a ‘neutral space’ that is characterised by suspended judgements. Do you practise this?

3

Realise that concepts of ‘self’ differ across cultures

Look at yourself first. Reflect upon who you are, based upon where you were born, the messages you received from family or society, and your reaction to them. Analyse how these might have changed during your life, taking into account the multicultural influences you may or may not have experienced. Once this reflective work has begun, contemplate. When, where and from whom did you learn what you consider to be your ‘cultural norms’? What are your cultural values?

There are fundamental differences around the world about how we think of ourselves. A person tending to construe himself or herself as an independent individual, or as an interdependent member of a group, is culturally bound. Studies show that that the Western ‘self ’ concept is thought of as autonomous, independent and individualistic, whereas the Eastern ‘self’ concept is collective and interdependent. This means that goals will be viewed differently. An individualistic approach will be concerned with individual achievement, whereas a collective approach will be concerned with the good of the team, community, organisation or society. Some cultures and traditions do not even acknowledge the existence of a ‘self ’ and engage in spiritual practice to minimise the interference of self. How much of your cultural self do you bring into the coaching relationship?

2

4

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Explore the impact of your own cultural influences

Learn the intercultural theory… and then put it to one side

The intercultural theorists, notably Edward T

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Understand that universal ‘truths’ are false

One of the key reasons for many misunderstandings across cultures is the false assumption

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Intercultural Coaching

that we are all the same. While ‘unity’ is an admirable ambition, it is probably an impossible one.

We are not all the same. Conversely, we are all different. Yet, there are characteristics or tendencies shared by cultural groups that are exhibited by cultural norms. Moreover, although we all might be striving for a universal concept, such as happiness, how we wish to achieve it differs across cultures. Not Diversity only that, there are different rules for Age, gender, the expression of concepts that are ethnicity etc thought to have universal meaning – like happiness, again. For example, smiling is not trusted in some cultures. How much, then, are you challenging your own assumptions?

Cultural norms/ customs Communities Family/work/ social/living

Cultural self Bullding awareness

Culture

Organisation

Values

Religion/ spirituality

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Personality Values

History & the arts

5

Think about the external influences that have impacted you over your lifespan. Then contemplate those that have most contributed to your sense of identity

Too often we tend to think of culture as being something exhibited by everyone from the same Legal/political/ collective, such as an entire country. education This then leads to stereotyping and Economics bias. Actually, there are many outside influences that contribute to our ‘cultural self ’, including communities, Geography/ economics, education, politics, the legal climate system, and religious or spiritual beliefs. Even the climate contributes to our cultural sense of self. (For example, my husband, who was born in the tropics, says that he does not truly feel at one with himself in anything less than 20oC). If you grew up strongly influenced by the history of your country, how does that now affect your relationTHE CROSS-CULTURAL KALEIDOSCOPE ship with your home or host nation? Other subtle influences may have come from your environment I developed the Cross-Cultural experiences include communities, or education. For example, if you were educated in Kaleidoscope, which takes a systems cultural and societal norms, diversity, a system characterised by rote learning, you may approach to coaching, in order to education, economics, history, not be as assertive in the workplace as someone identify the influences that combine religious and spiritual beliefs, as well who was educated to self-disclose. How would it to shape a person’s cultural identity, as geography to ‘bring the outside in’. be for you if you were to contemplate your own a concept that has been named the This model provides a structure to cultural influences, as distinct from anyone else’s? ‘cultural self’. It has been researched question how these external ‘lenses’ Ultimately, it is only once we have done the using a phenomenological approach, may have contributed to a person’s necessary work on ourselves that we are truly and is concerned with ‘meaning cultural self, right now in the current ready to work with people from different cultural making’. The kaleidoscope provides context. It then identifies how these backgrounds. a basis for exploring, at both a macro influences may have changed – or and a micro level, the impact of pastlife experiences on an individual. These

perhaps could change – across the individual’s lifespan.

The Cross-Cultural Kaleidoscope is the intellectual property of Jennifer Plaister-Ten and 10 Consulting Ltd © 10 Consulting Ltd, 2016

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For a review of Jenny Plaister-Ten’s book, ‘The CrossCultural Coaching Kaleidoscope’, see Book Club, page 84. Jenny Plaister-Ten is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership & Management. She runs her own intercultural coaching and leadership development practice, 10 Consulting

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Affinity agenda Employee-led networks are helping to drive diversity and inclusion at support services and construction company Carillion Writing Anne Toms

D

iversity and inclusion are high up on the corporate agenda at businesses across the country. Some initiatives are created and driven from the top down. To be truly successful, however, these initiatives still need to gain support and buy-in from people across the organisation. At Carillion, a number of employee-led initiatives have played a key role in helping shape and drive our own diversity and inclusion programme, Think Different.

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THESE GROUPS BRING LIVE ISSUES TO OUR ATTENTION AS LEADERS

For example, the business has supported, though not led, the creation of a number of affinity groups. The first affinity group was one set up by, and to help, working mums. The idea for a working mums’ network came about after one new mum who returned to work found the experience quite difficult. She connected with other new, or recent mums, plus more who were on maternity leave. They began to meet virtually and talk about some of the challenges they faced. So the Working Mums’ Network was born. While Carillion’s HR team offered support, the network was not a company-led, top-down initiative.

Instead it was one that sprang from the grassroots.

That was six years ago. Today a number of other affinity groups have followed the lead of this trailblazing network. They include a Working Dads’ Network; Connect, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) group; and the Support Network for Operational Women Engineers (Snowe). The common theme of these affinity groups is that employees have driven their creation. The timing of the initiatives has been ideal, since the affinity groups have sprung up just as Carillion began driving diversity and inclusion across the organisation. The business case behind the strategy was simple: where do we get our talent from? If we ignore women, ethnic minorities and other groups, then the company is disregarding a large part of the potential talent pool. The grassroots affinity groups have therefore been able to be actively involved in shaping this agenda and providing a positive impact on it.

Earlier this year Carillion established a Diversity Council on which all the affinity groups have representation. “We are connecting diversity into the idea that this is just how we operate this organisation,” says Carillion HR director Janet Dawson.

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Case Study Carillion

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Backing working mums Further evidence that these groups are more than just ‘talking shops’ comes from the Working Mums’ Network. Once it was established, it was asked to look at Carillion’s maternity policy and come back with proposals to change and improve it. The network’s recommendation was an increase in maternity pay. Not only did Carillion agree with the suggested increase, it actually decided to extend maternity pay even further.

These improvements, together with the extensive use of flexible working, have made it easier for women to return to work. Our retention rate for women who go on maternity leave has increased from around 45% to more than 90% since the policies were changed.

Since its launch, the Working Mums’ Network has moved from virtual meetings, to using an internal social media network, holding face-toface meetings and regional networking events.

Members of Carillion’s senior management team also give presentations about their experience as working parents. Today, the Working Mums’ Network is a key part of Carillion’s family support package. Last year it even won the Workingmums.co.uk 2016 Top Employer Award for Family Support.

Support for female engineers The Snowe group was established last year to enable women from across the business to draw upon the experience, support and encouragement of their colleagues when working in operational roles. “In a career where less than 10% of the workforce is female, it is important to support, encourage and retain women in their working roles,” says Joan Murray, one of the founding members of the group, and managing director of TPS Schal, Carillion’s engineering consultancy business. “It is quite overwhelming that so many people in Carillion are supporting Snowe and are now part of the network. We have achieved so much in just one year.”

As well as helping to retain female staff in engineering roles, Snowe is active in trying to attract more women into the business via apprenticeship schemes. It is also engaged outside the business, encouraging more girls to study science, technology, engineering and maths subjects.

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LGBT champion As part of Carillion’s continuing diversity and inclusion programme, the company signed up to be a diversity champion with leading LGBT equality charity Stonewall. Carillion’s Connect

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Above Becky Marandola (front left), a founder of Carillion’s Working Mums’ Network, receives the Top Employer Award for Family Support from Gillian Nissim, founder of Workingmums.co.uk.

She is pictured with two Carillion colleagues, Stuart Culley (left) and Keith McCabe of the Working Dads’ Network

ABOUT CARILLION Carillion is a FTSE 250-listed business that provides support services, project finance and construction services to clients in the UK, Canada and the Middle East. It employs around 48,500 people and turned over £5.2 billion in 2016.

group is made up of LGBT employees and ‘straight allies’, who are helping to advise and support the leadership team, with the aim of making Carillion a bright light when it comes to being an open and inclusive business – which succeeds because of the diversity its people bring.

Some of the sectors Carillion works in are very conservative and male dominated, explains one of Connect’s founders, who works in the construction business. She says there used to be an ‘old boys club’ mentality at work, but this is now changing and ‘banter’ is being challenged.

This enables people to be open about who they are, and to feel fully engaged at work. “We want to raise these issues in the wider workplace, to educate everyone in how to talk about any of the challenges,” she wrote in her blog last year.

Carillion HR director Dawson paid tribute to the firm’s diverse support groups in a speech given last September during Carillion’s annual Sustainability Week. She credited them with the progress the company had made with its diversity and inclusiveness agenda in the two years prior to launching its Think Difference programme.

“We had seen a number of affinity groups set up to support various populations – the Working Mums’ Network, Working Dads’ Network and, most recently, our LGBT Connect group,” she said.

“These groups are self-starting, run by volunteers.

They bring live issues to our attention as leaders, and provide valuable peer-to-peer support. They also provide a channel for people to engage with us about what is important to them.”

Anne Toms is government affairs manager at Carillion

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Vision

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SETTING THE LEADERSHIP AGENDA 42 Fearless leadership Create an atmosphere where individuals flourish

46 Military roundtable Transferring military skills to civilian life

T

wo government-backed reports have highlighted the need for organisations to better support their minority staff – particularly black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) employees. In November 2016, the Parker Review reported a severe underrepresentation of BAME professionals at board level, and recommended that every FTSE 100 company should aim to have a BAME director in place by 2021. More recently, the McGregor-Smith review found evidence that BAME employees experience higher levels of discrimination than their white colleagues. This review also suggested that the UK economy could be boosted by as much as £24bn if organisations used their BAME talent better. My own research – a three-year investigation into the experiences and challenges that BAME professionals face, and their impact on business success – uncovered three common and troubling workplace scenarios: 1 Companies that invest in diversity and inclusion initiatives often target decision makers within an organisation, excluding the majority who would benefit from such opportunities.

2 Companies that struggle to create an inclusive environment also struggle to ensure that all staff are supported sufficiently to reach their potential. Minority staff can therefore become marginalised and disenfranchised from company ideals and goals.

3 Although leaders do believe that building a more diverse workforce leads to better business performance, the vast majority cannot effectively communicate the business case for diversity. This stokes ongoing cynicism that diversity initiatives are little more than box-ticking exercises.

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48 Shades of success In business, colour is about more than branding

Making the most of minorities BAME employee networks can be a driver of business success By

Jonathan Ashong-Lamptey

50 Digital detox Ditch devices to boost productivity

So what can business leaders do to build a robust business case for diversity that truly supports marginalised minority employees?

The answer lies in BAME employee resource groups. These networks can play a vital role in developing more diverse, inclusive workplaces. Today, however, such groups are often overlooked, mismanaged or unintentionally discouraged from developing in the first place. Here are five key principles that employers must apply to make better use of BAME employee resource groups: 1 Connect The groups provide members with a greater sense of inclusion and belonging.

2 Redefine Mentoring and career development schemes must be routinely reviewed to ensure their effectiveness and to identify those who might be missing out on their benefits. Sessions on how to navigate the organisation and negotiate with superiors can help improve the ability, performance and satisfaction of marginalised workers.

3 Engage As well as encouraging BAME employee resource groups to establish better relationships with other employees and clients, employers must also create opportunities for groups to communicate beyond existing stakeholders, to share their ideas and values, and to promote their strengths.

4 Speak Groups should be empowered to become a voice for BAME inclusion and professional development outside the organisation, improving its reputation, visibility and recruitment practices in the process.

5 Transform Group members should be able to use their valuable cultural expertise and insights to contribute to, and improve the day-to-day operational functions of, a company.

Dr Jonathan Ashong-Lamptey is an expert in organisational behaviour. He is also founder of Resource Groups Company

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Vision

29/06/2017 16:48

Fearless Leadership

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Who’s afraid of the big, bad boss?

A fear-free culture will get the best out of your people Writing Richard Varey

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ecent studies have estimated that 31% of British workers experience anxiety about unfair treatment at work.* Remarkably, almost one in five people said they experienced fear of victimisation from management. It seems the grumpy boss is alive and kicking – shouting, coercing and intimidating in a bid to squeeze more productivity out of their employees. Yet this just isn’t going to work.

Fear is the most powerful and important emotion that human beings experience. Without it, we simply wouldn’t be here. Every one of our ancestors would have been eaten at the waterhole by lions, or felled by a sabre-toothed tiger on the plains. They would never have got to pass down their genes through the evolutionary timeline.

The early coding in our brains was established to respond to threats to our survival. The scent of fear triggers our most basic responses as creatures – fight, flight or freeze. Fear pulses through us, motivating us and preparing us for responses

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FEAR IS THE MOST POWERFUL AND IMPORTANT EMOTION THAT HUMAN BEINGS EXPERIENCE

* Gallie, Duncan and Felstead, Alan. First Findings from the Skills and Employment Survey (2012)

to danger. The reptilian cortex, which is the part of the brain that deals with fear responses, shuts down our pre-frontal cortex, which is the part of the brain that deals with creativity and ingenuity.

By doing this, it makes us concentrate on what’s important. In a matter of life and death, you really want fear to be your master.

Fight, flight or freeze Although fear can be a good thing, the reptilian brain butts in to our daily life far too often – every day, even. We are constantly sensing danger around us, and this leads to us follow our brilliant fear strategies – fight, flight or freeze. Fear is really useful in the jungle, but it’s not much use in the office. In fact, fear is utterly corrosive in the workplace. When we sense fear at work, it leads us to fight too often, to run away in the face of challenges, and to freeze just at the moment when we want to be brilliant. Fear isn’t always our friend, and fear isn’t always good. Fear can be bad.

I have come across hundreds of bosses, some good and some bad. The bad bosses

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tend to share the same basic characteristics.

Their employees describe them as aggressive, authoritative, intimidating, moody, negative and unapproachable. This kind of bad boss promotes fear in the workplace, and when we feel afraid we rarely respond in any positive way.

If we succumb to the fear mechanisms, we will argue irrationally in meetings. Our aggression will lead to dysfunctional relationships in teams and cause blockages to quality. When people freeze, they are likely to procrastinate, hide from important decisions and leave challenging tasks undone. The flight mechanism causes us to run away. I have seen many stressed employees ‘throwing a sickie’, or attending too many unnecessary meetings out of the office. Worse still, fear makes it difficult to hold on to our best employees.

A recent Facebook post I saw said: “People don’t leave jobs, they leave bosses.” Too right. A bad boss who promotes fear in the workplace will just not get the best out of their people.

On the other hand, businesses that have a fear-free culture inspire people to be creative, to take risks, to go the extra mile and to work for collaborative solutions – even in times of difficulty. Creating this kind of organisation requires fearless leadership, however. In this context, fearless does not mean brave or courageous; it simply means the kind of leadership behaviours that do not promote fear or the fear responses of fight, flight or freeze.

Good bosses share common characteristics.

They are altruistic, approachable, encouraging, enthusiastic and optimistic. They use praise, consult well and have an emotionally warm approach. The good boss doesn’t illicit fear responses. Their employees are not concerned with fight, flight or freeze, but are rather able to engage those parts of the brain that are more concerned with achievement and creativity. The fearless leader gets the best out of their people through an emotionally intelligent approach that is less concerned with fear, and more with commitment and success. Quite simply, being nice works.

The best bosses create a fear-free environment in which their employees can flourish. Fearful employees do not do as well.

Three dimensions of fearlessness

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Leaders who want to develop a fear-free culture must excel in the three dimensions of the fearless approach: relationships, resilience and pursuit of excellence.

1

Relationships

To allow people to be fearless, or to be fearless yourself, your working culture should be one where people feel respected, valued and

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THE BEST BOSSES CREATE A FEAR-FREE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH EMPLOYEES CAN FLOURISH

free from danger, and where they have a sense of belonging. This requires the development of positive and fruitful relationships. Fortunately, the characteristics that make someone good at forming relationships are basic skills. They are normal, everyday actions, such as smiling, listening, praising and affirming. Leaders who exhibit this kind of positive behaviour encourage others to feel liked, respected, safe and welcome.

Leaders who don’t behave in this way make those around them feel disrespected, threatened and under-valued. The fearless approach enables people to flourish. Conversely, the fearful

TOP TIPS FOR FEARLESS LEADERS

1

Invest in relationships You need to make seven investments into your colleagues’ emotional bank accounts before you can make a withdrawal. You do this by smiling, praising, asking questions, listening and finding common ground.

2

Use praise Psychological research has shown that praise can lead to a 71% improvement in performance.

Praise always needs to be real and never plastic.

Psychologist Carol Dweck believes that praise should focus on effort, rather than ability, to improve resilience.

3

Be relentlessly positive Being positive is a daily discipline, which needs constant practice. Start the day by listing three positive contributions you are going to make to your organisation. Use positive language to yourself and those around you. When a colleague asks how you are, reply: “I’m fantastic!”

4

Adopt an attitude of creative discontent In the face of failure, look for solutions. Adopt an attitude that all problems can be solved. View problems as temporary and specific, rather than as permanent and global. Be committed to high-quality training for your employees.

5

Be uncompromising in your pursuit of excellence Have a burning desire to be the best and achieve excellence. Believe that good enough is never good enough.

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Fearless Leadership

A TRULY FEARLESS LEADER WILL INSPIRE A RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE

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approach leads to low staff morale, negativity and a lack of engagement.

2

Resilience

If only it were so simple. Nice boss, happy people, lovely working atmosphere, successful business. Unfortunately, leaders who want to build a flourishing organisation must do more than just run a ‘happy ship’. There are many difficult decisions to be made and obstacles to overcome in any successful organisation.

People make mistakes, and some people are in the wrong job, doing the wrong things, in the wrong way. Making them feel safe, loved and part of the team isn’t enough to make them as effective as they could be. High-quality relationships are vital within a team, but they are just one part of the story.

It would be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that resilient behaviour, such as being assertive, standing up to others, being open to criticism and speaking up when things go wrong, are more typical of the negative ‘bad boss’ behaviour we looked at earlier. Surprisingly, though, these characteristics of resilience, which are vital for any organisation to overcome difficulties, are much more likely to be evident in a company with a fearless culture. The fearless leader creates resilience through having a relentlessly positive attitude and a belief that all problems can be solved.

A workforce in a fearless environment will feel confident in taking risks, seeking new solutions to problems and being able to challenge ideas that could potentially lead to mistakes or future problems. They are much less likely to turn a blind eye, and they are much more likely to have an uncompromising view of quality.

3

Pursuit of excellence

This emotionally warm leadership style does not promote a ‘fuzzy’ or ‘cuddly’ approach to compromise. A truly fearless leader will inspire a burning desire and a relentless pursuit of excellence. There is always a need to focus on the end goal. In the final analysis, leadership is about raising the capacity of others, and this can only be achieved through high-quality human interaction.

Fearlessness is not about courage. It’s about knowing that people are at their best when they live without fear. Fearless leaders know that you don’t have to fight to win. In fact, they believe that the less you fight, the more you win. Fearless people flourish. Don’t make them fearful – make them fearless.

Richard Varey is director of training consultancy Fearless Leadership and author of ‘Fearless Leadership’ (Troubadour). For a review of ‘Fearless Leadership’, see Book Club, page 84

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From the battalion to the boardroom The Institute of Leadership & Management is exploring how military veterans can transfer their leadership and team-working skills into the civilian workplace Writing Sally Percy

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very year, thousands of people leave the UK’s regular armed forces and start looking for work in the civilian world. In the 12 months to 30 November 2016 alone, this figure stood at more than 15,000, according to Ministry of Defence statistics.

Military service leavers tend to be highly capable, dependable, motivated and skilled people who have proved their mettle in dangerous and demanding situations. Yet it can be hard for them to transfer into the civilian workplace where their

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experiences and skills may be misunderstood or undervalued, the leadership approaches vary from those they are used to, and organisational structures are flatter than in the forces, with more flexible rules and processes.

Socially, the transfer into civilian life can also come as a shock. While they are hunting for a new job, usually in an unfamiliar sector, service leavers are also adjusting to their new identity and being separated from the extensive support network they relied on in the military.

In 2012, research into the experiences of US military veterans by insurer Prudential found that

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Leadership in Services

64% of respondents had found it difficult to transition from military life to civilian life, with more than two-thirds (69%) citing ‘finding a job’ as their greatest challenge. Some 60% admitted that they had struggled to explain to employers how their military experience translated into skills that are relevant to the civilian workplace.

Worryingly, nearly one in four (24%) respondents believed that employers avoid hiring veterans due to fears of dealing with veterans’ disabilities or ‘baggage’, among other concerns.

In fact, the data showed that veterans with health issues, such as injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder, were more likely to be unemployed than those without these challenges.

Damaging misconceptions Similar conclusions have emerged from research in the UK. In 2012, businessman and pollster Lord Ashcroft was appointed the government’s special representative for veterans’ transition, charged with ensuring that military personnel get appropriate support when they move into civilian life.

His first report, The Veterans’ Transition Review, published in 2014, highlighted that the public at large had reservations about the physical and mental health of service leavers. He pointed to survey results he had published in 2012, which showed that 91% of the British public thought it was common (and one third thought it was very common) for former members of the forces to have some kind of physical, emotional or mental health problem as a result of their military service.

“Not only is this untrue, it is damaging,” he said, “since it implies that the forces do not do enough to look after their personnel, and creates an extra hurdle for service leavers looking for a job.”

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Setting veterans up for success Why does it matter that service leavers are able to make a smooth transition into civilian life? Putting aside the very important issue of fairness to the individual – these are people who have risked their lives for their country and deserve to continue in careers that they find fulfilling and stimulating – it is actually in the country’s interest to set veterans up for success.

In his first report, Ashcroft made the following observation: “Having invested heavily in the training and development of individuals over months or years, the public can expect the forces to ensure that those individuals are in a position to be net contributors to society, not just during their service career, but when they leave.”

Leadership and teamwork, in particular, are areas where service leavers potentially have much

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SERVICE LEAVERS ARE OFTEN NOT ADEQUATELY EQUIPPED WITH THE SKILLS TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS

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to offer civilian employers. These two concepts are core components of military culture, and they are also prized in successful civilian organisations.

Unfortunately, however, the nature of leadership and teamwork are not perceived in the same way in both a civilian and a military context. To further complicate matters, the different forces themselves do not share a common understanding of either leadership or teamwork.

Military leadership in Civvy Street The Institute of Leadership & Management recognises that there remains a lack of research into what leadership and teamwork skills mean in a military context and how these can translate into a civilian workplace. There is also a knowledge gap around the factors that affect employers’ decisions to hire military veterans and the specific skills they offer. So the Institute has embarked on a research project to explore the issue in more depth and make recommendations that will support service leavers to effectively transfer their leadership and team-working skills into a civilian environment.

In March and April 2017, the Institute conducted a survey of service leavers, with the aim of discovering how easily they had transferred the leadership and teamwork skills they had gained in the military to civilian life. This research found a huge amount of variance between the leadership and teamwork approaches that service leavers had become used to in the military and those they encountered in Civvy Street.

Participants highlighted that their civilian colleagues often struggled to make decisions and to communicate, demonstrated what they saw as “poor values” and lacked “moral courage, integrity and loyalty”. At the same time, they pointed out that the autocratic and “command and control” hierarchical structures that still exist in the military are widely regarded as out-dated by today’s businesses. As a result, service leavers are often not adequately equipped with the perspectives and skills that they need to succeed in 21st-century business.

As part of the research project, the Institute also convened a roundtable of experts who have practical knowledge of the challenges facing service leavers. These experts shared their views in a lively discussion, which took place in London during April 2017. Among them were performance coach and speaker Manley Hopkinson, Major General Michael Laurie CBE, formerly chief executive of Crimestoppers UK, and Liz Stevens, director of employment services at the Officers’ Association.

A report based on the research will be produced later in 2017.

Sally Percy is editor of ‘Edge’

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Shades of success When it comes to business, colour is about much more than branding Writing Kate Griffiths & Kath Roberts

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hat happens when you think of a colour?

Consider the colours that feature in your corporate logo and reflect on the feelings they evoke in you.

What do you think they say about your organisation?

Colour matters because it allows us to access our right brain, which is the seat of our full creativity and our emotional mind. It also provides us with a very valuable approach for rethinking business.

The meaning behind the motif Let’s take two well-known business brands – HSBC with its predominantly red and white logo, and BP, with the Helios as its logo in green and yellow.

HSBC’s logo pays homage to its origins – it was founded in Hong Kong in 1865. For the Chinese, red symbolises abundance, good luck and wealth.

FOR BP, THE YELLOW REPRESENTS THE SUN

The hexagon symbol was developed from the bank’s house flag. For BP, the yellow represents the sun, which is appropriate because it is the greatest source of energy. The oil giant launched its Helios logo (named after the Greek god of the sun) in 2000 as part of a rebranding exercise intended to convey a cleaner image and unity after a series of mergers and acquisitions.

Feminisation of business More and more people are questioning the need for endless growth and the relentless pressure to keep producing. Hence workplaces are evolving in response to a desire for more feminised business practice. Traditional masculine environments – characterised by competition, fiefdoms and the clinical pursuit of outward symbols of success – are being challenged. Yet the feminisation of business does not mean the proliferation of women in the workforce. Rather, it describes a climate of appreciation, collaboration and connectivity. As more and more organisations look to create such

WHY CHANGE PROJECTS FAIL Change is a frequent topic of discussion within business circles. Yet, as we know, 70% of major change projects fail. There has been a great deal of research into why, but the reason is simple. Most change projects deal with the symptoms of the presenting issue rather than the cause. They tinker around the edges of the problem as opposed to taking a systemic approach to addressing it.

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Too often, emotions are ignored and not spoken about. In business there is an expectation that you leave your ‘whole self’ at the door and wear your ‘professional’ mask to work. Furthermore, in this No Man’s Land where intellectual rigour is prized over wholeness, communication can be absent.

Then, because there is a vacuum, employees will make up stories and create a reality that fits with their own subconscious leanings.

Leadership cultures are so pervasive that people often fail to question their biases and assumptions. If we take the example of the change initiative and probe a bit deeper, a company may introduce a flexible benefits scheme as a means of keeping the workforce engaged – but this is the equivalent to putting a plaster on a festering wound. It is not treating employee disengagement, which is the cause of the problem.

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Colour Principles

The eight principles of colour 1

There is no certainty with transformational change other than what is created from the inside out

2

Take responsibility and recognise you always have a choice

3

Valuing and recognising others in their wholeness; diversity brings richness and infinite possibilities

4

Let go of control and allow all the voices to be heard. True power then becomes authentic

5

Know yourself, nurture your growth, set appropriate boundaries.

People don’t need fixing, they just need to feel seen, heard and understood

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Feel it...

Think it...

Just be it!

6

To inspire others, you must first inspire yourself.

Integrate your head and your heart to build cohesion

8

Non attachment to outcomes... follow your bliss, do what you love, bring your innate gifts and uniqueness into the world

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a climate, they are becoming preoccupied with engagement, retention and, increasingly, relationship intelligence.

As we move into the post-industrial era, both men and women are looking for greater appreciation and challenge in their roles. So we see a paradigm shift as responsibility for setting the workplace agenda moves from employer to employee, and from human resources to resourceful humans. Self-reliance is core to this paradigm shift, and it is driving the push for inclusive leadership.

If we depict this paradigm shift in colour terms, we see an olive-green consciousness emerging.

Olive green consists of yellow and green. Yellow translates as the desire to do the right thing. Green recognises the need for greater harmony and a more unified approach. Alternatively, olive green marries the power of systems and the growth of the knowledge economy (yellow), with a deeper realisation of the value of self-care and the need to recognise the impact of our actions on the planet (green). Yellow and green blend together to create a desire for a more authentic way of leadership. So is it any surprise that millennials are questioning what a potential employer stands for over and above the opportunity that an actual job represents?

Colour is universal At Art of Leadership, we have designed a set of tools for businesses that are based on eight colour principles [pictured]. We use these principles to get to the root of systemic issues and transform cultures. In our work, we use colour in many ways.

It is much more than a psychometric profiling tool.

Having said that, we can also use it to do an assessment of an individual leader’s primary colour pattern, which shapes the way that they operate in business, and suggest ways in which they can expand their colour range in future.

Similarly, when we work with clients, we map the organisation’s stage of evolution by working out its dominant and secondary colours. The secondary is often the shadow colour, so it is less obvious.

Colour is a universal language that cuts across cultures. Every leader and every organisation has a leaning towards certain colours, and those colours reveal much about them. It’s a straightforward concept, but the complexity comes when we remember that no leader and no organisation will identify with a single colour alone – they will be multi-coloured and multi-layered, with different hues and shades, too.

Kate Griffiths and Kath Roberts are founders of Art of Leadership. For more information on colour and leadership in organisations, join their LinkedIn group Colourful Connections

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Vision

Power off A digital detox can result in better leadership and much more productive meetings Writing Andro Donovan

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Digital Detox

1

Create a space of safety

Setting aside five minutes of silent space, with no digital distractions, before the start of management meetings pays dividends. It encourages everyone present to be collaborative and communicative, and to participate more fully.

Otherwise, you may be in danger of communing with your team members’ inner negative self-talk, or competing for airtime with the information that is constantly streaming from their digital devices.

2

Collect phones at the beginning of meetings

This may seem a radical step, but sometimes it really is the only way to make sure that everyone is mentally present. When executives sit in meetings writing texts, looking at messages or even finishing off calls, they are unconsciously contaminating the safe space. Managers then pick up the signs that they are not being listened to, leading them to withdraw, or to begin to have disempowering thoughts such as, ‘no one is paying attention, so what’s the point of this meeting?’

This corrodes creativity, engagement and trust.

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THE AVERAGE PERSON CHECKS THEIR PHONE 200 TIMES A DAY

3

Be the change you want to see

I have spent many years in boardrooms all over the world, helping senior management teams become more effective at leading their organisations through the rough and challenging terrain of change. Yet the biggest change always begins with them. Senior managers and CEOs must ‘walk the talk’ – otherwise everyone else will flout the rules. Agreeing not to check mobiles during breaks is a good way of keeping people focused, even if it has the potential to be an unpopular measure. If you allow people to dive into their phones during a five-minute natural break, the chances are that they will be late back and their focus will have been hijacked by the last five emails they read. If you can get buy-in for this guideline it will encourage individuals to speak up, think more clearly, explore problems and issues more deeply, innovate and work better with team members. Ultimately, it will also foster a healthier management culture.

Get unplugged to be more present When we are ‘plugged in’, we have the perfect excuse to disengage, not be fully present and disconnect from what we are really feeling. So leaders need to be more comfortable about enforcing a digital detox in meetings with the aim of making them shorter, more efficient and more productive. The results will be greater participation from attendees and a better final output.

Andro Donovan coaches high-performing professionals 10 TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL DIGITAL DETOX 1 Set new management ground rules.

For example, leave your mobiles outside during meetings.

2 Introduce a ‘digital abstention hour’ during lunch breaks to encourage interdepartmental communication and give people time to switch off.

3 Have five ‘mindful minutes’ involving deeper breathing and relaxing techniques before the start of a big meeting. This will help with focus and concentration.

4 Be a role model. Don’t have your digital devices in the room – even if you happen to be the most senior person there.

5 Get into the habit of having a management check-in at the start of every meeting. This lets people know their full participation is required and they are valued.

6 Make sure that everyone can fully participate. Asking them to put

their devices out of sight will keep them in the ‘here and now’.

7 Encourage people to move around the room to keep their attention and energy up. Boredom or inactivity could prompt them to check their phone for messages.

8 Consider using informal space rather than formal boardroom tables for meetings. Boardroom tables can make it difficult to have direct eye contact with everyone present and suppress open and honest communication.

9 Forget about the PowerPoint slides. Instead, provide flip charts and coloured bold markers so that people feel they can jump up and present ideas.

10 Praise people who are willing to sacrifice their devices so that they can engage and participate in the meeting more fully.

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igital distractions are sweeping through our offices like wildfire. Our smartphones are the biggest cause of interruption, even when we’re not looking at them. Thanks to push notifications, text messages and emails, our phones are constantly buzzing, diminishing our productivity.

Technology addiction is real and it is wreaking havoc on our mental health. A finding from a recent survey by professional services firm Deloitte highlights the scale of the problem: apparently, one in three UK adults is so enslaved to their phone that they regularly check it in the middle of the night.

Meanwhile, cyber psychologist Dr Mary Aiken, author of The Cyber Effect, believes that the average person checks their phone 200 times a day. That’s once every six and a half minutes.

If you want to become a more effective leader and run more productive meetings, you will need to get over your own technology addiction (assuming you have one) as well as other people’s. The best place to start is always at the very top – yes, I do mean the boardroom. Digital distractions are rife here, which is why it should be a focus of your attention. You should also develop new protocols for digital devices to prevent managers throughout the organisation from being sidetracked by nonessential communication. Make a good job of this and you should start to see measurable results in the form of greater engagement, productivity and trust in your workplace. So, what are the protocols you could consider?

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tellmemore@heartbeatapp.co

17/07/2017 17:33

Making it Happen

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MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE 53 Mind your own business Why you should prioritise workplace health and safety

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eminders of the importance of workplace safety are never far from the news headlines. The last decade is littered with high-profile disasters, including the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the Alton Towers rollercoaster accident in the UK. These disasters highlight that we still haven’t got workplace safety quite right.

Why? The answer is leadership.

According to the International Labour Organisation, more than 2.3 million workers die every year as a result of occupational accidents or work-related diseases. It’s not surprising, then, that globally regulators are raising their game when it comes to workplace safety. In the UK alone, 46 company leaders and managers were prosecuted for safety failings in 2016, including 12 who received prison sentences. In the same period, safety fines rose 25% to £20.6 million, with several companies receiving penalties of £1 million for non-fatal accidents.

The phrase “good safety is good business” is often quoted, but is the maxim true? Research indicates that organisational competitiveness and workplace safety go hand-in-hand, claiming that the lower the number of accidents, the higher the organisation’s competitiveness, productivity and employee morale.

Yet even US chemical company DuPont, once regarded as a world leader in safety, got it wrong when four employees lost their lives in a workplace accident in 2014. “What we are seeing here is definitely a problem of safety culture in the corporation of DuPont,” an independent investigation concluded.

So what can leaders do to create a good safety culture within their organisation?

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54 Out of control?

How to get your project back on track

Mind your own business Health and safety is a critical workplace issue By

Andrew Sharman

58 Putting knowledge into practice The line manager’s role in learning transfer

1 Put safety on every boardroom agenda.

What’s more, it should not just be a review of the accident numbers, but a solid discussion on what the organisation is doing to create a safe workplace.

2 Focus on people, not procedures. While an effective risk management system is important, you will really drive change by placing people at the heart of what you do on safety.

3 Know that a safety culture spreads from the top down. Workers are more likely to be committed to safety, and motivated by it, when leaders are seen ‘walking the talk’ on safety.

4 Make safety a team game. It’s crucial that everyone understands their role and responsibilities regarding safety, and believes that safety is important both to them personally and to the success of the organisation in general.

It’s rarely a commitment to safety that’s lacking among operational managers and leaders. The bigger challenge for most is being able to communicate on safety in a way that is meaningful – engaging workers, inspiring action and driving progress. Where to begin?

I suggest you start by sitting down and defining just why safety is important to you – no corporate spin, straight from the heart – and then share this with everyone in your organisation. Put simply, it’s called minding your own business.

PLACE PEOPLE AT THE HEART OF WHAT YOU DO ON SAFETY

Professor Andrew Sharman is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership & Management.

He is also co-author of ‘Mind Your Own Business: What your MBA should have taught you about workplace safety’ with Dame Judith Hackitt, Maverick Eagle Press.

Institute members can get a 20% discount on the book, using the code ILM20, at www.fromaccidentstozero.com

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Making it Happen

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Project Management

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Out of control?

Take a practical approach to rescuing projects that have gone off track Writing Peter Taylor

Illustration Stephen Collins

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anaging projects isn’t easy, and sometimes – perhaps more often than might be good for any organisation – projects can go a little off track.

When it comes to ‘change’ projects, though, surely this doesn’t matter? Change is good; change is needed; change drives, well, change. In fact, the strategic direction of any organisation is achieved and steered by change. What is more, we have a world of increasingly skilled project-managers to lead this change.

But – and there is always a ‘but’ – the reality is that when change projects do go off track, it can have a cost impact in the short term, and an impact on customer retention, employee satisfaction and growth in the long term. So, what can be done in practical terms to turn the situation around?

Cause and effect Making sure projects stay on track from the start is a far more effective way to manage them than attempting to wrestle a ‘bad’ project back into a

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COMPANIES NEED TO KNOW EXACTLY WHAT IS GOING ON IN THEIR PROJECTS

‘good’ state. Still, let’s look at the five common reasons why projects go ‘bad’, and therefore off-track, and consider ways to rescue them.

1

The project manager has not been given a realistic amount of time to manage the project and do the job properly – perhaps due to the pressures of other work, resource availability or competing projects. So if the project is off track, do you need to allow the project manager to focus solely on this one? Is it important enough, or do you need a new project manager to step in?

2

The executive project sponsor is not good enough – they leave the project manager to just get on with it. In the event of a faltering project, do you have a project sponsor development programme in place? Is there an alternative sponsor available to help or even take over? Do you have a project management office, or similar, ready to step in?

3

Once the project begins, risk is never considered – which can lead to nasty surprises. If an unexpected issue is derailing the project, can you bring in some additional

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Project Management

CATSUITS AND PARACHUTES Organisations need to know exactly what is going on in their projects. The old maxim that ‘you can’t manage what you don’t measure’ is still very true.

Good analysis and good reporting are critical to ensuring that the precious portfolio of change is well looked after and cared for in a management-by-exception way. They allow the business to see the state of the projects in that portfolio and to get a better understanding of the risks that could potentially hinder the successful outcomes of those projects.

I am not about to advise you on which portfolio reporting or dashboard solution to choose, but I would like to offer some general advice. In my book, Project Branding: Using marketing to win the hearts and minds of stakeholders, I recounted the following tale: There is a great presentation by US management writer Tom Peters where he talks about organisations that get so big they forget about some of the basic, simple, everyday stuff.

He produces a tiny shampoo bottle taken from a hotel bathroom and asks, rhetorically, “Who was the average user of this bottle?” He gives the answer that most likely it was going to be used by a middle-aged business traveller who probably wore reading glasses. He then asked, still rhetorically, “Where was this likely to be used?” Of course it would be used when the middle-aged, glasses-wearing business traveller was taking a shower. He pauses for effect and sums up. This product was most likely used by this guy in a shower without his reading glasses when he needed to distinguish between two almost identical bottles of shower gel and shampoo. Result: frustration and improper use of products.

A definition of ‘fit for purpose’ is “something that is good enough to do the job it was designed to do”. You could argue that

subject matter experts to advise on issue resolution? While you are at it, can you run a full risk assessment for the project, here and now, in its current state, to prevent the arrival of further risks causing problems?

4

There is no effective communication. The right information, delivered in the right way, at the right time, to the right person, is the only effective model that works. Can you do some forensic work on the communication plan and stakeholder engagement to find the gaps and fill them?

5

Lastly, what about the scope of the project?

People say ‘yes’ much too often. Change is both the greatest opportunity to a project

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the shampoo bottle, standing next to the shower gel bottle, and sometimes also next to a body lotion bottle, is fit for purpose. The trouble is, you need to identify the shampoo bottle first to then use it, and for it to truly become fit for purpose.

When it comes to reporting, this very much applies. Your portfolio reporting process needs to be a good ‘fit’ for the purpose you wish to put it to – practical, usable and understandable, with the right data in it.

Yes, you can have the all-singing, alldancing approach, and good luck to you.

You might need it, but almost certainly not.

This is the ‘parachute approach’ – making the solution so copious and all-covering that there is no danger in being exposed in any respect. But guess what? You can’t move in it, well not very fast anyway, and it isn’t particularly suitable for most needs (unless you are actually jumping out of a plane, but since this is a metaphor it’s not relevant), and most of the material is wasted.

The alternative approach is to make reporting as minimal as possible – only the bare data available, lean and focused, tight as can be. This is the ‘catsuit approach’, which does the job, precisely and nothing more.

It is a good-looking solution and may well work – but probably not. Someone will want something extra (and justify that they need it) and suddenly you are making alterations, without any spare material to make that even remotely possible, hoping not to cause an embarrassing rip.

The sensible approach is, of course, somewhere between the parachute approach and the catsuit approach. Perhaps it’s the ‘Friday dress-down day in the office wearing comfortable jeans with stretch denim’ approach, or something like that.

Ultimately, prevention is oh-so-much-more cost-effective than mid-project recovery, or, Heaven forbid, post-project failure.

CAN YOU IDENTIFY CHANGES THAT HAVE BEEN ABSORBED BY THE PROJECT?

manager, but also the greatest risk. Can you identify changes – official or unofficial – that have been absorbed by the project, and can you take an objective view on their value to the organisation?

As a final thought, consider this. For any, or all of the above reasons, you may well consider arranging an external review, or health check, of your projects to identify common exposures.

Don’t be afraid to get some help here: objective insight often brings about real clarity of the root causes behind problems in projects.

Peter Taylor is a project management office expert who is also known as The Lazy Project Manager. He is the author of ‘The Lazy Project Manager’ and ‘How to Get Fired at C-level: Why mismanaging change is the biggest risk of all’

29/06/2017 16:46

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07/07/2017 05/07/2017 12:52 09:43

Making it Happen

58

The route to knowledge Successful transfer of leadership learning is not dependent on the line manager alone Writing Dr Jane Brockliss

L

ove it or loathe it, the new apprenticeship levy has resulted in a renewed strategic interest in human resource development (HRD) budgets in boardrooms across the country. With the potential for leadership development to be squeezed out in the short term by levy spending targeted elsewhere, and with a recognised leadership skills gap in the UK, there is an imperative to maximise our return on leadership learning. But how? The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development reported recently that it expects classroom learning to continue to play a key role in developing leadership talent.

Given the situated nature of leadership, new classroom knowledge can only produce a novice practitioner who then embarks upon knowing in practice, however. So the challenge for HRD professionals, line managers and novice practitioners is to

058-059_EdgeAutumm2017_Transfer.indd 58

ensure that new leadership learning is translated into improved leadership practice and continues to evolve in the workplace.

Traditionally, both researchers and practitioners have focused on the role played by the line manager in the transfer process. He or she, quite naturally, is in a unique position to create what systems scientist Peter Senge calls the “practice fields” and “rehearsal halls” for the novice leader. While some research studies show that the success of learning transfer is related to line manager support, others appear to show no such relationship. One explanation is that due to the increasing emphasis on team working, peers may have a more direct influence on learning transfer in contrast to the intermittent influence of the line manager. Yet learning transfer research into the peer relationship is also inconclusive.

To understand the line manager contradiction, my doctoral research project Learning Translation – A Network Social Capital

17/07/2017 17:52

Learning Transfer

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Perspective at the University of Derby, UK, set out to explore how

leaders successfully transferred knowledge from a public ten-day leadership development programme into improved professional practice in the workplace, using progressive in-depth interviews over a year-long period. Typically, the leaders’ intended learning transfer took six to twelve months to achieve, and most leaders recognised the ‘transfer’ as an adaptive and ongoing process.

What I discovered about the transfer process suggests there are avenues other than the line manager that can be targeted to improve return on leadership learning.

Key research findings Line managers have varying levels of influence

Line manager influence on learning transfer success was recognised by all the leaders I interviewed but, importantly, this influence was perceived to vary significantly in terms of its direction and intensity. For some leaders, the line manager was an enabling factor; for others, it was an inhibiting factor. For a few, it was both enabling and inhibiting. Yet for the majority of leaders, line manager influence was rated no higher than other sources of transfer influence within their organisation.

The line manager is only one of several people who influence learning transfer

Overall, the line manager role was found to be only one of several organisational positions recognised as shaping the transfer of leadership learning. Peers, subordinates and senior management emerged as equally important in terms of enabling or inhibiting activity. For example, although the line manager may provide opportunities to implement learning, senior managers and peers may have greater impact on learning transfer through their willingness to accept or reject the associated change. Also, subordinates may provide relatively more helpful feedback on newly piloted leadership skills.

Enabling and inhibiting activity extends outside of the organisation

The leaders also acknowledged people outside of their workplace as important learning influences. These include the leader’s professional network and the leadership programme cohort itself, whose valued support included the sharing of learning experiences and acting as a sounding board and/or challenger to discuss potential new leadership direction and implementation.

Similarly, the intensity of positive influence was in most cases equal to, or above, that of the line manager. Conversely, there were instances of the leader’s family exhibiting negative influence through an agreed work-life balance that constrained the time available for learning transfer.

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There is individuality in the nature of learning relationships

Of particular interest was the individuality displayed by the leaders in terms of their perceived significant learning influences. Although outwardly each leader had exposure to a similar-looking learning assistance network (line manager,

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senior management, peers, subordinates, professional network and so on), there was noticeable variation in who was considered to be most influential in their learning transfer, the number of people considered enablers or inhibitors of learning transfer, and the density and diversity of these learning relationships.

Individual proactivity in terms of reducing inhibiting behaviour or harnessing new learning enablers was also evident.

Leaders used a new understanding of their organisation’s leadership paradigm, derived from the development programme, to manage upwards and horizontally, to remove obstacles to, and to gain support for, their learning transfer intentions. Leaders also actively pursued new sources of support such as feedback.

Next steps Given the length of the leadership learning transfer process, it is easy to see, without a positive transfer environment, how new knowledge can so easily wither and die. So, what do my research findings indicate for those commissioning leadership development programmes, the delivery teams and those participating to ensure that leadership learning transfers to and flourishes in the workplace? Firstly, more emphasis is required in leadership programme design to ensure a holistic strategy is included for learning transfer, recognising the adaptive and socially situated nature of leadership.

Secondly, this strategy needs to extend beyond the traditional on-boarding of the line manager, to consider how best we may manage other potential workplace learning influences, both inside and outside of the organisation. For example, in the same way we currently work with a leader’s line manager, let’s also engage with a leader’s peers and subordinates to help support learning. Let’s design leadership development programmes in such a way as to ensure that programme cohort interaction and its associated learning continue post programme.

Thirdly, given the individuality of each leader and his or her learning relationships, we need to encourage the novice leader to identify the learning transfer enablers and inhibitors that comprise his or her learning network and offer solutions as to how these may be mobilised or offset.

Finally, we must change our leadership development paradigm and recognise that a leadership development programme is simply preparation for future workplace learning, and give learning transfer the attention it deserves.

Dr Jane Brockliss is director of learning at Awbery, a leadership development, HR and coaching solutions provider

17/07/2017 17:52

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29/06/2017 17:09

Beyond Borders

61

INTERNATIONAL INSIGHT AND BEST PRACTICE 61 Combatting decision fatigue The role of the wider community

A

n issue that I have often come across in my coaching work with busy Western executives was brought into sharp focus by some of the Maori and Pacific Islander students who are on my MBA programme in New Zealand.

It’s a problem most commonly found among senior executive women: exhaustion. Mentally drained from the demands of decision-making in their job – which then continues at home where they are also in charge of decisions relating to the children, family and wider social life – these women typically feel they are not doing anything properly. They make mistakes because they are so overwhelmed. They upset people.

Then they feel guilty and resentful.

It’s even harder for the Maori and Pacific Islander women in corporate leadership positions in New Zealand who embark on an MBA programme. They come from a collective culture. This means they not only carry their immediate family with them into their daily field of responsibility, but their entire community as well. The demands upon their attention, time and decision-making capability are overwhelming when MBA study is added to everything else.

Neuroscience calls this exhaustion ‘decision-making fatigue’. The basic concept is that our decision-making capability is like a battery, which depletes over the course of a day. It is successively drained by each decision we make. By the evening, we might be incapable of making a coherent decision about anything.

Research has shown that leaders tend to push through decision fatigue, but the decisions they make after depletion (i.e. when the battery is flat) are unlikely to be good ones.

Nevertheless, different people have different

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62 Superb Sweden Is it as perfect as it seems?

The answers to decision fatigue Maori and Pacific Islander MBA students can teach us a lesson in collective responsibility By

Patricia Bossons

66 Work hard, play hard Germany’s secrets of business success

battery capacities, and it is possible to build up our battery strength through certain activities: Sleep – even short naps work Food – your decision-making battery is depleted by lack of glucose Being more energetic – moving around increases your battery life Positive thinking Receiving great feedback from others – that’s how you can help other people with their battery life, too

Our Maori and Pacific Island female leaders often take an MBA degree course to benefit their entire community, not just their own career. Yet many of these women

NEUROSCIENCE CALLS THIS EXHAUSTION ‘DECISIONMAKING FATIGUE’ are still expected, and expect themselves, to shoulder a wide range of community activities that form part of their everyday culture, as well as MBA study and their leadership role at work.

What they fail to do, however, is ask their communities to help them create the extra time needed to achieve their MBA. If they did, then the community would take collective responsibility for the MBA, and the benefits that come from it.

While neuroscience has a role to play in improving our battery capacity, conversations with the people involved in our decisions can be very useful as well.

Professor Patricia Bossons is director of executive qualifications at Massey Business School, New Zealand, as well as co-author of ‘The Neuroscience of Leadership Coaching’ with Patricia Riddell and Denis Sartain

18/07/2017 08:55

62

Beyond Borders

Superb Sweden Is there anything that this progressive Nordic country doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get right?

Writing Peter Crush

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29/06/2017 16:44

Sweden

63

F

or a country with barely more than 10 million people, Sweden is fast developing a reputation as a nation that punches above its weight in nearly all measures of importance. The emergence of renowned tech brands, such as Skype and Spotify, has led to Sweden shedding its flat-pack furniture and ‘safe cars’ reputation in favour of becoming the start-up capital of the world. Stockholm alone now has more unicorns (tech start-up companies with a $1 billion dollar market value) per capita than any city globally, is home to five of the fastest ten growing companies in Europe, and is second only to Silicon Valley in terms of the number of billiondollar companies per capita.

The traditional workplace statistics that accompany this change are also making headlines.

Think of Sweden today, and it’s an image of full employment (80% plus). In Europe, only Iceland and Switzerland have higher employment rates.

What’s more, it has the highest female employment rate of the EU 27. While large companies in the UK only had to start reporting on their gender pay gaps in April, Swedish firms have had to publish differences between men and women’s pay since 2008. On paper, the policy seems to have worked.

Last autumn the World Economic Forum named Sweden the fourth most gender-equal country in the world, having closed 81% of its pay gap.

In December, employees there were also named the fourth happiest in the world, according to Universum Global’s Workforce Happiness Index. And why wouldn’t they be? Maternity/paternity pay is barely believable – new parents get 480 days at 80% pay. Meanwhile, press reports, such as the possible introduction of a six-hour working day (see box page 64), further fuel the jealousy felt by stressed-out Brits. But do these headlines accurately convey working life in Sweden?

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29/06/2017 16:44

Beyond Borders

64

“Work/life balance isn’t just normal, it is considered how it should be,” argues Ingela Johansson, HR strategist at Swedish postal company PostNord.

Certainly, the statistics stack up behind her argument. Across Sweden, a mere 1% of employees work more than 50 hours a week (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average is 13%), and it is normal for offices to be deserted after 5pm. “Swedish business is also very non-hierarchical,” she adds. “It’s quite normal for people to have direct access to directors and CEOs, and it means people feel very involved.”

So-called ‘fika’ coffee breaks are almost an institution. Not only are they an opportunity for staff to get together socially during the day, they also help to instil transparency in business culture.

Also unique to Sweden is the concept of consensus. As Daniel Yar Hamidi, a research fellow at the University of Wolverhampton, and director at the Center for Working Life and Science, University of Boras, Sweden explains: “It’s very Swedish, very strong. We don’t wave our arms about. Hot, lively discussion is not the melody of Sweden.”

The other side of the story…

While many might think this just about rubberstamps Sweden’s reputation as the nearest thing to Utopia, those familiar with day-to-day life in the country argue that it’s not all rosy. “Employment law is extremely good because there is a long history of unionism,” says Yar Hamidi. But while consensus still rules, with union representatives sitting in the boardroom, he argues it’s a doublededged sword: “A positive is that there are virtually never any strikes, but, on the other hand, the cost of hiring is such that employers are now very reluctant to hire more than they have to. Their view is if you can just about achieve what you need with five people, why hire a sixth? Firms only hire the sixth when they actually need a seventh!”

Small businesses particularly feel this attitude.

Anna Libietis works at Företagarna, the Swedish Federation of Business Owners. “One negative of the very relaxed climate of flexibility, is that staff can often find it hard to separate home life from work life, as the two are intertwined,” she says.

“Although culturally it’s fine to leave early, many will then work later, after their kids are in bed. The official 40-hour working week is still the norm. I tend to work two very long days to earn my three shorter ones.”

There have been initiatives to embed even more flexibility. In the noughties, Sweden famously introduced legislation that gave everyone the right to take a year’s unpaid leave, safe in the knowledge that their job would be there when they returned.

But this has since been disbanded, mainly because the country is facing similar problems to the rest

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THE SIX-HOUR DAY: IS IT REALLY HAPPENING? In 2015 came the news many hardworking Brits envied. Swedish firms were said to be experimenting with a pioneering six-hour day with a view to reducing stress and absenteeism, and boosting output. The truth of the matter was that the experiment wasn’t widespread – a group of nursing homes would be trialling it – and this was only after learning that Toyota’s Gothenburg staff had already done so 13 years earlier. Nevertheless, the headlines were full of hope that this might be a blueprint that other firms could follow.

Despite the two-year trial ending with nursing staff reporting to be happier and healthier (as well as them organising 85% more activities for their patients), the experiment was forced to conclude that while staff loved it, the bean counters didn’t. The move meant one care home had to hire an extra 17 staff, at a cost

THE UNIONS MAKE IT ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO FIRE PEOPLE

of sek12 million (£1 million). It’s since been decided that the experiment will not become a permanent state of affairs.

So, is the six-hour day dead in the water? In all probability, yes. Toyota still runs its six-hour shifts for staff, and an app developer called Filimundus switched to a six-hour day in 2014, but that’s pretty much all there is. It might be a good idea, but there’s no real business appetite for it – not just yet anyway.

of Europe. “We’re an ageing population and we’re short of skilled people, so staff are being encouraged to work longer,” Libietis says, pointing out that the nature of retirement is also changing.

“The retirement age was recently increased from 65 to 67. Twenty years ago, our pension would have given a comfortable living – not now.”

An emerging problem for employers is that Sweden’s social policy is almost too good. Overtime is limited, while unions agree the maximum staff can take. “With good maternity pay, child benefit paid on top of this, and full-time childcare costing an average of €100 a month, women can effectively take two years off, which is a real loss to the labour market while they are out,” says Libietis. “Women can also save any of their 480 days they haven’t used, and take them any time they like up until their child is eight. So firms have to manage people not being there long after their child first arrived.”

For employers wanting better, more productive workers, a further challenge is that the unions make it almost impossible to fire people.

“Employers and employees are pretty much stuck with each other,” says Daniel Hok Ljungberg, an engineer at Ericsson, who has previously been on the union’s employee board. “I actually helped interview for new managers during a recent restructure – the collective voice of the union

29/06/2017 16:44

Sweden

is very strong.” Sweden is less able to solve its skills shortage through immigration than other countries because of the difficulties that non-indigenous people have with the language and the social requirement that everyone ‘fits in’ (high immigrant unemployment is now a big problem).

Better news is that women do return to work – but it’s mainly because after having children, living costs are so high, they can’t afford not to. Many prefer part-time work, however, meaning that inequality exists. Last year, 80% of managers at listed Swedish companies were men, and not a single newly listed stock market business had a female boss.

A shining example?

All of which begs the question – should UK leaders try to emulate Sweden? According to Yar Hamidi, employees in Sweden actually lose out in one important respect: because unions collectively arrange contracts, individuals lose their ability to negotiate rises for themselves. Employers would rue trying to implement such policies here. “The fact is, Sweden is culturally unique,” he says.

“Union protection, coupled with excellent at-work flexibility and family benefits, gives high employee satisfaction levels, but it’s high taxation – some-

ATTITUDES TOWARDS FATHERS IS ONE AREA WHERE THE UK COULD LOOK TO US

65

thing that has become culturally acceptable – that pays for all this. It’s the tax system that creates progressive social norms, which create a good at-work life. The UK just wouldn’t be ready for such high taxes.”

“The UK could have less hierarchy and less management if it chose, and lots of firms are losing their layers,” argues Libietis. “Attitudes towards working fathers is one area where the UK could look to us to see improvement, too,” she adds.

“Shared parental responsibility hasn’t always been the case in Sweden – 30 years ago it wasn’t normal for fathers to be at home. Now, if men don’t use the 90 days specifically given to them, they lose it, so we’ve slowly changed, and we’re only ahead because we’ve had a head start.”

“Unionism is strong,” says Hok Ljungberg, “but it’s not got the militancy that British unions seem to have. If that could be copied, it would be no bad thing.”

Peter Crush is an award-winning freelance business journalist and editor

TRUTH OR MYTH?

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Higher suicide rates MYTH Popularised in the 1950s by US President Eisenhower, Sweden’s suicide rate has generally fallen, to 17.5 per 100,000 people in 2011, the lowest since 1980. This puts it outside the global top 40 list. “I’ve never heard anyone mention a link between this and high levels of darkness in the winter,” says Yar Hamidi.

Business is done in saunas TRUE (ISH) Around 80% of Swedish businesses are family-owned, with the economy dominated by less than a dozen giant corporations. So the opportunity for intimate groups to influence is definitely there. Taking saunas is generally regarded as more of a personal activity than a business one. Interestingly, however, in an article in the Financial Times last year, Jan Store admitted that when he became Finland’s ambassador to the EU in 2008, he hosted regular evenings at the Finnish Sauna Society – bringing together top diplomats, journalists, ministers and civil servants.

He said: “It proved highly successful.”

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29/06/2017 16:44

Beyond Borders

66

Work hard, play hard What can we learn from the business practices of Europe’s most successful economy?

Writing Chris Litherland

W

hat pops into your mind when you hear the word ‘Germany’? Probably, if you’re anything like me, you think of engineering excellence, the ‘Made in Germany’ brand and, of course, everything running on time and to plan. You probably didn’t think of German management and leadership practices. If you did, however, then good for you since much can be learned from current German business approaches.

All about Germany Firstly, a few facts about Germany. It is the world’s third-largest exporter and fourth biggest economy. It also boasts the largest trade surplus globally, having overtaken China in 2016. Typically, Germany ranks among the top three countries in the world for productivity, even though its employees work fewer hours than staff in most other nations. The German population stands at more than 82 million, although it had been declining prior to the recent influx of refugees, and it is the second-oldest population after Monaco, with a median age of 46.5 years. Unemployment is

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around 3.9% and projected to decline further as the population ages and the economy grows. Today, the successful integration of over one million refugees into the labour force is a major priority for the German authorities.

German culture plays a significant role in organisational performance and management practices. There is plenty of research on these cultural norms that can provide insight into important values and traditions. Personally, I think the need for certainty and order, delivered through rational and fact-based decision-making, explains part of the German style. In Germany, the truth is vitally important, and should be supported by facts rather than emotions. The German government’s response to ‘fake news’ is a good example of this. It strongly believes that fake news must be eliminated, with social media providers having responsibility for achieving this.

There is also a strong sense of future and sustainability within German business culture. People are respectful of experts and any decisions they make. They collaborate to achieve the best, and nothing less, and take a win-win approach to competition. They do not believe in wasting commodities, including time. Time has value and should not be frittered away on senseless or useless actions.

29/06/2017 16:44

Germany

IN GERMANY, THE TRUTH IS VITALLY IMPORTANT

67

Another interesting consideration is the role of works councils (employee-elected bodies) in German businesses and how they influence – through co-determination rights – the running of the organisation. They can have an impact on compensation and incentives, dismissals, performance monitoring, recruitment, training and development, and working time and practices.

Some 80% of large organisations have works councils, and their presence seems to encourage good management practices.

Another contributing factor is that larger organisations have been much more open and quicker to adopt global practices.

The powerhouse of the German manufacturing industry are the SME ‘Mittelstand’ companies. These are typically specialised, family-owned businesses that are world experts in their field. In recent times, they have grown their international markets and improved their access to global procurement networks, while retaining their home manufacturing facilities. The strength of the Made in Germany brand, together with specialisation, has supported these advances. As Mittelstand management teams are exposed to global practices and technologies, further improvements should arise. Time will tell how quickly these are adopted and what their impact on management quality and productivity is.

Interestingly, Made in Germany labelling started back in the late 19th century when the English wanted to distinguish the then poorer-quality German products from their own goods. The German response was to systematically work to solve the problem of product quality by focusing on production efficiencies, professional training and the introduction of rigorous standards.

Work is a calling

Finally, there is a respect for formality in the workplace.

In Germany, business is serious. At the same time, informality should reign with family and friends. The expression ‘work hard and play hard’ comes to mind because it really does emphasise the strong separation between work and social life in Germany. I once asked a German manager why they had two mobile phones. The answer was: “One for work and the other is private.” This separation of work and social life continues to be important, even though technology is more invasive than ever and work demands have increased with globalisation. Probably the most publicised examples of employers safeguarding staff’s private lives have been from Volkswagen, which blocked email access to employees’ Blackberries after hours; and Daimler, which took the step of deleting all emails received by employees while on holiday.

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Management matters Research seems to indicate that quality of management in Germany is a ‘matter of size’. Larger organisations (above 250 employees) tend to have higher management scores than smaller ones. More productive organisations also have higher results.

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At the heart of German business is the pursuit of excellence.

If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. Work is a calling and the better educated and more experienced you are, the greater the respect you will receive. It is not so long ago that management was not seen as a separate profession in Germany. It wasn’t valued because it wasn’t perceived as fact-based. This has changed thanks to improvements in data analytics and studies showing the influence of management practices on business performance. Now there is more acceptance of management as a profession in its own right.

German managers continue to be highly educated – either qualified engineers or professionals from similar sectors. Women fill around 27.5% of all management positions, but despite numerous diversity and inclusion initiatives, this percentage has not significantly changed in recent times. Nevertheless, the employment participation rate for women has increased to 80.5% for individuals aged between 25 and 54-years-old. So there is some opportunity to increase the percentage of female managers in the workplace. Germany has sponsored diversity dialogue and commitments through the W20, a gender equality engagement group that operates under the auspices of the G20.

Overall, this is an exciting time for leadership and management in Germany as the country continues to develop and progress. Its success is the fruit of its ability to adapt to new approaches while nurturing its traditional cultural strengths.

Chris Litherland is founder of organisational effectiveness consultancy, Mariposa Consulting International, based in Germany

29/06/2017 16:44

THE VOICES BEHIND THE

THINKING

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14/07/2017 17:07

Future of Work

69

STRATEGIES FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS 70 The age of robotics What is the truth behind the artificial intelligence hype?

I

n future, the most successful leaders and managers will be those who tap into our very human need to serve a broader purpose. The practice of leadership is a social endeavour, since it is primarily about influencing how people think and behave. It is also the ‘people’ part of management – if we consider the practice of management to be the planning, tracking and coordination of an organisation’s activities in order to achieve its goals. And we can only predict the future of leadership and management if we first consider how human social behaviour is evolving.

WE EACH NEED TO FEEL PART OF A COMMUNITY – A SOCIAL FRAMEWORK THAT SUPPORTS US One of the key social trends of the past 70 years has been the rise of the individual, or more specifically, the notion that the exploration of one’s own aspirations and desires as an individual – free of any wider social obligations – is the best definition of the good life. Over this period there has been a weakening of the customs, institutions and traditions that previously provided social order to society. The implicit acceptance of, say, religious morality, or the idea that those in authority were looking after us, or the automatic deference to one’s ‘betters’, were social norms that were increasingly seen in the post-war years as being stifling and repressive. In many cases they were.

Our economic model also affects this evolving concept of one’s place in the world.

Shareholder-led capitalism is a remarkable

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72 Be aware Five things leaders should know about cyber security

Why meaning matters Tomorrow’s leaders will use purpose to empower their teams By

Nitin Kunchur

74 Long-distance relationship Get optimum performance from your remote workers

historical development, which harnesses human creativity and desires to the best use of the economy. As currently practised, however, it also presumes that it is companies, rather than individuals, who are the primary actors in the economy. This, then, reduces the individual to a role as a worker and consumer – an economic unit.

Freeing the individual from the shackles of outdated social obligations, and having an economic system that facilitates the pursuit of financial gains, has been enormously liberating. But it has also led to a degree of alienation that stunts individual self-fulfilment. We each need to feel part of a community – a social framework that supports us, and that we in turn support.

We are not just economic units, but whole human beings who need to feel that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.

This is the broader social context that will influence how the practice of leadership and management evolves. Liberated and empowered individuals who seek to fulfil themselves will be most successful at doing so when they are offered the chance to serve a broader purpose. As a result, the best leaders of the future will be those who: Can frame an individual’s work as being part of a positive, collective endeavour.

Set high standards, so that the work is stimulating and challenging.

Provide a degree of reciprocity, whereby those who seek self-fulfilment in their work are properly supported as they do so.

This type of leadership allows an individual to explore the outer limits of their capacities and seek financial security in the service of a wider collective endeavour. It also gives meaning to their work.

Nitin Kunchur is head of product delivery at Capita One

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Future of Work

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Five myths of AI What is the truth behind the artificial intelligence hype?

Writing Babak Hodjat

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e are still at the start of the applied artificial intelligence (AI) revolution – the stage where all good articles about AI enablement need to begin with a definition. AI is a set of technological tools and approaches that are inspired by human or natural intelligence. This, of course, begs the question, what is intelligence? I will leave this unanswered as something for the reader to ponder.

AI is going to be ubiquitous across a vast landscape of industries and job functions. We know this because of its current momentum, both financially and technologically. And the widespread belief is that this impact is imminent. According to technology company Narrative Science, 62% of organisations will be using AI by 2018. Meanwhile, a survey by research company eMarketer found that 81% of European executives believe that AI will significantly affect their businesses within the next three years.

So what do leaders need to know about AI? Commentary around the coming wave of AI disruption is laced with some unhelpful myths, which are causing confusion and fear. Here are five that I think are worth addressing:

1

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AI will replace workers Actually, most executives do not believe this at all. In fact, Narrative Science’s research found that 80% believe AI improves worker performance and creates jobs. And I think they are right.

AI can lead to efficiencies that liberate expert workers by reducing the more mundane aspects of their daily jobs. This frees them up to concentrate on the creative and high-level decision-making tasks that most probably attracted them to their respective fields in the first place.

For example, AI can optimise websites faster, allowing marketers to try more creative ideas and find bigger key performance indication improvements while shrinking the amount of time needed for administration and logistics. Or take AI in hospitals and for healthcare – it can constantly monitor patients, alerting nurses and doctors when their expert intervention and oversight is critical, or help to diagnose dangerous diseases.

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The reality is that technology, and AI in particular, allows us to move to higher levels of decision-making, extending and expanding our roles, not limiting them. Machines can be faster and more accurate than we are, but we did not evolve to be a machine. Tool creation defines us as humans, and tools have mostly elevated our roles in society. I see no reason to believe this will change anytime soon.

2

AI will solve all of our problems Like any other tool, AI needs a problem statement – a job definition, if you like. The imperative for us as humans will be to best define that problem statement in order to put AI to use. In other words, the problem of defining the problem is still a problem that remains in our purview as people. Put another way: your employees will still have to be smart and creative and do their jobs. They will just have more powerful tools in the toolbox.

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AI requires a massive overhaul of existing organisational structures I do not think this is quite true. An analogy is the early 1980s when, with the advent of cheap personal computing and the creation of software engineering, companies foresaw the wave of ‘computerisation’ as a massive disruption, with many starting specialised ‘computer’ departments. Those later proved redundant as the use of computers and software became pervasive across enterprises. By those 1980s standards, the vast majority of today’s enterprise employees are ‘computer experts’.

Not only do I believe that the widespread adoption of AI will be similar in its pervasiveness, I also believe that the barriers to adoption of AI will be lower than with the computerisation wave. With AI, we need to know how to pose the problem, rather than to actually construct the solution.

While I do not want to belittle the complexity of this task, my guess is that its heavier reliance on domain knowledge and expertise, rather than the learning of an entirely new field (i.e. the use of computers and software), should reduce the adoption challenge.

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Artificial Intelligence

4 AI requires a lot of data AI is not necessarily about having vast amounts of data. Instead, it’s about having good data. Too much data, in fact, increases the cost of the curation, preparation and sampling that needs to happen before AI can be put to work. This slows down the process, making it harder to create adaptive or real-time AI systems. In many cases, AI can be used to direct data collection, making the process much more efficient and intelligent.

It generates a rough model based on incomplete and terse initial data. The model is then used to generate hypotheses as to where to collect data next in order to have the best chances of improved outcomes, as well as making the models progressively more accurate with each data collection cycle.

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AI is only for elite tech companies While a lot of the big technology players are indeed investing heavily in AI, many other companies are already using it. Florist 1-800-FLOWERS uses chatbots, for example. Outdoor clothes company The North Face has an AI shopping assistant. Retailer Sunglass Hut uses AI to merchandise and recommend products.

AI-powered software will write as much as 20% of business content (think shareholder reports, legal documents, market reports, press releases, articles and white papers) in just two years’ time, according to analyst Gartner.

I think the lower-hanging fruits in AI enablement for companies are customer acquisition, engagement and retention.

These are all data-centric endeavours that are ripe for improvement. Customer acquisition is typically irritating for many who are targeted, and conversion rates are poor (in the low single digits for e-commerce, for instance). Improvements here are a win-win for customers and companies alike. AI will not just be the domain of commerce or retail organisations either. Banks, insurance and many other service industries all have analogous functions that are ripe for AI-enablement. AI should also be

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considered for predictive analysis and maintenance. Gartner said that by 2020, predictive and prescriptive analytics would account for 40% of net new investments by enterprises in business intelligence and analytics. It also reported that by 2018, more than half of large organisations worldwide would “compete using advanced analytics and proprietary algorithms, causing the disruption of entire industries”.

What next?

AI tools will be widely used in the coming years. According to market intelligence firm Tractica, AI revenue, which was $643.7 million in 2016, is projected to grow to $36.8 billion by 2025. Embracing this powerful toolset now will give your organisation a competitive edge. It is the intelligent thing to do – regardless of how you define intelligence.

Babak Hodjat is co-founder and chief executive of Sentient Technologies

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Future of Work

Be safe, not sorry What should leaders know about cyber security?

By Andrew Douthwaite

Illustration Sam Glynn

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yber security is rarely out of the headlines these days. We hear consistent reports of local, national and international security breaches – a topical recent example being the infamous WannaCry ransomware attack, which crippled IT systems worldwide in May. As a result, business leaders are taking their own organisation’s security more seriously than ever, asking themselves how protected they are and trying to understand the potential implications of a major breach.

Leaders at all levels, across industries and throughout departments, are now being forced to contemplate the impact of losing data, losing credibility and, ultimately, losing their jobs.

Those in chief information officer or chief information security officer roles may be most obviously accountable.

Yet the potential impacts of a breach are so severe and wide-ranging that CEOs and CFOs are also starting to take security very seriously indeed and consider their company’s response to what is a rapidly growing issue.

I have spent more than a decade in the business of preventing and protecting organisations from cybercrime, so I have come across many popular misconceptions about where the main threats exist. Here are a few insights that might help you to better safeguard your business, your employees, and your legacy.

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People are your biggest strength and your greatest weakness

TECHNOLOGY ALONE CANNOT PROTECT A BUSINESS

Vulnerability doesn’t typically come from those you might expect, or always arise from ‘the outside’. So attitudes to risk and security procedures should be the same, whether it is a third-party contractor or a long-standing employee who is requesting access to a network. Remember that it may not always be a disgruntled former employee who looks to download proprietary information. It could also be a career team-member who has been seduced by what they see as an opportunity. Setting aside those who have ill intentions, basic ignorance can also be a significant weakness within an organisation. A devastating breach can be triggered by something as simple as one employee clicking a link, which – at first glance – seems interesting or credible.

There are no shortcuts with cyber security Many companies have begun to understand the scale of the issues relating to cybercrime, and

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Cyber Security

chosen to invest in technology and services to protect themselves.

Nevertheless, an overwhelming number of those businesses don’t have sufficient understanding and/ or specialist in-house personnel resources to use that technology properly. Keeping a network secure can be an exceptionally complex process. It demands a layered approach, which includes having full visibility of the company infrastructure and being able to correlate information in order to pick out trends and anomalies. Often this level of expertise can only be secured through third-party partners that have the right resources and experience.

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sation as a whole), they are far more likely to take a vested interest in safeguarding it.

Your reputation is open to attack The area of reputation intelligence is growing as incidents related to identity hacking have steadily increased. Criminals who are able to gain access to the personal profiles of company leaders and use them in spurious ways are able to wreak far-reaching damage that can ultimately harm a company’s stock price and business negotiations,

Employee experience and attitude can make a big difference It may not seem politically correct, but our overwhelming experience has been that the level of business and life-experience of the individual who is making the decisions can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of judgements relating to cybersecurity. Individuals who have entrenched ideas on how organisational IT should be run can often be resistant to change, and they may lack deep understanding of the rapidly changing security landscape.

When someone is new to the job, an inability to deal with stress or a lack of confidence with requesting help when it’s needed can also significantly increase exposure to risk.

Company culture can help or hurt Technology alone cannot protect a business. The most secure organisations adopt a collaborative culture that places importance on employees across departments (for example, network and security teams) working together. When every individual within an organisation is encouraged to consider how their actions can directly impact company-wide security (the value of the data they have access to and what the loss of that data may mean to the organi-

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and even get a person fired. Fortunately, there are tools and services that can search the dark web and alert individuals – and the authorities – to these threats. It’s not just leaders in large global corporations who can be at risk of identity tampering. If they get the opportunity, imposters will also target small- and medium-sized business and damage the reputation of their leadership. So, by protecting the personal brands of their leaders, organisations are ultimately protecting themselves.

Given the speed of change within digital security, the reality is that even these tips will not be enough keep an organisation 100% safe 100% of the time. As quickly as prevention technology is developed to combat threats, threats are adapted as cyber attackers bid to stay one step ahead.

Where organisations are contemplating implementation or expansion of their cyber security defences, they should take advice from professionals and ensure that they promote an internal culture of determined vigilance that will dramatically decrease their chances of experiencing a breach.

In the majority of cases, the perpetrators of cyber crime are individuals who are looking for a quick reward. So when the cost to criminals – in both time and resources – of trying to breach a company network doesn’t match the potential bounty, they will move on to easier targets.

Andrew Douthwaite is vice president, managed services at VirtualArmour

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Out of office Remote workers can boost your workforce if you manage them properly Writing

M MANAGERS SHOULD PROVIDE EMPLOYEES WITH THE FREEDOM TO DECIDE HOW BEST TO DO THEIR JOBS

Nick van der Meulen

ore people than ever are working out-ofthe-office thanks to the power of technology. Perhaps you want to get away from the busy office environment to write a complicated report. Maybe the trains aren’t running. Or perhaps you would like to work at home following a dentist appointment. Remote working is becoming increasingly popular for a host of reasons. In fact, estimates suggest that as many as 23% of US employees and 15% of EU employees work remotely some of the time.

There is no doubt that remote working suits many employees. The question is, how can managers control employees who are working remotely? Are they as effective when they can’t be seen? Do they work better if they are not in the office? Are they more motivated if they can decide for themselves when and where to work?

Traditional management practices relied heavily on the physical boundaries of the office – where employees were visible and thus easily observed – to adjust, coordinate, divide and evaluate work. Removing these boundaries means that

the focus of control and strategies of regulation have to change: it is typically suggested that a shift has to take place towards management of the work rather than the worker, in an environment where trust is the norm.

Backwards step Interestingly, despite the rising popularity of remote working, several Fortune 500 organisations have abandoned or curtailed remote-working practices in recent years. Even the right-on tech sector is not immune from the trend. In 2013, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer made headlines when she banned employees of the internet giant from working remotely in order to boost creativity.

The argument behind a remote working ban is that employees are more valuable if they’re in the office, where they can be seen to be productive and actively contributing to office interaction and idea generation. Yet critics claim that managers within these organisations had actually lost trust in their remote workers over time, and had erroneously reduced employee autonomy in order to regain control and rebuild trust. This approach is considered out-of-touch with the requirements of a modern, knowledge-intensive workforce.

SUPPORTING REMOTE WORKERS work remotely. For instance, managers could aid employee self-regulation by providing staff with additional insights into their performance or the impact of their work. Similarly, they could create greater transparency around peer performance to help

employees better judge their own performance through a collective frame of reference. In this way, many of the activities that were previously used to control employees are better used to support employees in controlling themselves.

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Our study (p75) might reassure managers that relinquishing their control over remote workers may not have a detrimental effect on employee performance. At the same time, managers should be aware of active steps they can take to support staff who

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Remote Working

Since remote working is a regular occurrence and virtual necessity in many organisations, the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University decided to carry out research into how best to manage those working out-of-the-office.

Our study was based on data gathered from 1,450 employees at four public and private organisations that have remote working arrangements in place, to assess the effect of management control methods on job performance. Employees and managers were asked a series of questions, which related to the frequency of employees’ communication with their manager; the extent to which they work out of the office; their job performance; the level of peer-monitoring that takes place; the presence of results-based reward systems; and the relationship they had with their manager.

Forget the ‘slacker’s charter’ The study found that trusting managers enable employee autonomy, which leads to equal-orbetter job performance by remote workers.

Managers who fail to offer such trust (and enable the resulting autonomy) were found to have a highly detrimental impact on remote workers’ job performance. This finding calls into question commonly held beliefs about the need to effectively control remote workers to prevent ‘shirking’.

Fears that remote working offers a ‘slacker’s charter’, under which employees become detached from the organisation – leading to a drop in motivation and/or reduced work effort – were not substantiated by the study. Instead, a lack of shirking is evidenced by the positive relationship between the extent of remote-working and number of hours worked. Furthermore, fulltime remote workers in the study performed just as well, on average, as those who did no remote work at all – even when the conditions included infrequent communication with a manager, low peer performance monitoring and no outcome reward systems.

Communication is key to successful remote working, the study found. Frequent communication not only helps remote workers to feel better supported, more visible and less isolated, it may also help managers in

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their assessment, adjustment and coordination of employees’ activities. We found that managers should support employees through frequent communication, ideally several times a week. This helps them to maintain a trusting relationship with their employees, and offers a solid basis for employee autonomy. We further advocate that managers should provide employees with absolute freedom to decide how best to do their jobs.

This is likely to result in remote workers having increased job performance, and prevent negative work behaviours. The research also highlighted certain managerial control practices that should be avoided, such as inequitable treatment, monitoring work through technology, or setting short to medium-term targets. These only serve to curb opportunistic behaviour, while causing a breach in healthy working relationships with employees.

Nick van der Meulen is assistant professor in information management at the University of Amsterdam

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Going remote: leading dispersed teams Organisations are failing to capitalise on the potential of distributed teams, according to this research from the Institute of Leadership & Management. Although remote workers offer benefits in terms of productivity, cost and time savings, and skills, they wrestle with poor communication and a lack of shared identity.

Find the report at http://bit.ly/2toBxuH

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We are a team of architects, designers and creative thinkers

East Studio, Riverside Walk Sea Containers 18 Upper Ground London, SE1 9PD T +44 (0)20 7559 7400 www.bdg-a-d.com info@bdg.com Photography credit: Maris Mezulis

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29/06/2017 17:08

Live & Learn

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MANAGING MENTAL, PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL WELLBEING AND DEVELOPMENT 78 Management Dilemma Is it acceptable to manage someone out?

79 Rejuvenation exercises Make the most of your daily commute

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he overall effectiveness of ‘talking interventions’ is largely determined by the quality of the relationship between the two parties that are involved – the so-called ‘developmental alliance’. If the efficacy of the intervention is based primarily on developing the coaching relationship, then how we begin that relationship is crucial.

In my own practice, I have found the following tool-set invaluable. Taken from transactional analysis theory, this model focuses on how to establish an effective agreement that frames the work in hand. It starts by considering the parties involved.

Sales people are very familiar with the idea of ‘complex buying groups’, with role titles such as ‘end user’, ‘gatekeeper’, and ‘decision maker’. In big corporate assignments, this can be a cast of thousands. In the world of therapy, it was American psychoanalyst Fanita English who introduced the idea of the ‘three-handed’ contract in 1975, featuring not only the coach and coachee, but the evocatively entitled ‘big powers’.

In 2012, psychotherapist Keith Tudor expanded this to the ‘multihanded contract’. The skill here is the ability to map the system, identifying all the stakeholders who are party to the assignment, beyond the coach and coachee.

In supervision sessions, I have supported the coach in describing their client system

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80 Listening skills The secret to great communication 82 How to run a one-to-one meeting A framework for relationship success

Creating a safe space Contracting in coaching By

Jeff Matthews

83 Inspiration Directory Your go-to development resource 84 Book Club Edge reviews top leadership titles

by variously using Post-Its or, more creatively, buttons. The resulting shape with its patterns, colours and distances can be very revealing.

In transactional analysis, the contracting therapist is interested in thinking about each of these relationships at three levels: administrative, professional and ‘psychological’, paying careful attention to making these explicit as a way of creating a safe-enough environment in which the client can choose to be vulnerable. ‘Administrative’ includes the obvious elements of venue, timing, carpark arrangements etc. ‘Professional’ includes the elements of how the coach works, the approach to be used, number of sessions, payment and note-taking. Also, what success looks like – how will we know we have finished? And the psychological?

Essentially, confidentiality. What happens to the notes? Is what’s said staying in the room?

Do I feel safe?

We can see that the three levels are interrelated. The consulting room that can be overheard in reception (yes, really); the manager who wants a blowby-blow account of what was discussed (I don’t think so); the coachee who keeps cancelling. If these situations are covered before the work starts, we are creating the intentional conditions for a successful assignment.

Jeff Matthews has been a coach for over 25 years. He is working with the Institute of Leadership & Management on ways to meet the needs of its coaching members

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Live & Learn MANAGEMENT DILEMMA

Here today, gone tomorrow A problem shared is a problem halved, so what did the Institute of Leadership & Management Fellows LinkedIn group have to say about a management dilemma?

The dilemma Is it ever acceptable to manage someone out?

How our Fellows responded My answer to that question is yes. When? There are a number of scenarios, such as performance, conflict or poor culture-fit, that could give rise to that need. Redundancy is another form of managing out. It depends on the situation and the players. Why? To protect the business, the other staff or the reputation of the business. The way in which the process is managed is the important thing. ‘Managing out’ is just another way of saying ‘getting rid of’, isn’t it?

Robert Thompson

It could be a ‘bad fit’ whereby the manager doesn’t reflect company values. Depending on the manager’s performance, or if any conflict happens, it then becomes a human resource problem. So it is key to have a structure to discipline and/or realign the said manager.

Illustration by Janne Iivonen

Neil M Bennett

I struggle with managing out a poor performer (by that I mean a compromise agreement). If they are not performing – after a staged approach to help them perform as required – then they should be dismissed in accordance with their contract and employment law. If they are possibly disadvantaged or disabled, then the employer should do everything reasonably possible to help the individual

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fulfil their role. The only time I’ve seen it used in an acceptable manner was as a joint agreement so that the individual was released immediately with a payment that they would have received had they worked their notice and the company could recruit a replacement straightaway. The area where I do think it works is redundancy. Then the individual gets a lot more recompense than a standard redundancy package and is released immediately. This must be a mutual agreement, however. If it is not mutually agreed, then due process must be followed.

Ian Marlow BSc MSc FCMI FInstLM MIoD

It is not just acceptable, but sometimes essential. People rely on the performance and professionalism of others. We have a duty of care to prevent the incompetent from being in a position to do real harm.

‘Managing out’ needs to be handled with a fair and transparent process, including setting unequivocal performance standards, finding a clear gap between the person’s performance and the standards, and giving a reasonable opportunity to close the gap through coaching or other support. Then there is no question of discrimination or constructive dismissal. I had to do this when I was chief instructor of a Royal Navy flying training squadron. The man in question simply could not control the sortie and lacked the spare capacity to think far enough ahead of the student to keep the aircraft safe. It was hard, and I had to muster all my courage to see it through.

Mark Neild MBA CMgr FIOEE FInstLM

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Live & Learn WELLBEING

Breathe in, breathe out

S

adly, the nine-to-five job is a myth to most city-workers. You drag yourself out of bed at 6am after an evening spent at the office, chasing deadlines. By 7am, you are wrestling for an inch of standing space on the tube, holding your breath as the person next to you sneezes. By the time you hit the office you barely notice the frown etched across your face, the bags under your eyes and that uncomfortable ache at the base of your neck. Frankly you’re just pleased to have squeezed in that double-shot Americano before the day actually begins. It isn’t long before you’ve picked up a cold, jarred your back or started trawling through Indeed for another job.

But what if you could claim back the hours before 9am? Granted, you can’t get around the commute, but you can certainly make the journey beneficial to your health. We don’t all have the time (or the energy) to commit to weekly yoga or exercise classes, but you can certainly see why many people invest time in meditative practices given we are all surrounded by the constant hustle and bustle of life.

You don’t need space, or even much time, to regain some balance in your life, to manage stress levels and to prepare your mind-set for a busy week ahead. Just use these simple exercises to rejuvenate and make the most of your daily commute.

Chair yoga poses devised by George Watts

Chair yoga poses 1 Grounding Sit on front of seat, feet firmly grounded and hands on thighs. Practise slow breathing – inhale (note to yourself: “Breathing in”) and exhale (note to yourself: “Breathing out”). Practise with your eyes closed, focusing on slow breaths, clearing your thoughts to just focus on the movement

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Simple exercises to regain your inner balance during your daily commute Writing Jennifer Ellis

Illustration Janne Livonen

of the breath in all the parts of the body that are involved.

2 Ankle stretch Sit on front of seat with feet firmly grounded. Lift left leg straight in front of you, draw up with the kneecap and thigh muscle and slightly engage the abdominal muscles. Flex and point foot (toes stretch up).

Stretch toes down. Repeat on other leg.

3 Hip flexion Sit on seat. Feet and legs should be a shoulder width apart. Sit straight. Slowly bring one leg up and squeeze towards chest.

Repeat on other side.

4 Hip opener Sit on front of seat with feet firmly grounded. Place right foot on left thigh. To deepen stretch, very gently push down on right thigh. Repeat on other leg.

5 Neck incline Sit on seat, feet a shoulder width apart. Sit straight, feet firmly on the ground. Right ear to right shoulder. Left ear to left shoulder.

6 Neck flexion Sit forward on seat, feet flat on floor. Clasp hands behind head, but do not yank on the head. Press head into hands. Lift gaze. Look diagonally upwards.

Pull elbows up and out as you stretch up, lifting your chest. Tuck chin into neck.

Roll head down. Look at chest. Hold briefly. Roll back to start.

Jennifer Ellis is the founder of The Yoga Wellness Company, a new London-based company that works to develop and share the benefits from the practice of yoga

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Live & Learn LISTENING SKILLS

Listen like a leader You will only gain the confidence of your colleagues if you truly understand their perspective Writing

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Brenda Hales

Rejecting feedback, advice, reports when they come up with the ‘wrong’ answer. I often advise people if your boss isn’t going to like the conclusion of your report, don’t work too hard on it.

However well-reasoned, unless the recipient is willing to consider your recommendations, you will only be asked for more justifications. Leaders must be aware just how easy it is for organisa-

ost leaders believe they listen well; you’re probably one of them.

In reality, many people with the title of leader do listen and lead. But only the best leaders listen, hear and lead.

Are you undermining your success by listening without heeding?

Listening with the intention of truly understanding another’s perspective is one of the hardest things we can do. Our history, memories and unconscious biases mean we find it hard to accept challenges to decisions that we feel are right. Defensiveness, or aggression, fuelled by self-justification, is often the outcome. These are normal human emotional reactions.

For all of us, listening to truly understand what another person is trying to communicate is problematic. For leaders, not listening to others is one of the fastest ways to become isolated, miss opportunities, lose great people and diminish your success. Some of the most common ways that people who are called leaders do this, is by:

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Talking. People often think talking is ‘communicating’. Playwright George Bernard Shaw got it right when he said: “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” Hierarchical power often prevents others in the room from doing anything except nod. Those leaders who rely on broadcasting messages to get ‘buy-in’ are creating disengaged, disillusioned and unhappy followers.

Advocating preferred outcomes by supporting those who say what they want to hear. This often comes in the guise of asking questions, but only of those they’re confident will agree.

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ONLY THE BEST LEADERS LISTEN, HEAR AND LEAD

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tional cultural norms to become rigid. But beware: tomorrow’s challenges won’t be solved with yesterday’s solutions.

Interrupting. Just think of the aggressive and rude interruptions that riddle political interviews, turning them into verbal wrestling matches. What a turn-off – literally.

Failing to engage with all your stakeholders.

When you’re afraid that some stakeholders might raise objections, it’s easy to simply avoid them by focusing on tasks. Leaders always have too many.

But remember that if people feel their objections have truly been considered, you are far more likely to be able to influence them. Great leaders become so because they know that for creating organisational and team success, the most important things, aren’t things!

Multi-tasking on phones or laptops. This not only demonstrates a lack of interest, but it is a well-established fact that our brains perform each activity poorly when we multi-task.

Recognise any of the above? If you do, don’t beat yourself up. Instead, let’s look at some ways to nurture your listening skills. Because when you do, others will feel respected. This will increase their engagement, and together you will create success spirals:

1

Be honest with yourself. Are you joining a meeting to explore solutions when you are already fixed on the outcome? If you don’t listen to what others bring, just think of all the bright ideas you could miss and the hazards you could avoid.

2

Ask trusted colleagues to share with you how well you listen. Try getting through colleagues’ reluctance to tell you what you may not want to hear by explaining that you want to change.

Ask them to quantify on a scale of one-to-five (one being ‘perfect’) how well you listen to them. If you get ones, you would be wise to question if you have an even bigger problem than you thought. Do they trust you enough to tell you?

3

Ask and listen for what is, and isn’t, being said – from as many perspectives as you can. Remember that even while you are all staring at the same project plan, everyone is seeing it differently. Avoid joining the swathes of people

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STAND IN THE OTHER PERSON’S SHOES

in offices all over the world who are frantically busy, implementing solutions to problems they haven’t understood. It is the job of a leader to stand back, listen properly, consider, and differentiate activity from progress. The best leaders relish having assumptions challenged. This makes for cultures in which the delicate shoots of new ideas can flourish, and you never hear that crushing sentence: “Yes that’s an interesting idea, BUT…”

4

Create a listening plan for all your stakeholders – and use it. It’s only when you hear and truly understand your stakeholders’ perspectives that you can gain their confidence.

Even if you don’t agree, by hearing the perspectives of others, you have shown them respect. They are much more likely to reciprocate and maybe even come round to your idea. Think of listening more as learning how to walk alongside others. Do this and you are demonstrating that you’re a leader others will want to follow.

5

Stand in the other person’s shoes, i.e. empathise. We all react to stress and pressure differently. Ask yourself: “How might I feel if I was…?” And don’t just leave it at that – actually ask. Make opportunities for other people to tell you something you may need to hear. So, for example, you might say: “If I were you, I’d be feeling fed up at having to re-do this letter because I didn’t explain its purpose properly.” This kind of self-confessional statement will encourage the other person to tell you their truth. Engaging people relies on them trusting you ‘enough’. One way to build people’s trust in you is by making the effort to understand their perspective.

6

Listen to what people are saying (or not saying), not what you would like them to be telling you. The acquisition you made a big play for has become a dung heap. Be thankful that someone has the guts to tell you. The sooner you accept it stinks, the sooner you can get shovelling!

If you want to be an even more successful leader, you can be. Why not start today? In your next meeting, implement Sir Winston Churchill’s words: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

Brenda Hales runs her own leadership development and coaching business, Hales Consulting. For more information, see www.halesconsulting.co.uk

29/06/2017 16:40

82

Live & Learn HOW TO...

How to… run a one-to-one meeting

M

ost of the guidance you’ll find about workplace meetings refers to group meetings.

It’s as if the humble one-to-one is so easy to conduct that it doesn’t need articles and training courses to cover it. Yet one-to-one meetings are crucial at all levels of management.

In a one-to-one, you can: Say “I care” Learn about each other Clarify expectations Assess performance Give guidance What are the ingredients of a good one-to-one?

A time Allow enough time, schedule them in advance, and, ideally, on a regular cycle. How often will depend on things such as development needs, risk levels and personal style. Use ad hoc meetings to supplement your scheduled one-to-ones.

Shutterstock

A place The place may change depending on what you have to talk about. I like informal settings that allow interruption-free conversation, with scope to cover sensitive issues. If you know you might talk about confidential matters, be more careful. What if you can’t physically get together? Video can be better than phone for making a connection – but only when the technology feels seamless to both of you.

A protocol Most one-to-ones are with people who work directly for you. But as you get more senior, you may want one-to-ones with people you don’t supervise. This could be about engaging them in an initiative, consulting them, learning about a

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These encounters may be smaller than group assignations, but it’s just as important to get them right Writing Mike Clayton

technical matter, or discussing an issue of mutual concern. As a courtesy, let their line manager know about the meeting.

An agenda As with all meetings, prepare in advance. Create your agenda to use the time to your best advantage. For a series of meetings, your agendas may follow a trajectory. But don’t get lazy and simply rehash old agendas. Ask yourself what today’s issues and opportunities are. And share your agenda with the other person. Give them enough time to reflect on it before the meeting.

A balance At some one-to-ones, you may need to communicate information. But, mostly, they will be about the other person. So set yourself a target of 20% speak and 80% listen. Why this ratio? Your role is to ask questions and listen to the answers.

Each question-and-answer cycle may have a one-sentence question and a five-sentence answer, followed by a one-sentence follow-up question and a three-sentence response.

A boost You can also use your one-toones to motivate people. Be alert for problems – because part of your role is to address demotivation. If there are none, look for opportunities to boost motivation.

A question Your purpose in one-to-ones with staff is to help them perform better.

So one question should always figure in your session: “What can I do to help you?”

A commitment No meeting is complete without a follow-up. At the end of the one-to-one, summarise and close. Also ask for, and make, commitments. Send a short, simple email to follow up with the key points from the meeting. Restate any commitments that either you or they made.

Dr Mike Clayton is a management author and trainer, and founder of www.onlinePMCourses.com

29/06/2017 16:40

83

Live & Learn INSPIRATION DIRECTORY

Inspiration Directory FOR YOUR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDS To feature your business in the Inspiration Directory, contact niki.mullin@lidpublishing.com key The Academy of Leadership & Management 0845 890 2549 info@academylm.co.uk www.academylm.co.uk Leadership and management/coaching and mentoring courses. ILM Levels 3, 5 and 7, Leadership and Management; ILM Level 3, Coaching; ILM Level 5, Coaching and Mentoring; ILM Level 7, Executive Coaching and Mentoring; ILM Level 7, Coaching Supervision.

Investors in Learning Ltd 0800 118 2304 info@investorsinlearning.com www.investorsinlearning.com ILM-endorsed Stakeholder Management and Leadership Development; ILM Level 3 Award/ Certificate/ Diploma in Leadership and Management; ILM Level 2 Mentoring.

Noble Manhattan Coaching Ltd 01305 898 074 ian.jefferis@noble-manhattan.com www.noble-manhattan.com Workplace, executive, corporate and life coach training by distance. Blended learning up to ILM Level 7; CPD. Train with the longestestablished coach training company in the UK and Europe.

Worth Consulting Ltd The Coach House, Coach Road, Redbrook, Monmouth, NP25 4LX 0160 071 5517 info@worthconsulting.co.uk www.worthconsulting.co.uk Levels 2, 3, 5 and 7 Leadership and Management (Award, Certificate and Diploma); Levels 3, 5 and 7 Coaching and Mentoring (Award, Certificate and Diploma); Level 7 Coaching Supervision (Certificate and Diploma).

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national / distance learning

regional

10Eighty Warnford Court, 29 Throgmorton Street, London, EC2N 2AT 020 7947 4130 liz.s-montefiore@10Eighty.co.uk www.10eighty.co.uk An ILM-accredited centre offering in-house development programmes: Being an Effective Leader; Coaching for High Performance; Managing Difficult Conversations; Managing Performance; Playing to Strengths; Developing a High-Performing Team; Powerful Career Conversations for HR Professionals.

3gHR 10 Diddenham Court, Grazeley, Reading, RG7 1JQ 0344 543 2121 enquiries@3ghr.com www.3ghr.com The Circle Management Development Programme from 3gHR is a practical, high-impact series of modules aimed at first line managers and managers of managers. Circle has been delivered throughout the UK and Europe and is designed to be flexible. Our delivery methods range from short two-hour sessions through to one-day modules.

Azure Consulting Ltd 4 Lakeside, Calder Island Way, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF2 7AW 01924 385 600 info@azure-consulting.co.uk

www.azure-consulting.co.uk

Registered centre of ILM, offering accredited coaching, leadership and management development qualifications.

Cherith Simmons Learning & Development 135-137 Station Road, Addlestone, Surrey, KT15 2AT

01932 856 565 enquiries@cherithsimmons.co.uk www.cherithsimmons.co.uk ILM-endorsed Commissioning and Procurement Programme; ILM Level 2 Award in Team Skills; ILM Level 3 Award and Certificate in Leadership and Management; ILM Level 5 Award; Certificate and Diploma in Leadership and Management; ILM Level 5 Award and Certificate in Leadership Improvement; ILM Level 7 Award and Certificate in Leadership and Management.

GBS Corporate Training Oakmere, Barley Way, Ancells Business Park, Fleet, Hampshire, GU51 2UT 0845 481 1644 theteam@gbscorporate.com www.gbscorporate.com Levels 2, 3 and 5 in Leadership and Management.

Quality Education & Development Ltd (QED) 25 Manor Gardens, Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, BN6 9UG 0800 0938 419 or 01273 301521 mail@qedcoaching.co.uk www.qedcoaching.co.uk ILM Levels 2–5 Leadership and Management; ILM Levels 3–7 Coaching and Mentoring/Coaching Supervision.

Your Total Coach 9 Cotterstock Road, Oundle, Peterborough, PE8 4PN 01733 314012 info@yourtotalcoach.co.uk www.yourtotalcoach.co.uk Registered centre of ILM, offering accredited coaching qualifications from Levels 3–7 in Executive Coaching and Mentoring.

29/06/2017 16:39

84

Live & Learn BOOK CLUB

WHICH BOOKS SHOULD BE KEEPING LEADERS AND MANAGERS AWAKE AT NIGHT? EDGE REVIEWS SOME OF THE MOST INTRIGUING TITLES AROUND

Fearless Leadership Author Richard Varey Price £9.99 Troubador

Fear-free cultures and workplace atmospheres get the best out of people How do leaders create poor workplace cultures? What can they do to build workplaces where everyone performs well and flourishes?

How can they unlock performance potential in every person, team and the business?

In answer to those questions, Fearless Leadership – Unlock success using the secrets of the brain, offers up a blueprint called "Fearless Leadership and the Fearless Approach".

The author uses personal stories and experiences, alongside different fields of study in evolutionary biology, neuro-psychology, motivation and business to describe the blueprint in detail.

I hated the title when I first read it. I was thinking: “Not another book about being a perfect leader, or just exploring one leadership aspect in minutiae, which might bore me witless, or overwhelm me with technical jargon about the brain and how that

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works.” So, I decided to read it in one go and get it over with. I was pleased that I did. The author weaves stories, experiences and models together in short, sharp chapters that made the blueprint coherent as well as easy to follow and grasp.

The blueprint has three dimensions: relationships, resilience and excellence, which are dependent on 20 skills. I thought it was terrific since it recognises that people are complex, diverse and continually evolving, and does not offer a quick and simple leadership fix.

Furthermore, it explains the challenge of leading people, the things that shape and influence our sense of self, our preferences and the ways in which we behave, subtleties in relationships, and the range of impacts we have on others at work.

It gives practical ways to map where you are as a leader, against the blueprint, and everyday ways to improve your overall leadership and personal effectiveness.

The blueprint felt scalable and adaptable and it certainly sparked ideas. I saw ways I could use it with individuals, teams and managers, in coaching, learning and development.

Because of my initial aversion to the title, I wanted my own way to remember the three dimensions and ‘T-Rex’ came to mind: T for three, RE for relationships, RE for resilience and EX for excellence. T-Rex was fearless and reminds me of my connections to humans of the past. Do I still hate the title? I am mellowing.

But I have decided to be more ‘T-Rex’.

Reviewer Julie Steel, learning and development consultant

Becoming a Conscious Leader Author Gina Hayden Price £19.99 The Write Factor

This book will appeal to those wanting to learn more about leadership You may see ‘conscious leadership’ as essential to the future of humanity, or you may see it as waffle. This book is likely to confirm both views.

The CrossCultural Coaching Kaleidoscope Author Jennifer Plaister-Ten Price £18.99 Karnac

It is important to reflect on the system that you were raised in No reductionist models or national stereotypes here, as author Jenny Plaister-Ten outlines what a complex and illusive concept ‘culture’

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Edge is looking for readers to review management and leadership books for Book Club. If you are interested, email sally.percy@lidpublishing.com

The author, Gina Hayden, says conscious leadership is about four qualities: self-awareness and self-mastery; applying that mastery to our relationships with others; perceiving ourselves as part of the web of life; and having an inner drive to contribute to that whole.

This topic is important.

In a complex, uncertain and volatile world, we must understand ourselves more deeply and gain mastery over the impacts we want to have on the world. For me, though, the book is 260 pages too long.

I would have liked to have seen more of the step-by-step process by which conscious leadership happens, and more tools for readers to accelerate their own progress.

is. Instead, she asserts that “Culture is a lens through which to view a situation”. Plaister-Ten turns the attention to the coach, challenging their pre-conceived views of client, system and the world. Helpfully, she draws our attention to the way the ‘individualist’ West favours coaching processes that are underpinned by an assumed personal responsibility and goal orientation that is unsuited to a more ‘collectivist’ Eastern culture.

This is a systems approach, and the author takes a social constructivist stance, saying: “We are the stories we tell about ourselves.” We are all in meaning-creating systems, forged in our relations with others – ‘a culture’.

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Don’t get me wrong. There are real nuggets here. Becoming conscious is a personal and intense process. So reading that: “At the time I had no clue what was going on. Basically I was being rewired” can be validating for someone going through it.

Yet the nuggets are far apart and not well linked. The questions on developing our own consciousness should have appeared throughout the book, not just at the back.

Still, if you want to learn about conscious leadership, I do recommend this book.

Reviewer Finn Jackson, leadership and strategy consultant and author of 'The Churning Volume 1, Inner Leadership: Tools for building inspiration in times of change'

The kaleidoscope of the title is a series of labelled, diffuse lenses through which to view the conversation. They are offered as a tool for the coach, coachee or the team, to understand the impact that ‘cultural self ’ may be having on the situation – the ‘self’ forged by being brought up in a particular cultural context. They are useful for the cross-cultural coach, leaders and teams working in multinational teams and corporates.

In terms of improvements, I would perhaps ask for more on different organisational cultures, and more coaching questions for each of the lenses. Overall, the book is an excellent contribution to the topic.

Reviewer Jeff Matthews, leadership coach

Disruption Denial Author David Guillebaud Price £19.99 LID Publishing

Businesses are moving towards the concept of a proprietary platform David Guillebaud's book on digital disruption is remarkable. It is extremely integrative on the digital challenge, since it covers all aspects (including the organisational and leadership sides), and goes further than most by proposing a roadmap to becoming what he calls a “Digital Age Disruptor”.

The most interesting part of the book, for me, was Part 3 – ‘Moving Beyond Denial: Obligations and options for survival’. One aspect raised here was a real eye opener: the discussion of “platform-compatible business models”. Of course, we all talk a lot about business models in business schools. But I was unaware of the need to see the move to platform as a real survival ‘must’ for all businesses.

Reviewer Professor Jean Philippe Deschamps of INSEAD and Harvard Business School, an international innovation expert

29/06/2017 16:39

Leadership Legend

86

The mystery of growth Some of the world’s most valuable companies are little more than platforms that bring customers and suppliers together. Why are they so successful, then?

W

hat are values?

The subject is rarely addressed.

Most people regard values as things. “Is this a good thing?” my school chaplain used to ask. We speak of “goods”, meaning good things. The more you have of these, the better – no matter that many others starve.

You cannot have too much conviction, courage, drive, money etc. Even greed is said to be good economically.

What values consist of are differences, and they come to us in pairs: doubt and certainty; rules and exceptions; diversity and inclusion; suppliers and customers; individual and community; joy and woe, and so on. In different situations all are appropriate and we cannot dispense with any of them. Indeed, since they are contrasts, they define each other.

For example, the scientific method requires us to doubt so as to become more certain, before we doubt once more. Any rule we make must be tested against possible exceptions, which may lead to a much more valuable rule. Diversity is of scant value unless it is included within society to broaden our awareness and tolerance. It is the contrast between joy and woe that makes the former so wonderful, just as life contrasts with death. “Joy and woe are woven fine, a clothing for the soul divine,” wrote the poet William Blake.

When these seemingly opposed values come together, we may experience great surges of energy and enthusiasm. I am especially intrigued by the values of companies such as Airbnb, Alibaba, Amazon, Snapchat and Uber. They are little more than internet connections sitting on platforms, where suppliers meet customers. They have very few assets and few people. Many are making hefty losses, yet they are being valued at up to

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By

Charles Hampden-Turner

$72 billion. What on earth is going on? Let us look closely at suppliers and customers.

The first have products and want money.

The second have money and want products.

They are opposites in every sense. Often there are too many suppliers, and each will reach insufficient numbers of customers. Or, there may be too few suppliers so that many customers are ill-served. In both cases, the opposed values subtract from one another.

But there is also a point somewhere between these contrasts where more suppliers trigger more customers to join up, and more customers trigger more suppliers to join in. The

EXCEPTIONAL COMPANIES HAVE CREATED NEW RULES, AND DOUBT HAS YIELDED TO A NEW CERTAINTY ‘net effect’ is a vortex of sudden energy and synergy worth billions, in which both values excite and enhance one another.

What has happened is that exceptional companies have created new rules, and doubt has yielded to a new certainty. A diverse type of company has suddenly been included in our economy at higher levels of effectiveness, and the woe of suppliers and customers subtracting from each other has yielded to the joy of a new mutuality and optimum. All our value pairs have been reconciled.

Blake put it well: “I was angry with a friend. I told my wrath my wrath did end. I was angry with a foe, I told it not my wrath did grow…” Contraries are positives, he taught. We must throw off our “mind-forged manacles” and see the world anew.

Charles Hampden-Turner is a British management philosopher, and was a senior research associate at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge

29/06/2017 16:38

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29/06/2017 17:08

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