Worldwide New Books and Three Interviews

Activists Are, In Many Ways, Social Heroes.

By DAN DOLDERMAN

Talking about a personality of activists actually creates a false dichotomy: that there are some people who are activists and some people who aren’t. And what that ends up doing, is disempowering many, many people who might care about an issue but feel that they’re not that kind of person. From the psychological perspective, what propels people towards activism are a few things. One of them is empathy, the feeling that they are personally affected by an issue. From the empathy perspective, people who don’t feel that they are personally affected by an issue, but they might get involved in activism because of empathy for a certain story they connect with - it could be personal experience, a beautiful place that they feel attached to, for a species they love - so they get involved in issues that affect them. On the other hand if people think of themselves as

Editorial Environmentalists

By THOMAS JOSEPH DOHERTY

Activists: The Resource of Business

Environmental activists can be viewed from a variety of different perspectives. Savvy companies can open a dialogue with activists and advocates, and take advantage of their broad range of experience in order to help boost and hone companies’ environmental platform and sustainability practices.

There’s a lot of diversity in activism, and especially in what is broadly known as environmentalism. Business leaders need to realize that there are different languages of environmentalism. I am distinguishing activism from advocacy here. Advocacy is working for positive change within the system as it is. Activism seeks change by questioning systems, and possibly dismantling and recreating them. There are certain qualities that people have that predispose them toward environmental action. We can think of it as a pathway. At the beginning, certain people are more or less altruistic or pro-social than others. If you tend to be more altruistic and to think about the rights of others, you’re also more likely to be concerned about other species, natural places or threats to global environmental health, like human-influenced (and thus human-controllable) climate change. Those who develop an ecological worldview, rather than one in which humans are exempt from the laws of nature, move further along the line towards action. Another key step is whether someone senses a threat, either to themselves, or to other people, places or species. A sense of adverse consequences moves someone further along the line. People need to have a sense of responsibility, an obligation to do something, to step up and take action. And further, they need to possess self-efficacy, a belief that they have the ability to do a sense of personal empowerment and possibility, otherwise if they feel powerless and apathetic they'll stop halfway through. Some may become the traditional “activists” those working for deep radical change. You can also have people that undertake non-activist behaviors, such as signing petitions, and giving their support for different agendas. Others undertake private behaviors in their homes or with their families. Then you have organizational behaviors, the things that people do in their jobs. Activists must be understood and seen as a resource by businesses and organizations rather than a threat. Forwardthinking companies should seek out activists and place them in situations where innovation is needed, where thinking “outside of the box” and getting to the roots of business processes is key. Don’t squander your activists’ energy on the “Green Team.” Unleash them on key business problems. Businesses need to be big enough to contain the energy of activists. As Rosabeth Moss Kanter says in a recent Harvard Business Review article, the best companies operate on the principle that they are not merely vehicles for making money, but also enduring instruments for accomplishing societal purposes. Articulating a broader purpose can guide strategies and actions, open new sources for innovation, express corporate and personal values in their everyday work. These companies’ claims that they serve society become credible when leaders allocate time, talent, and resources to national or community projects without seeking immediate returns. What's more, attention placed on social needs often generates ideas that lead to innovations. •

Here are some informal categories of activists:

• Grassroots activists work on mobilizing the base and rallying the support of citizens. • Policy activists get to the conceptual nuts and bolts of environmental issues, and research what works. • Tech activists are interested in things like designing a better solar panel. • Holistic activists operate from their consciousness of their inter-being with Nature (green spirituality). • Survivalist activists acknowledge limits and peaks. • Militaristic survivalists may adopt a bunker mentality regarding resources. • Utopian survivalists look to create beautifully small and self-sufficient communities and businesses.

fundamentally different from people in Africa or from animals, then that tends to breed apathy for that species or those people. One of the strong themes in psychology literature is about the importance of overcoming in-group and out-group thinking to the extent that people start to see and think and feel in terms of larger categories – we’re all humans, or we’re all part of the living community, we’re all part of the biosphere. Then the overarching perspective makes it far easier to identify with the suffering of other people and other beings. People have done a retrospective analysis of individuals in WW2, for example who rescued or became part of a resistance movement trying to rescue the Jewish people versus people who passively sat by and let things happen. And one of the biggest differences was, people with more universalistic ways of thinking – rather than seeing in WW2 as seeing the Jews as fundamentally different people, they would have a value system and a belief system that emphasized our common humanity.

Recognition Emotions at Work

By JENNIFER C. LOFTUS

Making Workplace Emotions Work For You

Emotions can work for us positively or negatively in the workplace. By regulating some and taking advantage of others, employees can tap into not just greater productivity, but also healthier and more fulfilling workplace relationships.

EMOTIONS MUST BE LEFT OUTSIDE THE OFFICE

In today’s world, one must tap into emotions, and use them productively to help organizations succeed and to enhance working relationships. However, a fundamental problem occurs when our emotions get the better of us, preventing ourselves and our colleagues from being contributors to goal achievement. How do we best become emotional and rational employees?

ONE DAY

Consider this recent exchange observed at a large, U.S.-based organization during a job performance conference session with a new, probationary employee;

• Jamie (supervisor): "Patty, you were asked to query our database and select appropriate candidates for sending the letter of congratulations for 'best use of a Zelbrite Company product.' I asked you this morning if that had been done and you indicated that it had not, although you've had the task assigned for three days now."

• Patty (probationary employee) (pointedly):

"Actually, Jamie, I did start to work on that just after you mentioned it – I'm a responsible adult, not a child, you know. And I found it totally boring. So I quickly gave it up. It wasn't something that interested me in the least."

• Jamie: "But Patty, we were relying on you to have that data for us by this Friday when the letters need to be sent. This is an integral part of our latest marketing campaign."

• Patty: "Well, it was a lame exercise, and definitely not something that I can lend my talent and attention to." • Dr. Blair (article co-author): "Patty, you are seriously misconstruing the nature of your role here. Have you given that any thought?"

• Patty (heatedly): "You are so rude to bring up such a vile topic!"

This conversation provides insight into both the level of job requirement misunderstanding by some new employees, and the inappropriate use of emotions at work. For organizational leaders, a key role is to identify what drives an emotion, and to channel those feelings into mutual understanding and open communication. We may have formal training in this area, or it may take us time and practice to hone those skills. One may say that Patty demonstrated rage and hate, being true to her gender. However, both men and women can experience rage and hate, but only when feeling oppressed. Those who feel they have no options express these inappropriate emotions. As managers, we must ensure our employees feel powerful and are equipped with the tools needed for success. In our example, after the meeting, Patty had a far better understanding of the work parameters, thanks to open questioning and communication by both her supervisor and Dr. Blair. Patty was now well on her way to meeting the expectations of her employer and of the workplace.

GENDER DIFFERENCES EXIST Are there gender differences in emotional expression? Absolutely. The methods by which men and women express themselves are partly due to genetics, and also stem from different upbringings for boys and girls. Whether those childhood differences are “good” or “right” is for another article. We in the workforce must recognize the different communication styles of men and women, and allow each employee to express himself in ways that are both comfortable and productive. Bottom lining any discussion of emotions "emotions can well be expressed in the workplace, but they need to be expressed well!" There's a level of finesse that's involved to support this skill that’s either learned or innately known. •

Meritocracy Aging Workforce

By MARIA CRISTINA CATTONI

Facing the Challenges

The employment rate of men and women aged 55 to 65 and over increased in these last years. How should companies manage the generational gap in their workforce? Here are some suggestions and examples of employers’ practices in advance of these changes.

EUROSTAT STATISTICS

In Germany the employment rate of older workers (percentage of persons aged 55 to 64 in employment of the total population in the same age group) rose from 36.2% in 1992 to 57.7% in 2010 and it rose from 28.7% to 53.7% in the same period in Netherlands. In Japan and in the United States, this indicator has been over 60% in the last ten years.

TRAINING

Companies therefore have to handle senior workers, explains Renée Lee Rosenberg, career management counselor “the company must consider just how their skills, knowledge and experience can best be utilized for the benefit of the company. To not consider these assets is to undervalue or even denigrate a critical piece of the company’s intellectual capital and a critical organizational asset.” To help senior workers maintain high levels of performance it is important to plan specific training initiatives, which consider the time needed to process information and also the time to practice and review in small groups in a nonjudgmental setting. Older adults “learn best when they see the need to learn; for example, technology should be taught not as an abstract skill but in terms of how it can be applied to current work tasks and future projects. Companies can also assist older workers in the training process by integrating the new information with more familiar knowledge; encouraging buddy and peer practice sessions” states Renée.

INTERGENERATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAM

“Among our subsidiaries, L’Oréal Canada stood out with its ‘Valorizing Intergenerational Differences’ training program, which aims to promote understanding and openness to others” reveals Rachid Bensahnoune, HRD in charge of the L’Oreal Diversities, Policies and Actions Department. To improve the relationship between older generations and younger generations, Danone recently implemented the “Octave Program” in partnership with L’Oreal and other companies. It is the first intercompany and intergenerational training dedicated to managers, and the program aims to: • help older generations benefit from the strengths of newer generations by adapting their management style • help newer generations explain their needs/point of view to more experienced employees

BEST PRACTICES

AARP each year organizes The International Innovative Employer Award, which is a program in recognition of growing international attention to the implications of the aging workforce. Among the winners of recent years: • Centrica (UK) - Employees: 27,564; Percentage over 50: 14.8% - promotes an age-diverse workforce. Its flexible program allows employees to individually optimize their work-life balance. The majority of workers take advantage of flexible work arrangements. The Centrica’s Age Awareness e-course educates employees about age diversity. • Daikin Industries (JP) - Employees: 8,149; Percentage over 50: 24.2% - promotes opportunities for individual capacity building and personal development from the time of hiring to retirement. The company moreover offers a variety of flexible work options for employees with caregiving responsibilities, including extended family caregiving leave. • DB Services (D) - Employees 10,160; Percentage over 50: 45% - promotes older workers through DB Services Academy, a training camp designed to help older job applicants and the long-term unemployed re-enter the workforce. In addition, DB Services maintains an administrative business unit specially designed to employ workers who are no longer able to work in their physically demanding, original positions. • Lam Soon Edible Oils (MY Malaysia) - Employees: 1,456; Percentage over 50: 20.1% - pursues a variety of strategies to ensure an older-age-friendly workplace. Among other best practices, older workers in each function are designated subject matter experts. Their role as facilitators and trainers has helped raise the profile of older workers and contributed to a culture shift in the organization.

FAMILY BUSINESS To ensure continuity of family owned businesses, it is essential to manage the generational gap during the handing over of responsibilities to junior generations. “This transition should be gradual, and senior generations should leave increasingly their functions to others”, asserts Gioacchino Attanzio, general manager at AIdAF (Italian Association of Family Owned Businesses), and “the presence of a third person of trust, who observes with objectivity the process, could be better to manage it”. Examples of such successful transitions are the ones of Merloni Termosanitari (Ariston) and Ferrari (Sparkling wines).•

Family geometry

by Anthony Goicolea Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY USA t ws m — #8.11

Training Good Climate

By MARK FINNEY

Engage Your Workers and Set Them Free

A motivated, respected workforce results in higher productivity, loyalty, and, in many cases, greater financial gain for the company. Top leaders can harness the power of environment and purpose for the benefit of not just their employees, but also the bottom line.

KEEP A CLEAR COMMITTMENT

When formulating any strategy, the first step is to know where you are today. A survey of your employees is an obvious starting point. Employees must be made to feel secure that their views won’t later be used against them. Another problem I have encountered is that these surveys often disappear into a black hole afterwards – no one knows the outcome or if anything will change as a result. To make employees feel that their voices are being heard and that they are valued, it is vital that they are told how the company fared in the survey and that management will be working hard to improve those areas where it under-performed.

FIRST: PEOPLE NEED MONEY

One would assume that most employees would choose pay as the most important element of job satisfaction, but in fact it is quite far down the list. Competitive pay is essential, but workers are usually looking for more than money. If they stay with an organization for pay alone it is unlikely that they will perform at their best; absenteeism and tardiness often increase, and poor collegiate relationships are also commonplace.

WE’RE ALL IN IT TOGETHER

It is only when the employee identifies emotionally with the organization he works for and shares their goals and values that he can be satisfied at work. In this case, pay will be less of a motivator. The employee may even come to believe that their individual financial wellbeing is dependent on the financial health of the parent organization and, therefore, will be willing to take the rough with the smooth, for the good of “the team”. The sense that “we’re all in it together” is what the great companies are good at creating.

A FAIR DEAL

Good internal communication helps control the rumor machine. One of my past employers, Orange UK, was fantastic at internal communications. For example, one of the key marketing programs, a customer loyalty programs called “Orange Wednesdays” was introduced to employees by a set of branded cinema curtains which were fixed to all desktop PCs overnight. Many employees place great value on benefits that help them with work-life balance. Flexibility in working practices and hours is a major motivating factor for many employees, and can be particularly important to working moms.

TRAINING

Unfortunately, in times of economic downturn, many companies think of training as one of those items that can be cut to improve the bottom line. It is, after all, expensive and difficult to directly measure the financial benefit to the company. Training improves the core competencies of staff and therefore improves the quality of the work carried out by the company as a whole. In the words of Johan Stael von Holstein, founder of Icon Medialab, “if you think competence costs, try incompetence.”

GREAT PLACES TO WORK ARE FILLED WITH GREAT PEOPLE TO WORK WITH They like and support each other. I worked in such an environment at CIA International from 1990 to 2000, and many of my co-workers from those days remain good friends. The best companies encourage fun as well as hard work; after all, employees spend an awful long time at work, so they might as well enjoy it.•

Coaching Life Coaching

By ALLAN HALL

Gurus for Professionals

There are groups for alcoholics, for drug addicts, the depressed, the handicapped, the overweight, those seeking fulfillment or those searching for enlightenment.In the last few years a new discipline to help out those fed-up with their lot has flourished. It is called Life Coaching and, for many, signing up with a life coach is the way out of a dead-end job, existence or relationship.

There are all sorts of support programs out there for those who want a helping hand. Life coaching is, in essence, a practice that helps people identify and achieve personal goals. But life coaches are not therapists nor consultants; psychological intervention and business analysis are outside the scope of their work. There are thousands of them out there, ranging from the oneman-band operators working from home to the mega-giants like Tony Robbins, who claims you can earn gazillions like him if only you follow his life plan.

NOTHING NEW ABOUT LIFE COACHING

Contemporary life coaching has, indeed, become a booming business. One of the most successful in the UK is headed by Dez Vears, a 54-year-old who runs the 'Yes I Can!' company. Dez has numerous testimonials online from satisfied customers and his philosophy is remarkable down to earth "I'd describe coaching as a conversation-based process for moving someone from where they are now to where they want, or need to be". About 15 years ago it began to be a sign of status for successful people to have their own life-coach. But it was still viewed by many as a type of corporate therapy, someone to cry with and bemoan the pressures of being at the top.

LIFE COACHING FINDING SPACE

Mark Felton, 31, is a London-born former accountant now living in the German capital of Berlin who opted for some life coaching at the Dr. Bock Coaching Academy in Berlin when he wanted to switch careers. Dr. Petra Bock has trained 60 coaches and appears regularly in major publications in Germany. Mark described why he went for life coaching, and what happened. He said, "I never thought I would be the sort of individual to go to others for advice. I was brought up in a family that taught self-reliance, asking others for things was seen as a sign of weakness. So it was a big, big step for me."

LIFE COACHES ARE NO THERAPISTS

So is life coaching, I ask Dez back in London, the same as therapy? "Absolutely not!" he emphasizes. "Counseling and therapy will always have their place but a therapist starts with the assumption that there is something wrong. It focuses on looking back. Coaching is the opposite. The focus is on the future. A life-coach will begin with the assumption that the client is perfectly sane and rational but may be stuck and frustrated. Very often clients come to me and when I ask: What is it you want? They are stumped because they don’t usually ask themselves that question. And nor does anyone else. This is very often the case when people re-

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Urban Picnic's exhibition in Saffron Walden. The subject of the exhibition is urban art, titled

Life out of balance

Featuring some award-winning photographers whose images have appeared on covers of national newspapers, in travel books, art fairs and have attracted a large number of followers over the years. The Group exhibition features works from photographers Jürgen Bürgin and Thomas Finke among others.

“We usually perceive our world, our way of living, as beautiful because there is nothing else to perceive. If one lives in this world, the globalized world of high technology, all one can see is one layer of commodity piled upon another. There seems to be no ability to see beyond, to see that we have encased ourselves in an artificial environment that has remarkably replaced the original, nature itself. We do not live with nature any longer; we live above it, off of it as it were. Nature has become the resource to keep this artificial or new nature alive.”

01 Photo by Thomas Finke 02 Photo by Jürgen Bürgin

Courtesy of Urban Picnic Gallery

quest career coaching, for instance. We all compile our C.V. and then ask: What is it possible for me to do next? Who would employ this person with this experience? This is completely the wrong question to ask. You must ask: What do I really want? What will make me happy? It’s very liberating. Ok, if what you really really want is to be a professional footballer and you are 49 and a bit overweight it’s going to be impossible but actually, just acknowledging that starts the creative process of looking at who you really are, not just who your C.V. tells you are. In nearly all cases you can achieve whatever you want – you just need to believe it! Oh, and you might need a life coach to help you along the way. It’s important that you have someone on the journey with you. Someone who also believes in you."

LIFE COACHING MEETINGS

Dez said, "Of course it varies from client to client but usually six to eight structured one-to-one sessions are enough to make radical and lasting changes. The first session is used to get to know each other, establish some ground rules and get an overview of what the issues are and to put in place some achievable goals."

JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY Coaching interventions are time-limited and focused on outcomes and results. "Some of my clients" Dez states "like to touch base every three months or so after they’ve benefitted from the structured sessions and that’s fine. I’m always eager to know how my clients are progressing. I usually have a session with my clients every 2 to 3 weeks, for three to six months with lots of e-mail support between the sessions."

THE PROCESS

Dez meets in his London-based clients but increasingly they are geographically diverse so he does a lot of work on the telephone or Skype. When he started out he was a little dubious about coaching on the phone but it works pretty well, and some people feel able to be more honest on the phone rather than face-to-face.

THE WORD TO THE HELPED

Bukky Yusuf, a senior science consultant, said of Dez "his honest coaching sessions have helped me tackle years of behaviors that I have struggled to openly recognize and shed. Dez's coaching style is structured, flexible and engaging. It also includes the use of incisive questions which allows a person to look at issues from different perspectives, analyze possible options and then outline positive steps forward."

LIFE COACHING DOESN’T DO IT FOR ALL

But it doesn't work for everyone. Sue Allen, 36, from West Bromwich in the midlands of the U.K., is someone for whom life coaching was not the answer. She said, "I went to one when I was laid off from my job as a kindergarten teacher. I felt I had hit rockbottom and I needed a helping hand to get back up. I got fed up quite quickly. I found another job six months later and I don’t for one minute think the life coaching got it for me. I think it depends on who you are and what sort of character you are. I would certainly not knock it for a lot of people. It just wasn't for me."

PEOPLE JUST NEED A PUSH

“Most people can’t make big changes on their own,” says Kim Goad, author, personal leadership expert and president of Ovations, a Baltimore, Maryland, US-based performance consulting firm. “They cannot push themselves. They need someone to tell them to stretch, and they need to hear it from someone other than a spouse or friend.” The final word comes from Dez: "It is absolutely vital that you work with someone who you trust completely and that results are tangible quite quickly". It’s not a regulated industry yet, so anyone could set themselves up as a life-coach. Exercise caution and never part with any money until you are completely confident in the ability and integrity of the coach.•

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Performance Flat Leadership

By PALLE ELLEMANN KNUDSEN

Hierarchies are Falling

Everyone knows who makes the decisions, and decisions can be made fast. This is the positive spin we put on hierarchy -- but what if we viewed it differently?

We expect that power is distributed equally

Hierarchical structures hamper the personal initiative and drive, and decisionmaking can be slow when issues have to be pushed upwards in the organization in order to reach a decision. Additionally, decisions are often made by those less qualified, because top leaders don’t have first-hand knowledge about what should be decided. For the past 20 to 30 years, many companies have tried to reduce the rigidity of hierarchy by cutting down on the number of management layers, empowering people on the frontlines to make decisions, and changing the management style to become more supportive of the individual initiative and focused on staff development. The speed and impact of this trend has varied from market to market, because breaking down hierarchies in organizations is influenced by traditions and similar trends in the society and the family structure.

THE CULTURAL IMPACT ON HIERARCHY

From a European perspective it is clear that Scandinavian companies have quickly adopted this trend and created much fewer hierarchical organizations, which has been easier, because similar trends are seen in the Scandinavian school systems and within the family structures, and Scandinavian countries are characterized by having a relatively short power distance. On the contrary, you will, in general, find more hierarchical organizations in Spanish, French and Portuguese companies, because the power distance in the society is longer. Nonetheless, there are many examples of Southern European companies overcoming this hurdle, and the Best Workplaces lists are a good reference for such companies.

MOVING THE LEGITIMACY OF

LEADERSHIP FROM HIERARCHY TO INFLUENCE

The emergence of advanced communication technology and the Internet have resulted in a democratization of the access to information. Some companies are taking advantage of new communication technologies to move towards a more flexible and less hierarchical structure. Salesforce.com has created a new Chatter system, which is a social media system for use within the organization. On Chatter, employees can share information and collaborate in real time with a wide range of colleagues within the organization. It is an open system, where people can choose whomever and whatever they want to follow. The system is moving the legitimacy of leadership from hierarchy to influence. The important question is not what your job title is, but how many people are following you? When Salesforce.com had a strategic offsite meeting for the top 300 leaders in the company, the CEO Marc Benioff invited also the top 25 Chatter users based on number of followers and usage. Benioff recognized the influence and value the leading Chatter users created for the company “we may have to rethink the way that we think about leadership, the definition of it. We may have to pay the chatterati as much as the SVPs, because they have as much value.”

DOES HIERARCHY KILL CREATIVITY?

Former CEO of Medtronic and the author of “Authentic Leadership,” Bill George asks, on the Management Innovation eXchange, whether hierarchy kills creativity. He answers the question himself, reaffirming that hierarchy indeed kills creativity, because people don’t want to follow rules and processes when sharing and working on ideas. He suggests that today it is impossible to attract the best talents if you have a hierarchical organization. People need to be empowered, and empowerment has to go along with accountability. So, according to George, great leaders follow up consistently with people and build strong systems to foster accountability. George predicts that hierarchy will soon die together with the hierarchical companies. Hierarchical companies have, in many markets, problems with recruiting and integrating the new Generations X and Y, who in many cases have been brought up in structures much less hierarchical than what their parents have experienced during their childhood.

GORE WAS AHEAD OF HIS TIME When Wilbert Gore in 1958 established his company W. L. Gore & Associates he knew that he had to create a different management model in order to foster the innovation that the business needed. He was heavily influenced by Douglas McGregor’s “Theory X/Theory Y” which held that rather than effective management being a “command and control” style (theory X), employees were actually ambitious, self-motivated and could exercise self-control (theory Y). He built the Gore culture around this thinking – doing away with typical organizational structure and hierarchy. 50 year later the company known for the GORE-TEX® fabric, has 9,500 associates in 30 countries. Employees at Gore are called associates and a leader is defined as anyone who has followers. Every associate has a sponsor

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Hierarchies are destined to melt

Icebergs, these enormous blocks of ice can be seen from two different points of view. On one hand the iceberg

communicates rigidity and sturdiness, due to its stateliness;

this could be compared to the strict hierarchy often found in organizations. However, icebergs are made of ice and are destined to melt, comparable to the existing mentality of companies -- a mentality that, according to Palle Ellemann, should be changed or rethought. Breaking down hierarchies is not so much done on an organizational level, but it is, most of all, a question of changing mentalities. 01, 02, 03, 04, 05 These photos are taken from The Last Iceberg series, by Camille Seaman, a photographer based in California.

(not manager) to guide the associate about career issues. “Gore is a big proponent of “natural leadership” which means that leaders must have followers. If you can’t get people to follow you, then you are simply not a leader”, says Michael Burchell, who is writer about great workplaces and former associate with Gore. The lack of a clear management structure and the strong employee engagement could of course lead to endless discussions in order to reach decisions, but the Gore associates are trained in how to let the principles of the company guide the decision making process. This process removes the risk of letting personal opinions rule the discussions and facilitates a focus on what the company is (values and principles) and where it wants to go (goals, vision and mission). W. L. Gore also makes sure to keep it small to ensure the effectiveness of the unique organizational culture. There are not more than 200 people located in any Gore building at the same time.

A CHANGE OF MENTALITY

Breaking down hierarchies is not so much about changing the organizational chart of a company as it is a matter about changing the mentality of people. In the UK car insurance company Admiral Group, the founder Henry Engelhardt is training his managers to apply a philosophy of the reversed triangle, where managers’ key role is to service the team-members and not the other way around. Managers have to make sure that people have the best conditions to doing their job and support

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Power Distance Index is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. This represents inequality (more versus less), but as defined from below, not from above. It suggests that a society's level of inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders. Power and inequality, of course, are extremely fundamental facts of life in any society, and anyone with some international experience will be aware that 'all societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others'. [W geert-hofstede.com]

them in any way possible. Long time serving manager at Admiral Group, Stuart Morgan tells that he halts whatever he is working on, when an employee approaches him with an issue. “What you are doing will never be as important as the issue that the person is bringing to you and the person is likely not to come back, if he or she is turned down”, he says.

REPLACING HIERARCHY Breaking down the hierarchy of organizations is not the same as moving to anarchy. A company needs to be organized around another structure in order to be efficient and effective. Like Bill George suggests, great leaders need to put other structures and support systems in place when turning to empowerment and the removal of traditional managerial control systems. Looking across the most successful companies that have broken down the hierarchies – like W. L. Gore, Google, TANDBERG, Microsoft, Admiral Group, etc. – it is striking to see how rigid the recruitment and onboarding practices of new employees are. These companies invest a remarkable amount of time and resources to get the right people onboard and then to ensure that the culture really gets under the skin of the new hires. Additionally, these companies are very goal-oriented, where the company goals, vision, and mission are again and again applied for any decision to be taken. So, essentially the corporate structure is guided by a very strong sense of what the common values and the culture are and where the organization is going. In between there is plenty of space for individual innovation and development supported by performance systems and training and development.•