Interview with Lale Kesebi

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Lale

Kesebi:

«Th e f u tu r e i s hu m an » Recorded by Elena Ivanova

Why has work become the best or the worst thing that happens to us in life? And why is work being bad more common? Moreover, why is managing people seen as a headache for business managers more than anything else? What can be done about all of this? It’s time to ask the person who answers these questions and delivers solutions to leaders — please meet Lale Kesebi, the CEO whisperer.

Lale began her career in Canada as a litigation lawyer, then moved to Asia 20 years ago. She has held leadership roles culminating in nearly 15 years at Li & Fung, the world’s largest supply chain management company, the last 8 years of which Lale was a member of the executive team leading organizational transformation, building out innovation and designing the social impact of the company through purpose.

Today she is the CEO of her own company called human-at.work, helping organizations to create dream teams, increase profit and find their place in sun. In this interview Lale Kesebi shares why we may not like work and how to fix it.

What problems does Human-at-Work help businesses to deal with most often?

I help CEOs and their teams create awesome companies and build great businesses for humans. Most CEOs today are leading massive transformation not only for their businesses to survive but to thrive. My work focuses on developing the breakthrough strategies to make their transformation stick. And guess what the secret is? Success is always about inspiring your people for that purposeful change. I work exclusively with CEOs and their senior teams because they’re the only ones that can light that way for their people.

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People are the responsibility of their leader, not their HR departments. For me the best examples come from what great leaders do. They develop culture, which is more powerful than any policy can be

Time spent at work, according to surveys, is at the end of the ranking of activities which make people happy during the day. What is the main reason for this? And is it an alarming sign?

There are two reasons for this. The first is that work is becoming a bigger part of our day. So instead of work-life balance, it’s just how life is. That then puts a lot of pressure on our jobs to be meaningful and give us purpose. So, the second reason? Most of modern work today really lacks purpose for us. So, we’re let down. The statistics in surveys tell the truth. 87% of today’s workforce globally are disengaged from their work. That’s a massive productivity loss impacting lives and the profitability of companies.

February'19 | Megapolis magazine®

Megapolis magazine® | February'19

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Photo: Josh Tam & Moses Ng

Every company in every industry in every country is about to be or is currently being disrupted

Photo: Josh Tam & Moses Ng

Photo: Josh Tam & Moses Ng

What human resource policies and approaches, which you came across in different companies, you would like to highlight as great, innovative and efficient?

I have a bias. I believe that people are the responsibility of their leader, not their HR departments. So for me the best examples come from what great leaders do. They develop culture, which is more powerful than any policy and procedure can be. If leaders are vulnerable and can admit they don’t know everything, are trusting, open, inspiring and can deliver on strategy for their people — they’ve got all the makings of a successful culture to win. Great cultures and great leaders exist at companies like Netflix, Next Jump, Bain, and Four Seasons, to name a few.

You worked with teams from all over the world. How does working culture vary across countries? And which of them impresses you the most?

What resources does it take to create «happiness teams» instead of «human resources teams»? After all, the main concern of the owner of a business is creating profit, not making everybody happy. So, do happy teams can cause a qualitative shift and bring a company to the new level — or it’s more like a new great idea, not yet confirmed?

There is a ton of research that links positive working environments with «happy» employees to satisfied customers and greater profitability. It’s a fact. Successful companies design workplaces where human beings thrive at work and are set up to manage their own disruption in the future because they’ve invested in their people who will willingly find the solutions needed by the company to survive. But here’s the catch — it’s leader-led. Without a senior leader driving it and linking it back to performance as a team, it won’t work.

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Over the past 20 years, I’ve led teams in over 40 countries. Here’s the truth: everyone is the same. We all have families, dreams, go to a job we might like or hate, make money, live a life and then die.

And the things that seem different like our traditions or cultures, go into making us unique. Most northern Europeans are very punctual and being late is considered rude. South Asians have a more fluid sense of time — it’s just not an important measure to them.

Factories in Central America play salsa music during shifts and you can see someone dancing with a broom on the factory floor. It’s all a reflection of where you are at. You need to ask is considered acceptable and not to judge based on your own cultural experience. Every time I travel to a new country, I learn something new. Every culture has something impressive to offer if you’re open to experience it.

Do CEOs really ready to change the work pattern of industrial society to more innovative, and what is their main challenge about that?

Definitely, some because they’re naturally innovative and aren’t afraid

February'19 | Megapolis magazine®

of change, but most are changing because they have to. Every company in every industry in every country is about to be or is currently being disrupted. Only 12 companies on the Fortune 500 list were on that list 60 years ago. Chances are high that most won’t be on that list in the future. That’s huge.

Linking salaries of top-managers to the growth of sales was called one of the major reasons of unsustainable consumption, usage of dangerous chemicals, etc. Are there any better performance indicators to be implemented to break this vicious circle?

The sustainable measure of a responsible business is a threelegged stool: people, planet and profits. One or two legs don’t hold up the stool. Great businesses like Unilever and Patagonia get that and have performance metrics that their senior leaders need to meet beyond just sales. Their entire cultures are designed around that.

How will the growth of AI and robotization affect the role of employees and skills they need to have?

Machines are already better at simple, repetitive tasks at speed than humans. And we’re going to see that scale quickly. Humans, on the other hand, have depths of creativity, higher-level decision-making skills as well as something quite unique to our race — emotions.

All of that we will need in abundance in business and in life. The future is human.

Can chatbots and AI-driven video interviews be effective for recruitment, in your opinion?

They can if they’re designed in a way that makes us feel as if it’s a human-centered experience. If not, we feel as if we are being efficiently «processed» and it will have the opposite outcome of being effective.

Megapolis magazine® | February'19

How would you describe your main mission as a professional throughout your career, and what is your main message to business communities?

I was profiled on my transformation work last year and someone called me a CEO Whisperer. It’s stuck and it’s a pretty good description of my career mission. I’ve worked with a lot of senior people in corporate and my role was always to figure out the strategy to get from here to there and to inspire people to come with us on that journey.

My favorite quote is from Grace Hopper, «You don’t manage people, you manage things. You lead people.» That’s my message for CEOs.

Does leading people with a personal example work with all types of personalities, or some types or professions need «managing»?

No human I know has ever gone home and said, «Wow, I had a great day being managed!» People want to be led. It’s in our DNA to be a part of a tribe. When you’re leading people it’s always about figuring them out first — what they’re good at, how they work, what they need — in order to get to your performance goal as a team. Some of the best creative people I’ve worked with have been introverts. I’m an extreme extrovert, very high-energy and very engaging as a personality. And to introverts interacting with someone like me can be shockingly uncomfortable. I had to learn as a leader how to take my energy and enthusiasm down a few levels, so I didn’t scare them off.

Seeking out input over email, and not singling someone out in a crowd were new ways for me to lead. Otherwise you risk not having key contribution to the team and that could be the idea you need.

What is the case study in your career you are most proud of?

An early mentor of mine once told me that a great leader had two important characteristics — they are both inspiring and consistent.

I really took that to heart and practice that every chance I get as a leader. I was made, not born, as a leader. I’m proud of everyone I’ve learned from to make it here.

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