Edge Autumn 2019

INSPIRING GREAT LEADERSHIP

CONCISE ADVICE BIG LAB

LL SMOAOKS: B

AS

IDE

AUTUMN 2019

CLEVER CONTENT, DYNAMIC IDEAS, PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS AND ENGAGING VISUALS – A CATALYST TO INSPIRE NEW WAYS OF THINKING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING IN A COMPLEX WORLD

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Authenticity Vision Achievement Ownership Collaboration

Lasting footprint WHAT WILL BE YOUR LEADERSHIP LEGACY?

Plus Charles Handy AUTUMN 2019

Digital body language Narcissism can be good

SUPER SIGNS

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Contents AUTUMN 2019

Update 6

All the latest developments in leadership and management; around the universities

Debate 11

Mailbox

12

Charmian Love, co-founder and chair of B Lab UK, on why B Corps represent the future of business

13

Our regular LGBT+ columnist Christopher Hallas explores the commercial and moral reasons why leaders should create LGBT+ friendly workplaces

34

Insider

In Conversation

INSIGHT FROM THE INSTITUTE OF LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

Management author Charles Handy

15

What’s the right thing to do?

Chief executive Phil James argues that responsible leadership presents conflicting demands

17

Embrace reality Kate Cooper, head of research, policy & standards, argues there’s a time and a place for hugging

18

News Coverage of the Institute’s annual conference; welcome to the new Companions; partnership to mobilise Nigerian entrepreneurs; star webinar

21

In the Hot Seat Nav Gahonia, head of customers and communities at Northamptonshire Highways/KierWSP, reveals what leadership means to her

22

Spotlight RESPONSIBLE LEADERS

28

Leading by example Being a responsible leader

32

Corporate venturing Business investment for good

34

Follow the star Integrate profit and purpose at scale

36

The human advantage Why treating people well pays off

38

Small is sustainable Responsible leadership in SMEs

40

Case study JoJo Maman Bébé

3

22 Making it Happen MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE

53

When the mind is the matter

54

How to manage your smartphone

56

Caring for elderly relatives

Vision

Beyond Borders

Live & Learn

SETTING THE LEADERSHIP AGENDA

INTERNATIONAL INSIGHT

The smartest person in the room?

The case for CQ

59

MANAGING MENTAL, PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL WELLBEING AND DEVELOPMENT

44

60

75 Coaching Column Amanda Smith

43

Resist the confidence illusion

India

48

64

Effective decision-making

50

Narcissism

Success in multicultural environments

Future of Work STRATEGIES FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS

67

Fit for the future

64

68

Virtual body language

70

The Project Canvas

72

Creativity by numbers

76 How to motivate your team 77 Presentation skills 78 Physical intelligence 80 Book Club 84 Leadership Legend Charles Hampden-Turner examines the reasons why mental illness occurs and the role of organisations in preventing people from falling ill in the first place

4

Contributors

CHRISTIAN BUSCH

MARGA HOEK

CHRIS LEWIS

Dr Christian Busch is a lecturer at the London School of Economics as well as co-founder of Leaders on Purpose, an organisation that convenes high-impact leaders, and Sandbox Network, an international community of young innovators.

He teaches several masters and executive education courses. A Thinkers50 new leadership thinker to watch in 2019, his upcoming book is The Serendipity Factor.

Marga Hoek is author of The Trillion Dollar Shift, exploring the roles business and capital play in the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. She founded the Dutch Sustainable Business Association and was formerly its chief executive. Hoek has written for publications including The Huffington Post and Executive Finance. She is a Thinkers50 new leadership thinker to watch in 2019.

Experienced strategist Chris Lewis works with politicians, business leaders and celebrities. He volunteers for a range of organisations including The Royal Society and Chelsea College of Arts. In 2016, he founded the LEWIS Advisory Board (LAB) with US presidential adviser and economist Dr Pippa Malmgren. They cowrote The Leadership Lab: Understanding Leadership in the 21st Century.

CHARMIAN LOVE

DR IMRAN RASHID

KIRAN TREHAN

Charmian Love is co-founder and chair of B Lab UK, supporting the growth of B Corps in the UK and beyond. She is also a trustee of not-for-profit organisation The B Team and a member of the Sustainability Committee at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. She is entrepreneur in residence at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford’s Saïd Business School.

Dr Imran Rashid is a family physician and IT entrepreneur. Formerly head of innovation at Danish private hospital chain Aleris-Hamlet, he has been at the forefront of understanding how digital habits impact on mental and physical health.

His study of the interaction between the brain and technology provides answers to some of society’s questions around the impact of technology on our wellbeing.

Kiran Trehan is professor of leadership and enterprise development at Birmingham Business School and director of the Centre for Women’s Enterprise, Leadership, Economy & Diversity. She has led a number of business, enterprise and leadership support initiatives and published numerous articles, reports and books. She is deputy president at the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Editor’s Letter

5

Taking responsibility The fate of our planet rests in the hands of our leaders By

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t may seem obvious that leaders bear a collective responsibility for the wellbeing of our planet in every sense – economic, environmental and social. Yet the reality is that on a day-to-day basis, leaders are often so tied up with the minutiae of the workplace that they don’t have time to reflect on where they fit into the bigger picture.

When you have budgets to prepare, meetings to attend, presentations to write and an exhaustive list of appraisals to wade through, there aren’t many hours left in the day. So how can you think about opportunities for your organisation to contribute more positively to the local community? Or what it could do to staunch the rise in sea levels or the melting of the polar ice caps?

While long to-do lists are a good excuse for doing nothing, they do not, unfortunately, change the fact that doing nothing has severe implications for our planet. Take climate change, for example. Whole swathes of Earth could be rendered uninhabitable as a result of soaring temperatures in the not-so-distant future. The outcome of this will be the mass migration of people to more inhabitable areas, which is likely to put further strain on already strained resources, place stress on infrastructure, fan social inequality and exacerbate the political tensions that are already evident today.

Climate change will ultimately inhibit the ability of some organisations to operate, and force other organisations to close down altogether. Yet, when today’s leaders draw

Sally Percy up their three- and five-year strategies, they rarely factor this consideration into their plans. Why not? Because a scorched Earth is not – yet – a three- or a five-year problem.

Unfortunately, by the time it is, we won’t be able to do anything about it.

Climate change is not the only issue that our planet is wrestling with today. Among the other problems we face are gender inequality, hunger, poverty, lack of sanitation and inadequate justice systems. These also warrant serious consideration from leaders.

PRESERVING THE PLANET IS NOT SOMEONE ELSE’S PROBLEM – IT IS OUR PROBLEM If leaders don’t address the wellbeing issues that our planet faces, they will find that others force them to wake up to the scale of the challenge. This year we have already seen large-scale protests against climate change by socio-political movement Extinction Rebellion. These protests demonstrated that angry people can potentially make life very difficult for those businesses and organisations that do not heed their duties towards the environment and society. When it comes down to it, preserving the planet is not someone else’s problem – it is our problem. Today, we all have an opportunity to make a difference.

Responsibility begins at home.

sally.percy@lidbusinessmedia.com

Edge is brought to you by: LID Publishing Editor Sally Percy sally.percy@lidbusinessmedia.com Art Director Kate Harkus Assistant Editor Kirsten Levermore Chief Subeditor Camilla Cary-Elwes 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 alec.egan@lidbusinessmedia.com or 07591 200041 Publishing Published in the United Kingdom by LID Publishing, 204 The Record Hall, Baldwins Gardens, London EC1N 7RJ Disclaimer Copyright 2019 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 ISSN 2515-7809 Printed by NewNorth www.newnorth.co.uk

Update

6

Racism is still a workplace problem

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he majority of ethnic minority workers say they have experienced racial harassment at work in the last five years and have been unfairly treated by their employer because of their race.

This is a key finding from the Racism at Work Survey, commissioned by the Trades Union Congress.

Report co-author Dr Stephen Ashe, from the University of Manchester, surveyed over 5,000 people for the research. The shocking responses revealed that over 70% of ethnic minority workers had experienced racial harassment at work in the last five years. Around 60% had been subjected to unfair treatment by their employer because of their race. Almost half reported that racism had negatively impacted on their ability to do their job, and a similar number had been subject to ‘verbal abuse and racist jokes’.

More than one in ten ethnic minority respondents and 6% of non-British white participants reported that they had experienced racist violence at work. Meanwhile, a third reported that they had been bullied or subjected to insensitive questioning. Almost 15% of women and 8% of

70% of ethnic minority workers have experienced racial harassment at work in the last five years Source: Racism at Work Survey, Trades Union Congress

men stated that racial discrimination had caused them to leave their job.

Around a quarter (28%) of participants who had experienced racism at work reported having to take sick leave. Part-time or non-permanent employees were more likely to report racial discrimination.

Over 40% of those who reported an incident said they were either ignored or identified as a ‘trouble maker’. More than one in ten respondents who had raised a complaint said they were disciplined or forced out of their job as a result of doing so.

The survey also highlighted that many white British people believe that austerity, deindustrialisation, globalisation and neoliberalism have had a disproportionate, detrimental impact on the ‘white working class’. As a result, a number of participants objected to attempts to promote equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, while also opposing ‘positive discrimination’ and ‘political correctness’.

“Racism remains a widespread and endemic feature of working life in Britain,” said Ashe.

“Workplace racism and racial inequality in the labour market will persist as long as successive governments continue to abide by voluntary, non-interventionist, non-regulatory orthodoxy.”

Hampden-Turner addresses the capitalist crisis Capitalism in crisis is the theme of two new books written by leading management philosopher and Edge columnist Charles Hampden-Turner. Hampden-Turner penned the tomes, which explore some of the major problems we face today, in conjunction with organisational theorist Professor Fons Trompenaars and stakeholder management expert Professor Linda O’Riordan. The books feature clever cartoons from illustrator David Lewis.

Volume One in the series investigates what has gone wrong with capitalism, highlighting that shareholders can only benefit from what stakeholders have collectively created. When customers, employees and suppliers are well looked after, better goods and services will result, and more revenue will be generated.

Volume Two responds to the challenge laid down in Volume One. Here, the authors argue that shareholders and the financial sector have become severed from stakeholders within companies who do the actual work and create the wealth we all enjoy.

This has led to gross inequality, with declining rewards for those working in the real economy.

Asked why he had chosen witty cartoons to illustrate his thinking, Hampden-Turner said: “I use pictures because they stir the imagination and illustrate how the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. If you cannot laugh at yourself, you will cry.

Humour is first aid.”

For a review of ‘Capitalism in Crisis, Volume One’, see Book Club, page 80. Read Charles Hampden-Turner’s column on page 84

7

Cynicism is bad for your health

How to motivate high achievers Managers who use their discretion when allocating bonuses could be more successful at motivating their staff, according to Rebecca Hewett and Hannes Leroy of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, in the Netherlands.

The researchers examined how employees respond to their manager using discretion in deciding how much bonus to award them. Their study focused on actual bonuses given to office workers who worked for a UK government-funded organisation that employed 733 staff at the time of the survey. They asked 155 staff to report their motivation levels shortly after receiving their bonus.

The results showed that employees who received a high bonus perceived to be based on their manager’s discretionary judgement thought the bonus was fairer, which increased their intrinsic motivation.

The research also suggested that manager discretion is only perceived to be fairer and more motivating when employees benefit from it.

For those who lose out by receiving less money, this discretion is seen as unfair, and employees begin to feel a mismatch between themselves and the organisation.

Commenting on the findings, Hewett said: “Performance bonuses should recognise employees’ unique contribution to an organisation – yet this is difficult to execute using formal measurements alone. The research therefore highlights that bonus systems are, by nature, not put in place to treat everyone equally. If your goal is absolute equality, then bonuses are perhaps not the best tool, but if your goal is to motivate the better performers, then allowing managers space to use their discretion is a good thing.”

Being cynical increases your risk of becoming ill, new research reveals. At the same time, bad health also causes people to become more cynical.

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the US Health and Retirement Study, social psychologists Dr Daniel Ehlebracht, from the University of Cologne in Germany, and Dr Olga Stavrova, from Tilburg University in the Netherlands, looked at subjective health perceptions and various objective measures of physical health. These included diagnoses from doctors, blood pressure and grip strength.

The results, which were based on the analysis of data from 40,000 people, revealed that cynical individuals were more likely to develop health problems, but poor health also promoted the development of a cynical world-view over time.

Commenting on the findings, Ehlebracht said: “Health problems that constrained subjects’ lives were the most likely to lead to cynicism. If someone’s illness prevented them from climbing stairs, for example, they had a higher chance of becoming cynical than if they suffered from something less inconvenient, like elevated blood pressure.”

These findings, published in the European Journal of Personality, suggest that cynicism and ill health present a chain of circumstances, with each worsening the other. While cynicism is both a cause and a consequence of bad health, stable social networks and a well-functioning institutional support system might help to break the vicious circle.

THE TRUTH ABOUT MENTORS*

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76

% Three out of four US workers say that their mentor is either important or very important to them

41

% reveal that they focus on formal goals with their mentor

37

% Just over a third currently have a mentor

15

% find it very difficult to get time with their mentor

*Source: Research by Olivet Nazarene University, based on a survey of 3,000 Americans who are currently in full-time employment

4

hours is the average time spent talking to a mentor each month

8

Update

Around the universities A roundup of recent research on leadership and management from across the UK and internationally

Take some responsibility Project management aims to deliver projects to the specifications of major stakeholders, within agreed economic measures.

According to Bournemouth University, this is not enough, however. Project managers also need to deliver using responsible and ethical leadership practices. Operating within the world’s largest refugee camp, in Bangladesh, the research team of Dr Nigel Williams, Dr Karen Thompson, Dr Mehdi Chowdhury and Tilak Ginige studied 84 formal projects, involving over 200 stakeholder organisations, delivering services to refugees.

They found project management lacked key elements of responsible leadership, notably neglecting to address the impact of projects on communities and local environments.

Leadership takeaway Projects are invariably part of a bigger picture and teams should pay attention to corporate social responsibility.

Find out more about the project at bit.ly/2JrE0Ny

It’s not all about you Employer-sponsored volunteering (ESV), which is where companies encourage volunteering within work time, has great potential to support the third sector, while increasing motivation and engagement in staff. But Dr Jon Burchell and Dr Joanne Cook, at the Universities of Sheffield and Hull, found that although ESV is increasing, there is a disconnect between sponsoring organisations’ expectations and third sector needs.

Leadership takeaway Volunteering must work for both parties. It is important to clarify expectations at the outset.

Find out more about the research at bit.ly/2HvFxPr

Everyone’s a star

Uncertainty may cause despair The mere thought of being unemployed leads some people to experience higher levels of death-related thoughts, according to research undertaken by Dr Simon McCabe and Dr Michael Daly of the University of Stirling. The likelihood of these thoughts occurring is lower among people who are in relationships and those who perceive a job market with plenty of opportunities.

Leadership takeaway Consider the potential mental health impact of uncertainty on employees. Individuals who are not in relationships, or who perceive limited opportunities, may need the most support.

Find out more about Stirling University at www.stir.ac.uk

Singling out rising stars for leadership development demotivates those employees who are not selected, which reduces their commitment. This is a key finding of research led by Professor Michelle Ryan of Exeter University in partnership with the University of Queensland in Australia, and the Universities of Groningen and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. In a randomised trial, individuals who were told they had been identified as future leaders excelled and were inspired, while those who were informed that they had not been selected became frustrated, lost motivation and demonstrated reduced performance.

Leadership takeaway Organisations should make it clear that they value all of their employees. So they should consider the impact on those who are not chosen for development opportunities.

Find out more about the University of Exeter Business School at business-school.exeter.ac.uk

Update

9

All in good time Coaching research can focus predominantly on short-term impacts. But a new study reveals the powerful delayed effects of the practice. Dr Gordon Spence and Ben Glashoff, of Sydney Business School in Australia, working with Dr Sunny Stout-Rostron and Dr Michelle Van Reenen, of Stellenbosch University in South Africa, found that coachees identified immediate benefits from coaching, such as communication-style adaptations. Nevertheless, extended ‘incubation periods’, or the triggering of events, were required for some learning to translate into behaviours.

Leadership takeaway Appreciate that successful coaching delivers change and some coachees need time to consolidate and enact the learning they derive from it.

Find out more about Sydney Business School at sydneybusinessschool.edu.au and Stellenbosch University at www.sun.ac.za

Don’t work too hard Those who put the greatest effort into work report higher levels of fatigue and stress, and lower job satisfaction. They also get fewer opportunities and receive less recognition. In a study involving over 52,000 employees across Europe, Dr Hans Frankort, of Cass Business School and Dr Argyro Avgoustaki, of European business school ESCP Europe, found excessive work effort predicts poor individual wellbeing and unfavourable career outcomes.

Intense work reduces opportunities for recovery.

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Leadership takeaway Be aware of the implications of excessive work effort other than its adverse impact on wellbeing. Don’t assume that greater effort results in greater productivity.

Find out more about Cass Business School at www.cass.city.ac.uk and ESCP Europe at www.escpeurope.eu

Big data boggles boards

Beware nightmare traits

Big data provides an abundance of opportunities but despite recognition of the potential, the majority of senior board members feel unable to effectively exploit its benefits. Dr Ana Canhoto of Brunel University, together with Professor Sally Dibb, Dr Alessandro Merendino, Professor Maureen Meadows, Professor Lee Quinn and Professor Lyndon Simkin of Coventry University, and Professor David Wilson of the Open University, found that boards have knowledge gaps and a lack of understanding of big data. Their study, which observed 19 decisionmaking boards, found directors frequently reverted to traditional thinking approaches that fail to exploit data. Use of big data was further hampered by simplified, top-level data summaries.

Three ‘nightmare traits’ of leadership – carelessness, disagreeableness and dishonesty – are exacerbated by negative followership behaviours, according to Professor Susan Braun of Durham University, Professor Ronit Kark of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Professor Barbara Wisse of the Universities of Groningen and Durham.

Employee anxiety, low self-esteem and a low perception of leadership behaviour can negatively influence the performance of followers, compounding the ‘dark side’ of leadership. Issues are exacerbated by decidedly extroverted leaders with low emotionality, often resulting in high absenteeism and staff turnover, stress and poor performance within the workforce.

Leadership takeaway Board members should upskill in the use of interpreting big data. They may benefit from sub-boards consisting of data experts.

Find out more about Brunel Business School at www.brunel.ac.uk/business-school, Coventry University at www.coventry.ac.uk, and the Open University at www.open.ac.uk

Leadership takeaway Your own behaviour could make your leader careless, disagreeable and dishonest.

Find out more about Durham University Business School at www.dur.ac.uk/business

Update

10

CRITICISMS OF SME BOSSES MADE BY THEIR EMPLOYEES*

28

% say that their boss demonstrates obvious favouritism towards certain colleagues

27

% hate the fact that their boss is inclined to take the credit for their work

27

% object to the way their boss tends to micromanage both them and their work

25

% get annoyed about their boss not being clear when asking for a job to be done

23

% feel irritated that their boss does not thank them when they do a good job

*Source: Process Bliss

A leader decoded Jacinda Ardern Who is she? One of the youngest world leaders, 39-year-old Jacinda Ardern surprised the pundits when she became prime minister of New Zealand in 2017. Her ascent to the top job came after the country’s general election returned a hung parliament and she was able to form a coalition government. She had been leader of the Labour Party for just seven weeks prior to the election taking place. Less than a year after becoming prime minister, she gave birth to her first child – making her the second world leader to give birth while in office.

Leadership style Since taking office, Ardern has wowed the world with her charisma, compassion, decisiveness and warmth.

Her empathetic approach to leadership was highlighted by the way she wore a hijab and hugged the survivors of the March 2019 Christchurch mosque attack.

Greatest triumph Following the tragic shooting at the mosque, Ardern vowed never to say the name of the white supremacist who massacred 51 people, thereby depriving him of the notoriety he craved.

Leadership philosophy in a nutshell “All I know is that I’m doing my job to the best of my ability.”

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FROM THE BLOG

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Catch up with the latest Edge thinking at institutelm.com/research-news/news-andviews.html. Here is an edited extract from a recent article: Should leaders slash working hours to fight climate change?

Significant cuts to the duration of the working week are required to decarbonise the planet’s atmosphere and combat climate change, according to a new report from future-of-work think tank Autonomy.

In the report, entitled The Ecological Limits of Work, researcher Philipp Frey asks: how much work we can really afford to do in light of the climate crisis, given the carbon intensity of our economies and current levels of productivity?

Drawing on data relating to carbon productivity per industry sector, Frey concludes that cutting the working week by a day would not be sufficient to decrease emissions to a sustainable level. As a result, he argues for an expansion in leisure time.

But to what extent is Frey’s position economically tenable? And how dangerous would it be for leaders to make knee-jerk policy shifts in response to such messaging, given the risks of damaging their businesses with impulsive changes to the working week?

Kate Cooper, head of research, policy and standards at the Institute of Leadership & Management, says: “The real test of ideas is how compelling they can be as part of a business case and what sort of alternatives may emerge for reducing carbon emissions.”

She continues: “A shorter working week would undoubtedly please many people. At the same time, though, there are economic considerations around leaving plants still, or offices closed, for ever-greater lengths of time. Another dilemma is that when you shorten the working week, you provide staff with increased leisure time – and that, of course, is not carbon-neutral.”

She adds: “As time goes on, it will be interesting to see how awareness campaigns around climate change come together and deliver results for the greater good. If we use wellbeing as a measure of societal success, then factors such as carbon emissions, the length of the working week and flexible hours need to be taken into account.”

To read this article, see bit.ly/2wrLGHf

Debate MAILBOX

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SHARING THOUGHTS AND IDEAS 11 Mailbox

12 Charmian Love

13 Christopher Hallas

Do we need open doors or open thinking?

Recently, a friend from another organisation said to me: “As a leader, it’s important my door is always open.” That struck me as a strange expression in the leadership context of 2019.

Of course, I understood the concept, having cut my HR teeth in the financial sector in the 2000s, where there were a lot of closed doors and barriers, which hopefully no longer exist. At Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust, we endeavour to put people before process, so we work in open-plan offices where there is a lot of transparency. Directors and senior executives have an office, but the door is rarely closed.

Equally, in this era of remote working and digital connectivity, do we really have doors, walls or any physical barriers at all? If a closed door is a metaphor for closed communication, with auto-

cratic leaders giving instruction, rather than empowering staff to find solutions, the door will always be closed, even when it’s physically open. By comparison, in a democratic organisation, the ‘open door’ provides an avenue through which to gather knowledge and information from leaders, with decision-making shared among team members.

Perhaps we should strive for an ‘open thinking’ policy, not an open door policy? This enables employees to take ownership of challenges, not look to leaders for influence or answers. Open thinking also enables managers to value a variety of concerns and perspectives, and gain a deeper knowledge of their staff so that they can motivate them.

Sallyann Woodthorpe, training and development manager, Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust

Thoughts on MyLeadership MyLeadership is the Institute of Leadership & Management’s digital learning platform. It hosts development content related to the Institute’s Five Dimensions of Leadership. Rob Johnson (right), senior director, UK&I Solution Consulting at cloud computing company ServiceNow, explains how the platform has benefitted him.

How has MyLeadership helped you to become a more responsible leader?

MyLeadership brings clarity to responsible leadership by providing access to the latest thought leadership. For example, our business works with industry to improve productivity, which is one of the UK’s biggest economic challenges. MyLeadership provides an understanding of the importance of aligning people’s motivation and values while we drive them to action. It brings to life the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of responsible leadership, day in, day out.

How will MyLeadership help your career?

I want to showcase the importance of responsible leadership in a high-growth organisation. At ServiceNow, I’m committed to supporting our people to live our workplace values and take personal responsibility for their health and wellbeing. It helps my growth to have a place to learn from other leaders, and which allows me to keep up to date on news and research, in key areas such as ethics and corporate governance. This equips me to help others.

What would you want to recommend about MyLeadership to others?

People underestimate the investment, in terms of time, study, practice and experience, which is needed to develop ability. This is what MyLeadership brings me personally and that’s why I’d recommend it.

To try out MyLeadership, visit bit.ly/2xAX1Vo

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@lidbusinessmedia.com. Letters may be edited for publication.

Debate CHARMIAN LOVE

12

Profit and purpose When it comes to business, it is possible to both walk and chew gum

O

ne of the most exciting things about this extraordinary time we’re living in is that we, as humans, are remembering we are capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time.

Just as the promise of quantum computing is rooted in a belief that we can move beyond traditional binary systems that constrict us to ‘1’ or ‘0’ – on or off ways of coding information – we can also stretch ourselves to think and act with a ‘both/and’ mentality. It isn’t about profit on one side and having impact as a separate strategy. Today it is possible to achieve both at the same time.

The challenges facing our world, including growing inequality and climate emergency, require businesses to step up and take action. Yet sadly our systems are still playing catch-up.

Most market systems still operate with an assumption that providing a return to shareholders is the top priority. But this way of thinking isn’t going to get us where we need to go if we want a planet we’re proud to hand down to future generations. We need to create the conditions where it is better for businesses to choose to focus on generating both profit and purpose.

The good news is that there is an active vanguard already operating on the frontlines of driving change. These are the Certified B Corporations – more commonly known as B Corps.

B Corps are walking, talking, living, breathing examples that this new ‘beyond binary’ way of doing business is both possible and beneficial.

To become a B Corp, a business must amend its articles to address shareholder primacy by making it mandatory for directors to consider both

By

Charmian Love

shareholders and stakeholders equally. B Corps are assessed in terms of their operations and how their business model creates positive externalities.

Currently, there are over 2,800 B Corps globally, which have made it through the rigorous assessment process. They represent a range of countries, industries, models and sizes. Some are consumer-facing businesses, while others focus on business-to-business and business-to-government markets. All are united in one goal – to use their business as a force for good.

In the UK, this community includes Bulb, the UK’s fastest-growing private business. Bulb provides its homeowner members with 100% renewable electricity from solar, wind and hydro sources, and 100% carbon neutral gas. The Bulb story demonstrates it is possible to both have an impact and be a hugely respected and celebrated business.

Another UK B Corp, Toast, is a circular economy business that reduces food waste by ‘upcycling’ one million slices of bread into beer.

Toast’s board has formally declared a climate and ecological emergency and, in response, it is reviewing the design of the business to shape its strategies.

Ultimately, B Corps represent the future of business. They are on the frontline of the change we know is needed if we want to tackle the world’s biggest challenges, including the climate emergency. Together, B Corps will keep fighting against the spell of shareholder primacy by showing it is possible to deliver both profit and purpose together.

For more on B Corps, see page 40.

Charmian Love is co-founder and chair of B Lab UK, which supports the growth of B Corps in the UK and beyond. She is entrepreneur in residence at Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School, Oxford

Debate DIVERSITY

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The case for equality There are sound commercial and moral reasons why leaders should look to create LGBT+ friendly workplaces

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n previous columns (see Edge summer 2019, spring 2019 and Yule 2018 issues), I have explored the role of leaders and managers in creating workplaces that are friendly environments for people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual plus (LGBT+).

Here I consider some reasons why they should do so.

Over the last two decades the business case for diversity has gradually become well established, certainly within Europe and North America. The benefits of promoting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are presented as: increased workforce productivity; lower absenteeism; cost savings through higher rates of staff retention and reduced levels of litigation; higher levels of creativity; and better understanding of different customer groups.

Indeed, the business case for advocating EDI from an LGBT+ perspective often focuses on the idea that it can help to open up LGBT+ consumer markets. Hence, we see advertisements featuring same-sex couples and organisations putting an emphasis on being LGBT+ friendly.

In 2015, Out Now, a global LGBT research and marketing consultancy, published a report entitled LGBT Diversity: Show Me the Business Case. It makes for very compelling reading. The report estimated that the US economy could save $9 billion per year by implementing better EDI policies for LGBT+ employees. In the UK, the annual figure could be put at approximately $1 billion.

Nevertheless, I believe that by emphasising the commercial argument for greater EDI, we risk sidelining the idea that EDI should be practised on the basis that it’s the right thing to do and the responsible thing to do. It is also important to consider the moral paradigm for EDI, which focuses on human rights and social justice as the motivation for promoting LGBT+ EDI. When we take this perspective, there is much more to be

By

Christopher Hallas

gained by embracing LGBT+ EDI than simply the commercial and financial benefits that it offers.

Take a university, for example. It could be argued that by devising and implementing LGBT+ friendly policies for staff and students, an institution could gain a competitive advantage over those universities that do not by more readily recruiting LGBT+ students. Alternatively, it could be argued that by implementing LGBT+ policies, such as embedding LGBT+ dimensions into the curriculum, or into Students’ Union practices, or into purchasing practices, the institution is meeting its legal and social obligations and responsibilities.

Nevertheless, there is a further, higher dimension.

This is that a university that commits to imple-

BY EMPHASISING THE COMMERCIAL ARGUMENT FOR GREATER EDI, WE RISK SIDELINING THE IDEA THAT EDI IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO menting LGBT+ friendly practices is also creating a diverse educational environment that has an impact not only upon its staff and students, but also upon all those with whom it engages. So, there is a broader social impact overall.

Everyone counts within an organisation, whether that organisation is a private business, public institution or, in the case of a university, some form of hybrid between the two. And everyone has rights. So while there is a business case for promoting EDI, our individual rights should not, and cannot, be overlooked. Responsible organisations need to achieve a balance between ensuring good business outcomes along with good moral outcomes.

Christopher Hallas is a higher education and diversity consultant, and executive director at Trans*formation

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NEWS AND VIEWS 17 Setting the Standard & Webinars

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18 News Annual conference; meet our new Companions; inspiring entrepreneurship in Nigeria

t’s difficult to imagine having a conversation about leadership and management without having in mind some assumptions about responsibility. Imagine, for example, trying to describe your role as a manager without mentioning your obligations towards other people, or your responsibility for getting certain things done. So, a discussion about responsible leadership might seem redundant: leadership is all about responsibility and we should hardly need to argue the case against irresponsible leadership.

Nevertheless, reminding ourselves about what it means to be responsible does help us to reflect on what we’re doing in our management practice. There are at least three accepted definitions to guide us.

First, responsibility as a virtue: a personal characteristic of dependability and integrity, as in “She’s a very responsible person” – something of a given for anyone assuming a management role. Then there’s responsibility in the sense of duty – our obligations to ensure that certain things are done in the future: “My job is to make sure everyone goes home safely at the end of the day.”

Thirdly, and everyone’s favourite: blame. So taking (or avoiding) responsibility for something that happened in the past.

These definitions overlap, but they also conflict with each other and we often find ourselves caught up in clashing expectations about ‘the responsible thing to do’. What makes a course of action ‘ethical’ in one sense might have consequences elsewhere.

What’s good for business, for example, might not be so good for the environment or the

21 In the Hot Seat Member Q&A

What’s right?

Responsible leadership presents dilemmas By

Phil James

community. If only ethics could be resolved by drawing up a simple set of rules, life might be much more straightforward. But it would also be far less human.

One way of thinking about leadership is that it is an ongoing encounter with conflicting ideas of responsibility – a struggle with doing things right and doing the right things. It’s a struggle that is not easily resolved. That’s why we’re talking about responsible leadership in this edition of Edge – not as a prescription for avoiding irresponsible leadership, but as a way into the intricate everyday dilemmas that we encounter in our lives and relationships at work.

LEADERSHIP IS AN ONGOING ENCOUNTER WITH CONFLICTING IDEAS OF RESPONSIBILITY Leadership learning is not a simple copyand-paste of ‘best practice’, as tempting as it might be for us to think that it is. If we want business and politics to be somehow more responsible, we have to find out what it means, as leaders and managers, to think and act responsibly at different times, and within different sets of circumstances. That’s what I think responsible leadership is all about.

So with those thoughts in mind, I hope you find inspiration, rather than answers, within these pages. Enjoy Edge.

For more on responsible leadership, see Spotlight, starting on page 27.

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

TAKE YOUR BEST FROM START TO BOARDROOM. With learning and development from The Institute of Leadership & Management.

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Insider SETTING THE STANDARD

17

Embrace reality

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ast year, more than 2,200 staff at fashion retailer Ted Baker signed a petition complaining about the alleged culture of ‘forced hugging’ that was instituted by the firm’s founder, Ray Kelvin.

Initially, Ted Baker defended Kelvin’s behaviour, claiming it was not predatory – it seems he hugged everybody and was an ‘equal opportunities hugger’. Nevertheless, the fact that so many people objected to the hugging gave cause for concern and Kelvin later had to step down.

The case provoked a lot of interest in the media. I was asked to speak about its implications for leadership on a number of local radio stations. Then, in April this year, hugging made the news again when recruiter Totaljobs published a survey of over 2,000 people, which revealed that many people believe that hugging at work should be banned because it causes discomfort and sends out mixed messages.

Given the nature of the relationships we have with people at work, it should not come as a surprise that hugging is something of a minefield. Work relationships – with colleagues, managers, customers and suppliers – are essentially contractual. So how can you maintain the professionalism of these relationships when you might be hugging one day and in dispute about something the next? Although you might become fond of the people you work with, and even develop friendships with them, the relationships you have with them will rarely resemble the relationships you have with friends and family.

There’s a time and a place for hugging By

Kate Cooper

And this is even before we get on to predatory behaviour, where people in a more powerful position use their power – whether consciously or unconsciously – to invade somebody else’s physical space. How does the less powerful person in that relationship – whether they are younger, more junior or new to the organisation – reject a physical overture that makes them feel uncomfortable?

When the Institute conducted research into banter, we found that people often don’t complain or articulate their discomfort with over-familiar behaviour. As a result, they tend to avoid those whose behaviour they find upsetting, or even leave the organisation. This is because it is often very difficult to articulate discomfort with a colleague’s

HOW CAN YOU MAINTAIN PROFESSIONALISM WHEN YOU ARE HUGGING ONE DAY AND IN DISPUTE THE NEXT? behaviour, especially when it is well-meaning.

Given the controversy that exists, any self-aware leader or manager needs to think very carefully about whether hugging is a practice they want to encourage or role model. Inevitably, the starting point has to be: it’s not about you, it’s about them. Very few of us would say there’s no place for hugging in the world, but that place is not necessarily at work.

Kate Cooper is head of research, policy and standards at the Institute of Leadership & Management

Download Banter: Just a bit of fun or crossing the line? at bit.ly/2PMRCCv

WEBINARS The Institute runs free ‘Learn at Lunch’ 30-minute webinars most Wednesdays from 12.30–1pm. To find out more, visit: https://www.institutelm. com/whats-on/event-listing.html

Check out these webinars, which you may have missed: Effective Communication 24 April 2019 bit.ly/2PuudGY

How to Engage Your People 8 May 2019 bit.ly/2XLpyTQ

The Learning Imperative 22 May 2019 bit.ly/2IYEE4f

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Institute explores the case for bouncing back

‘P

utting resilience into leadership’ was the theme of the Institute’s annual conference, held at the Urban Innovation Centre in London on 9 May. Addressing the conference, researcher and writer Dr Elesa Zehndorfer explained that resilience means bouncing back from difficulty. As it is linked to peak performance, it is a determinant of success.

Zehndorfer highlighted the link between sound mental health and resilience, saying: “You cannot be resilient if you are depressed and you cannot be resilient if your stress levels are so high that you cannot function.” Her advice for people who are finding their resilience is lowered due to stress was to exercise, have a good diet and spend time enjoying nature. She also warned that mentally resilient people could be at risk of burnout, because they push themselves too far.

Doug Strycharczyk, chief executive of psychometric test publisher AQR International, argued that resilience alone is not enough; it is mental toughness that matters. “Resilience enables you to survive,” he said. “It doesn’t necessarily enable you to thrive.” He described mental toughness as a personality trait that determines how people respond to stressors, pressure, opportunity and challenge. Strycharczyk explained that while being mentally tough is often advantageous, it does come with downsides. Mentally tough people can overcommit, be

unnecessarily demanding of other people and fail to recognise the signs of potential burnout.

Catherine Hayes, managing partner at consultancy Transition Dynamics, explored the issue of why organisations find change so difficult. “You can’t manage change,” she said. “You have to learn to work with it.”

Kate Cooper, the Institute’s head of research, policy and standards, elicited feedback on the Institute’s forthcoming publication on resilience. She was delighted with the contributions, which will be incorporated into the final version.

Welcome to our new Companions The Institute welcomed 15 new Companions in April, five of whom were presented with their certificates at the Institute’s annual conference in May. The new Companions were nominated in recognition of the impact of their work on individuals, businesses and communities in terms of inspiring great leadership.

The Institute awards Companionship under exceptional circumstances to people who have made a significant contribution to advance the practice of leadership and management for public benefit, in line with our own purpose.

Our new Companions include public figures and world-renowned leadership thinkers such as Marshall Goldsmith and Philip Kotler, who work with C-suite executives in global organisations; Jenny Garrett (pictured above), who works with schoolchildren to inspire change in the future; Aisha Al Suwaidi, who is executive director

of HR policy for the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources within the United Arab Emirates; and Kate Bright, founder of UMBRA International, a secure lifestyle concierge service that places elite female and male security professionals with private clients. Many of our Companions have been recognised through awards and honours.

Through their work and their leadership, our Companions demonstrate an alignment with our values: Authenticity, Vision, Achievement, Ownership and Collaboration. They are committed to supporting our work to inspire great leadership everywhere, whether that is through speaking at our events, contributing to our research, or sharing ideas with our network via our webinars, podcasts and social media.

To see a complete list of the Institute’s Companions, visit: https://www.institutelm.com/companions.html

News

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Durham University managers graduate from Approved programme

The first managers have now graduated from the Institute Approved programme that was embedded into the in-house leadership programme of Durham University in November 2018. The university sought ‘Institute Approved’ as a way to provide professional recognition and external validation for its managers’ commitment to continuous development.

The programme, curated by the Institute, provides a bespoke pathway through our MyLeadership suite of resources, which map to the university’s taught sessions on its existing leadership programme.

It is comprised of core components that the university has identified as being of particular importance to its leaders and managers.

Participants also join an Institutefacilitated virtual group discussion.

It was regarded as critical that they should have the opportunity to share learning and reflect on how it has impacted their practice in the context of the university.

Claire Tindale, senior organisation development manager, explained why a blended-learning programme is important: “This is the first time the university has been able to offer a blended learning, in-house programme,” she said. “The Institute’s comprehensive resources and

MyLeadership components provide additional knowledge on leadership skills, attitudes, behaviours and values, which supplement our sessions.”

“I completed the modules initially as a requirement of the department managers’ programme, but enjoyed them so much that I went on to complete them all,” said Durham Law School manager Emma Chapman about her participation in the Institute Approved programme.

She continued: “The website is intuitive and interactive, and I’ve accessed the information since to support my day-to-day leadership.

The course is in a bite-size format, allowing me to dip in and out, and additional reading is provided. The tests were not too daunting and they provided me with insight into areas for professional development.”

On completion of the programme, the managers achieve Professional Membership of the Institute, receiving their post-nominal letters as well as continued access to practical leadership resources and the latest thought leadership.

The initial Institute Approved programme certified 20 managers at Durham University. The scope has now been extended to offer a Managers’ Essentials programme.

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Quality leadership Kate Cooper, the Institute’s head of research, policy and standards, was among a line-up of outstanding speakers who addressed the BQF (formerly British Quality Foundation), conference in March. In her speech, she talked about the challenges that come with being an authentic leader every day. “What resonated with the audience was the difficulty of being a middle manager and how so many people expect so much of you,” she said. “You’re trying to manage down and manage upwards. It’s truly demanding.”

Entrepreneur Onyi Anyado was keynote speaker at the event.

He talked about how to become a leader of distinction. Other speakers included Scott McArthur, a former rock musical producer and now director of Sculpture Consulting, and David MacLeod OBE, founder of Engage for Success, who talked about engagement impacting on productivity. Mike Turner, managing partner of consultancy Oakland Group, and Tobias Bunne, head of strategic quality development, sustainability and customer product support for Hiab Cranes, addressed the topic of quality leadership. Catherine Hayes, managing partner at consultancy Transition Dynamics, and business psychologist Uzma Waseem, ran a workshop on how leaders can achieve greater agility by moving towards a collective leadership approach.

ONLINE Star webinar Emma Serlin, author of The Communication Equation and The Connection Book and creator of The Serlin Method™, shows how better communication leads to better performance in this fascinating webinar. To watch it, visit bit.ly/2PuudGY

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Insider

News

A glimpse into the future The Institute of Leadership & Management continued its national regional conference series in April when it held an event at The Lighthouse in Glasgow, Scotland’s stunning national centre for architecture and design.

Staying with the theme of ‘Leadership of, and for, the future’, Steven Grier, Microsoft country manager for Scotland, gave a fantastic insight into the potential of technology to do good in the opening session.

Next came Jo Keeler, managing partner of behavioural test provider Belbin. She looked at the distributed teams of the future, exploring all of the things that we require from teams now and what we will add to that list when we don’t see each other every day. She also examined how much more attention will need to be given to the social aspects of team work and team building in that context.

Kate Cooper, the Institute’s head of research, policy and standards, asked conference participants to contribute to the Institute’s investigation into what teams of the future will be like, and

Above The conference was held at The Lighthouse in Glasgow

what we will want them to be like. Then futurist Steve Wells rounded off the event with a fantastic overview of the potential of technology to influence our lives and provide new opportunities, while acknowledging the ethical problems that it presents. “Everyone left the conference with new insights, new knowledge, new understanding and real food for thought about what the technologyinfused future will look like,” said Kate.

Partnership to mobilise Nigerian entrepreneurs The Institute has teamed up with the Association of Business Executives (ABE) to inspire Nigerian entrepreneurship among the next generation of business leaders. This partnership will support the leadership development of up to 1.2 million young people in Nigeria by providing access to Institute membership to those undertaking the ABE course on entrepreneurship and business skills.

As a result, they will be able to access world-class leadership development support and our flagship e-learning tool, MyLeadership.

Development of leadership capability is crucial to Nigeria’s economic growth. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy, with a GDP of $3.76bn, but its entrepreneurial deficit renders it unable to develop the broad-based economy it needs to provide employment and competition. Predictions by the International Monetary Fund suggest Nigeria could become the ninth largest economy in the world by 2050 if it mobilises its population of 200 million into being entrepreneurs and consumers.

The new alliance supports a memorandum of understanding between ABE and the UNESCO

NIGERIA COULD BECOME THE NINTH LARGEST ECONOMY IN THE WORLD BY 2050

Read and Earn Federation to develop a course in entrepreneurial skills, to be delivered digitally to up to 120,000 young people in Nigeria annually for the next decade.

Commenting on the development, Phil James, chief executive of the Institute, said: “This is a vital project for the education and empowerment of young people in Nigeria, so we are delighted to be involved. It will provide the opportunity for continuous learning, and development of business management and leadership skills.”

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

Insider

Member Q&A

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I N T HE HOT SEAT

Nav Gahonia This month, Edge meets Nav Gahonia, director in the local government team of consultancy services company WSP. She is currently head of customers and communities at Northamptonshire Highways/KierWSP What does leadership mean to you?

the opportunity to listen to feedback. Through this group, the organisation has developed a dedicated emerging talent network and a task group that is helping to implement a framework to retain and promote female talent within the industry. I also coach and mentor a number of apprentices and benefit from reverse mentoring, as well. This helps me to understand current issues and network outside of my peer group. I am proud to encourage an inclusive and diverse working culture, where everyone can voice their ideas.

Leadership is about creating a sense of belonging and engagement. The qualities I value most are commitment, integrity and passion, so I do my best to embody these. To build trust and infuse energy into my teams, I ask them to demonstrate these qualities too. When they know what is expected of them and I know what is expected of me, we can tackle any challenge that comes our way.

What are your biggest leadership challenges?

What are you personally focusing on from a leadership perspective?

With my teams, I am finding time to review practice and think about lessons learned. I want to show that the skill and habit of reflection is as important as ‘working’ if we are to learn and grow. Enabling my teams to find the space for this reflection, by helping them to manage workloads, is tricky but worth the effort.

I am focusing on the Collaboration dimension of the Institute’s Five Dimensions of Leadership. Working closely as a trusted partner for local government means looking beyond current boundaries of practice in order to develop solutions that work for communities. I am examining the idea of collaboration more closely to help me move forward on this journey.

How does your sector feed in to those challenges?

The sector has been affected by significant reductions in budgets and uncertainty over future funding. This makes for a challenging time, but has also led to innovative working practices. Collaboration with our partners and clients is the most precious aspect of my working life. These relationships have been crucial to developing new ways of working that have got us through testing times.

How do you develop your people?

I chair the KierWSP Inclusion and Wellbeing Group, which focuses on issues that are important and relevant to my staff. This forum also creates

How does being a Member of the Institute of Leadership & Management benefit you?

REFLECTION IS AS IMPORTANT AS ‘WORKING’ IF WE ARE TO LEARN AND GROW

I make the most of the weekly newsletters to keep my finger on the pulse. Additionally, I am a regular attendee of the Wednesday webinars and have completed my own leadership profile questionnaire to match against the Five Dimensions of Leadership: Authenticity, Vision, Achievement, Ownership and Collaboration.

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

In Conversation With…

Charles Handy

23

The meaning of work Renowned management author Charles Handy is fascinated by learning, life and how humans organise themselves Writing Andrew Sharman

Photography Julian Dodd

H

ow does the future of the organisation look?

Andrew Sharman, chair of the Institute of Leadership & Management, explores the options during a fascinating conversation with the renowned management author and life philosopher Charles Handy.

Andrew Sharman (AS): Over the years you’ve been described as a management guru, a social philosopher, a storyteller and a reluctant capitalist.

How would you describe yourself today?

Charles Handy (CH): Well, ‘social philosopher’ was my self-description to escape from ‘management guru’, which I hated, and it stuck for a bit.

I would describe myself as a life philosopher rather than a social philosopher. I go around asking questions about life, and why the world is organised the way it is, and why people behave the way they do. Hopefully they will come up with their own answers, because those are the answers they remember. I just try to prod people.

I CALL ORGANISATIONS PRISONS FOR THE HUMAN SOUL

AS: You have written a book that consists of letters to your grandchildren, but most of your work has been about organisational behaviour. Why the shift towards the family environment and children?

CH: I got very bored with organisations about 20 years ago. It seems to me that they should change, but they don’t. I call them prisons for the human soul. I can’t think why anybody would want to work for them. So more

24

In Conversation With…

and more of my work went towards focusing on individuals and their lives.

AS: What should the Members of the Institute of Leadership & Management be thinking differently about, given your concern about the future of the organisation?

CH: Well, I don’t think people like working in anything other than groups of about 40 to 50 individuals, to be honest. Social anthropologist Robin Dunbar came up with the theory that 150 is the maximum number of people that you can possibly have a meaningful relationship with at any one time. It’s called the Dunbar Number. That’s far too many, in my view. I believe a group of under 50 is a group in which you’re likely to feel comfortable, because you know everybody. In a group under 50, you don’t need any great formality. And that’s the kind of organisation people like working in. They love working in small, entrepreneurial organisations where they can make a difference and where people know their name. So, unless we take these big organisations and break them down in some way to contain mini-organisations, I don’t think they’re going to survive, because people won’t want to work in them.

AS: Over the years, there have been discussions about the difference between leadership and management. How would you define the two?

CH: Leadership, for me, is about helping people to think differently about themselves, about what they’re doing, and about where the organisation is.

It’s not imposing things on them, but helping them

YOU’RE NOT A HUMAN RESOURCE; YOU ARE A PERSON WITH UNIQUE CAPACITIES

Charles Handy

LITERARY LESSONS What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

“East West Street by Philippe Sands. It is a semihistorical book about a man who researched his father’s life. His father grew up in Lviv, in the Ukraine.

He discovers that his dad lived in the same street as two lawyers who devised the laws that were used to try the Nazis for crimes against humanity at Nuremberg in 1946-7.”

And your favourite book of all time?

“This sounds corny but it’s the Bible. I think the Bible is mistakenly thought of as a book of religion. But the Old Testament, in particular, is not a book of religion.

It’s a book of wisdom about the trials and problems of life, and the dilemmas that we face, told in stories.”

to see the world differently. Management organises the work by dividing it up for groups. But if you start managing people, then you call them human resources and start treating them as things.

That’s terrible, because if you are a thing, you are disposable and you are expensive. But you’re not a human resource; you are a person with unique capacities and unique capabilities.

AS: When you look back on all of your books, which is the most important to you?

CH: My wife used to say that a very early book called Gods of Management was the best because people related to it quickly. The one that sold best in the UK was a textbook called The Empty Raincoat.

AS: How has your thinking evolved during the course of your career? Are you still thinking about things in the same way?

CH: I used to think more about organisations, but now I’m more interested in individuals and how they work their lives. Also, I’ve become more of a teacher and sometimes a pseudo theorist or consultant. Structure and systems imprison people in some ways, but the way out lies in individuals breaking down the barriers rather than the structures themselves changing. I think people are going to corrupt organisations from within because they don’t like them much. They will either leave them or not join them in the first place.

AS: You once said that one area where you felt you hadn’t made sufficient impact was with politicians.

Why is that? Is it because you had been writing for a different audience in the sense that it consisted of leaders and managers?

CH: I’ve never had an entry into the political world.

Tony Blair said he read some of my books and former NATO secretary general George Robertson

Do you have a favourite quote?

“I like these words from Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem about the ancient Greek hero Ulysses: ‘To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.’”

XXX XXX XXX XXX

What is your top tip for writers?

“Write. I don’t always know what I’m going to write, but I still start. And I can’t tell you how much I delete.

I might write 500 words in a day and the next day I delete most of them.”

What would you say to your younger self?

“Be brave and stop finding excuses. When I started writing, I had no idea I would end up living the life I do.

If you’re very good at what you do, money comes.”

was a bit of a fan. But if you want to walk in those worlds, you have to go on television chat shows and get yourself noticed, because most politicians are not going to pick up your books or go to your lectures. They work in their own bubble.

AS: You have said that management is only effective to the extent it can mobilise people. What should managers today do to improve their chances of success in building social relationships?

CH: It goes back to allowing people to give their best. Release them from the constraints that they usually operate under, or at least make them understand why those constraints are necessary.

Give them much more freedom to show what they can do. It sounds simple, but it’s not easy to get people to know what is the right thing to do, and to trust them to do it. That’s why you need small groups.

AS: Who were the inspirational leaders that have been there for you, driven your thinking and made you want to follow them?

CH: The first was a school master who saw things in me that I didn’t see, and insisted I could get a scholarship to Oxford. But he was quite a tough guy so although he changed my life, I didn’t particularly want to be him. The next was Warren Bennett, professor of organisational behaviour at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whom I met when I went to study there. He was my introduction to the world of management theory and he became an enormously good friend. Another inspiration was Jim Ball, a former dean of the London Business School and a very good microeconomist. He restructured the school and made me a professor. When I said, “I haven’t written anything,” he said, “Well, you will.” He wasn’t really allowed to do that – make me a full professor with university tenure. He took one hell of a risk.

AS: What challenges have you had to overcome as an author and as a philosopher?

CH: I think you have to keep moving all the time in your career. But in the process of moving, you lose out on salary. My theory in The Second Curve says it takes two years to get the second curve moving, but I believe you have to do the second curve stuff and leave the first curve before it peaks. So you should leave when you’re doing well, before you go downhill.

AS: If you fast-forward to 2030, what organisational trends or themes do you foresee?

CH: Information is going to be crucial, so it’s about where you collect the information from, who has it, who uses it and so on. It will also be about knowing people so you can trust them, and certainly there will be more and more working locally or at home. We’ll also be spending an awful lot of money bringing people together so they can actually meet those they have been emailing.

AS: What message would you give to managers and leaders in organisations today?

CH: Stop being a manager and stop being a leader. Try to be a teacher. Develop your people. The best leaders are the people who discover things in people they didn’t know they had and allowed them to think differently and behave differently.

Andrew Sharman is professor of leadership and culture at CEDEP, the European Centre for Executive Development, in France. He also teaches at the California Institute of Technology and on postgraduate programmes at the University of Zurich. He has written several books including ‘The Wellbeing Book’, ‘From Accidents to Zero’ and ‘Mind Your Own Business’ (co-authored with Dame Judith Hackitt). He is chair of the Institute of Leadership & Management

About Charles Handy Charles Handy is an author and philosopher who specialises in organisational behaviour.

Born in Ireland in 1932, he boarded at Bromsgrove School in Worcestershire and later studied at Oriel College, Oxford.

He began his business career as a marketing executive at petroleum giant Shell, but later pursued a career in teaching and academia.

Often described as the UK’s leading management thinker, Handy has written a string of books, including Gods of Management, The Future of Work, The Hungry Spirit and The Second Curve. He was chairman of the Royal Society of Arts from 1987 to 1989.

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Spotlight

27

RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP

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28 Leading by example

32 Corporate ventures

34 Integrating profit with purpose

36 The human advantage

38 Sustainability and SMEs

40 Case study: JoJo Maman Bébé

Spotlight

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Leading by example Against a backdrop of climate change, gender pay gaps and inappropriate business practices, what does it mean to be a responsible leader today?

Writing Chris Evans Illustration Stephen Collins

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eing a responsible leader is not just a nicety, but a necessity in business. And tokenism will not suffice. Plenty of surveys, experts and public expectations all point to the need for a long-term, sustainable approach. According to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer, three-quarters of consumers today say they won’t buy from unethical companies, while 86% say they’re more loyal to ethical companies.

A focus on responsibility is particularly evident among the ‘next generation’, whom businesses want to sell products to, and recruit into their organisations. Indeed, a report by professional services firm Deloitte found that 94% of Generation Z think that companies should address critical ethical and environmental issues, while 70% of millennials listed their company’s commitment to the community as an influence on their decision to work there.

But what does it take to be a responsible leader in an ethical company and what does ‘responsible’ actually mean?

being open, fair and transparent in business activities; maintaining a diverse and inclusive working environment; and factoring social and environmental issues and impacts into decision-making.

“Those senior leaders who fail to factor these vital non-financial intangibles into their overarching business strategy will fail,” insists Kasper Ulf Nielsen, chief product officer at the Reputation Institute, a global insights and analytics company.

It’s no longer just about short-term profits. Or at least it shouldn’t be. “Doing good and doing well should work hand-in-hand,” says Grahame Broadbelt, global head of communications, research and development at Impact International, a people development organisation.

Plus, it actually makes business sense. Over a 15-year period, dedicated social value strategies can actually increase shareholder value by £1bn ($1.28bn), according to a study from research consultancy IO Sustainability and US business school Babson College. The study also showed that effective corporate social responsibility could increase the market value of a company by 4% to 6%.

Responsibility and reputation

For a business to achieve its goals, it needs support from key stakeholders. They want to trust that you’ll deliver on whatever promises you make.

Your reputation relies on you doing this.

“It’s about finding their motivations and expectations,” says Nielsen. “This requires good

The common consensus is that it requires properly looking after, supporting and considering the interests of stakeholders (including customers, employees, investors, shareholders and suppliers);

Stakeholder management

Responsible Leadership

communication, clear strategies, and quality products and innovation.”

He continues: “Employees need to be able to deliver on a strategy with a smile, full knowledge of what’s required and strong motivation. Customers need to have confidence and trust in your service or product, while suppliers should be in tune with your ethical stance, and regulators require appropriate practices and transparency. Often these requirements overlap.”

Nielsen insists that just as CFOs have key performance indicators, and financial and sales data flowing in on a regular basis, they should also have the same insights on the temperature and

REPUTATION IS THE ULTIMATE WAY TO BUILD A STRONG BUSINESS

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requirements of employees, customers, politicians and other stakeholders.

The Reputation Institute has a stakeholder measurement tool, called Global RepTrak, which helps to manage such data. It produces a report of the most reputable companies worldwide, considering factors such as a focus on enterprise, delivery on corporate responsibility, leadership credentials and ‘being more human’. The top five companies for 2019 are leading brands Rolex, Lego, The Walt Disney Company, Adidas and Microsoft. Interestingly, however, brands such as Facebook and Google, which have had a hard press in recent months, especially the former with its data management problems, have been “punished in the court of public opinion”, according to the report.

“Poor reputations make it harder to sell, compete on price and get the best talent,” says Nielsen. “Reputation is the ultimate way for the leader to build a strong business, which is why responsible leadership is so important.”

The main driving force of a good reputation is people. “Having skilled and motivated staff is key,” says Broadbelt. “When a business leader tries to change and improve the company culture, taking the staff with them on the journey is a must.”

He finds that change initiatives often don’t work because leaders rely on business plans and analysts’ reports (often from expensive consultants) to guide them. “The problem is that if the people aren’t capable, or willing, to make the changes, then the plans fail.”

“It’s not that they resist change; it’s just that they resist being changed,” he believes. “If they are actively involved in the process of creating and designing the ‘responsible’ strategy, the organisation is more likely to succeed.”

Catherine Howarth, chief executive of responsible investment charity ShareAction, agrees.

“You need a joined-up strategy. Explain and sell the benefits – both financial and non-financial – of a responsible approach to the employees and investors.”

ShareAction works to make the investment community more ethical, as well as more socially and environmentally aware. “Those leaders that reward ethical behaviour will see positive change.

This doesn’t need to be about crude financial incentives, but recognising employees and talking them up, whatever level they’re at,” says Howarth.

This changing of work habits is, again, especially appealing to the younger demographic.

“We’re seeing the financial services sector, particularly banks, moving away from the perception of having to work 7am to 9pm,” says Hakan Enver, managing director, financial services, at recruitment firm Morgan McKinley. “Goldman Sachs has even announced a dress-down culture.

Banks are generally offering better benefits

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Spotlight

packages and return-to-work initiatives for mothers, and publicising corporate responsibility to attract a different kind of mindset and employee.”

Open, fair and transparent Transparency is vital today. In a world of 24/7 media, especially social media, few transgressions remain hidden. And exposed transgressions are how most chief executives are now fired. Just look at Ray Kelvin, founder of fashion retailer Ted Baker, who recently quit over forced hugging claims, while bookseller Barnes & Noble fired Demos Parneros due to claims of sexual harassment. Richard Smith, chief executive of credit bureau Equifax, was forced to ‘retire’ after a massive data breach.

Being open and honest is often the best policy.

By their actions, leaders can dictate the culture of an organisation. So, if they are actively encouraging a short-term approach, acting like a bully themselves, or allowing underhand tactics to prevail, this is only going to end badly.

“It is high time that leaders changed and looked at the moral, social and environmental impact of their decisions,” insists Thanos Papadopoulos, professor of management at the University of Kent. “Previously a buzzword, being responsible is now a necessary element of leadership.”

Diversity and inclusion This is a huge topic, especially in light of the #MeToo movement and the gender pay gap debate.

Most leaders and companies would agree that diversity is beneficial to the workplace. Having a variety of perspectives from people of different ethnicities and backgrounds is hugely important and rewarding. But it takes effort to create and foster such an environment.

“It all starts with tone from the top,” asserts Mick Broekhof, co-founder of the LEAD Network, which translates as Leading Executives Advancing Diversity. “A chief executive who advocates gender diversity will not only talk about diversity and inclusion, but also act as a role model. Diversity and inclusion is not an HR ‘thing’. It should be part of the values of a company, and be part of the business strategy.”

In relation to the widely publicised gender pay gap debate, Broekhof insists the C-suite must want to eliminate the gap. “That intent should be expressed in key performance indicators (KPIs) and the executives should be accountable for achieving these KPIs, as much as they are for meeting financial or market goals.”

What leaders need to be careful about, though, is just introducing diversity training to address

RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP IN REAL LIFE As we’ve seen with the recent Extinction Rebellion protests against climate change, there’s something in the air, making people want to react. Here, some ethically and socially conscious business leaders explain what responsibility means to them.

Case study 1 Richer Sounds Julian Richer set up his eponymous British home entertainment retail business in 1978. It now turns over in excess of £200m a year. In May, he announced that he had transferred 60% of his stake in the business to an employee ownership trust.

“I’m accountable for the business. Every receipt has my name and address on it, so people can write to me,” Richer says.

“I love my people to be empowered to come up with ideas to improve the organisation, even those who have just joined, which is why we have a suggestion scheme, and I’ll listen to them.

“I also keep track of what my staff are up to. I recently wished a colleague luck with a doctor’s appointment, and sent a text to another who was having a baby. I get a colleague care report every week. Companies get so big, they lose touch.

“Generally speaking, responsible leaders should be setting out their strategy after due consultation with colleagues. But, at the same time, they should drive the business, lead from the front and go into overdrive if they get into crisis. They should also be the figurehead for stakeholders and accessible to them. That doesn’t mean taking every call, including when on holiday, but have a structured way for customers to get in touch.

“Society and the “I’M ACCOUNTABLE environment are also stakeholders. It’s as the FOR THE BUSINESS” saying goes – the chain is only as strong as the Julian Richer, founder and weakest link.” managing director, Richer Sounds

the issue. “The evidence suggests these initiatives have very little, if not any, impact on a company’s diversity performance,” insists Howarth. “They need to do much deeper thinking about why these problems emerge, rather than just sending a few blokes (or even women) on training.”

Equally, Broadbelt insists that addressing unconscious bias in the workforce can be a minefield. “We help organisations move beyond this idea of making people comfortable with diversity. Unconscious bias training tends to enforce differences, rather than dissolve them. Instead, we get leaders to encourage a community approach, where everyone feels they belong and are valued, trying to solve problems together. We then find all the stuff around differences dissolves because they’re just focusing on the work.”

Responsible Leadership

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Case study 2 Kimberly-Clark

Case study 3 Nordea

Kimberly-Clark is a multinational personal care corporation and the owner of leading brands including Kleenex and Huggies. Lisa Morden ensures safety and sustainability is at the heart of the company’s business strategy.

Karim Sayyad is responsible for integrating environmental, social and governance considerations in investments, lending and advice groupwide across Nordea, a Nordic financial services firm.

“Everything we do at Kimberly-Clark is connected to our commitment to improve the communities in which we work and live,” Morden says. “Our sustainability strategy, Sustainability 2022, is our framework to help us achieve that mission.

“We have a zero-waste mindset, which extends across our entire value chain. Our waste programme references the UL Environment’s Zero Waste to Landfill standard. In fact, we surpassed our 2018 target of diverting 95% of our manufacturing waste from landfill (diverting 96%).

“Maintaining a sustainable supply chain requires us to weave supplier stewardship into the fabric of our business by having supplier relationships with like-minded businesses. We also have our Social Compliance and Code of Conduct agreements. Plus, partnerships with outside organisations, such as the Forest Stewardship Council and the World Wildlife Fund, help to inform our decisions.

“A responsible leader must be authentic, accountable, innovative and

“A RESPONSIBLE LEADER MUST BE AUTHENTIC, INNOVATIVE, AND CARING”

“We ask ourselves not only ‘Can we do it?’ but also ‘Should we do it?’” says Sayyad. “Ethical conduct is how we build trust with our customers.

That is why we always take our own sustainability policy into consideration when evaluating business risks and opportunities.

“We have also created Stars funds that empower customers to invest in sustainable companies, and offer climate and environment funds that focus on companies providing climate solutions.”

Lisa Morden, vice-president, safety and sustainability, Kimberly-Clark

caring. I ensure my team keeps that top of mind. I encourage my teams to take ownership for our business and our future. We also know balancing work responsibilities with personal and family needs is a challenge, which is why our Employee Assistance Programme seeks to help employees who are struggling.”

Social and environmental factors Corporate social responsibility is so important that it counts for 40% of a company’s reputation, according to Nielsen’s own findings. He recommends that all leaders look at, understand, and ideally incorporate, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals into their strategies. “This effectively represents a business plan for the planet,” Nielsen asserts.

Ultimately, we need companies and leaders to be financially resilient, successful and profitable, but not to operate in a way that undermines the wellbeing of people who have invested their hardearned money to retire on, or causes damage to the environment, insists Howarth.

Above Karim Sayyad, senior analyst, group sustainable finance, Nordea

ShareAction has worked with coalitions of investors who are forcing leaders’ hands. “Having these investors pushing for the company to move energy usage on to renewable power or to become a Living Wage employer is certainly helping,” Howarth says. Their work has helped to get 40% of the FTSE 100 accredited as Living Wage employers.

Responsible leadership embraces a wide range of considerations and no leader will ever manage to be a responsible leader all of the time – not least because there is an element of subjectivity involved. At its heart, however, it fundamentally comes down to trying to do the right thing. For all of an organisation’s stakeholders. For society. And even for the planet as a whole.

Chris Evans is a business editor and journalist

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Spotlight

Capital considerations How can corporate investment be a force for good?

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been increasingly influenced by this realisation, with exclusion criteria becoming more ambitious and pervasive. There is also an unmistakable trend towards divesting from fossil fuels, because the risks they present are no longer in line with environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy.

Next, we need to move forward with putting our capital where our goals are, and use it as a real force for good.

Business for good I refer to Capital for Good in the context of explicit investment in businesses, bonds and funds that

SPARK Schools; Robert Harding / Alamy

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he world faces some very clear challenges – among them are climate change, inequality, poverty and environmental degradation. Fortunately, the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a blueprint for addressing these challenges and 2030 has been set as the target for achieving them.

One of the critical success factors for achieving the SDGs is capital. In fact, it is probably the primary success factor in solving the world’s problems. In recent years, the financial markets have

Marga Hoek

Corporate Venturing

Left A cocoa farmer in Ghana, West Africa Above The Pearson Affordable Learning Fund invests in South Africa’s SPARK Schools

have a direct, positive impact on the SDGs. The potential of this capital is highlighted by the increase in investors buying green bonds and by the attention it is getting from investors, as well as from stock exchanges. Private equity firms are also innovating for good, with a good example being New Crop Capital, which invests in disrupters of animal agriculture. New Crop Capital argues that the dairy, egg and meat sectors represent a $700 billion global market, ripe for innovation and large-scale disruption for sustainability purposes.

Another very impactful trend is businesses deploying Capital for Good. Companies are putting their corporate venture capital (CVC) on the table with the objective of achieving both a financial and a strategic return for the parent company. The strategic return is particularly essential. Often the companies that receive CVC investment are innovative startups or scale-ups, so the investment provides the parent company with access to new knowledge and competencies.

Growth in CVC is being fuelled by numerous disruptive, transformative trends that are greatly increasing the pace of innovation and business endeavours. Large companies are looking for faster ‘shortcuts’ to enter new markets and accelerate growth. They are not only looking to innovate with a manageable risk and assurance of a financial return, they are increasingly using CVC to realise their long-term goals for 2020 and beyond, based on the SDG agenda. ‘Business for good’ is gaining ground – and capital.

Investment with impact

‘BUSINESS FOR GOOD’ IS GAINING GROUND – AND CAPITAL

Capital invested in business cases with a positive impact can provide sought-after financial returns while contributing to a company’s strategic objectives and to the betterment of the world – all at the same time. This phenomenon is sometimes called Corporate Impact Venture Capital, or Corporate Shared Value Venture Capital. I call it more concisely: CVC for Good. This form of CVC is intended to realise the long-term strategic objectives of the investing company while also helping to solve the world’s problems more quickly.

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The list of examples of CVC for Good is getting longer every day, and the scale of the funding is increasing. For example, Unilever Ventures is investing $200m in promising young companies (‘tomorrow’s world-beaters’). These startups will not only receive capital investment, but also access to Unilever’s global ecosystem, assets and expertise. Meanwhile, IKEA has added a new focus on climate change by committing €400m through to 2020 to support affected communities. It has also committed to investing €600m in renewable energy, aiming for 100% renewable energy by 2020. Its goal is to produce the total energy that it consumes by 2020, by investing in wind farms, solar panels and biomass generators.

Hydra Ventures, the corporate venturing division of sports retailer Adidas, invested nearly $2m in CRAiLAR Technologies last year. CRAiLAR Technologies is a company that makes environmentally friendly fibres and fabrics for textile, paper and composite use. Then there is publishing company, Pearson, which poured $15m into the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund for the development of low-cost private education systems in the developing world. Skincare group The Body Shop International not only directly invested in Divine Chocolate (a Fairtrade chocolate company owned by a cooperative of Ghanaian cocoa farmers), it also supported the cooperative through the purchase of raw cocoa products. Investment bank Morgan Stanley has made a $5m equity investment into Eleni LLC, a Nairobi-based company that designs, builds and supports the commodity exchange ecosystems in frontier markets.

The perfect match?

The SDGs are a great compass and instrument that can be used to match the parent company’s ambitions against the added value that is delivered by the investee benefiting from the CVC. The companies that gain most advantage from using CVC funds are often used to thinking far outside their own four walls, collaborating with diverse stakeholders, and partnering with non-governmental organisations and governments.

Between the end of 2014 and 2018, over 160 CVC deals were concluded, involving the venture funds of companies such as cereal giant General Mills and broadcaster NBC Sports. The number of deals is also expected to grow significantly each year. And so it should, since investing for good is, in fact, good business.

Marga Hoek is author of ‘The Trillion Dollar Shift’, which explores the roles of business and capital in the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. She has been recognised by Thinkers50 as one of the top 30 new leadership thinkers to watch in 2019

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Follow the star How can we develop companies that integrate profit and purpose at scale?

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ore and more leaders are now choosing to acknowledge the environmental and social impact of businesses.

Tackling societal issues and solving meaningful problems can potentially help to attract and retain talent, increase innovation and creativity, and shape personal and organisational legacies. Time and time again, however, leaders report that they feel

CONSTANT ITERATION AND LEARNING ARE CORE TO SURVIVING AND THRIVING

overwhelmed by the need to create an organisation that combines doing good with doing well financially. So how can we develop competitive organisations that go beyond the occasional corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative and the well-meaning, yet ineffective, narratives on ‘purpose’ that abound?

Research undertaken at the London School of Economics and international collaborative Leaders on Purpose suggests how we can develop ‘Impact Organisations’ – organisations that manage to integrate profit and purpose at scale.

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Christian Busch

Values-based Leadership

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Link the organisation’s mission with global issues Many leaders recognise the importance of a ‘real company purpose’, but there is often a void in terms of how to develop a ‘north star’ that is truly relevant. So how can we address this challenge? Organisations such as risk management services provider DNV GL and nutrition company DSM use the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to inform their purpose. They also integrate their purpose with a modern understanding of their legacy and roots.

Research by Leaders on Purpose, entitled North Star: Purpose-driven Leadership for the 21st Century, shows that in companies such as confectionery giant Mars, food company Danone and furniture retailer IKEA, principles are being integrated into decision-making processes and performance reviews. Given that we tend to only value what we measure, it is important to commit to non-monetary key performance indicators as well as monetary ones.

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Operate in effective ecosystems In a changing world that presents many complex challenges, it is imperative that organisations think and operate in the context of ecosystems.

These ecosystems should consist of public and private partnerships that build on agreed frameworks such as the SDGs, which act as a common denominator to connect diverse stakeholders.

Traditional companies are already engaging with a broad variety of stakeholders in order to achieve both a financial and a social impact. For example, in Colombia, food services provider Sodexo is working with the government, local farmers, brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev and rebel organisation the FARC to rebuild peace in the area by introducing barley as a commercial crop.

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Use local resources and simple, embedded technology The potential to use new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and the internet of things, for more purposeful activities is enormous. Basic technologies, such as mobile phones, can also serve as platforms for low-cost innovation. For example, social enterprise RLabs, a Cape Town-based social enterprise that helps drug addicts and their families, has used simple mobile phones to enable people to support and train each other, and often move on to develop their own products, services and even companies. RLabs, with almost no central

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resources, managed to scale into over 15 countries – not because of fancy technology, but because it identified local champions (for example, in local hospices), gained a good understanding of local structures, and enhanced, rather than substituted, local social and human capital. Rather than having (or pretending to have) all the answers themselves, RLabs’ leaders asked the right questions and let locals adapt, based on the respective context.

Leaders should note this shift from ‘managing’ to ‘inspiring’ networked structures and communities, which can be found both within innovation hubs and larger companies, such as the world’s biggest white goods group, Haier.

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Cultivate a serendipity field One of the most surprising insights from our research is how receptive purpose-driven leaders are to gleaning unforeseen insights. Many successful executives delight in fostering cultures where serendipity and sense-making spontaneously emerge – for example, by establishing zero-distance user interaction or project funerals (celebrating the learnings from failed projects). By celebrating the art of the unexpected, they promote innovation and secure long-lasting organisational success in a world where we cannot predict what will happen next. Developing the ability to ‘see’ potential triggers and use the unexpected to achieve positive outcomes – the ability to cultivate ‘serendipity spaces’ – becomes a major skillset for individuals and brings dynamic capability to companies in a rapidly changing world.

There are no silver bullets. Constant iteration and learning are core to surviving and thriving in a world that is characterised by high uncertainty.

Success requires a real – rather than ‘fake’ – commitment to societal impact. By following these four steps, organisations can start to balance profit and purpose, and develop companies that are truly fit for the future. Not only is this good for business, it offers a big opportunity for leaders to contribute to the shift towards a more enlightened form of capitalism, a journey that we can proudly tell our children and grandchildren about.

Dr Christian Busch FRSA is a lecturer at the London School of Economics and co-founder of Leaders on Purpose and Sandbox Network. He has been recognised

by Thinkers50 as one of the top 30 new leadership thinkers to watch in 2019. His upcoming book is called ‘The Serendipity Factor’. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisSerendip

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The gift of humanity Why treating people well translates to high-performing organisations

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any businesses are like a frog in slowly heating water. Complacent, and unwilling to change and jump out of the hot water to safety. That water is being heated by both external and internal factors and threats. Externally, they are facing the challenges associated with operating in increasingly complex, volatile and uncertain

business environments. Internally, they get eroded by low engagement, productivity, trust and passion for work, as well as by a lack of creativity.

I have had the privilege of interviewing 58 business leaders at the forefront of the change towards humanised organisations for my latest book, Humane Capital. It validates, and builds on, the research I completed for an earlier work, The Management Shift, which identified five levels of engagement and performance of sta, from Level 1, actively disengaged, through to Level 5,

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Writing Vlatka Hlupic

Humane Capital

passionately committed. That book also explained how to align engagement initiatives with strategy and processes, to harness a real commitment to serving customers.

Humane Capital features 35 case studies from the corporate sector, public sector, not-for-profit sector and small and medium-sized enterprises.

There are 50 strategies for making the shift for each sector, so 200 in total. Additionally, there are eight pillars for creating a humane, highperforming organisation, based on 272,000 words of research transcript.

Ample evidence is emerging from Humane Capital, and other research studies, to show that there are huge advantages, for both individuals and organisations, when they go through the ‘Big Shift’ and start to work in, or become, humane organisations. When organisations treat employees well, they create high performing and highly engaging cultures that ripple out, creating numerous benefits for stakeholders.

One of the biggest returns comes from the commercial and financial advantages that are created, as well as talent retention. When I did interviews for Humane Capital, I asked interviewees to estimate the potential value associated with going through the ‘Big Shift’, from old ways of working based on command and control, to new, more humane ways of working, based on treating employees well, and helping them to unleash their purpose and collaborate.

The answers obtained were astonishing, from quantitative financial benefits, to qualitative human benefits. Here is a selection of the answers I received: 2 “What happens is efficiency goes up and profitability goes up. There is a high-quality service and happier customers. Innovation happens.”

2 “One can get close to saying it is worth an extra 10% to 15% of turnover.”

2 “Without putting an exact price tag on it, I would say it’s the difference between mere existence and true happiness.”

2 “It’s got to be seen as though you’re almost buying a licence to go on operating in the 21st century. Otherwise, why would people want to come and work with you?”

When done comprehensively and with integrity, the shift to more humane ways of working is experienced at the individual and at the collective level, with different constituencies gaining simultaneously. This way of thinking is in contrast to earlier managerial models that assumed one stakeholder would always win at the expense of

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HOW CAN LEADERS HUMANISE THEIR ORGANISATIONS? There are a number of specific strategies that leaders could implement in their organisation to get the best out of human capital. I include 200 such strategies in my book, Humane Capital.

In general terms, the research conducted for my book has identified eight key pillars for leveraging humane capital in any organisation. They make a useful starting point for humanising an organisation in any sector. The pillars are: 1 Mindset Leaders and employees need a mindset that is focused on collaboration, people, purpose, transparency and trust.

2 Motivation Leaders need to foster motivation and engagement by providing meaningful work, developmental opportunities and wellbeing initiatives, and allowing employees to have their voices heard.

3 Higher purpose Every organisation needs to articulate its higher purpose and clearly explain the reason for its existence. That purpose needs to resonate with the purpose of individual employees.

4 Values and their alignment Clearly defined values that are embedded in processes and mindset will guide behaviour in good and challenging times.

EFFICIENCY GOES UP AND PROFITABILITY GOES UP

5 Alignment of people and systems To get most out of digital transformation, organisations need intelligent organisational design.

6 Self-organisation of employees in communities This is allowing employees to self-organise and pursue projects they are passionate about, in line with organisational objectives.

7 Caring ethos Fostering a caring and compassionate organisational culture will lead to more humanised workplaces that will become more engaging, purposeful and profitable.

8 Organisational learning processes Organisational learning should be embedded in an organisation’s DNA. This will not only foster innovation, it will also provide learning and development opportunities for employees, which will, in turn, have positive impact on engagement and profit.

To help leaders find and implement a specific strategy within their organisation, my team and I have developed a strategy board game called 'Humane Capital', which can be used by teams of up to eight people to explore and choose a specific strategy for their organisation.

See bit.ly/2Jw992x

another – a reductionist and cynical approach that is not borne out by how the highest-performing organisations work.

The benefits of the shift towards more humanised organisations are financial and commercial, as well as personal and human. Many business leaders have been able to assess the financial return from the shift, which runs into millions of pounds. In some cases, it has made the difference between survival and bankruptcy.

More importantly, it has transformed the quality of life for those people who now work for an organisation that has a purpose they believe in, and whose leaders encourage and coach them to make the most out of their abilities. For many, this gift is priceless.

Professor Vlatka Hlupic is an international thought leader on human resource issues. She is also author of ‘Humane Capital’ and ‘The Management Shift’

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Small is sustainable What does responsible leadership mean in the context of SMEs? Writing Kiran Trehan

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here is huge demand for responsible leaders today. A number of factors – including Brexit, the financial crisis, globalisation, environmental challenges, the shifting political landscape and public disclosures made by organisations in both the public and the private sector – are highlighting the consequences of a lack of diverse leadership on organisational success. As a result, there is a push to create a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the society we live and work in. We also see an increased desire to understand the importance, relevance and impact of developing a diverse workforce, particularly in relation to organisational effectiveness.

So, what does responsible leadership actually mean? And how does it relate to diversity and inclusiveness? For my research into this area, in collaboration with the Institute of Leadership & Management, I undertook an analysis of existing and new evidence around responsible leadership within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The research highlights that when it comes to competitive advantage, organisations with diverse leadership perform better because they tend to attract diverse talent, have greater employee satisfaction, and are better at problem-solving, decision-making and innovation.

They also enjoy higher financial and social returns.

Responsibility and sustainability Responsible leadership is an important part of SMEs’ efforts to create sustainable businesses.

Research by business leader Samuel DiPiazza and academic Robert Eccles, and by academics Thomas Maak and Nicola Pless, shows that this principle

A RESPONSIBLE SMALL BUSINESS BENEFITS THE MAJORITY, NOT THE MINORITY

applies regardless of whether those enterprises are looking to build trust with customers or stakeholders, or whether they want to make sure their products and services are safe and their practices have minimal impact on the environment. Responsible leadership is key to ensuring that a firm is sustainable over the long term. Maak and Pless also found that small business leaders are well placed to engage in responsible leadership practices, primarily because many small enterprises rely on the relationships that their owners develop with their customers and other stakeholders.

According to businessman Sir Michael Rake and Professor David Grayson of Cranfield University, responsible leadership is no longer about projects or programmes; it is about asking how a business conducts itself in all its activities. This is crucial for small businesses if they wish to operate in niche markets and also want to be seen as responsible innovators. As Norwegian academic Göran Svensson and others contend, we must view sustainable business practice from an ethical perspective as a highly dynamic and continuous process without an end. It is a process, however, that is predicated on the interrelationship between business practices, marketplace and society, where each is interdependent while sharing collective responsibility for the outcomes. Hence, a responsible small business leader must consider the ethical dimensions of their values, as well as their vision for the business and how this will be achieved.

Putting principles into practice Business leaders of small enterprises need to consider how their practices will demonstrate their responsibilities to the environment and wider society beyond their responsibilities to employees.

Responsible Leadership

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from developing their businesses. Its findings are published in the research report Understanding Growth in Microbusinesses. It identified three broad archetypes of constraint: capacity, market and vision. Only a minority of microbusinesses were held back by external market constraints (45%).

Much more common constraints were vision (72%) and capacity (67%) – all of which have implications for leadership development.

Responsible and inclusive leadership is not just about diversity quotas or numbers on boards.

It’s about ensuring that staff, regardless of their background, are included in decision-making, strategy and operations. There is now an economic and business imperative for greater leadership inclusivity, in addition to the frequently cited social imperative for greater equality.

Inclusive leadership in the 21st century will need to focus on developing cross-cultural and entrepreneurial leaders, resulting in a new generation of multicultural professionals.

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Inclusive leadership

A responsible small business is: fair, balanced, equitable, and benefits the majority, not the minority. It also requires responsible leadership. As academic Guy Morgan and others stated in a 2009 paper on corporate citizenship: “The responsible firm, whether under the label of citizenship, social responsibility or sustainability, aims to minimise harms and maximise benefits in its relationships with stakeholders.” According to Dr Jane Glover, a research fellow at the Centre for Women’s Enterprise, Leadership, Economy and Diversity at Birmingham University, there is a growing expectation that companies, including small enterprises, should take action and report on their efforts to be more responsible. This depends on small business owners’ ability to engage in responsible leadership to build a suitable vision, however.

Engaging in responsible leadership provides a mechanism for creating sustainable small businesses. With TV reality shows such as The Apprentice and Dragons’ Den potentially inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders, we need to ask how we develop leaders in micro and small enterprises. Entrepreneurial leadership requires a set of skills that are highly personal and complex. The journey of entrepreneurship involves a process of continual learning and development – not only about the world of business but also about the individual and their leadership capability.

Research on microbusinesses by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has investigated the barriers that prevent owners

INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP IS NOT JUST ABOUT DIVERSITY QUOTAS

The continuous search for new and more inclusive leadership is driven by the need to cultivate contemporary leadership skills that enable people to respond to changing social, political and economic demographics. As a result, attention to inclusion represents a shift away from ‘managing diversity’ in favour of proactive approaches that involve ‘managing for diversity’, as highlighted by academics Rhys Andrews and Rachel Ashworth in 2015. To do this, organisations need to challenge the status quo, enable creativity, be innovative and be entrepreneurial. Leaders must also be aware of the multifaceted nature of diversity, including its dual dimensions.

The agenda for responsible and inclusive leadership is critical if businesses are to reflect and merit the trust of the diverse communities and stakeholders they serve. Our research highlights that responsible leadership is about much more than simply increasing gender, ethnic, and lesbian, gay, transsexual and bisexual representation, and recruiting and retaining more people from traditionally under-represented identity groups. Inclusion matters, but it requires a move from the current rhetoric around ‘changing systems’ through isolated or episodic initiatives to collective institutional action. A key message from the research is that businesses, organisations and industries that do not have inclusive leaders cannot solve the problem by a single initiative. It is a whole systems problem that needs collaboration across geographies, sectors and organisations.

Kiran Trehan is professor of leadership and enterprise development at Birmingham Business School

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An ethical vision Laura Tenison MBE, founder of babywear and maternity clothing company JoJo Maman Bébé, explains what responsible leadership means to her Writing

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hen you start a company as a sole trader and grow it organically, you feel huge gratitude towards the people who helped you in the early days. You are also placed in a natural position of responsibility for the teams who work for you. Throughout my experience as an entrepreneur, that sense of responsibility has remained with me. As a leader, you should never ask an employee to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself.

At JoJo, we are a team, not a hierarchy.

Someone who wants to coop themselves up in a private office, rather than sit among their team, isn’t going to like the ‘JoJo Way’. You’ve got to be collaborative to work with us. As far as possible, I try to meet new recruits within their first few weeks in the firm. We have almost 1,000 staff

THE CORE OF THE JOJO WAY IS PUTTING PEOPLE AND PLANET ABOVE PROFIT

though, so that doesn’t always work. But whenever we’re opening a new store, we will bring all the new hires over to our head office in South Wales, where they will spend a week having thorough training.

They get to meet the directors – including myself – so they can hear, straight from the horse’s mouth, about my ethos and vision for the business.

JoJo has never had any specific policy to employ different types of people – our employees are diverse simply because they always have been. That extends to the work placements we offer people with Down’s syndrome and other disabilities. Our team members who have Down’s syndrome add a certain level of joy and friendliness to the workplace – indeed, I suspect we get far more out of having them as our colleagues than they do out of having us as theirs!

Since the core of the JoJo Way is putting people and planet above profit, I have often been asked to give speeches about ethical business

Yasmin Balai; JoJo Maman Bébé

Laura Tenison

Spotlight

Founded 1993 Number of staff c.950 Number of UK stores 90 Number of international stores Six Turnover in 2018 c.£60m

practices. After giving a speech one day, someone asked me: “Have you ever considered becoming a B Corp?” My response was: “I don’t know what a B Corp is.” So, I looked into Certified B Corporations and found that they are certified businesses that balance profit and purpose by meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability. The JoJo Way was so attuned to the central tenets of the B Corp way that I could almost have written them myself. It seemed a perfect fit.

Investing for longevity

Above JoJo Maman Bébé clothing

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informal fostering, too. Her motto was: “Waste not, want not.” When I founded JoJo, I hardwired that ethos into the firm. Every human being is responsible for this planet. We must acknowledge we have been incredibly negligent towards it. So, under our zero-to-landfill policy, all our teams must recycle. We also have a responsible approach to packaging. Frustratingly, it’s hard not to include single-use plastics in garment packaging, since we must keep our products clean and marketable. It has also been difficult to make environmentally safe packaging at affordable rates. But, thanks to consumer demand, things are changing.

JOJO QUICK FACTS

Opposite Laura Tenison

Case Study JoJo Maman Bébé

Garment production tends to be a resources-heavy, labour-intensive industry, and it hinges upon the graft of workers in developing economies. We have assessed all the potential ethical dilemmas that can arise from this industry’s processes and, right from the start, I was always determined that we would visit our factories and audit them. We wanted to track our supply chains as far back as possible, in order to ensure we would never exploit anyone in our push to make the best-quality baby and maternity clothes on the market, at affordable prices.

Two decades ago, the garment industry had little sense of what we now recognise as corporate social responsibility. So I travelled around the Middle East and Far East on buses to find ethical suppliers and manufacturers. The early relationships I formed with small factories across the developing world were very strong and, in some cases, are still in place today. We treated our suppliers like human beings.

As a result, they became friends I visited on holiday – people whose children joined us to do work experience. We treated them with respect, rather than putting our manufacturing out to tender every season to get the best deals. We knew we had to help these factories reinvest for their own longevity, so we guaranteed them orders for the next year or two years. As such, they knew they could afford to invest in improving working conditions for their staff.

I’m the youngest of a large family, and my mother brought up lots of other children through

Grassroots support JoJo is a vertical firm. Other than outsourcing our manufacturing, we prefer to keep business tasks, such as graphic design, photography and marketing, in-house. This makes us lean and efficient. When we started to donate large sums to charities, I looked at their accounts and audited their governance costs, and was shocked by how little many larger charities spend on projects on the ground. As a result, with our vertical leanness in mind, I decided that we would form a charity of our own.

To that end, JoJo teamed up with a small, grassroots charity in rural northern Mozambique, where we now employ 12 local people. We believe in sustainable aid, so we don’t have an expensive, UK-based charity HQ. Instead, we run our charity in-house – for example, our accountants look after the charity’s finances, and our marketing and PR teams manage its publicity. I’m a trustee, along with another JoJo employee, and we have a number of independent trustees, too.

Over the past 12 years, we have built five schools and a health centre, and have purchased two field ambulances. We feed 1,300 children a day with school meals; send 100 children to secondary boarding school; and have launched a number of sanitation and adulteducation projects. The 36,000 people who live in the area we assist have little access to non-governmental organisation (NGO) aid, due to extremely poor infrastructure. On top of that, the area has recently been devastated by Cyclone Kenneth. We are the only NGO that really knows the area and we are dealing with a humanitarian disaster.

We have pledged to rebuild and continue to improve the lives of those who have been hit by the effects of climate change – despite never having benefited from fossil fuels. If we go straight to the people on the ground who need help, we’ll have a greater impact than if we just go to a few charity balls and sign some cheques.

For more information, see: www.nemafoundation.org www.jojomamanbebe.co.uk

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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SETTING THE LEADERSHIP AGENDA 44 The confidence illusion Don’t confuse self-belief with competence

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ou care about education, don’t you? If you’re a graduate – and so many in leadership roles are – then it’s probably very dear to you. You paid for it.

You may be paying for it still. Anything you paid so much for must be of crucial value. Remember how you got it? There’s a right answer and it’s at the back of the book. Quickest to it wins.

This mode of thinking favours individualists. And, if some leading academics are to be believed, it favours men. It favours quick action. It also favours binary solutions that are either right or wrong. It favours information rather than mood or opinion. But surely this is a good thing? Well, it’s a good and bad thing. Let’s look at this in more detail.

By any standards, the world has never been in better shape. People are living longer. Poverty is in decline. Some diseases have been wiped out. Compared to the 20th century, the 21st century has proved far less costly in war. But to listen to opinion on the subject, you’d believe the opposite.

Let’s take inflation, for instance. The truth is that this has been low for a long time. But the way inflation is measured is by price. Everyone has seen products shrinking, but remaining the same price. It’s inflation, but it’s not recognised in the numbers. People at the bottom are feeling poorer and it only takes a small change for that to happen.

Many people believe that a lot of internet-based corporations are tax-avoiders, but the law disagrees.

They use the law to minimise their tax payments, but of course that’s perfectly legal. It’s legal, but it doesn’t seem fair.

Graduates rely on facts because they’ve built their career on them. But opinions matter too, sometimes to the

48 Responsible decision-making Advice for making the right call

The smartest person in the room?

Why it’s not your job to know it all By

Chris Lewis

50 It’s good to be bad How narcissism benefits employee wellbeing

frustration of those who know the data. This is especially the case in an age of fake news.

In the fight for news ratings, stories that are entertaining gain more currency than those that are true, but dull.

Leaders, however, can all too frequently make decisions because reality (at least to them) is obvious. We’ve seen countless cases of leaders being surprised because their opinions have been ignored. This accounts for recent shocks, such as the collapse of the banking system, the election of Donald Trump as president of the US, and Brexit.

It is why leaders need to harness the four most powerful words in leadership: “What do you think?” These words are a request for an opinion, for a view of the world, for an

THE FOUR MOST POWERFUL WORDS IN LEADERSHIP: “WHAT DO YOU THINK?” insight into what the team might be worried about. If you don’t understand where people are, you can’t take them on a journey to a new destination.

In any case, the leader is not supposed to be the smartest person in the room.

The leader’s job is to make everyone else feel like the smartest person in the room. Opinions matter – even the ill-informed, inaccurate and misled ones. What teams perceive as true is real to them, and leaders need to understand that.

That’s why leaders not only have to listen, they have to be seen to be listening.

Chris Lewis is an experienced strategist and works with senior politicians, business leaders and celebrities. He is co-author, with Dr Pippa Malmgren, of ‘The Leadership Lab: Understanding Leadership in the 21st Century’

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The confidence illusion It’s a mistake to confuse self-belief with competence Writing Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

Overconfident Leaders

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ow good do you think you are? Exceptional achievers are sometimes quick to attribute their accomplishments to their confidence.

For instance, when Roger Federer, arguably the greatest male tennis player of all time, won his eighth Wimbledon title, he was asked by a BBC reporter to reveal the secret of his success. Federer’s response? That it’s all down to his confidence and self-belief. He believed in himself, and then he won. Really? Could it not be that his outstanding and exhaustively honed tennis skills played at least some role?

Competence is how good you are at something. Confidence is how good you think you are at something. Competence is an ability; confidence is the belief in that ability. Such belief or selfevaluations can refer to learned skills (e.g. singing, kissing, climbing Mount Everest and managing people) or to personality traits (e.g. smartness, likeability, persistence and creativity). Our selfesteem is strongly influenced by how good we think we are. And the more important the task, the more it influences our self-concept.

In a logical world, the relationship between confidence and competence would be represented by a single circle in a Venn diagram, indicating that our self-concept accurately reflects our true competence. Alas, in the real world, confidence is rarely a sign of competence; the relationship is represented by only a marginal overlap between two distinct circles in a Venn diagram.

In a recent meta-analysis, German professors Alexander Freund and Nadine Kasten aggregated 154 correlations between people’s self-rated intelligence and their actual intelligence test scores, including more than 20,000 people in their analyses. The results revealed that there is less than a 10% overlap between how smart people think they are and how smart they actually are. The finding has been replicated with a wide range of other abilities and competence domains (e.g. academic performance, musical talent and social skills).

Prevalence of overconfidence It may not surprise you that most of us overrate our skills and talents. Decades of research suggest that on virtually any dimension of ability, we tend to assume that we are better than we actually are. People see themselves as better than

average across virtually any domain of competence – for example, cooking, sense of humour and leadership – even though by definition most people are average. People also overrate their job performance, which explains why they tend to have trouble receiving negative feedback, even if they are lucky enough to have a boss who gives them honest and constructive criticism.

Although self-awareness – knowing how good you are – tends to increase with talent, one of the most astonishing findings in psychology is how little experts and non-experts differ in their self-perceived abilities. The most inept individuals will also make the least accurate evaluations of their talents, grossly overestimating where they stack up against their peers. Meanwhile, the most competent people will exhibit much selfcriticism and self-doubt, especially relative to their expertise.

For instance, in one study, students performing in the bottom 25th percentile of the class on tests of grammar, logical reasoning and humour, rated themselves as above the 60th percentile. In contrast, top performers consistently underestimated just how much better they were than their peers. In the same study, people performing above the 87th percentile rated themselves as being in the 70th to 75th percentile.

The implications of these findings are clear: the more you know, the more aware you are of what you know and what you don’t. Expertise increases self-knowledge, which includes awareness of one’s limitations. Conversely, the less you know, the less aware you are of your limitations and the more overconfident you will be. As Bertrand Russell, the famous British mathematical philosopher and Nobel Laureate, famously lamented in an essay condemning the rise of Nazi Germany, “The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”

Why is overconfidence so pervasive? As with any other trait that is commonly manifested in a population, there has to be a benefit – an adaptive edge – to it, even if this benefit coexists with a counterproductive side. So, what is the benefit of overconfidence? It boosts or maintains our high levels of self-esteem. Our desire to feel good about ourselves surpasses our desire both to be good at something and to accurately evaluate reality, including our own abilities. For instance, although overconfidence has been linked to lower job performance, overconfident people tend to have higher self-esteem.

While feeling better about ourselves does not change the reality of our talents, we humans have an inherent need to view ourselves positively.

A large meta-analysis of hundreds of studies and thousands of participants found that in

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DANGER, DANGER The tendency to overrate our abilities and be more confident than we should applies to both men and women. But men do this much more frequently than women do. Why are men more likely to be overconfident? While some kind of deep-seated evolutionary adaptation might have produced this gender difference, the simplest explanation is that men are more likely to live in a world in which their flaws are forgiven and their strengths magnified. Thus, it is harder for them to see themselves accurately.

Overconfidence is the natural result of privilege.

Although there are some benefits to overconfidence in a leader – as we’ve seen, it can produce some self-fulfilling effects, making others believe the leader is as good as he or she thinks – the downsides are enormous, particularly for others.

Overconfident decisions that have led to bad results include Napoleon’s march on Moscow, John F. Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs invasion, and the Vietnam War. By the same token, overconfident leaders routinely put themselves forward for tasks for which they are not qualified or equipped, and their lack of

EXPERTISE INCREASES SELFKNOWLEDGE, WHICH INCLUDES AWARENESS OF LIMITATIONS

almost 90% of scientific studies, people showed a consistent tendency to interpret events in a selfserving way.

Another reason for the pervasiveness and persistence of overconfidence is that it is an effective mechanism for deceiving others. It is much easier to persuade others that you are better than you actually are when you have already managed to persuade yourself.

In this way, overconfidence can have selffulfilling effects. The very fact of your being a leader can convince your followers that you are more competent than you actually are. This effect can create a virtuous cycle, where people work harder to ensure your success. One study found, for example, that moderately overconfident chief executives were more likely to attract suppliers and investors, and that their firms had a lower employee turnover. Overconfidence projected an aura of success and invincibility that bred real success, simply because it led people to believe in it. Perceptions often create reality more than the other way around.

Does that mean overconfidence is a good thing and that, as the self-help industry preaches, we should all visualise success and fake it until we make it? Not really.

Even if confidence helps us persuade others that we are competent when we are not, there are big downsides to having a distorted view of ourselves and our abilities. Consider the most-cited form of overconfidence – driving. Overconfidence

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Overconfident Leaders

competence seriously handicaps the performance – and morale – of their teams.

One reason overconfident leaders are more prone to reckless decisions is that they are immune to negative feedback. Most people already find it hard to digest criticism, and most organisations and societies encourage a civil environment where white lies are preferred to painful truths. For every Uber, Amazon, and Bridgewater – these and a handful of other firms that have put in brutally honest cultures where ‘radical transparency’ is the norm – thousands of companies believe that telling the truth is not just politically unwise but also career suicide.

To make matters worse, leaders are even more deprived of negative feedback than employees are.

The more successful and powerful you are, the more that people will suck up to you – even when they think poorly of you. Leaders must therefore be unusually self-critical and humble to anticipate potential criticisms and aspire to do better. Research shows that the most accurate criticism would come from a leader’s direct reports, because they have the

is one reason people drive when they are less sober than they think. It is also why they think they have time to drive through a crossing barrier before the train arrives, or why they text and drive. In 2018, the American Automobile Association surveyed 1,000 adults and found that 79% of men and 68% of women considered themselves better-than-average drivers. In 2017, an estimated

OVERCONFIDENT LEADERS ARE IMMUNE TO NEGATIVE FEEDBACK

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closest knowledge of the leader’s performance. But how many employees would feel free to regularly criticise their boss? Very few, and they probably work for an exceptionally good leader if they feel free to criticise him or her. However, since most leaders – in particular, men – are overconfident about their performance, it would be naive to expect them to accept negative feedback or criticism, especially from their reports.

Conversely, individuals who are aware of their weaknesses, and have a realistic sense of their limitations, could tune in to their subordinates and understand what they need to do to improve, but they would first need to become leaders. In an environment that selects leaders for overconfidence, people who are overly self-critical – perhaps even a tad insecure – should be in high demand, but they are more likely to be ignored or ridiculed, on the assumption that they are not sufficiently strong or secure to lead. Anyone who has ever coached a leader knows that the most coachable people are unlikely to think of themselves as better than they actually are.

40,000-plus people in the United States died in car crashes. Clearly, all of us would be safer if we had a more accurate view of our abilities, but we don’t.

Despite the common perception that confidence is a highly desirable quality, it is desirable only if it is accompanied by actual competence.

People will generally celebrate your confidence, unless they believe that it is not based on real competence, or that you think more highly of yourself than you should. Think of any person you ever disliked because he or she seemed arrogant. The problem was not a lack of confidence, but rather too much of it relative to the person’s actual abilities.

Unfortunately, for most organisations – unlike in sports or the military – there is little objective data to evaluate the performance of leaders.

When you cannot adequately judge competence, it is hard to recognise overconfidence, and the incompetence it masks.

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is an organisational psychologist and chief talent scientist at Manpower Group and professor of business psychology at University College London and Columbia University Note: This article is an edited excerpt from ‘Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It)’. It is reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review Press. Copyright 2019 Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic.

All rights reserved

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Make your mind up What’s the secret to making good decisions?

Writing Jenny Bird & Sarah Gornall

THERE ARE FEW DECISIONS THAT ARE WRONG FROM EVERY PERSPECTIVE

First off, we might recognise that most of us are doing our best with the information and resources we have at the time. There are very few decisions that are wrong from every perspective, although some may lead to unethical or illegal behaviour, or be damaging to other people. Decisions that we later consider to be wrong mostly did not turn out as we hoped. Perhaps we didn’t have all the information we needed, or hadn’t consulted enough people to get different perspectives, or perhaps circumstances changed. Wise after the event is easy; hindsight is cheap.

While “I told you so” feels good briefly, it is not helpful to morale or learning. So, what is? The following steps can help to underpin more effective decision-making: 2 Clarify the bigger purpose – ‘the why?’– involved with the decision.

2 Decide the parameters – will the decision impact the team, the organisation, or just your diary?

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A

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ny decision is better than no decision,” is how the saying goes. We can all think of examples when indecisiveness has undermined both staff motivation and business processes, with the result that production has ground to a halt. Having said that, however, dogmatic decision-making can also do a lot of damage.

Regardless of whether they are delayed or overhasty, inflexible or too easily changeable, poor decisions can disrupt and destroy relationships, undermine trust and lead to ineffective working.

The fear of having made the ‘wrong’ decision can cause us to wake in the middle of the night with an awful feeling we will have to make a crawling apology, undo what we’ve been seen to do, face dire consequences or simply soldier on, regardless.

So, what is a good decision? How can we foster a culture of good decision-making within our teams?

Decision-making

2 Clarify the criteria against which you will base your decision-making. Profit? Delivery on key goals? Impact on staff wellbeing?

2 Map out the stakeholders, working out a process of consultation.

2 Clarify who will take the final decision. Will it be the leader alone? The team by consensus?

Or a delegated group?

2 Decide the time frame.

2 Ask other people how they see the benefits, ramifications and risks associated with the decision.

2 Communicate. Who needs to know what, when, in order to be up to speed? It is better to give 75% of the information on time than 100% too late?

2 Take the decision and know why you’ve made this choice.

2 Explain your decision to other people.

2 Plan for an evaluation of what you’ve decided – which may lead to learning and celebration.

LACCES An acronym for better decision-making

L Look to the horizon – the ‘why?’ of the decision

A Ask for different perspectives

C Clarify and communicate as much as possible

Gather different perspectives

C

Neuroscience now provides evidence that we make many decisions in a gut way – from somewhere deep within and before we realise it. We then rationalise our decisions and muster arguments so that we, and others, believe they are based on factual data and logical thinking processes.

Decisions about appointments can work like this unless we have agreed scoring criteria in advance.

We may decide whether to appoint someone within the first three seconds of their walking through the door. Having a panel of members who score each candidate independently before sharing their assessment can help – particularly if there are previously agreed descriptors of what characteristics will lead to a score of, say, 4/10 or 8/10.

And as we are each different, with different life experiences, thinking and learning preferences, fields of experience and attention, we will have a better chance of reaching a balanced decision – which accommodates all of the relevant data and potential impacts – if we work with an inclusive group of colleagues in other situations, too. The group whose perspectives we consider may be diverse in terms of gender, ethnic background, hierarchical level within the organisation, or thinking style, or in a range of other ways.

Choose, drawing on both data and experience

Ask yourself rigorous questions Sometimes, of course, we all take decisions without consultation. These may be decisions with fewer consequences for other people. They may be about priorities, or whether to attend an event.

Or we take decisions because the buck stops with us and someone has to take responsibility. Here are two frameworks that might help with your decision-making:

E Explain what you’ve decided and why

S Shut the menu and stick with your choice

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Refer to your internal parent, adult and child

2 Ask yourself what your parent – the safe, warning voice of experience – is telling you to do.

2 Ask yourself what you would love to do if you could have fun with your decision, regardless of the outcome.

2 Having paid attention to both the parent and child, step into the rational, adult space and take the decision.

Cartesian questions

These questions are named after French philosopher René Descartes, one of the first people to apply his mind to rational reasoning processes.

1 What will happen if I do?

2 What will happen if I don’t?

3 What won’t happen if I do?

4 What won’t happen if I don’t?

The four questions help us to look at a decision from the perspective of different outcomes.

Asking them can generate a confident decision.

Stay with the decision Shilly-shallying – deciding, then questioning immediately if we’re right – or veering from one decision to the next, can create uncertainty for us and for those around us. We will gain more peace of mind ourselves, and be able to provide more of it to others, if we can close the menu once the decision is made. The waiter can act once you have said what you want, and the kitchen can get to work on producing the meal you’ve chosen. A decision at work is similar. Once the decision is made, give clear information about what it is, why it is, and what needs to happen next. The relevant people can then enact the decision and the rumours that proliferate in a time of uncertainty are nipped in the bud.

Finally, be prepared for some flack. Give a bit of forethought to the support you might need if the decision you’ve made is likely to have tough consequences. It’s rare to have 100% of the people on your side 100% of the time. Keep calm and keep your eyes on the big ‘why?’ of the decision. Gradually, if it’s a good decision, if you keep communicating, and if you keep your eyes on your objective, opposition will die down and people will fall into line.

Jenny Bird and Sarah Gornall draw on extensive experience as both leaders and coaches of senior executives in their book ‘How to Work with People… and Enjoy It!’ They are also authors of ‘The Art of Coaching: A Handbook of Tips and Tools’. Both have contributed to the UK coaching profession, with Gornall being president of the UK Chapter of the International Coach Federation (ICF)

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It’s good to be bad Why a dose of narcissism can be healthy for you and your team Writing

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e live in a time of social perfectionism. This is an era when Facebook and Instagram posts constantly bombard us with alluring images of perfect breakfasts, perfect holidays and perfect lives. Work stresses and uncertainties only exacerbate the problem. Under this level of sustained pressure, it’s no wonder that many of us

feel inadequate. So much so that one in six people has considered suicide.

The positive news is that workplace interventions have been proven to reduce the proportion of people who go on to take their own lives. By supporting individuals to understand their own personality, emotional intelligence (EQ) and how to better manage themselves, it is possible to increase resilience and wellbeing at work. This all starts with a healthy dose of narcissism. Mental wellbeing and narcissism are both on a continuum,

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Bill Davies

Narcissism

along which we all move up and down. In any interaction, the most positive outcome is that both parties come away feeling heard, valued and respected – “I’m OK and you’re OK”. So it is fine to have high self-regard, as long as it is balanced with regard for other people. A particular risk to wellbeing comes when someone has an unhealthily high regard for other people, however, combined with low self-esteem.

Unhealthy versus healthy While our core personality is relatively stable, we are able to adapt over time to use different parts of ourselves to cope in different situations. EQ is about how we learn to manage our personality by developing the attitudes, habits and skills that make us more personally and interpersonally effective. A cornerstone of EQ is the ability to achieve a balance between our self-regard and regard for other people.

Understandably, a diagnosis of narcissism tends to be seen as negative. Narcissists are good at game-playing and manipulating others, and they usually lack authenticity. They only do things in the service of their own goals, which are often achieved at the expense of other people. Narcissists can be good at faking concern for other people, but when their needs aren’t met, they will quickly move on.

The narcissist (or angry toddler) in us will inevitably emerge at some point. Whether it’s getting the best seat in the cinema or the last parking spot, stress and pressure – or just having our buttons pushed – can tip anyone into a place where their needs come before all else.

While these are not desirable behaviours, it is important to recognise that a degree of narcissism can be positive when it comes in the form of selfacceptance and self-compassion. Being emotionally intelligent means we are aware of this fact, tune into our feelings, and use them to inform how we might react. At the same time, we feel empathy and tune into the feelings of others. By using important attributes of EQ, such as goal-directed behaviour and personal power, while simultaneously taking due care of, and showing consideration for, other people, it’s possible to become a healthy narcissist.

Goals are still achieved, and things get done, but not to the detriment of other people – or to the individual’s wellbeing.

I’m not OK When an individual feels bad about themselves, they are more likely to become critical of others, but if they always put other people first, they will become self-blaming and negative towards themselves, particularly when under stress. Low self-regard also leads to a lack of self-confidence,

SIX WAYS TO BE A HEALTHY NARCISSIST 1 Know your purpose and values 2 Be assertive about your needs 3 Value other people – and have faith in them 4 Establish enduring relationships 5 Accept what you can and can’t control 6 Appreciate your strengths and those of others SIX WARNING SIGNS THAT YOU SUFFER FROM LOW SELF-REGARD 1 Working long hours 2 Being pessimistic about your options 3 Believing that you’re not good enough 4 Showing poor emotional control 5 Indulging in negative self-talk 6 Feeling that others deserve more than you

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which can manifest itself as a constant need to prove oneself and a tendency to worry excessively.

This initially leads to feelings of despondency or pessimism that, over time, can escalate to overwork, stress and even burnout.

A major outcome of low self-regard is a lack of emotional resilience, which has an enormous impact on employee wellbeing. The good news is that by improving EQ, with a corresponding increase in self-regard, an individual will be more open to all of their positive and negative feelings.

A good balance between personal needs and those of other people means that someone will be willing to praise others and accept positive feedback. It will also help employees to cope effectively with the demands of the modern workplace and remain open to self-development.

Emotionally intelligent leadership When developing team EQ, it’s important to consider the EQ of leaders. Tone comes from the top and the EQ of a leadership team has been proven to have an impact on the culture of an organisation. We have all come across leaders who don’t hold themselves in high esteem. Managers who are driven by perfectionism, control or the need to please others. Or leaders who mask their low self-esteem with a disregard for their colleagues – to avoid their own shortcomings. This latter group find fault in other people and hide their insecurities behind a facade of arrogance.

These behaviours have traditionally been seen as signs of strong leadership. While they may achieve results in the short term, these results come at a long-term cost to working relationships, the ability to respond to change, and the leadership climate. An emotionally intelligent leader who looks after their own needs while still considering the needs of their team will listen, connect with others, build trust and handle conflict well. They will also accept and value people as they are – even if they dislike or disagree with them. This will make them a leader that other people want to follow.

Grow up

AN EMOTIONALLY INTELLIGENT LEADER WILL ACCEPT AND VALUE PEOPLE AS THEY ARE

Realising that you aren’t the centre of the universe is an essential part of becoming a functioning adult, but there is nothing really wrong with feeling as if you are more important than you actually are. It’s a useful survival mechanism and as long as we understand that other people are important too, it’s a way to be effective and get things done. By building their own EQ and the EQ of their people, leaders can build teams of happy, healthy employees, who are both engaged and productive.

Bill Davies is principal consultant at JCA Global, a PSI business. See www.jcaglobal.com

Making it Happen

53

MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE 53 Mental health When the mind is the matter

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ou only have to read the statistics to know that the UK workforce is in the midst of a mental health crisis. Three out of every five employees experience mental health issues because of work, according to outreach charity Business in the Community, while mental health issues in the workforce cost UK employers up to £42 billion each year.

Employers can help to address this crisis by following six practical steps to create a more emotionally connected workplace.

1

Take responsibility

Workplace depression is caused by numerous factors, including job insecurity, people feeling that they lack control, and workers having an emotional disconnection from the work itself. Employees who are well cared for often feel more loyal towards their employers, and are more productive and more engaged in what they do. If you create an environment in which everyone understands that their mental health is a priority, this will reduce stress and boost confidence.

2

Have a position

Organisations should take a stand for the mental health of their employees.

Medical devices manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and the Bank of America joined with the American Heart Association to issue a comprehensive plan for improving mental health in the workplace.

They highlighted the role of employers in breaking down the stigma of mental health. If a CEO speaks up, it opens the door for employees to come forward.

3

Build psychological safety

The phrase ‘psychological safety’, coined by Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, refers to how

54 Switch off Ways to manage your smartphone

56 A helping hand Caring responsibilities and work

When the mind is the matter 4

individuals on a team relate to each other.

A climate of psychological safety has tremendous benefits for everyone, bringing about greater creativity, innovation and trust.

Follow these six practical steps to support your team with their mental health By

Louis Carter

Offer training and counselling services

Counsel and educate employees to recognise and respond to their own emotions, and those of the people around them. Train them to handle personal, as well as professional, difficulties and learn to understand the difference between a healthy and an unhealthy range of emotions.

5

Teach leaders and managers the symptoms of distress

Every leader, manager, supervisor or business owner should get training on organisational behaviour, as well as on distress signals. It’s critical to remain on the lookout for signs that someone is experiencing emotions of despair, such as a sudden decrease in personal hygiene, an uncharacteristic decline in productivity, or talk of feeling trapped in an unbearable situation. These red flags should not be ignored.

6

Cultivate relationships with employees

When leaders and managers cultivate relationships with employees, it lays the groundwork for helping when help is needed.

The door is open to genuinely enquire about someone’s wellbeing – and have them answer without fear. It is far better to extend a friendly hand than a domineering one to a person in distress. Sudden curiosity may be taken as a threat – or unnecessary interest, so the sooner leaders can cultivate an atmosphere of friendship and openness, the better.

Louis Carter is chief executive of the US-based Best Practice Institute and was named one of Global Gurus’ top 10 organisational culture gurus. His latest book is ‘In Great Company: How to Spark Peak Performance by Creating an Emotionally Connected Workplace’. Learn more at louiscarter.com/project/in-great-company

Making it Happen

54

Switch off How to manage your smartphone so that it doesn’t manage you Writing

S

martphones and social media have become a fact of life.

Managers now seem to be more online than they are offline – with email, LinkedIn, messaging and even Facebook within easy reach 24/7.

But does all of this connectedness actually lead to better performance or a greater ability to manage? The answer is ‘probably not’. Lots of recent research suggests that your smartphone may very well end up costing you more in terms of interrupted flow and lost focus than it delivers in terms of easy access to the pulse of your environment.

In our book Offline, we set out to investigate the impact of the smartphone, tablet and social media revolution that we have witnessed over the last 20 years. After sifting through hundreds of studies and research reports, what we discovered was grim indeed. You can draw a straight line from

excessive use of connected technology and social media/messaging to issues with anxiety, decision fatigue, reduced focus and ability to concentrate, stress and sleep disturbances.

The culprit turns out to be what is known as ‘addictive design’ – the cumulative effect of notifications, buzzers, lights, emojis, cliffhangers, forever scrolls, likes and prompts – techniques that have been lifted from the gaming industry (from slot machines in particular) and which are now being put to use, keeping your attention riveted to your phone, tablet or monitor.

The business equation behind all of this is simple: your attention is a valuable commodity and the longer you are online, the more of it can be resold to advertisers. The same goes for your phone. The more you use it, the more likely you are to upgrade to the next model from the same manufacturer. In fact, the revenue stream that comes out of your attention is huge – it is worth hundreds of billions of pounds.

Shutterstock

Imran Rashid & Soren Kenner

Digital Distractions

Now, that would all be good and fine if what you got in return was a powerful tool that could optimise your efficiency and productivity. Unfortunately, in many cases, the reverse seems to be the case.

Let’s take a look at some of the negative sides of being constantly connected to technology that is based on addictive design metaphors.

Decision fatigue Making decisions involves both your brain and your hormonal/endocrine system.

Browsing, in particular social media browsing, and excessive mail/messaging mean making lots of micro-decisions (and being rewarded with small bursts of dopamine). This, in turn, means that you deplete the resources needed to make sensible business decisions – hence it is better to make important decisions early in the day than in the late afternoon or evening.

Switching costs Going back and forth between the online world and the offline world has ‘switching costs’. These are lags where your focus and concentration get disrupted and it takes a little while to come back. Switching costs are also why you should not drive and use your mobile – even if it is hands-free.

Information overload

YOUR ATTENTION IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY

The typical human in the Western world now consumes more than 100GB of information a day – and 90% of all the data the human species has ever created online has turned up within the last 24 months. Yet the really interesting (and slightly scary) thing is this: while our ability to create and bombard each other with information is increasing rapidly, our ability to take in and sift through information remains as it was 70,000 years ago – at the outset of the cognitive revolution. We are creating more, and taking more in, but that does not mean we can process more.

This poses an interesting question. If you can only process so much information and you get bombarded with more and more of it, how do you ensure the pieces of information that you ‘choose’ to process are the right ones? Our research suggests the answer is that we fail to do so, or are mostly incapable of doing so. As a consequence, we end up with the severely fragmented perception of society we experience today – thousands of news streams, thousands of claims of veracity on social media and no easy way to tell what is true and what is fake, or even what is relevant and what is not.

Perhaps even more troubling is that it’s unclear what the human coping mechanism is for continued immersion in information-overload environments – obviously anxiety, sleep disorders and stress – but longer term? Some sort of

55

widespread digital shell-shock or post-traumatic stress disorder could be waiting right around the corner.

What can you do about it?

Technology is great, but managers should use it with caution and stay in charge. How? Here are a few useful tips.

Turn off all of your notifications Stop your phone from blinking, vibrating and beckoning to convince you of some sort of non-existent urgency.

Make when and how you use your phone your decision and not your phone’s.

Stay focused on the real world Leave your phone in a bag when you have meetings. Don’t let it enter into the conversation, but stay focused on what is going on around the table. If your team members bring their phones with them, tell them to turn them off.

Schedule your online time Do all of your mail, messaging and browsing in the morning, or at the end of the day. But do it all at once and set limits for how long you will spend on it. If you can, you might want to disable messaging, email and online access for your employees for between five and six hours a day.

Insist on more reporting in person Spend an extra 15 minutes having updates presented to you in real life by a real person, instead of transmitted to you electronically.

Get rid of your own bad online habits Leave the phone away from the dinner table and out of the bedroom. Engage your friends and family directly.

Spend time with people instead of diving into online euphoria. Need distraction? Read a book, play a board game, learn to play the piano or how to draw, or keep a diary.

Weaning yourself off the on-off, on-off, on-off online carousel can be tough, but once you do, you will soon begin to notice the benefits. These include getting better at being in, and performing in, the here and now; making better decisions; being better able to focus and concentrate; and last – but by no means least – getting closer to the people you share your work and life with. What’s not to like about that?

Imran Rashid is a is qualified family physician and an experienced IT entrepreneur. Soren Kenner is an online marketeer and entrepreneur, who is a former chairman of McCann MRM EMEA. They are authors of ‘Offline: Free Your Mind from Smartphone and Social Media Stress’

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Making it Happen

A helping hand Conscientious employers enable their sta to balance caring responsibilities and work Writing

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t Driving Miss Daisy, we spend our working lives helping families and individuals to look after elderly relatives and loved ones, many of whom have impaired mobility, physical disabilities or mental impairments such as dementia. We enable these individuals to get out and about, and live their lives to the fullest –

no matter where they are living or what support they have.

Since this is our day job, we get a lot of insight into the issues, stresses and strains that caring responsibilities can place on families and individuals. We are also employers and employees, however, so when one of our colleagues is faced with the task of looking after a parent with an illness or dementia, we understand better than most how this will aect our colleague in terms of

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Greg Blezard

Caring Responsibilities

their job, their productivity, their performance and their general wellbeing.

The responsibilities associated with looking after young children are well known and accepted, and there is legislation in place with regard to maternity and paternity leave. Yet the demand placed upon families when care is required for elderly relatives tends to goes unnoticed, even though the stress it places on families and individuals is often greater than the stress associated with caring for young children.

In fact, the relentless stress and anxiety that is caused by having a mother or father living with illness or dementia is immense. Unless managed, it will undoubtedly manifest itself in increased sick leave and a fall-off in workplace productivity and performance.

We recognised this challenge early at Driving Miss Daisy. So we developed an action plan to enable colleagues who may have extra demands placed upon them by elderly family members, to have increased flexibility when planned or unplanned demands on their time conflict with their job roles. The types of demands on their time can vary significantly and require them to provide differing levels of support.

Examples of demands for planned support may be medical appointments of all kinds, from dentists or physiotherapists to hospital consultants; days out and general activities; helping to keep relatives as fit and active as possible with walks and exercise; and ensuring that people eat their meals and maintain sufficient hydration and nutrition.

Demands for unplanned support may relate to people with dementia wandering off and getting disorientated and lost; falls and injuries related to age or lack of mobility; and unexpected illness due to chronic conditions.

These are just a sample of the types of situations that can demand immediate responses from family members or carers, and need to be understood by employers if they are to get the best out of people going through traumatic situations.

The meat in the sandwich

MORALE AND MOTIVATION ARE KEPT AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE, SO PRODUCTIVITY IS GREATER

There has been much discussion around the ‘sandwich generation’ – those of us in society who are not only looking after children, but also having to care for parents or elderly relatives. While there are no absolutes, members of this sandwich generation tend to be over 30, often over 40, and by the fact of their age, tend to be the more experienced people in the workforce. Employers rely on these people, since they have higher levels of training and experience, and may well be in supervisory or leadership roles. By this very fact, however, they are also the people that employers can least

57

afford to have performing below par because they are tired, or feeling anxious, guilty or worried, or because they are stressed about someone they love needing their time and attention, yet not feeling able to give it.

By creating a supportive environment that has enabled greater flexibility for our staff, we try to ensure that stress and anxiety levels are reduced, while simultaneously ensuring that productivity levels are kept as close to normal as possible.

For example, we have developed technology and processes that facilitate more home flexible working – for example, we use an internet-based telephone system and cloud-based work management packages to ensure that our colleagues can work from anywhere. This, in turn, increases our ability to provide flexible rostering for frontline colleagues. We have developed flexible leave and remuneration packages to create a high level of adaptability, according to the needs of the individual. As a result, we have created an environment where colleagues feel comfortable that their home demands can fit in with the demands of working for a busy company, and that they will be supported and not penalised in any way when they need to take a short-notice leave of absence to care for their loved ones.

None of these developments, which we researched extensively prior to implementation, create a perfect operational environment, nor are they groundbreaking or revolutionary. They do, however, create sufficient understanding and flexibility on the part of both the colleague and the company to ensure that the best outcome is achieved within the bounds of individual circumstances. By doing this, we have ensured that morale and motivation are kept as high as possible and so productivity is greater. The levels of anxiety and stress our colleague feels are minimised as much as possible and, by going that extra mile on behalf of the colleague, we are enabling them to stay at work, stay engaged and return to normal operations as soon as practicable.

We spend a lot of time trying to ensure that we recruit the right people into our business and once in, it is incumbent upon us to look after them and show a level of empathy and understanding that creates a win-win situation out of what can sometimes be very difficult and traumatic circumstances. Everyone grows old, and many of us will need the support of family members in the future.

The quality of outcomes for everyone are significantly improved when employers take more time to understand the physical and emotional needs of their employees, and to fulfil those needs in a flexible and empathetic manner.

Greg Blezard is chairman and chief executive of Inert Group, with brands including Driving Miss Daisy UK and B3 Passenger Care

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Beyond Borders

59

INTERNATIONAL INSIGHT AND BEST PRACTICE 59 Farewell to faux pas The case for cultural intelligence

E

ver been told to receive a business card in China with two hands and read what’s written on it immediately? Or advised not to order a cappuccino after 10am in Italy?

As a leader, you may have found yourself in a situation where you get a sinking feeling that you’ve made a huge cultural faux pas while interacting with a colleague from another culture. The problem is that although it is important for business leaders to recognise the value of cultural diversity, what is considered ‘appropriate’ conduct varies widely across cultures.

The reality of managing complex global organisations in a hyper-connected, interdependent world also requires leaders to have a sense of awareness that extends far beyond the basics of etiquette. While management styles and practices are diverse, successful global leaders must respond to a multiplicity of management styles simultaneously.

In 1995, psychologist Daniel Goleman came up with a new kind of intelligence – EQ, or emotional intelligence. EQ examines how we recognise, understand and manage our own emotions, as well as other people’s.

It often comes to mind when we think of ‘great’ leaders.

Yet globalisation requires yet another kind of intelligence – CQ or cultural intelligence. Although there is no one best way of managing in this global environment, there is a skill set professionals can develop to make success more likely.

Possessing inbuilt CQ means you can adjust and perform in a foreign environment, build successful relationships across borders and lead multicultural teams.

CQ includes four elements: 2 Cognitive intelligence is knowledge about context-specific facts, such as social, economic and legal systems in various

60 India calling Inside the world’s largest democracy

Farewell to faux pas The case for cultural intelligence By

Marie-Thérèse Claes

64 Take a world view Sustainable success in a global context

cultures. High-cognitive CQ helps the leader to form more accurate expectations and be less likely to misinterpret cultural behaviour.

2 Behavioural CQ is the ability to behave according to different cultural practices – in other words, being able to use the appropriate verbal and nonverbal behaviour in a specific cultural context.

2 Motivational CQ is the ability to generate energy for dealing with unfamiliar situations or stress associated with problematic interactions. This is an important ingredient for a global mindset and sustains the ability to ‘become comfortable being uncomfortable’.

WHAT IS CONSIDERED ‘APPROPRIATE’ CONDUCT VARIES ACROSS CULTURES 2 Metacognitive CQ is the ability to comprehend cultural knowledge and know how to select responses. A leader with good metacognitive CQ constantly checks if his or her actions are appropriate for a specific cultural context.

The good news is that an individual’s CQ can be enhanced via training and experience, both at a business school and in the workplace. At the end of the day, a global leader needs to have confidence, cooperation and optimism to build strong relationships, trust and common objectives across borders. A global leader also needs to connect people and transfer knowledge to develop the organisation, both locally and internationally. It takes time and investment to develop CQ – but it is well worth it.

Marie-Thérèse Claes is a professor of cross-cultural management at Louvain School of Management in Belgium. She teaches on the CEMS Masters in International Management and is part of the school’s Global Leadership Faculty Group

Beyond Borders

60

The land of variety India’s diverse economy could be a tale of two different countries Writing Helen Roberts

M

illions of young workers in urban India swipe to enter their plush offices every morning. With international companies choosing India as the base for their

customer service departments, and the country’s engineering institutes nurturing some of the finest computer minds in the world, India has become a great place for young people looking to build their careers in the city.

But there is more to India’s economy than call centres and computer engineers. “It’s part of the

India

story, but it’s not the driving force of India,” says Prabhat Patnaik, a retired professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and a political commentator. “The engineering institutes across India have created a lot of skill, but that skill is migrating overseas. The IT skill has migrated to places like the US; it’s not helped India so much.”

Above Pancham Singh, a farmer from New Delhi, is a daily wage earner, meaning some days he’ll find work, some days he won’t

61

The two faces of India Gurgaon, officially named Gurugram, is situated 30km outside New Delhi, India’s capital city. It became the hub for customer service offices and brand headquarters in the late 1990s. Since then, it has also become India’s leading

62

Beyond Borders

MEN STILL DOMINATE THE CORPORATE WORLD IN INDIA

REAL-LIFE STORIES Arvind Vishvas, 30, from West Bengal, now works as a rickshaw cyclist in Delhi.

“I’m married with one daughter, but my wife is a housewife,” he says. “We came to Delhi in 2011 to find better work. I was a farmer in West Bengal but money was low. I now earn on average 330 rupees per day, 10,500 rupees a month (£118).

“My job is very hard, especially in the summer, in the heat. My money is spent on my family, and I try to save a little in the bank and for life insurance.

We used to live in a place with no electricity or water supply but then we moved. We’re OK now. We never enjoy eating out in any restaurants; we can never afford it. If our government could help poor people like us by giving some money, it would help us very much, and we’d be very grateful.

“There are so many poor people here and they struggle to live. People who are rich have money, while the poor live from hand to mouth. We are so poor that we can’t afford to dream about the future.

Or ever going to live overseas.”

financial and industrial hub, with the third-highest per capita income in the country. Companies, including beverage groups The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, and carmaker BMW, have opened up offices there.

But just down the road, in a slum in New Delhi, Pancham Singh, a 47-year-old farmer, sees India in a very different light. He houses his family of nine in a one-room slum to minimise costs, walks everywhere and leaves his home every morning with no sure job to go to. He’s a daily wage earner, meaning some days he’ll find work, some days he won’t. “I don’t know what my future holds, but I try to work hard for my family,” he says. “I can only do that. I work and hope life gets better.”

Patnaik believes it’s the small sector that India needs to focus on in order to grow. “The future of India should hold on to anything that is done to encourage the small sector and the employment of Indians. We’ve had no unemployment data for the last two years and we need to monitor it closely.”

Shubhi Agarwal, 29, an entrepreneur and founder of decor business Fabsouk PVT, would like to see India invest in the infrastructure of manufacturing. She believes that if entrepreneurs invest more time and money in India, the economy will eventually benefit.

“If we are to see our country grow, we need better education and more affordable education,” she says. “The level of education has been increasing in India, but it is also becoming costly.

Good education needs to be accessed by all. If my parents had not got me a good education, I would not have had the confidence to leave my job and start my own business.”

Agarwal, from Gurugram, left her sales and marketing job in 2015 to start her own business.

But she knew she had the skill to sell anything. “It took courage to leave a secure, well-paid job to go it alone and start from scratch. But I believed in myself and my skills. Even though women in business are still not taken seriously, I have a supportive family and husband who believe in me.”

Men still dominate the corporate world in India, and Agarwal says that when she walks into a factory, looking for places to develop her products, the working men will look at her and doubt her capabilities. “Even though I’m a confident woman in my field of work, men still dominate the workplace,” she explains, “and it seems they always need time to accept that I will succeed.”

Even though Agarwal has not had to overcome personal challenges to succeed in business, she appreciates that generally women have to work a lot harder to balance work with their family responsibilities. “In India, it’s expected that women will cook the meals and raise the children.

Those traditional values are still there, so if you want a career too, then you have to do it all. I don’t

India

,

INDIA IN NUMBERS*

REAL-LIFE STORIES Shubhi Agarwal, 29, is founder of handcrafted decor company Fabsouk and lives in Gurugram, Haryana.

3.287 million km2 in land area

‘I’m married, and both my husband and I work,” she says. “Since I was a teenager, I wanted to work for myself. So, after my education, I got a job in sales and marketing and after seven years I finally opened my own business. I can earn up to five lakh rupees a month (£5,600) and I love my work. I learn a lot and I feel very fulfilled.

“I’m a fun-loving person so I like to make time for enjoyment. I make sure I travel somewhere every 45 days. That could be a one-day trip or a ten-day holiday somewhere new. I also like to go out for dinner with friends, or see a movie, and I’ve recently started writing.

“I believe the key to improving the quality of lives in India is through education – better and affordable education. If you are educated, it can give you so much in life. The population of India can be a good thing. We have the largest consumer base and we should use it positively. We should invest domestically and make our country great.”

feel I work any harder than my husband, but generally, I feel women in India work very hard if they want a family and a career.”

LGBT rights Harish Iyer, 40, an equal rights activist from Mumbai, believes that India is making positive progress but there’s still a lot to do, especially when it comes to integrating the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community into the workplace.

“Overall, the last decade has been a positive ride,” he says. “The criminalisation of homosexuals in 2013 was devastating. Many liberals in India were heartbroken, but it wasn’t all negative because it gave us the chance to unite and mobilise, and not rest on our laurels.” After a staunch campaign, the Supreme Court announced in 2018 that as long as consensual sex was between two adults, the law should not get involved.

“Following the 2018 announcement, I’ve seen a sharp change,” says Iyer. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, but no company wants to be known as being homophobic nowadays, so leaders are making every effort to tackle any existing issues within their company.”

Nevertheless, he highlights that companies can be reticent about publicising their efforts in this area, saying: “While I am often asked to hold motivational talks in many top

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$2.7 trillion nominal GDP

1.37 billion people

68.56 years, life expectancy

22 major languages spoken *Sources: Wikipedia and the World Bank

corporations, many also ask me not to talk about them on social media.”

In May Prime Minister Narendra Modi was re-elected into government with a convincing result in the polls. His success in the world’s largest democratic elections is seen as a victory for Hindu nationalism. Patnaik, who believes in a liberal India, argues that the country is entering “difficult waters”.

“This government doesn’t have an economic agenda,” he says. “They’ll continue doing what they’ve been doing, making it easier for corporations to do business here and undertake investments, but there’s no strategy. We face economic difficulties. The global recession we face will create acute unemployment here but the government does not have the agenda to deal with it.”

He adds: “The future of India lies in the small sector and ensuring that we can employ domestically. One party during the election had a manifesto to give 6,000 rupees a month to 20% of the poorest communities – that’s approximately 50 million households. They didn’t win and if they had, no one has any idea how they would have financed it, but at least people have started talking about poverty. India has a big issue with it. The fact the subject is now floating around is a good thing, so let’s see how this government will tackle it.”

Helen Roberts is an international journalist and founder of Cover Asia Press, based in New Delhi and London

THE FUTURE OF INDIA LIES IN THE SMALL SECTOR

64

Beyond Borders

Take a world view How can you succeed as a leader in a multicultural environment?

Writing Mike Orlov

U

ncertainty stimulates dialogue in most enterprises. This is because leaders and senior managers are usually engaged in this dialogue as a way of trying to handle instability.

Recently, I was asked to act as facilitator of a strategy planning meeting attended by the senior management team of an enterprise in the Middle East. The aim of the meeting was to explore sustainability issues and address the volatility that was threatening their organisation. It proved to be a complex gathering, due to the multicultural factors involved.

While English was the common language of the group, nobody spoke it as their mother tongue, and every member of the group came from a different country. Ambiguity and misunderstandings reigned supreme and there were many times when I had to ensure that the metaphorical space in-between people did not create confusion for further actions by this well-meaning, but dislocated, group.

The members of this senior management team had been tasked with ensuring that the enterprise avoided the depletion of resources and was engaged in the right activities to ensure it had a future. This demanded that the team took a more holistic, and longer-term, perspective on sustainability. They also needed to look at long-term sustainability, not only in the context of the company itself but also in the context of the broader community. Hence they had to focus on people, productivity, performance, profit and the planet. My facilitation was based on stimulating a connected, cross-cultural approach that would build trust, calm anxieties, reduce stress and calm fears.

When faced with trying to build consensus in this kind of situation, it is vital to focus on the ‘home country’ culture – the culture where the organisa-

tion itself is based. Every country is different, which might seem obvious, but it is not often explicitly considered. In addition, each geographic region of a country has to be regarded. What impact might local and regional cultural factors have on the attitudes, behaviours and habits of both managers and employees? It is also vital to be aware of the home countries of team members.

Movement of meaning

IT IS VITAL TO CREATE A NEW COMMON LANGUAGE

These cultural tides define how what is being said will be understood. It is this movement of meaning across an enterprise that will define the operational success of an organisation, and whether the gears grind or rub along smoothly. If people relate well and understand each other, and if there are deeply ingrained ways of functioning that aid understanding, then the organisation will be much more agile. In contrast, chaos will follow organisations where people do not take time to understand others’ perspectives, in cases where their normalised procedures differ.

It is vital to create a new common language when people come together in a new enterprise from other organisations, where methods, processes and activities differ. I worked on the launch of a company in Dubai, where we recruited over 80 people in the space of six months from around the globe and had to embed a new organisational culture on the run. This rapidly developed culture enabled agile operations, since the group launched new media brand after new media brand.

Competing senior managers, including territorial and political power-plays, can lead to detrimental corporate warfare within an organisation. I recently observed a sales director and finance director who did not look at each other in a board meeting. They did not make eye contact

Cultural Sensitivity

65

departments finding ways to damage each other.

Allegiance is committed to the leader within their immediate silo, rather than to the overall organisation. Self-interest in these warring tribes leads to direct extra costs for the enterprise, damages the reputation of the organisation, and destroys morale among those who do not wish to take part in such counter-productive goings-on.

Intercultural competence

and their body language exhibited pent-up antagonism. Such negative behaviour often becomes extreme and intense. Trust disappears, people stop communicating and, worse, they become obstructive, particularly when warring cabals become ethno-based. In such an environment, people develop a more internally focused perspective. Their compatriots, and their own grouping, become much more important than the whole.

Others within their span-of-control join in this tribal behaviour, leading to teams and

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HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL MULTICULTURAL LEADER 2 Understand the cultural environment of the country and the region.

2 Know where people are from – their ethnicities and nationalities, as well as the previous organisations in which they have worked.

2 Attempt to understand other people’s view of the world.

2 Test comprehension and quality of communication.

2 Tackle organisational politics, especially if these are ethno-centric.

2 Engage with people.

2 Enrich roles.

2 Empower individuals so they have a sense of ownership.

2 Build social cohesion and social capital within teams.

2 Align different teams across the enterprise.

2 Develop and encourage agile approaches to teamwork.

2 Check back, and back again, to ensure there have been no misunderstandings.

Tackling multicultural challenges – ‘how things are done around here’ – and creating an exceptional workplace culture begins with being aware of where we sit on a cultural sensitivity scale. Those of us who believe we need to minimalise differences, and treat people as we would wish to be treated ourselves, probably need to dig deeper. Should we adapt our behaviour a little more, and treat others as they would wish to be treated themselves?

None of us arrives in this world interculturally aware. People do not build this competence just because they live and work in a multicultural environment. Becoming interculturally competent is a developmental process. It requires us to take time and effort, to redirect our own perceptions, and to get into the shoes of others so we can treat them as they would wish to be treated themselves.

We can then move to a more ethno-relative way of operating. We need to really listen, and be open to hearing, seeing and accepting other ways of doing things. We also need to become more mindful of others. Digging deep and exploring how we can achieve an adaptive and integrated approach to the handling of organisational culture issues will ultimately pay dividends.

An aligned workforce is the building block for a successful organisation. This is an organisation where groups of individuals are really teams, and where communication is facilitated by respect. How we think, feel and act defines our organisations. We prefer to avoid command-and-control cultures, where coercive power creates anxiety, chaos, fear, stress and an unwillingness to take risks.

Going forward, leadership frameworks must shift from a human capital focus, such as the bias toward competency-based models, towards a social-capital emphasis, which focuses on facilitating the movement of ideas across complex adaptive systems. We can do this through bonding teams, bridging between teams and brokering conflicts between silos. It is through enabling trust as well as cohesive, agile responses, that multicultural organisations will achieve success.

Mike Orlov is executive director and registrar at the National Register of Public Service Interpreters.

See www.nrpsi.org.uk

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67

STRATEGIES FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS 68 Virtual body language How to get your message across

T

he world of work is changing rapidly and technology is moving apace. For these reasons, it is important to consider how we can set up the next generation of managers to succeed in an unknown future. So, at Hult International Business School, we studied the views of around 400 students – tomorrow’s leaders – across the UK and US, to find out their hopes and fears for the years ahead and how they plan to prepare for the coming changes.

All respondents acknowledged that artificial intelligence (AI) and automation would impact their careers to some degree, but most felt unprepared for this, which contributed to a sense of fearfulness. They exhibited alternating emotions of confidence and anxiety when asked to visualise themselves negotiating emerging technologies in the future.

Interestingly, a portion of the students who participated in an in-depth course on robotics in business and society at Hult, claimed to feel more empowered as a result.

They spoke of a workplace that was more effective and interesting, thanks to AI and automation. Importantly, they also had an increased appreciation of humans and their abilities after reflecting upon the nature of these technologies.

So what does the research tell us about the skills and mindsets that future managers will need, and how organisations can help them to develop these?

1

Nurture knowledge

Learning more about emerging technologies gave respondents a sense that there were things they could do to navigate the coming changes. For example, organisations could embed more courses on AI, and its likely impact on the workplace, within their own training programmes. Future managers

70 Digital revolution Success in a project-driven world

Fit for the future How can we prepare today’s managers for tomorrow’s unknowns?

By

Carina Paine Schofield

72 Creativity by numbers Data can be inspirational

are hungry for all kinds of courses – theoretical but also practical – where they can experiment with coding, 3D printing, virtual reality and other tools.

2

Preserve humanity

Respondents sought to study subjects such as ethics and psychology. In an age of AI, they felt it was all the more important to explore humanity and understand how humans and machines can come together to improve the workplace and society. Companies need to carefully consider how to balance innovative technologies with workplaces that still value face-to-face contact, training the brain and developing essential relationship skills.

3

Promote lifelong learning

Leadership training and development programmes need to be more agile to keep up with constantly changing skills needs.

They also need to be revisited and redesigned frequently. Much greater emphasis will also need to be given to lifelong learning, so people have the opportunity to build skills throughout their careers. In the future, managers will need to take responsibility for ensuring that people benefit from continuous learning, interwoven with work, in order to remain current.

4

Be adaptable

Managers can never know the nuts and bolts of every emerging technology, because everything is changing so fast, but they do need the ability to adapt. It is key for them to have strategic awareness of what is possible – where competitors are already experimenting and where AI is likely to lead – so that they can quickly adapt to any role.

Dr Carina Paine Schofield is senior research fellow at Hult International Business School.

Her research focuses on intergenerational work attitudes and expectations

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Future of Work

Stay connected What’s the secret to effective communication in the digital world?

Writing Peter Clayton

USING BODY LANGUAGE IN A VIRTUAL SETTING IS A VITAL SKILL

customers, suppliers and potentially even prospective customers. As psychologist Paul Watzlawick famously said: “One cannot not communicate.”

Different communication scenarios have unique requirements, and not everyone is well versed on the implications of how they are communicating – intentionally or otherwise – in a virtual setting. So how can you communicate more effectively using virtual body language?

Webinars and video conferences Giving a webinar or video conference sounds like it should be very straightforward. After all, you just have to speak to the audience. Actually, though, there’s a lot more to consider.

When you present at a distance, the audience needs to see that you are involved and passionate about what you are saying. Moving around the room, or stage, is a very good way to demonstrate this. It also helps to ensure that your voice sounds more authentic and credible.

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I

nternet giant Google has just published a study of working patterns which highlights the extent of ‘distributed working’ within its business. Some 20% of working groups include people based in multiple physical locations.

Furthermore, 48% of meetings involve employees who work from two or more buildings, while 39% of meetings involve two or more cities, and 30% involve two or more time zones.

Today, virtual interactions are as commonplace as physical ones, and remote working is becoming an integral part of organisational life. In some industries, unless the option to work from home is offered for at least some of the time, it is impossible to recruit good candidates. Tech is the obvious example here, but even ‘traditional’ industries are catching up. So, it is essential to communicate effectively with remotely based stakeholders and to understand how body language contributes to the relationships we create – with colleagues,

Virtual Body Language

If you are presenting to a camera, or speaking to colleagues via a laptop camera, ensure that you are looking at them and maintaining some facial and eye contact. Direct eye contact may be intimidating.

It is better to generally ‘look your audience in the face’. The audience needs to be able to see you are addressing them directly, paying attention when it’s their turn to talk, and reacting to their comments.

In a webinar context, this may require rehearsing to ensure the camera is positioned correctly.

If you are using slides to present, ensure the audience knows exactly what to look at when you are speaking. Also, your message should directly relate to what they can see on their screens. One of the most common mistakes virtual presenters make is to let their speech or script run ahead of their visual aids.

Create a sense of community by encouraging questions and participation, either at the end of the session or at intervals within it. Never underestimate the value of small talk at the start. It’s especially important during regular team meetings that are held as a video conference. How else can people build bonds and get to know one another?

An increasingly common phenomenon in conference calls without video is ‘continuous partial attention’. This is where a participant is not concentrating fully on the discussion and has become otherwise engaged, perhaps with checking their emails. If this happens regularly, ask your team to log out of email and messaging applications to avoid distractions.

Emails, texts and messaging With web chats, emails and texts, what’s normal for one person won’t be normal for others. That’s why some people come across very differently when you get to meet them face-to-face. Here’s what your behaviours in written virtual communication might be saying to recipients: Writing the way you speak When people write the way they speak, it tends to suggest that they have a straightforward, no-nonsense approach.

This style is rapidly becoming the standard as more of our interactions are online. It’s a good approach to cultivate in professional life.

Being short and curt This tends to suggest someone is annoyed or displeased – either with the recipient or because they are generally in a bad mood. Using too many abbreviations can also come across as negative and suggests that the sender has an inflated sense of importance. As the sender is too busy to fully explain what they mean, the recipient has to manage with the bare minimum of information and work things out for

69

CHECK YOUR VIRTUAL BODY LANGUAGE 2 Good webinar delivery is about more than the information you impart.

Facial expressions, eye contact, movement and tone of voice are important ways to engage listeners.

2 When presenting at a distance, the audience needs to see that you are engaged. Moving around the room or stage is a very good way to demonstrate this.

2 Eye contact is important but staring directly into a camera can be intimidating. Better to ‘look people

in the face’ rather than ‘give them the eye’.

2 Beware ‘continuous partial attention’. It’s a giveaway when a participant on the conference call stumbles at a question, or suddenly goes quiet, because they are not listening in.

2 ‘Write the way you speak’ is a good approach for effective email communication. It’s easy to interpret and no-nonsense, which leads to fewer misunderstandings.

themselves. The opposite, being overly verbose, might be unnecessary, but it tends to suggest that someone is contented and happy, which is preferable to curtness.

Especially precise use of grammar This can suggest the recipient is very precise and particular about things – possibly overly so. It can also signify someone who is controlling and very obsessive or detail-orientated.

Use of emoticons Emoticons are often used to temper a message that is either rude, slightly aggressive or controversial. They can inject a bit of softness, but can equally come across as passive aggressive. They are best avoided in favour of a more appropriate overall style. It is better to explain yourself fully and write as you would speak to the person.

Being too expressive Flowery language or excessive punctuation can suggest someone attention-seeking and needy.

They want to be heard and be the centre of attention. That’s not an endearing trait. Overuse of capitals and exclamation marks fall into this category, too.

Humour This can be a good addition to texts and emails since it helps to create a stronger bond and a sense of trust, especially when it is not targeted at anyone else and is genuinely self-deprecating.

We are already seeing companies conduct as many as a third of all interactions remotely and that’s set to grow further. For this reason, understanding how to use body language to your advantage in a virtual setting is a vital skill that you need to get to grips with.

Peter Clayton is a communications skills coach with Aziz Corporate, specialising in virtual body language training for senior executives. See www.azizcorp.com

Future of Work

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Domain 2: Who?

The Project Canvas A simple framework can help to boost the success of your organisational initiatives

3

Executive sponsor Many projects start without a decision about who is ultimately accountable for successful delivery. As projects can go across departments, business units and countries, they are often prone to ‘shared accountability and collective sponsorship’. As a result, many executives feel responsible, yet no one is accountable for driving the project to completion.

4

Governance The executive sponsor, together with the project manager, should define the project governance. The governance in a project is represented by a project chart in which the various contributing roles and decision-making bodies are defined. One of the most important bodies in a project is the steering committee, which is chaired by the executive sponsor and run by the project manager.

Domain 3: What, How and When?

Writing Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez

5

Scope Understanding and agreeing what the project will consist of and deliver, the scope, is one of the raisons d’être of project management. Other terms for scope include design, detailed requirements, functionality and specifications. The scope is the most important element.

A

fter studying hundreds of successful and failed projects, I have developed a simple tool: the Project Canvas. Practical and easy to implement, it is a proven tool that will assist you in leading projects more successfully and in making your dreams a reality.

It is composed of 14 dimensions grouped into four major domains [see table, right].

6

Time Unless a project has an articulated, compelling, official and publicly announced deadline, there is a good chance it will be delivered later than originally planned. Delays in projects mean, besides extra costs, a loss of benefits and expected revenues, with both having a tremendously negative impact on the business case of the initiative.

7

Domain 1: Why?

Cost Budget in projects mostly relates to the required project resources. These mainly include the people working on the project, plus all other investments (such as consultants, material, software and hardware) that are needed. Budget is, together with time and scope, the third main constraint in traditional project management.

Without budget, there is no project.

1

Rationale and business case All project management methodologies demand that projects have a well-defined business case. Experience shows, however, that business cases have biases and subjective assumptions, especially concerning the financial benefits from the project, which often get inflated in order to make the project seem more attractive to decision-makers. Have you ever seen a project with a negative or meagre return being presented?

2

Purpose and passion Besides having a rationale, a project should be linked to a higher purpose.

THE SCOPE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT

8

Quality Ensuring the outcome of a project meets quality expectations is an integral part of project management, yet it is often overlooked or not a priority. Often, teams focus on doing the work and leave the quality part to the end of the project, when adjustments are most expensive.

Project Management

PROJECT MANAGERS NEED TO BE PROJECT LEADERS TOO

71

THE PROJECT CANVAS WHY?

WHO?

Rationale and business case Why are we doing this project?

What are the expected benefits?

Executive sponsor Who is accountable for the success of the project?

Governance Who is responsible for what?

Risk management Have the key risks been identified?

Do we have a plan B?

Human resources What skills do we need?

How are we going to keep the team motivated?

Purpose and passion Is the project inspirational?

WHAT, HOW & WHEN? Scope What will the project produce and deliver?

Time When will the project be completed?

Cost How much will the project cost?

How many resources (internal/external) do we need to dedicate?

Quality How do we ensure that the outcome will meet the quality standards?

Procurement How are we going to manage the external contributors?

Stakeholders Are key and impacted parties supporting the project?

Change management How are we going to engage the stakeholders and remove barriers to change?

WHERE? Project-driven organisation: Culture, structure, priorities, competencies Have our organisation and culture adapted to succeed in a project-driven world?

9

Risk management Risk management is one of the most important techniques in project management and an essential duty of the project manager. Bluntly, if a project fails, it is because the risks that caused the failure were either not identified or not mitigated on time by the project team.

10

Procurement Projects tend to have a novelty component.

Therefore, the need to hire external capabilities to deliver the project is much higher. As projects are temporary assignments, it is cheaper to engage external capacity during the project than it is to hire internal resources.

11

Human resources Project managers need to be project leaders too – especially for more complex and crossfunctional projects. These projects require resources to be pulled in from across the organisation and the changing of the old status quo. The best project managers are also entrepreneurs – they are the chief executives of their projects.

12

Stakeholders Stakeholders are individuals and groups that are impacted by, involved in, or have an interest in, the outcome of a project. The larger the

project, the more stakeholders there will probably be, and the greater the communication and change management effort that will be required.

13

Change management Aim to communicate what needs to be done clearly and accurately, ensuring that the organisation and its employees are ready to embrace the changes introduced by a project.

Domain 4: Where?

14

Project-driven organisation Most Western companies have a hierarchical, functional structure, which is ideal for running their daily business activities. Budgets, resources, key performance indicators and decision power are ‘owned’ by heads of business departments and functions.

Yet the largest, most critical, projects are cross-functional and cross-hierarchical. So the most successful organisations have adjusted their structure to facilitate and support the execution of projects. They have become project-driven.

Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez is an expert in project management and strategy implementation. A Thinkers50 Thinker of the Month, he is author of ‘The Project Revolution’ and ‘The Focused Organisation’

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Future of Work

Creativity by numbers Data can be inspirational if you put it to good use Writing

90% OF DATA IN THE WORLD HAS BEEN CREATED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS

and data is drowning out business creativity. Do they have a point?

To answer this question, we need to start by considering what creativity actually means. Most people believe it’s all about being artistic. But the actual definition is ‘the use of imagination or original ideas to create something new’. The principle of creating new things sits right at the heart of every successful business.

The smartest business leaders recognise the value of data as a tool to measure the success of their creativity – whether that relates to a new process, product or marketing campaign. Data

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n this modern age of connectivity, everything we do creates more data – data that can be used to power decision-making. The potential value of this data hasn’t gone unnoticed and many organisations understand that they need to reinvent themselves by putting data at their core. In fact, analyst Gartner estimates that 90% of large businesses will have a chief data officer on their board by the end of 2019. Despite this recognition of the importance of data, many people still believe that our growing obsession with algorithms

David Walsh

Data Analysis

analysts take unstructured information and generate business value from it.

In 2016, a report by IBM Marketing Cloud revealed that 90% of data in the world had been created in the last two years alone, with 2.5 quintillion bytes of data being churned out every single day. Given this context, it’s hardly surprising that businesses hold a wealth of unstructured information. So what should they do with it to create value and gain an edge over the competition? They need to follow these three steps: 1 Build the road 2 Analyse and measure 3 Develop a test-and-learn culture

Build the road Before any creativity can take place, a business needs to set up appropriate data infrastructure. In practice, this typically means two things: 2 Establishing a culture of data within the business; and 2 Creating a full data framework to capture information.

For leaders and managers, a culture of data within the business tends to be the most difficult part. It involves ensuring that decisions are evidence-based and driven by data, rather than influenced by ‘gut feel’ or ‘top-down decision-making’.

This applies to all day-to-day decisions, from changing a product’s price or features, through to launching a marketing campaign.

When setting up the data infrastructure, businesses need to avoid a situation where siloed teams create fragmented data. Even though staff might work within the HR, marketing or operations function, that doesn’t mean each department should have an individual system or methodology for capturing data within these functions. The fragmented nature of business data is one of the major blocks to creating a data-driven business culture.

Analyse and measure Once the data infrastructure and the culture of data has been established, it is time for the analysts and data scientists to get involved. Using their expertise, they can apply different techniques to ensure the data is used to create additional business value.

This is the truly creative way of using data.

For example, forecasting is key to all businesses’ ability to continue trading. Nevertheless, many businesses still use a ‘back of a fag packet’ technique to predict where they will be in 12 months’ or two years’ time. Yet they could use

THE USE OF DATA FREES CREATIVITY AND ENSURES IT DELIVERS

73

their own data to build accurate, evidence-based and sophisticated forecasts to predict weekly or annual sales. This would help them to anticipate over-demand or supply shortfalls, and enable them to identify potentially fallow periods. It would also give businesses an early indication of where they need to invest.

Another area where data can make a creative difference is with setting prices. Could the business generate more revenue if it increased or reduced its prices? Fortunately, it is possible to measure a business’s sensitivity to price movements using past information. This sensitivity can be measured, with profit information overlaid on top, to determine the sweet-spot price point and boost business profitability. These are just two ways that data can provide incremental value – but there are many more.

Develop a test-and-learn culture Finally, and most importantly, once a business has used data measurement to provide evidence-based decisions, it can’t stop there. All businesses thrive on producing the new and different. So when teams build the new, data can provide a great foundation for their creativity.

Every business leader knows that their teams will have both good and bad ideas – with most ideas probably sitting somewhere in-between. True business success relies not only on continuing the good, but also on pausing the bad ideas. So when they implement new, creative ways of working, businesses should aim to set up a way of testing the performance of new ideas. There should be a clear time-frame and data capture process, with agreed-upon goals.

When this is in place, creative decision-making can be supported with an evidence-based approach. For example, if having measured the impact of a price and decided on a price increase or decrease, the business will need to continue to monitor the impact of the price change to ensure it has delivered against the objectives.

Unlock your inner creativity Businesses shouldn’t be afraid that, by using data, they are going to impact or undermine their creativity. In fact, the use of data frees creativity and ensures it delivers. Creating a data framework and building measurement off the back of it will generate significant business value, while also driving creativity through test and learn. It’s time for leaders to refocus their teams with data at the core.

David Walsh is an account director at predictive analytics firm, Brightblue Consulting. See www.brightblueconsulting.co.uk

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75

MANAGING MENTAL, PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL WELLBEING AND DEVELOPMENT 76 How to motivate your team The theory behind the achievement of results

A

77 Presentation skills Change your approach to public speaking

ccording to experts, body language is 80% of how we communicate. Psychologist and sociologist Dr Jeanne Segal describes facial expressions, gestures, posture, level of eye contact and tone of voice as “powerful communication tools”. She also explains that it is the coherence, or disparity, between these behaviours and the words spoken that generate trust or mistrust in the listener. In my previous life as a speech and language therapist, this concept was gold dust. But how important is it in coaching?

Active listening, as opposed to diagnostic listening, adds value in coaching by providing space to think and expand understanding of an issue. It ensures the coachee is the driver of the agenda, rather than positioning the coach as having all the answers. Some aspects of body language, however, such as physical behaviour and posture, can become a distraction in coaching. A frown, writing something down, a glance at a watch, for example, are all aspects of body language that require managing, since they could be interpreted as being judgmental or showing a lack of interest.

Conversely, a person’s voice, tone, volume and speed of talking all convey information about levels of excitement, thoughtfulness and engagement in the conversation. So what happens when coach and coachee can’t see each other?

I have been doing telephone coaching with a coachee who is a chief executive. Since

78 Physical intelligence Boost your performance with neuroscience

The invisible coach In coaching, body language can be an unwelcome distraction By

Amanda Smith

80 Book Club Edge reviews top leadership titles

we started working together, she has revised her business model to support sustainable growth. A second coachee is an executive director, whose personal values conflict with those of the company’s board, which is having a direct impact on his mental health.

Since our coaching began, he is now negotiating a way out into a new organisation.

A third coachee contacted me for coaching after seeing me present at a conference. At a crossroads in her work and life, she has now chosen an academic career and embarked on a PhD. The relationship with these clients is entirely telephone-based. We don’t see each other’s faces and body language.

Ex-professional tennis player and coach Timothy Gallwey developed the Inner Game concept: ‘potential minus interference equals performance’. ‘Interference’ refers to anything that will limit the chance of achieving your potential. While the focus is on reducing internal and external interference for the coachee, there are also possible interferences for the coach, such as their own thoughts, opinions and judgments.

The dynamic of audio coaching is supported by the Inner Game theory.

Without the interference of visual distraction, the focus is more intensely on the coachee’s potential for growth and change, to optimise performance in the achievement of goals.

Dr Amanda Smith is a certified executive coach and mentor, working with leaders in health and education, as well as providing strategic leadership training for senior healthcare teams. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership & Management. See amandasmithcoaching.co.uk

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Live & Learn HOW TO...

How to… motivate people to achieve results

M

otivation is a slippery thing. There are as many motivating factors as there are people.

Each of us has different levers, so what is a manager to do?

There are only two ways you can know how to motivate me. The first is to take a guess based on the latest management theory, or the last course you attended, or the book you read on the way to work. Alternatively, you can take the time to get to know me.

Even then, motivation is still a difficult force to understand and channel. Fortunately, the work of one brilliant psychologist shows us why motivation so often goes wrong. Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory suggests that people can be motivated to behave in a certain way when they expect the outcome of that behaviour to result in a desirable reward.

Effort

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The first element in the theory is effort.

This is the work your colleague needs to put into the task at hand.

Performance This is about the results that your colleague gets from the effort they put in. Problems can start to unfold if your colleague does not have enough confidence that putting in the effort will yield the performance you need.

Vroom called this ‘expectancy’. If I think a task is unfairly demanding, I don’t expect to succeed, so my motivation dips. Underestimating the power of expectancy is a common mistake of over-demanding managers. Unsurprisingly, it is especially prevalent in workplaces where people feel overstretched.

We must believe that we will be suitably rewarded for our efforts By Mike Clayton

Reward The third element in the theory is the reward that you (or your organisation) promises for achieving the performance level that has been set. Performance issues are likely to arise if I don’t believe that getting the results you asked of me will truly yield the reward you promised. Think back to times when managers promised bonuses, promotions or pay rises, which then failed to materialise.

What effect did those broken promises have on the team’s performance?

Vroom called this ‘instrumentality’ and noted that I need to believe that my performance will be instrumental in securing the promised reward.

Outcome The last element of the theory is the outcome that I get from the effort I put in. What is critical here is the value – or ‘valence’ – of the reward you offer. If I don’t believe the outcome is worth the effort, I won’t be motivated to do the work.

So, while high rewards may not be motivating, low rewards certainly are demotivating.

Effective motivation If you want to motivate me to achieve results, you need to set me a task where I believe the effort I put in will deliver the performance you expect. And I must believe that if I do achieve the performance you require, you will give the reward you promised. And, finally, I need to believe that the reward you promised is of enough value to justify the effort that I will need to make in the first place.

Mike Clayton is a speaker, management trainer and author of 14 books, including ‘How to Speak so People Listen’ and ‘How to Influence in Any Situation’. See MikeClayton.co.uk and OnlinePMCourses.com

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Live & Learn PUBLIC SPEAKING

It’s good to talk Change the way you think about public speaking and you will get a better response By

A

presentation may seem as though it is a one-way activity. It never really is, however, because the audience is always responding to the presenter through their body language, including eye contact, expressions and gestures. They may even laugh, cheer or gasp in amazement.

As many people are tired of stuffy presentations, however, it is like a breath of fresh air when a speaker simply talks ‘normally’ to them, rather than at them.

Conversations do feel different from presentations because: 2 Presentations can have a formal atmosphere; 2 Conversations are often friendly and informal; 2 A conversational style can relax the audience; 2 Rapport can be easily built through a conversational style.

So how can you be more conversational in your presentations? Here are five practical suggestions.

Illustration by Janne Iivonen Shutterstock

1

Think of it as a conversation – and you will act as though it is The way you think affects how you come across and it changes how the audience responds. That is the power of the mind. When you speak like you are having a conversation, the audience will feel as if you are relating to them more personally. So, instead of being in a ‘presenting’ mindset, think as if it is a conversation.

Graham Shaw

2

Regard your audiences as if they are friends you have never met I used to be apprehensive when giving talks and would wonder if some people would be difficult to manage. When I got to know them, however, almost all of them turned out to be very nice. Then something dawned on me. Instead of waiting to find out, perhaps I could decide from the beginning that they were nice people. I decided to think of them as if they were friends I had never met. It made a huge difference to my confidence. Think of your audience as if they are friends. It will positively change how you perceive them and how they respond.

3

Think of your presentation as a story A presentation can feel like an ordeal for the presenter and audience. Slides can seem like hurdles. But a presentation is a story: it has a beginning, middle and end. When you think of your presentation as a story, you will explain it better and people will absorb your message more easily.

4

Prepare good links to make the presentation flow A good conversation flows and a presentation should do the same. To achieve this, make sure you have good links between each point that you are making and the next. Links act as signposts and people can follow you more easily.

5

Do not read – just talk to the audience Do not read from a script unless you need to quote something. It can come across as stilted and feel like the opposite of conversational.

Graham Shaw is the author of ‘The Speaker’s Coach: 60 Secrets to Make Your Talk, Speech or Presentation Amazing’

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Live & Learn NEUROSCIENCE

Physical intelligence Neuroscience-proven techniques can boost your performance as a leader Writing Claire Dale & Patricia Peyton

W

e are living in an era defined by change.

This change is being driven by technological advances, a constant push for innovation and growth, and the evolving expectations of customers and employees, among other factors.

Leaders are having to deal with the pressure of change on top of their more traditional responsibilities. But the truth is that humans are not evolving as quickly as the pace of change around us – leaving many of us struggling to meet, let alone exceed, expectations. So, what can we do?

To achieve peak performance in the midst of this storm, we have to use our heads, or more accurately, our brains – and bodies – because the solution is rooted in neuroscience. You’re already familiar with cognitive intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ). How familiar are you with physical intelligence, however?

We all have hundreds of chemicals racing through our bloodstreams. They dictate how we think, feel, speak and behave. Physical intelligence is the ability to detect and actively manage the balance of certain key chemicals through how we think, breathe, move and communicate to achieve more, stress less and live – and work – more happily.

Simple techniques – some that take only seconds – when applied consistently, have transformed countless personal and professional lives.

For example, with physical intelligence, you can:

2 Learn how to build and sustain the emotional and mental strength required for accountability, clarity, decision-making, high levels of energy and motivation, positivity and strategy.

2 Develop the flexibility required to establish and strengthen significant internal and external relationships, maintaining team agility and productivity to achieve goals.

2 Understand and apply resilience techniques and processes to diffuse conflict, establish and coach high-performing teams, and achieve maximum collaboration and results.

2 Prepare and rehearse strategies to build capacity and endurance for long-term success.

There are more than 100 physical intelligence techniques. To get you started, here are a few to help you to manage your chemical balance and enhance leadership performance in some key areas.

Increase your confidence

WITH GOOD POSTURE, WE FEEL EMPOWERED, STRONGER AND MORE PRESENT

Perfect your posture. Posture impacts how we, and those around us, feel and perceive us. With good posture, we feel empowered, stronger and more present and at ease. An open, expansive posture projects confidence and leadership ability more than any leadership title.

To increase confidence, stand in a winner (starfish) pose for two minutes before key events. This will balance out cortisol (your body’s hormonal response to stress) and adrenalin (the hormone that prepares your body for ‘fight or flight’).

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2 Encourage a combination of convergent and divergent thinking across teams.

Inspire trust Creating excellent trusted relationships requires us to balance our own agendas with those of others. We need to communicate well and flex our behavioural style to create the chemistry of trust – this chemistry is the result of a balance of dopamine, oxytocin and testosterone (the hormone associated with independent competitive action), as well as the management of cortisol.

Build resilience

Paced breathing helps us to manage demanding situations. Use it daily to release acetylcholine (the recovery chemical that counteracts adrenaline).

Breathe diaphragmatically, smoothly and regularly, measure the length of each breath in and explore how many counts are comfortable for you, for at least ten minutes a day.

Hold your ground Being centred puts everything in perspective. To ‘ground’ yourself, feel the weight of your body on the ground, or in a chair. Continue paced breathing, releasing tension in the body. Place your centre of mass where you need it (move around to find the optimal point). Breathe deeply and focus. Repeat three times: balance, breathe, focus.

Generate creative solutions Use these techniques to reduce cortisol and boost DHEA (a steroid hormone involved in the production of other hormones), dopamine (the chemical involved with seeking reward), oxytocin (the hormone that facilitates bonding and trust), and serotonin (the ‘happy chemical’ that contributes to feelings of wellbeing and happiness): 2 Stretch to release tension ‘hot spots’.

2 Shake out your arms and legs.

2 Twist at the waist twice a day.

2 Spark creativity by taking a walk or looking at beautiful objects in art or in nature.

Maintain optimal cortisol levels by blocking out time in your schedule each week for REST: retreat, eat (healthily), sleep and treat. Write ‘REST’ in blocks in your calendar and guard those windows.

Bounce back

WE NEED TO COMMUNICATE WELL TO CREATE THE CHEMISTRY OF TRUST

Think of a setback or mistake you have made. Zoom in and see a ‘close-up’ of yourself. Remember the intensity of feelings at the time. Then zoom out, to include contributing elements of the past and present. Know you’re not alone and others have experienced, or are currently experiencing, similar situations. If you’re dwelling on something, talk to someone you trust, then commit to letting it go.

Maintain a positive mindset Start the day with a positive mindset by listing all of the things that are going well at work and home.

Feel gratitude. Smile at yourself in the mirror every morning. It boosts serotonin. And literally jump for joy – because jumping promotes optimism.

Aim for long-term goals Set daily and long-term priorities, goals and milestones. To generate the energy to move forward, firm and flex your muscles. Celebrate every time you achieve a milestone (which boosts your dopamine and testosterone).

If you give these physical intelligence techniques a try, you could find that you transform your leadership performance through neuroscience.

Claire Dale and Patricia Peyton are the authors of new wellbeing book, ‘Physical Intelligence’

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Live & Learn BOOK CLUB

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

Capitalism in Crisis, Volume One Authors Charles Hampden-Turner, Fons Trompenaars and Linda O’Riordan Price £15.99 Filament Publishing

Good relationships underpin organisational success Since publishing the critically acclaimed Radical Man in 1970, management philosopher Charles Hampden-Turner has made many good contributions to management thought. Seeking to not criticise, but to improve, the quality of leadership

and management that we experience, he has always taken a global perspective to his work.

Hampden-Turner’s latest book, Crisis in Capitalism, Volume One, co-authored with Fons Trompenaars, and Linda O’Riordan, is no different.

Using cleverly crafted cartoons, the book identifies many dilemmas of our age and highlights how all problems are about reconciling values.

There are solutions out there if we are prepared to look at reconciliation, as opposed to conflict.

For leaders, the important takeaways from this book relate to the recurrent themes of relationships and mutual benefit. In any business agreement, there has to be mutual respect and recognition that every stake-

THERE HAS TO BE MUTUAL RESPECT holder must be adequately rewarded.

Leaders should respect and value the contribution everybody is making, and recognise the interdependencies. If one person takes advantage of another, or gains at the expense of another, the cycle of wealth creation begins to break down.

I’m looking forward to Capitalism in Crisis, Volume Two, where the authors will present some of the solutions to the crises that they have identified. I can’t say enough positive words about the succinct writing style used in the book – the way that a big problem is condensed so brilliantly into just a few words.

Reviewer Kate Cooper is head of research, policy and standards at the Institute of Leadership & Management

The Wellbeing Book Author Andrew Sharman Price £9.99 LID Publishing

Looking after yourself can be simple if you let it In separate sections, The Wellbeing Book examines the mind, body and soul, and how each can be enhanced by simple wellbeing techniques. Some of the techniques Sharman cites are well known – drink water, get lots of

Smart Business Author Ming Zeng Price £23 Harvard Business Review Press

Platforms offer low cost, high customisability, and huge reach In fewer than 20 years, Jack Ma and his 17 co-founders built Alibaba from scratch into an ecommerce giant that has the capacity to handle four times as many transactions per second as Visa. On a single day in 2017, it sold

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

sleep, switch off your mobile phone an hour before bedtime and get regular exercise. Others are less obvious.

He talks about finding simple, slow activities such as knitting or splitting logs as a way to become mindfully engaged in subtle achievement. Some of his other important and useful tips include devoting time each day to acquiring new knowledge, keeping a positive journal of things that you are thankful for and choosing to live a remarkable life. One of my favourite chapters is on music. In it, Sharman explains that music has been found to have a positive effect on people suffering from depression and is shown to reduce hypertension and improve sleep quality.

Fundamentally, the book offers 50 different ‘ideas’ about wellbeing.

For each idea, Sharman recommends one or more activities to put the idea into practice. The breadth of the ideas in the book means it is something the reader will need to keep coming back to time and again in order to get the most out of it. I found that it offered lots of useful new insights on wellbeing, as well as reminders of what I already know but neglect to practice. The only reason I knocked half a star off the rating was that there were areas where I would have liked more depth, but I realise I’m probably asking too much of what was only ever intended to be a pocket guide.

812 million packages, which then travelled the equivalent of 40 roundtrips from Earth to Pluto to reach their buyers. And it achieved this without owning any retailers, warehouses or logistics firms.

In this book, the company’s former chief strategy officer, Ming Zeng, describes how Alibaba represents the future of business. Its approach can be used to rebuild any business model on Earth, better, from scratch.

The first step is to provide a platform that connects thousands of vendors and their outsourced back-end organisations (marketing, logistics, finance and so on) in ways that enable them to operate and innovate as if they are part of a single

company. The second step is to use data and machine learning to create an automated personalised shopping experience for millions of customers – one that constantly experiments to find what works better.

Zeng describes how Alibaba works, along with its values and principles of success, providing specific examples. One of the strengths of the book is that he doesn’t just sing the praises of Alibaba. He recognises that ‘other platforms are also available’. This excellent book is a must-read for anybody who wants to understand the opportunities, and threats, that come from the emerging platform model.

Reviewer Sally Percy is editor of ‘Edge’

Reviewer Finn Jackson is a leadership and change coach, consultant and author

The Learning Imperative Authors Mark Burns and Andy Griffith Price £18.99 Crown House Publishing

Raise the bar by raising performance The Learning Imperative was not only an enjoyable read, which is quite an accolade for a performance management book, it was also like leafing through an instructional manual.

The authors recognise that raising performance is a long game, which requires regular, supported and sustained effort or habits to make improvements in a multitude of areas. They identify techniques for opening up closed mindsets and building relational trust. They also highlight routes to closing perception gaps. Their reference to organisational research and case studies illustrates what can be achieved against a backdrop of market volatility, uncertain budgets and complex ways of measuring performance.

Each chapter contains real takeaway activities that can be put into practice immediately, with proven positive outcomes.

Reviewer Barry Wilding-Webb is a leadership coach, learning and development practitioner and training manager

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Live & Learn BOOK CLUB

New Female Tribes Author Rachel Pashley Price £20 Virgin Books

We are all role models to those who are vulnerable This book is about “shattering female stereotypes and redefining women today”. The author is not looking to give anecdotal, skin-deep comment on how women see themselves; she intends to give breadth and depth so that her commentary has substance and can be relied upon and used to drive change one step at a time.

As I read it, I was unsure who the book was aimed at. Is it a social record representing a period in time? Is it for marketeers to target women more accurately? Or is it to motivate and reassure

IT’S ABOUT REDEFINING WOMEN TODAY

Africa’s Business Revolution Authors Acha Leke, George Desvaux, and Musta Chironga Price £25 Harvard Business Review Press

Think big and be brave From reading this book, I expected to learn more about Africa and how businesses within it operate – and it did not disappoint in this respect. It is well laid out, with clear signposting in the chapter titles and also within each chapter. Many of the chapters break the content down into a few key ideas, with suggestions on how to implement them. The book is reliant on McKinsey research, but it is interspersed with personal anecdotes from the authors – all of whom have experience of the continent.

ESSENTIALLY A CALL TO ENTREPRENEURS

women that change is here and anything is possible? It fits all of those descriptors, but that isn’t clear at a glance.

Publication of the book is timely since women continue to take centre stage in the media. Equality is on the agenda and there is far more representation in the public eye of diverse ages and cultures.

One of my key takeaways was just how important positive role models are to help other women get the courage to break the mould for themselves.

The author says that: “Putting brand value to one side, it’s my mission also to remove some of the institutional barriers to women’s progression.” I think it will take more than this book to achieve that. She adds that she hopes serving up the evidence “may prove persuasive and inspire change”. I hope so, too. We all know the journey ahead is a long one and that changing the hearts and minds of the real influencers is a battle. Fortunately, there are some strong women out there, like Rachel Pashley, who are prepared to do their bit to accelerate the process.

Reviewer Penny Whitelock FinstLM is director of Crystal Clear Business Solutions

The authors want to encourage businesses to invest in Africa because they believe it is a market that will provide rewards for investors and also for countries in the region. A sentiment expressed in the book is that: “Only entrepreneurs can create the millions of jobs we need to power Africa’s economies out of poverty.”

The authors acknowledge the barriers to doing business in Africa, including the obvious ones of scale and scope. Many of the barriers mentioned apply to businesses in general, and particularly startups, but others are specific to developing countries, e.g. access to reliable power supplies.

The book convinced me that Africa has potential, but only for organisations with deep pockets and a long-term outlook of at least a decade. Success relies on developing new products to fit the African market, developing your own infrastructure, integrating the whole value chain, and building relationships with political regimes. The book is essentially a call to entrepreneurs who already operate in Africa, or executives working for larger organisations that are seeking expansion opportunities.

Reviewer Christine Elgood MBA designs business simulations and is MD of Elgood Effective Learning

Leadership Legend

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All in the head Is much ‘mental illness’ essentially a misnomer?

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any years ago we began to classify mental disturbance as an illness requiring medical care and assistance. This may have succeeded in evoking sympathy for those suffering, and may have saved many from prison, but there are numerous downsides to it. If someone is psychotic and cannot help it, then it is about the greatest negation one human being can inflict upon another.

At least a punished prisoner is assumed to have acted deliberately, but not a word uttered by the mentally disabled is given credence. Instead they are prescribed drugs and institutionalised, but quite soon they may become addicted to those drugs and suffer from institutional psychosis that arises from how they have been treated.

It is true that mental health is the stepchild in the medical system. This is partly due to the chronic failure rate for treatment, and many doctors choosing to avoid treating it altogether. This abdication could be accounted for if mental illness were not an illness in the normal sense of the word, and had, in fact, been misclassified.

Some breakdowns come from external shock – for example, a child losing both parents in a traffic accident. In these circumstances, a breakdown may be preferable to sanity, since it effectively prevents the child from harming him or herself.

The patient usually recovers from such reactive schizophrenia.

Interestingly, whole categories of ‘illness’ have also disappeared over the years.

In the time of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, hysteria was so common among women that it was named after their wombs.

By

Charles Hampden-Turner

Today it is rare. One reason for this is that men can no longer get away with the sexual predation that was common at that time. In those days, going ‘blind’, fainting or screaming were all ways of escaping the clutches of the person being forced upon you by society.

My own view is that ‘mental illness’ is a breakdown in significant human relations.

Those who visit it upon others get sent to prison. Those who visit it upon themselves can be sent to the doctor or to a hospital. But the cure for it is similar to those cures put

WE SHOULD BE STOPPING PEOPLE FROM FALLING ‘ILL’ IN THE FIRST PLACE forward by the likes of recognised mutual aid groups Alcoholics Anonymous and WW (formerly known as Weight Watchers).

For example, Alcoholics Anonymous has this answer for people who can’t relax without drinking alcohol: No alcohol ever again, and call a real friend so you can relax with her or him and relate to another person, instead of texting fellow addicts you hardly know on social media. The latter will only make you so much worse.

It seems clear that we should be stopping people from falling ‘ill’ in the first place.

A company with a social purpose and a mission to serve others will inevitably have fewer casualties than one engaged in meaningless, routine and selfish tasks. Positive mental health and wellness programmes are the answer.

Charles Hampden-Turner is a British management philosopher, and was a senior research associate at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge

SUPER SIGNS

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Plus Charles Handy AUTUMN 2019

Digital body language Narcissism can be good