The Art Of Magazine: Volume 12

Stop Reading & Start Leading Mark Bowden

A Not-So-Modest Plan To Save Bookstores Martin Lindstrom

Why We Shouldn’t Reward Ourselves For Good Habits With One Exception Gretchen Rubin

What Engaging Managers Do Differently Chester Elton FALL 15 Price: $7.95

FALL 2015

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CONTENTS

FALL 2015

FEATURES 7

IF YOU WANT CHANGE, YOU MUST HAVE STRUCTURE Marshall Goldsmith

14

WHAT ENGAGING MANAGERS DO DIFFERENTLY Chester Elton

16

STOP READING & START LEADING Mark Bowden

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47

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HOW ANY COMPANY CAN INCREASE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT TO DRIVE BIG RESULTS WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS Michel Falcon HOW TO MAXIMIZE THE LEARNING ROI OF YOUR TRAINING PROGRAM Bill G. Williams ACTIONABLE SUMMARY: HOW GOOGLE WORKS Zach Obront

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WHY WE SHOULDN’T REWARD OURSELVES FOR GOOD HABITS -WITH ONE EXCEPTION Gretchen Rubin

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A NOT-SO-MODEST PLAN TO SAVE BOOKSTORES FROM THE GRIM REAPER THAT IS AMAZON Martin Lindstrom

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U-TURNS ARE GOOD, AND OTHER LESSONS LEARNED Andrea Stairs

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THE FEMALE MILLENIAL: A NEW ERA OF TALENT Penny Partridge

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ARE YOU PREPARED FOR TEMPTATION? Vince Molinaro

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MVR: MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE Dana Marie Krook

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HOW EVERYONE WINS WHEN “WE” COMES BEFORE “ME” Peter Aceto

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ARE YOU AN ALL IN LEADER? Lorne Rubis

GRAPHIC RECORDINGS FROM THE ART OF LEADERSHIP FOR WOMEN Carolyn Ellis

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LEADING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE INTO THE FUTURE Sooky Lee

NEGOTIATION TIPS: TAKE IT FROM WOMEN Tara Mohr

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THE ART OF LEGAL LEADERSHIP Norrie Campbell

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GRAPHIC RECORDINGS FROM THE ART OF MARKETING Carolyn Ellis

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THE REAL REASON FOR GOOGLE’S FREE FOOD David Burkus

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HOW TO MARRY CONTENT & STRATEGY FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT John Jantsch

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THE MARKETOONIST Tom Fishburne

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42

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FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS Marshall Goldsmith

Page. 7

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author & World-Renowned Leadership Expert

Mark Bowden

Page. 16

Communication Expert, Performance Trainer & Bestselling Author of Winning Body Language

Gretchen Rubin

Page. 42

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Happiness Project, Happier at Home & Better Than Before

Martin Lindstrom New York Times Bestselling Author of Buyology, Brandsense & Brandwashed

Page. 61

Founders’ Letter “The best way to contribute to a brand-new environment is not by trying to prove what a wonderful addition you are. It’s by trying to have a neutral impact, to observe and learn from those who are already there, and to pitch in with the grunt work wherever possible.”

- Col. Chris Hadfield

CO-FOUNDERS Scott Kavanagh Christopher Novais

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Learning wasn’t optional when it was your full-time job and your peers all did it too. It was likely one of your top priorities for many years of your life. Yet the real world called. Amidst the flurry of conference calls, meetings, and emails, amongst many other interruptions, it can be easy to forget that learning is important. More importantly, learning is actually a part of everyone’s job. Especially yours.

One of our frequent speakers, Chris Hadfield, really hit it on the nose when it comes to the nitty gritty of learning. When you’re thrust into a new situation -- and it probably happens more than you’d like -- it’s best to stay quiet and focus on helping out wherever you fit in. He has another great quote about competence, which he defines as, “keeping your head in a crisis, sticking with a task even when it seems hopeless, and improvising good solutions to tough problems when every second counts. It encompasses ingenuity, determination and being prepared for anything.”

No matter your industry, position, or role, learning has always been good for business. In today’s fast-paced environment, learning is critical for good business. The Art Of has always believed in the ROI of learning and we’re looking to build on this even more in the future.

We’d love to hear your feedback about this magazine, our conferences, and The Art Of in general. If you have a chance, please send us an email at magazine@theartof.com Helping you succeed,

Joey Van Massenhoven

HOW TO REACH US The Art of Productions Inc. 46 Sherbourne Street 3rd Floor Toronto, Ontario Canada M5A 2P7

ADVERTISING Ron Bester - Director, Business Development 416-479-9701 ext. 322 ron@theartof.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS Visit: www.theartof.com/magazine Email: magazine@theartof.com Call: 866-992-7863 (In U.S.A and Canada) Write to The Art Of: Subscription Services 46 Sherbourne Street, 3rd Floor, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 2P7 Our subscribers list is occasionally made available to carefully selected firms whose products or services may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive information from these firms, please let us know at privacy@theartof. com or send your request along with your mailing label to The Art of Productions Inc, 46 Sherbourne Street, 3rd Floor, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 2P7

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Agreement Number 42343517 C2012 The Art Magazine is published quarterly by The Art of Productions Inc. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. No part of this publication may be used without written permission from the publisher. Subscription rate is $30.00 annually.

AT WXN, WE INSPIRE SMART WOMEN TO LEAD. We promise our members will learn from thought leaders, connect with smart women and celebrate accomplishments.

Founded in 1997, WXN is Canada’s leading organization dedicated to the advancement and recognition of women in management, executive, professional and board roles. WXN has a global community of 19,500 smart women and 100+ organizations, working to promote gender diversity at all levels of leadership. We are thrilled to announce we are launching in the UK, our next step in building a global community.

JOIN US AND BE RECOGNIZED AS AN EMPLOYER OF CHOICE AND A LEADER IN THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN. TheWXN WXNETWORK.COM

If You Want Change,You Must Have Structure! Marshall Goldsmith In my 35 years as an executive coach, I have seen some of the world’s most powerful leaders struggle with changing their behavior. I have come to believe that no one, no matter how determined or passionate, can do it without structure.

You might wake up every morning sure that you will spend your day listening better, being more patient or watching less television (or whatever your goal happens to be). But without external structure – a

FALL 2015

person or a plan to guide you – it will be almost impossible to stay on track.

That’s because we chronically underestimate the difficulty of making even small changes in our behavior, as I argue in my book, “Triggers: Becoming the Person You Want to Be” (with Mark Reiter, Crown, 2015). A trigger is any stimulus that reshapes our thoughts and actions. In every waking hour we are being triggered by people, events

and circumstances that have the potential to change us. These stimuli are more powerful than we realize.

Triggers can be good, spurring us on to achievements large and small. They can also be bad, luring us away from meeting our goals. The smell of bacon wafts up from the kitchen, and we forget our doctor’s advice about lowering our cholesterol. Our colleagues work late every night, so we feel obliged to match

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their commitment, and miss one of our kid’s baseball games, then another, then another. Our phone chirps, and we glance at the glowing screen instead of looking into the eyes of the person we love.

Structure is our best defense against the triggers in our environment. Creating structure is a big part of what I do as an executive coach, helping successful leaders achieve positive lasting change in behavior.

My process of helping clients is straightforward and consistent. I interview and listen to my clients’ key stakeholders. These stakeholders could be their colleagues, direct reports or board members. I accumulate a lot of confidential feedback. Then I go over the summary of this feedback with my clients. My clients take ultimate responsibility for the behavioral changes that they want to make.

I help my clients achieve positive, lasting change in the behavior that they choose as judged by key stakeholders that they choose. In other words, I help them become the person that they want to become. If my clients succeed in achieving this positive change – as judged by their stakeholders – I get paid. If the key stakeholders do not

see positive change, I don’t get paid.

Our odds of success improve because I’m with the client every step of the way, telling him or her how to stay on track and not regress to a former self. While personal coaching is tremendously effective, it’s not possible for everyone.

But anyone can use a basic structure to achieve behavioral change. Over the course of my career, I have created and refined structures that work. One of the

“ This process keeps me focused on becoming a happier, healthier person.” most effective is the Daily Questions. I teach it in my seminars, recommend it to my clients – and I use it for myself.

My ritual goes like this: at a prearranged time, I get a phone call from a person who I have hired solely for the purpose of listening to me report my scores on a brief self-test. The questions (32 of them, at last count), which I wrote myself, function as a simple checklist

Marshall Goldsmith is a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author & World-Renowned Leadership Expert

of my life’s main priorities. They ask whether I’ve done my best to exercise, set goals, have positive interactions with others, etc. My caller listens politely, perhaps offers a few general words of encouragement and hangs up.

This process keeps me focused on becoming a happier, healthier person. It provides discipline I sorely need in my chaotic working life as a coach, teacher and speaker, which involves traveling 180 days out of the year to countries all over the globe. At the seminars I teach, I encourage students to try it for themselves by writing their own questions. To date, almost 3,000 have completed an online version of the Daily Questions. Many others have emailed me seeking guidance on how to write questions of their own.

The process holds you accountable for meeting your behavioral goals – every day. For that reason, it can be hard to keep up the regimen. However, when you stick with it, the rewards can be great. I have seen many leaders succeed in making lasting changes in their behavior, becoming the patient, generous, kind and inspiring people they always knew they could be – using the right kind of structure.

Leaders don’t flinch.

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U-TURNS ARE GOOD, & OTHER LESSONS LEARNED

By Andrea Stairs Managing Director, eBay Canada

These days, we’re told that the path from education to dream job isn’t a straight line, and mine has been no different. But, rather than perceiving the twists and turns that come as scary or intimidating, I’ve found it better to embrace the freedom and opportunities they offer. And, while it’s easy to

feel alone when facing major decisions or adversity, these experiences are actually shared by most people – the difference is how you deal with them and whether you see yourself as master of your own career. I’d like to take you through some of the learnings I’ve made as I connected my career dots.

U-TURNS ARE ALLOWED, EVEN ENCOURAGED Like many others completing graduate school, I bet on what I thought would be a stimulating and in-demand career path.

For me, that was corporate finance. Two years in, I realized I’d taken the wrong path. It dawned on me that I was insane to

think the best part of my day was eating a frozen dinner in bed at 9 pm!

After this uncomfortable realization, I took a hard look at my job and identified the elements I enjoyed, like business strategy, and looked for roles that would

help me build on that experience while leaving behind some of the less appealing aspects. In other words, I pulled a U-turn - and it was the best decision I could have made. Looking back, I learned two important lessons when I decided to U-turn:

1. Taking a U-turn doesn’t mean you made a mistake or wasted your time. Despite our best efforts, we make career decisions based on limited information. Consequently, we’ll inevitably pick some roles that don’t pan out as expected. But you can’t be held hostage by the sunk costs of education or the time invested in a role. Instead, learn what you can then move on.

2. If you’re smart and competent, you can adequately do any job. But, to be truly successful, you need to find roles that align with your passions and take advantage of your core strengths. A strategic U-turn can make all the difference between being ‘adequate’ and ‘excellent’.

CULTURE COUNTS… A LOT Your fit with a company’s culture is determinative of your success. While some jobs may look amazing on paper, they can be a tough slog if you’re not aligned with the company’s values and ways of working.

I experienced this first hand when I took a role at a major retailer. It was a great brand and I had a strategic position – the

perfect fit, I thought – but I was never able to read the culture, even after two years. I was permanently on shaky ground. When I moved to eBay, I initially took the role as a short-term learning opportunity thinking a career in technology wouldn’t be for me.

But, I immediately saw the impact that strong personal/corporate alignment could make. Even though I wasn’t a techie,

I excelled in eBay’s entrepreneurial, meritbased culture. I understood how decisions were made and what was required of me to be successful. Ultimately, it meant I could focus on my work rather than devoting time and effort into deciphering and navigating office politics.

Find your place and your people. It will make all the difference to your success.

to hit the gas versus when to ease off.

And, it’s not enough to make these decisions on your own; you need to involve your partner or immediate family. For example, two parents can’t both have their feet on the gas without negotiating how home life will be managed. My foot came

off the pedal when I had two children. I went to work and continued to do my job well, but I wasn’t pushing as hard as I had before. After my last maternity leave, I was promoted to Managing Director of eBay Canada; it was time (and I was ready) to go back up to full speed.

DON’T BE A LEAD FOOT I’ve learned from experience – mine and other’s – that you can’t spend your whole career giving 120 per cent.

If you don’t want to burn out or be left incapable of dealing with major life events, you have to take conscious control of your career and decide when

DON’T FALL FOR THE LEADERSHIP MYTH People rise to leadership positions because they’re effective at getting things done. The irony is that the skills that get you the title are not the ones you’ll need to do the job. It doesn’t suffice to know the right answer or be a great executor; as a leader your role is to empower others and bring out the best in them. To do this, you will likely have to pick up some new skills.

For me, this means working on building a portfolio of leadership styles by complementing the more directive, managerial style that was so effective earlier in my career with more inclusive

and collaborative approaches.

In doing this, I’ve quickly learned that it’s okay to ask for help. More so, I’ve learned that the leaders I admire also ask for help. No one finds this easy; everyone needs to actively work on becoming the kind of leaders we want to be.

Now, mid-way through my career, I know that it will always be a work-inprogress. And, I’m sure that I have many more lessons to learn. But my one guiding principle is this: In order to get the most out of your career, you have to be strategic.

If you find yourself in a place or line

of work where you aren’t thriving, reassess and take the reins. Figure out where you want to go and make a move. Invest in yourself. If you don’t manage your career, no one else will.

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WHAT

ENGAGING MANAGERS DO DIFFERENTLY

By Chester Elton

It’s the main thing a leader is supposed to do—engaging people—and yet the truth is very few of the smart, driven managers we talk with every year come naturally to it.

Business experts have been talking about the need for engagement since the early 1990s. And yet despite this, in most companies nothing changes. Workers are not getting more engaged. On the contrary, they are disengaging in droves.

SOMETHING IS MISSING. What we’ve found in all our research is this: To achieve higher levels of engagement, managers have to find out what really motivates each of their people—individually. Managing is more of a one-on-one game than we may have realized.

Here’s a quick example to illustrate the point. One of the best leaders of people we know is William Lovett, coach of the Jaguars, an inner-city high school basketball team in East Orange, New Jersey. This is a part of the world where they take their basketball very seriously.

Games are loud, pulse pounding, and insanely competitive. You can only imagine the challenge of coaching talented 14- to 17-year-olds who need a helping hand.

William is a whiz with xs and os, but the reason he wins so many games is that his players would walk through fire for him. He cares about them as individuals and they know it. The first hour of every practice is homework time. He makes sure the kids go to class, stay out of

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trouble, and eat right. He has been coach of the year twice, and almost every one of his kids goes on to college.

Watching him in action is a graduateschool lesson in leadership.

In a run-up contest before the city championships this spring, the Jaguars were playing a cross-town rival. Before the end of the first half, one of coach Lovett’s star players started slacking off on defense, was a little late on the help-side defense and slow to get back after a basket. Coach Lovett pulled the kid off the court and yelled a blue streak while the young player sat on the bench fuming. Yet only a few minutes later another player grew cold. This kid missed a few 3-point shots, his specialty, and committed a turnover. William called that young man off the court, patted him on the back, told him to shake it off and warmly assured him he’d be out again soon.

“What’s up with that?” we asked Coach Lovett after the game. He confided, “Oh, there’s no way I could yell

at him, it would destroy his confidence.

But (the first player), I found he doesn’t respond unless I get in his face. It’s a challenge to him to prove me wrong.”

And sure enough, in the second half both players responded with increased effort and focus and the Jaguars won going away.

The problem most managers face in the busy corporate world is they try to treat everyone the same. We aren’t. Every person on this planet has a thumbprintlike makeup of what makes him or her most engaged 9-to-5.

Over the last ten years we have interviewed more than 850,000 working adults around the globe for our books.

What that has revealed is that most engaged people have aligned more of their work with their core motivations.

As for those who are most unhappy at work, as you might expect, their jobs are out of alignment with what they are passionate about. They aren’t doing what they love, on the contrary their work is demoralizing.

FALL 2015

Yes, it might take a bit more work for a manager, but the most successful leaders we’ve interviewed have discovered the way to help their employees have more engaged and successful work lives is helping each person on the team understand his or her motivations; and then doing a little sculpting of the nature of their jobs or tasks to better match duties with passions. This “job sculpting” can have a huge payback for leaders, as it can help diagnose how each team member’s specific tasks are (or are not) aligned with his or her motivations, and uncover

subtle changes that can lead to increases in morale, engagement, and results.

As we’ve shared this in our consulting work it has resonated with some. Last year we were working with a large medical center suffering from low engagement and high turnover in its nursing ranks. Valuable CNAs, LPNs, and RNs were walking out the door almost as fast as the organization could hire them. As we spoke with the senior-most leader, he reached an epiphany: “The more I’m thinking about this issue the more I believe we’ve

missed the mark with our nurses. What motivates a labor-and-delivery nurse is vastly different from what motivates an emergency room nurse or an oncology nurse. But we’ve been treating them all the same—they have all been ‘nurses’ to us. We need to start understanding what really motivates an individual joining a particular team, or even someone who’s been here for a long time. We need to put people in the right roles, for sure, but we also need to give each nurse specific assignments they’ll find motivating.”

Well said.

So, as a manager, how do you find out what motivates your people? As one starter, you might sit down with each of your people individually and ask them a few simple starter questions. Here’s how the conversation could go: 1. Tell me about your best work experience ever – Think about a time in your life when you were most engaged at work, you gave extra effort without being asked, you believed your work really made a difference.

2. Write down a few of those “best-work” specifics –Why exactly was that your best work experience? What specific assignments did you have? How did your manager act toward you?

3. Now, think about what’s really important to you at work? – Identify those key concepts that jump out at you from the list as the most motivating to you. What insights do you gain into what’s important to you at work right now? How might we use those ideas in sculpting your job a little to be more motivating and engaging to you?

Chester Elton, New York Times & #1 Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of All In, The Carrot Principle & What Motivates Me

STOP READING, & START LEADING

THE TOP WAYS TO USE YOUR BODY LANGUAGE TO INFLUENCE AND PERSUADE THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU

By Mark Bowden As a leader, chances are you have to present more than just now and again. Whether it is to deliver a plan, win over your peers or motivate the team - how your ideas get heard, understood and trusted is essential if you are to stand out from the crowd and increase your credibility.

The pressure of communicating can often lead any of us to wishing we could have the upper hand by reading other’s body language as we speak to answer the question of “do they like me and my ideas”,“are they buying in?” or quite often “do they think I totally suck!?”

Well, there is plenty out there to digest on how you might gain

a nonverbal advantage through trying to read the silent cues that betray peoples’ real feelings about you or your ideas. But none the less, when it comes to detecting if others around you have been honest about what they have said, here’s the bad news… even the most expert in the field know that every credible study conducted for the last thirty years has demonstrated that we humans are no better than pure chance at detecting deception. You may as well just toss a coin. Certainly some of us are above average, but barely above chance when 40% of the time we are utterly wrong! Can

you afford to stake your leadership on even the best end of those odds?

That’s why I say “STOP READING AND START LEADING!” Don’t try to read other people’s body language consciously. Instead, concentrate on influencing your audience to mirror your clear and positive nonverbal behaviour, and they will be most likely to trust and engage with you as a credible leader every time you communicate. So for you to have the most positive impact, to stand out, win trust and gain credibility every time you speak, here are my top body language tips for speaking in front of any audience any time and in a way that wins trust immediately.

PUT YOUR BODY ON DISPLAY Move away from behind the furniture. When speaking at a conference, have a lavaliere or handheld mic and step away from the podium. If sitting in a meeting, pull your chair back from the

table — in short, display more of your body to your audience. Your audience’s instinctual ‘reptilian’ brain needs to see your body and your body language to decide what they think your intentions

and feelings are towards them.

When they don’t see enough of you they unconsciously default to negative assumption about you and your ideas. Let them see more and they will trust more.

SPEAK FROM YOUR BELLY Place your hands in what I have trademarked the TRUTHPLANE®, the horizontal plane that extends 180 degrees out of your navel area.

Bringing the audience’s unconscious attention to this vulnerable area of your body makes them feel that 16

you are very confident. And by assuming this physicality, you will feel more confident too. Our body language not only leads others to feelings about us and what we are saying but also leads our own internal thoughts and feelings about

our performance. Speak from the TRUTHPLANE® and you’ll look and feel more credible. When perception is reality – this alone can make the difference between who is seen as a leader and who is considered inferior.

FALL 2015

SHOW YOUR HANDS Show your palms open with nothing in your hands to let others know that you mean no harm and are speaking for their benefit. This is a universally recognised ‘friendly’ gesture.

HANG OUT... CHECK OUT Avoid dangling your hands by your sides when giving important messages. It gives your voice a depressing or sleepy downward intonation, and makes you look unconfident. And of course it causes you also to feel unconfident and excites your fight and flight response when you are under pressure.

ATTRACT RECOGNITION Keep your gestures symmetrical. The brain understands symmetry in the body more easily than asymmetry, and we find it more appealing. Gesture symmetrically and not only will others interpret your message as “clear” but they will find it to be more positive.

REVEAL, NOT CONCEAL Avoid having your hands at mouth level when speaking, for example when sitting at a table with your chin in your hands. We lip-read more than we think, and when the picture of the words is taken away, it becomes harder to verify the language. The audience will perceive or create negative feelings about the speaker’s intentions — in the absence of the nonverbal information.

MOVE COMPLEX TO CLEAR When giving a complex message, avoid complex movement — so no fiddling with your pen! It is hard for the brain to decode complex verbal language when it is concentrating on complex nonverbal behaviour. Strange as it may seem the simpler you keep your nonverbal communication the smarter you’ll look as the leader in any situation.

Mark Bowden, Bestselling Author of Winning Body Language & World-Renowned Communication Expert

ARE YOU PREPARED FOR

TEMPTATION?

By Vince Molinaro

It’s the kind of headline that has the potential to destroy an organization.

In early June, Clyde Campbell, former CEO and managing director of Fiat Chrysler Australia, was accused of misappropriating more than $23 million US in company funds. It is believed he used the money for personal gratification, including trips, entertainment, memberships to exclusive golf clubs and marinas, renovations to personal residences and other luxury items like power yachts.

The allegations include concerns that Campbell had direct involvement as an owner or director, or was related to by 18

family or friendship, of a number of contractors that received millions of dollars in payments for questionable or unnecessary work.

Even worse, it seems that Campbell’s extreme abuse of company funds was indicative of a culture of entitlement and misappropriation. It was also revealed that at least two other senior executives followed the example set by Campbell and misused company money for their personal enrichment.

Whenever a story like this arises, I always try to figure out what it was exactly that these people were thinking when they stole from and cheated the company that employed

them? Seriously, could anyone actually justify this kind of bad behavior.

In my book, The Leadership Contract, I specifically discuss the need for all leaders to anticipate the temptations that come with the job: the power, the fame and, of course, the money. It takes a strong leader to negotiate all those fringe benefits and remain moral and ethical. Just as we’re seeing with Fiat Chrysler Australia, far too many leaders simply cannot resist taking more than they deserve.

It doesn’t always mean that these are bad people. In fact, throughout my interaction with business leaders I have found there are many FALL 2015

Vince Molinaro is a New York Times Bestselling Author & Managing Director of the Leadership Practice within Knightsbridge

instances where essentially good people come to author really bad behavior. These are people who simply could not resist temptation, and twisted their instincts about right and wrong to justify unethical or immoral acts.

It turns out that my anecdotal experiences have been substantiated by science. New research published by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology suggests that otherwise good people can do some pretty bad things if they are not prepared to deal with the temptations that come with leadership.

The authors of the research found that when someone anticipates temptation, and is reminded of the FALL 2015

moral and ethical implications of doing a bad thing, they are much less likely to succumb.

The study focused its work on a study of nearly 200 businessschool students, who participated in a mock real estate transaction involving historic properties. One group of students were put through a series of exercises to remind them of the need to preserve the historic properties, and the importance of not succumbing to unethical behavior. The other group were told it was representing a client that wanted to acquire the heritage property with the expressed purpose of demolishing it to build something new.

The results were quite clear. More than two thirds of the students who underwent no preparation lied about the real purpose behind the purchase of the heritage property; less than half of those who had been reminded about the moral and ethical imperatives of preserving the heritage property lied.

The study’s authors concluded that in the absence of specific warnings about the perils of temptation, human nature leads us to believe that it is okay to break the rules and do bad things. “Unethical behavior may not be experienced as something that needs to be resisted if people think it’s socially acceptable or does not reflect on their moral self-image,” the report stated.

What does this mean for leaders?

Anytime you accept a leadership position, you need to cultivate a self-awareness and honesty that will allow you to anticipate those moments when you might get into trouble. Far too many leaders today accept their roles with arrogance instead of humility. As a result, they have given no thought to ethical and moral standards they might want to represent.

The key here is to accept right off the bat that you will face temptation. You will be afforded access to certain resources, and the power to make certain decisions, all of which could be opportunities for personal enrichment. If you know that these temptations exist at the outset, you will be better prepared to make the right decisions.

So take some time to pause and ask yourself what I call a leadership gut check questions: • Am I prepared for the temptations that I may face in my leadership role?

• What are my weaknesses that can cause me to engage in bad behavior?

• How can I manage myself so that I don’t engage in unethical behavior?

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YOU BELONG HERE.

Three weeks that could change your life. qsb.ca/qep

HOW EVERYONE WINS WHEN

“WE” COMES BEFORE “ME”

By Peter Aceto Who do you think comes first – happy employees, happy customers or happy shareholders? My answer may surprise you coming from a bank CEO, in an industry that has arguably not changed a great deal in centuries, but my answer is employees.

A mentor of mine once said: “You can’t be an outlier unless you want to actually turn the tables upside down.”

It’s time the business world turns the tables upside down.

We have to shift our focus from the bottom line to the heart of the business, the folks who give us their time and dedication to deliver for our clients and deliver those bottom line results.

We have to stand for more than titles, power and money.

Look, I’m not suggesting that

making money is bad, but how do you generate profit – sustainable profit that is? Well, I’ll take you back to the first question I asked you. Who comes first, happy employees, happy customers or happy shareholders? Here’s an outstanding answer I received when I tweeted this question several months ago: “Turn employee passion into customer magic into shareholder cash.”

PASSION. MAGIC. CASH. This is the new order.

FALL 2015

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There is a better way to do business, one that puts humanity at the forefront of success. We need to build business cultures in which individuals—people—have the means to fuel their passion and truly thrive. To succeed, be happy in their work and to feel fulfilled and growing. A culture that gives voice to all team members, no matter who they are or what they do.

Why, you might ask? Because being good to your own people is good business.

Because being good to your own people is good business.

A place where when “Me” thrives, “We” benefit.

A place where when “Me” thrives, “We” benefit. This is what I call Weology – how everybody wins when “we” comes before “me” – a concept that creates winwin scenarios. Weology is transparency without asterisks. It is a way of putting people first in the short term so that a company can thrive in the long term.

This is not a feel good sound bite or inspirational 140 characters to tweet.

This is about creating sustainable

performance. It’s about survival.

Organizations with the most engaged employees are the ones performing best over the long run. They are the ones navigating through the social age – not by populating all social media platforms but by fundamentally understanding the value of transparency and trust in a fast moving hyper-connected world.

If you don’t believe me, look up the Edelman Trust Barometer. The 2015 study found that businesses with higher trust levels overall show a greater willingness and opportunity for business innovations.

The study also reveals that integrity and engagement are today’s new measures of success while excellence in operations or products and services, while still important, they are the minimum we expect.

“We” requires a structure that allows “Me” to shine. A machine that appreciates the way a person thinks and feels, that is equipped with an operating system that helps the collective, all because it was designed to change and adapt to human nature, to the individual, to personal whims and goals. Like a computer that feels its way forward. Or an artificial structure that processes emotion.

We must design a machine for human nature. I’ll admit, it’s difficult, but it’s not impossible. Running a business in this chaotic world is a great leadership challenge, particularly as the world is changing around us faster than ever.

When you step back and take a good look at these changes, you understand why and how new generations are looking to

support and work with businesses that give back, with leaders who take a bit less, or better yet do both, the ones who embrace listening and collaboration rather than power.

Everything that matters in a business is connected to the management of its people. Unfortunately, learning to manage and lead people is something managers learn on the job. They don’t teach these competencies in business school. It’s trial by fire. But trust, loyalty and co-operation are not actions you can impose on people.

The only thing leaders can do is to create an environment that allows and encourages these kinds of emotions. A culture that nurtures feeling and lets it grow to the forefront of the business. It’s that machine I referenced earlier.

For years, the business world has pushed emotions to the background, even though they are a key to success. In many ways, they are the key to happiness.

Yet so many leaders struggle to even acknowledge the emotional elements of work and life and therefore fail to create an environment where people can thrive.

Why? Because we’ve been made to believe that emotion is a synonym for “too soft, too nice, too weak.” That emotion has no ROI. But maybe it does...

So here’s what I propose: The next time you think of measuring success, consider counting a different number. That is, the number of great lives that your leadership affected and inspired.

It’s time we transform the way business is led.

Peter Aceto is a globally recognized and respected business leader. He is the President and CEO of Tangerine (formerly ING Direct) and a change agent for leadership. Peter is the author of the business book Weology: How everyone wins when “we” comes before “me.”

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Are you an

ALL IN LEADER? Lorne Rubis, Chief People Officer, ATB Financial

At ATB we believe that people have a right to great leadership and leaders have a responsibility to be GREAT... not perfect. What does it mean to be a great leader at ATB? There is a mountain range of literature and research on this topic. To sort through it all and personalize it for our company, we’ve defined great leadership with intention through what we call our All In Leadership Pledge. This framework is intended to guide our leadership development system, including but not limited to leadership succession. The punch line: The more you live and practice through the lens of our leadership pledge, the more successful you will be.

The End Game What we’ve found in all our research If you’re going to be a leader at ATB, you must demonstrate that you are capable of three nonnegotiable outcomes. You must show that you can consistently deliver great results, develop others and collaborate through building strong relationships. Essentially, people are lined up to work for you because they know where you’re going, you’re intentionally clear, consistent and authentic in applying core values, you consistently get things done, and ideally, you’re fun to work with!

How to get there At ATB, our Story or purpose provides an umbrella for why we jump out of bed in the morning. We know that meaningful purpose in providing material value to people is essential for sustainable profitable growth. We have also been very specific in describing our expected leadership behaviour attributes and absolute core values... what we call our ATBs.

ATTRIBUTES: Translator – Understand and make meaning Connector – Connect with care to others Hungry – Passionately strive for excellence Collaborator – Engage with others to achieve a common goal Agile – Adapt to change and take action Catalyst – Make things happen Creator – Create value Explorer – Find a new way forward Synthesizer – Find simplicity and grounding within complexity

THE ATBs (VALUES): #1 Deliver WOW to customers and each other every chance you get #2 Continuously seek ways to make banking work FOR people #3 Think yes first #4 Be personally and fiercely accountable #5 Find a way to get things done #6 Be confident and humble #7 Trust and expect the same from others #8 Do the right thing #9 Think big and make it happen #10 Have fun every day

ATB Leaders ALL IN I BELIEVE

ATB and team members have the right to be led by GREAT LEADERS (not perfect) and leaders have the responsibility to become great.

I LEAD

I AM

I LIVE

I ACHIEVE

for

outstanding results!

ConnECToR

HUngRy

CoLLABoRAToR

AgILE

CATALyST

CREAToR

SynTHESIZER

EXPLoRER

Relationships

H

LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTES

+

TH E R S GO IN

A

Results

S A P PI N E S

Strong relationships

I PRACTICE 1. I set a vivid and compelling vision on where we are going

ND

in others

TRAnSLAToR

DEVELO P

very best

SE L F

To bring out the

4. I give feedback generously, asking for and receiving it in return

2. I set clear and inspiring expectations 5. I drive continuous learning to accelerate for performance growth and agility 3. I connect, care and coach in-the6. I actively notice and moment and in recognize others and one-on-ones celebrate results

© 2015 ATB Financial

outstanding results Continuous development in others and self

I am an ATB leader

Additionally, we have been very specific in describing the practices we expect leaders to follow. At minimum, we want leaders to practice and apply the practice of leadership by ensuring the following with their collective group AND each individual:

PRACTICES: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

I set a vivid and compelling vision on where we are going I set clear and inspiring expectations for performance I connect, care and coach in-the-moment and in one-on-ones I give feedback generously, asking for and receiving it in return I drive continuous learning to accelerate growth and agility I actively notice and recognize others and celebrate results

All In Leadership!

The entire All In Leadership Pledge is outlined as a system as outlined in the ATB Leaders ALL IN. If you want to accelerate and continue as a leader at ATB, you are expected to continuously develop and evaluate yourself according to this framework.

If you can’t or won’t, it’s best to develop your career elsewhere. Why? People deserve great leaders and leaders are responsible to be GREAT (not perfect).

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Leading organizational change

INTO THE FUTURE

By Sooky Lee

When we look back to the 20th Century, the human resources (HR) function was simpler, with fewer regulations, less complexity, and a reciprocal sense of loyalty between employer and employee that formed the foundation of a professional journey.

Fast forward to the 21st Century.

Today companies operate in a complex, changeable regulatory environment, with a five-generation, highly mobile, multi-career workforce that expects more from employment than a paycheque.

It’s a more chaotic world – but the core truth in business that applies as much today as it did in the previous century is: a business is only as good as its people. It’s a company’s workforce that drives business results – and employees are a key profit centre, not a cost centre.

The challenge from an HR standpoint is that 20th Century tools and approaches don’t work in the fast-changing, 21st Century workplace. Strategic people management – where HR initiatives are directly tied to business goals – is critical.

But there’s a disconnect: according to the Conference Board of Canada, only 33 per

26

Vice President, Human Resources, ADP Canada

cent of Canadian organizations consider the HR function a full partner in developing and implementing business strategy. HR provides input into business strategy in fewer than half of companies.

Not surprisingly, only 22 per cent of total HR time is spent on strategic business activities.

As part of this strategic planning, HR executives play a key role in enabling the success of an organization’s leaders.

More importantly, they can ensure there is a good succession strategy in place to allow the continued growth and success of the business and its people.

in holding leaders accountable for meeting their obligations to their employees and the company. Strong, accountable leadership, along with a great culture and abundant opportunities for growth, are the ingredients for a strong employer brand.

HR executives need to be collaborating at the highest levels of the organization to apply the new standards that ensure the right skills and the right people are in place to support business success. Three key standards emerge as critical to driving growth:

The evolving role of HR executives

• Building an employer brand that attracts and retains the best talent.

• Leveraging workforce analytics for a competitive advantage.

• Thoughtfully managing the HR f u n c t i o n t o c re a t e f o c u s o n t h e strategies that will inspire employees, leverage talent – and manage through change and ambiguity.

Today’s corporate landscape requires that HR executives step up to the critical task of identifying the next-generation of leaders and ensuring those future leaders understand the expectations the company has for them. As well, the HR leadership team must continue to support leaders in their roles with solid counsel and access to ongoing development and coaching. HR can also take a lead

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What the data tells us ADP recently conducted a study with Environics Research surveying HR decision-makers in Canadian companies with more than 50 employees. The survey results revealed that HR professionals say leadership is among the most critical factors for the success of their organizations; yet only 33 per cent believe strongly that their company has succession planning and leadership development practices in place.

HR professionals also cited culture, employee retention, and strategic planning as critical to the success of their organization, but many are uncertain about their organization’s adaptability.

In fact, just 38 per cent strongly agree their company is well-equipped to adapt quickly to the changing needs of the workforce. And just over onethird of HR executives

strongly view their company as a market leader in leveraging workforce data and insights to make strategic decisions.

Almost three-quarters strongly agree that HR professionals are handling an increasing workload, driving a trend toward a growing use of outsourcing tactical, transactional tasks in favour of more strategic work.

IDC Canada confirms this growing trend towards outsourcing – Canadian spending on HR outsourcing services is expected to grow to $2.4 billion in 2016.

So what do these numbers tell us? As we look ahead to the next year, we will likely see HR executives working to build strong programs for succession planning and leadership development. They may face strong opposition; however, they will push through day-to-day demands to get at the strategic

deliverables that will help position the organization for continued success.

Looking ahead By channeling HR resources and expertise toward more strategic, developmental programs, companies can build employee skills, engagement and retention – and provide a sustainable foundation for their success and growth.

HR has a key role to play in identifying future leaders, preparing them to succeed, and ensuring they have the organizational support to get things done. Companies that don’t leverage the support and expertise of their HR teams will likely struggle to adapt, evolve, and thrive.

“It’s a company’s workforce that drives business results – and employees are a key profit centre, not a cost centre.”

Looking for a mortgage?

Get expert advice and unparalleled choice by working with a Mortgage Broker*.

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THE FEMALE MILLENNIAL: A new era of talent

By Penny Partridge Partner, Chief Human Resources Officer, PwC Canada Born between 1980 and 1995, female millennials make up a significant proportion of the current and future talent pool. Attracting the best of these millennial workers is critical to the future of your business. Millennials matter because they are not only different from those that have gone before them, they are also more numerous than any since the soon-to-retire baby boomer generation.

The female millennial has grown up in a new era. During her lifetime women have been joining the labour market in increasing numbers; the global female labour force participation rate has been on the rise. Between 1980 and 2008, 552 million women joined the global labour force1 and a further one billion women are anticipated to enter the workforce over the next decade.2 With 40% of the global labour force currently female,3 never before has a generation entered a workforce with such high levels of female participation.

The make-up of the labour force is not the only thing that has changed;

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enrolment in tertiary level education has also soared, with women the principal beneficiaries as female enrolment has increased almost twice as fast as male enrolment since 1970.4 Globally, women now account for a majority of students in 93 countries while men are favoured in only 46, earn more bachelors’ degrees than men and have an edge over men of 56 to 44% in masters’ degrees.5 The female millennial is also entering the workforce with a different career mindset. Forty-nine percent of female millennial career starters said they feel they will be able to rise to the most senior levels with their current employer, making her more career confident than her previous generations. Despite this, there is still a confidence gap between the female millennial and her male peers.

The female millennial ranks opportunities for career progression as the most attractive employer trait.

Our research also tells us that female millennials that have moved employers rank a lack of opportunities for career

progression as the top reason they left their former employer.

The earning power and patterns of women in the workplace have also very much evolved. Our research tells us that 86% of female millennials that are in a relationship are part of a dual career couple.

Furthermore, 42% earn equal salaries to their partner or spouse while almost one quarter are the primary earner in their relationships (24%). This means, 66% of female millennials earn equal to or more than their partner or spouse.

The female millennial is more careerconfident and career ambitious than the generations that have gone before her. To be successful and capitalise on the stellar traits of the female millennial, employers must commit to an inclusive culture, talent processes, policies and programmes that lean into the confidence and ambition of the female millennial. Forming talent strategies tailored for this talent segment will be a vital step to achieving the longterm aims and ambitions of an individual organisation.

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What can employers do?

To achieve a sustainable talent pipeline, employers simply must focus on the attraction and retention of the female millennial. To make progress towards greater gender diversity in leadership, employers will need to foster

inclusive talent strategies that address the advancement, engagement and development of this talent population.

Here are the difficult questions employers need to ask themselves when it comes to the female millennial.

DIFFICULT QUESTIONS ABOUT: A new era of female talent

How well-prepared is your organisation to find, attract and keep tomorrow’s workforce – even as you deal with today’s talent challenges?

How are you adjusting your talent strategies to consider the female millennial?

Do you have the right talent structures in place to enable this talent population to thrive?

How will you manage employees with different needs, aspirations and experiences from those of your own generation?

Diversity

What are you doing to make your workforce more diverse? And how will you utilise the benefits of diversity?

Do you have the right role models in place to attract and retain the female millennial?

What are you doing to enable objective talent, performance management and career progression systems and processes?

How will you deliver visible diversity action and results?

How will you engage this generation in shaping your diversity strategy?

What are you doing to make sure your diversity efforts are tackling your true diversity challenges?

Work-life strategies and flexibility

What are you doing to create a culture where performance trumps presence?

How will you shift from a culture of work-life policies to a culture of work life in practice?

How will you transform your work-life and flexibility strategies so they are attractive to your complete talent pool?

A feedback culture

What are you doing to create a progressive feedback culture?

How will you make sure this talent pool receives the positive and constructive development feedback they need in real time?

How will you blend a growing use of modern communication channels with a culture of face-to-face feedback?

How will you combine your feedback and performance management platforms with digital tools?

Global careers

What is your organisation doing to create a cadre of leaders with a global mindset?

How will you evolve your mobility strategy to meet the dual demands of an increasingly diverse talent pool and a rapidly changing work landscape?

What are you doing to make your international assignment programme inclusive to women? And how will this manifest itself in your international assignment programme structure and the selection of international assignees?

How will you make sure you always have a current picture of your mobile ready talent pipeline?

Image and reputation

How are you communicating the positive aspects of your employer brand - and making sure they stand up in reality?

What are you doing to adapt your employer brand to this talent cohort? What will it cost your organisation, if you get your talent pipeline wrong?

1 2012 World Development Report, Gender Equality and Development, World Bank 2 Empowering the Third Billion Women and the World of Work in 2012, Strategy& (formerly Booz and Company) 3 World Bank 4 World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education, UNESCO, 2012 5 Ibid.

MVR: MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE Leaders must consider the pipeline at all stages to make progress for gender equity We often think of leaders as powerful individuals who influence the industry and people directly linked to their business. But true leaders have a greater responsibility to consider the bigger picture and how they can affect, at different stages, the pipeline of their most valuable resource: people. And half of that resource? That would be women.

WXN recently hosted an event featuring one prominent leader of change through gender allyship: Ziauddin Yousafzai, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of the Malala Fund, and Special Advisor on Global Education at the UN. Most of the audience were familiar with his daughter Malala’s story of publically speaking out against the Taliban efforts in Swat Valley to ban the education of girls and the subsequent attack on her life. But, for some, Ziauddin’s voice was new.

He told stories about growing up in Pakistan, becoming an education activist and inspiring the next generation. For him, affecting change starts as early as one can imagine. Shortly after Malala was born, his cousin came over with a family tree which traced back 300 years.

However, only males were listed, from root to branch. Ziauddin picked up a pen, drew a line out from his own name and wrote “Malala.”

In that place at that time, it was a shocking act. But his confidence in Malala grew with her abilities, and she became the first girl in the family to be educated. Now, she inspires people all over the globe to join the fight for equal education. “Using that education for the benefit of yourself and for the benefit of your community and country, that is the second stage,” he says. “Some people think they don’t care—they are educated, they are set.

By Dana Marie Krook

For more information about the He for She campaign at the University of Waterloo visit uwaterloo.ca/president/heforshe-waterloo.

“The goal of the campaign is to recognize that gender equity is not a women’s issue; it’s an everybody issue,” It’s not the end. It’s the beginning.”

In order to further Ziauddin’s initiatives and his organizations, WXN partnered with the MSCU Centre for Peace Advancement at Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo (which facilitates the Global Peace Centre Canada where Ziauddin serves as Honorary Chair) to establish The WXN-Yousafzai Award. Through this award, the WXN Foundation Scholarship Fund will provide $10,000 to create the opportunity for one female student from a conflictaffected country in the Master of Peace and Conflict Studies (MPACS) program this September.

The University of Waterloo is also rising to the challenge of increasing the pipeline of educated women in other ways. In September 2014, the UN Women launched the He for She campaign, famously championed by Harry Potter actress Emma Watson.

Within that campaign is the 10x10x10 impact framework, involving 10 corporations, 10 heads of government and 10 university presidents. The University of Waterloo was invited to be one of the inaugural impact champions, leading them to make three commitments to advancing gender equity on campus: 1) increase the number of female students in their science, technology, engineering, mathematics outreach programs (STEM) from 20% to 33%; 2) increase the amount of female faculty on campus from 28% to 31%; and 3) increase the number of women in leadership positions from 24.5% to 29%--all by the year 2020.

“The goal of the campaign is to recognize that gender equity is not a women’s issue; it’s an everybody issue,” says Dr. Diana C. Parry, Associate Professor of Applied Health Sciences and Special Advisor to the President: Women’s and Gender Issues. Diana is heading up the campaign. “A key part is that we have leadership right from the top. Our impact champion is our President, Feridun Hamdullahpur, who is a key advocate for gender equity on our campus but really across Canada in terms of us being the only university who was invited to become a part of the UN’s impact 10x10x10.”

The University’s strategy involves a variety of initiatives that utilize faculty champions, mentorship

programs and steering committees. “One of our specific initiatives is to develop an annual graduate conference for women in STEM,” says Diana. “This would be an international conference to bring students involved in STEM from across the world to our campus to talk about the excellent research that’s done here, but also issues they face as students in STEM.” However, Diana urges that it needs to start even earlier than post-secondary education. “We need to be [talking to] young girls, in grades 4 and 5, so that we instill in them an interest and a passion and a confidence that they can do STEM,” she says.

“It’s not enough to look at our lack of women in STEM and think, what can we do about that now? We need to look at the pipeline of women who are in those positions and think, what can we do to build that pipeline? It can never be too early.”

To explore this issue of gender allyship at a different stage, the WXN Breakfast Series featured events on the topic of “The Power of Sponsorship”—already in Montreal to rave reviews, and upcoming in Toronto and Calgary this fall/winter. Unlike mentorship, sponsorship focuses on a closer working relationship between a senior executive to a more junior employee within the same company. Often, this pairing is male to female, which comes with a unique set of challenges, but also incredible benefits that arise from such a learning opportunity. Sharing knowledge and perspective—both ways in the relationship—is one way to build and support gender equality in leadership.

The panel at each event is made up of two sponsor-protégé pairs from different organizations, along with a knowledgeable moderator. Our audiences have the opportunity to learn from the experiences of these panelists for their own career development, as well as take information back to their own organizations about how to find, navigate and make the most of this sponsor relationship.

At every stage—birth, grade school, early adulthood and rising professional success—leaders must invest in their community’s pipeline of education and development for both women and men. This is where progress comes from, where organizations wildly surpass the competition, where good leaders become great. “There are decades of research to demonstrate that diversity of thought and diversity of leadership only makes an organization or an institution more productive, more innovative, more creative and more effective,” says Diana.

“We’re hoping to help facilitate and advance that goal.”

WXN creates and delivers innovative networking, mentoring, professional and personal development to inform, inspire, connect and recognize our global community of 19,500 smart women and their organizations in the pursuit of excellence. For more information on WXN, our programs and events in Canada, Ireland and UK, visit wxnetwork.com.

Dana Marie Krook is Senior Coordinator of Program Development, WXN

GRAPHIC RECORDINGS FROM

THE ART OF LEADERSHIP FOR WOMEN

by Carolyn Ellis

I admit I was skeptical when I heard the first speaker, Dr. Kelly McGonigal, was going to share about the “upside” of stress. I truly thought stress was something to be avoided whenever possible. McGonigal is a health psychologist, lecturer at Stanford University, and her latest book is The Upside of Stress: Why Stress is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It. She confirmed most of our focus has been on the negative impacts of stress. McGonigal laid out some powerful research and the brain science behind her assertion that stress, can actually improve our productivity and success. Her tips on how to shift our mindset and engage in stress more productively, were really illuminating. I’m putting her “Tend and Befriend” tip up on a sticky note next to my computer to remind me!

Tara Mohr took the stage next and tackled an issue that seems to be an Achilles heel for women in leadership: the inner critic. As a coach and author of Playing Big: Find Your Voice, Your Mission, Your Message, she has worked with thousands of women who struggle with minimizing their abilities and self-doubt. Mohr distinguished the common characteristics of that small voice that harps at us no matter what you do, which alone helps to break away from the analysis paralysis that the inner critic can create. As you step out into the world into great leadership, you’ll likely have to deal with the inner critic more as it stems from a primal instinct to keep you safe. But by engaging with that inner critic with compassion and getting playful with it – like creating a character for it – we can recognize “it’s just a voice” which doesn’t need to hold us back or keep us second-guessing ourselves.

Next up was Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project and her latest book, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives.

Her delight and enthusiasm in sharing what habits help people change and sustain better choices was infectious. She made a great point that when you “choose once” and stick with a habit, you avoid getting caught in the perpetual cycle of internal negotiation and re-choosing your habits that can be very draining in the long run. Her matrix of four personality types – Rebel, Obliger, Upholder and Questioner – was very helpful. You need to know yourself when creating habits and each type has a very different way they

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Carolyn Ellis brings a unique set of skills and training to her clients as a visual facilitator, international speaker, award-winning business coach and author. Combining her deep intuitive abilities with her Harvard-trained brain and life-long love affair with colorful markers, Carolyn helps inspire, clarify and unleash the brilliant potential within individuals and organizations. Visit: www.brilliancemastery.com

respond to expectations. Very helpful not just to know for yourself, but also for those you work with and live with too!

Host Ron Tite moderated an Entrepreneur Panel with Jennifer Johnson of PwC, Katy Boshart of TD Bank, and Cheryl Stargratt of Tangerine. While women have made more progress in advancing up the corporate ladder, women are still stuck when it comes to representation at the boardroom table. While it is really important to find mentors and sponsors along the way, ultimately you need to be your own champion.

What struck me most about Suzy Welch’s talk was her humility and humour. Her latest book is 10-10-10: 10 Minutes, 10 Months, 10 Years – A Life-Transforming Idea. As she shared some of the biggest mistakes she’s made over her very successful business career, they were punctuated with stories of her blind spots and humanity. She spoke passionately about finding your “area of destiny” – that sweet spot where what you are really good at and what you really love overlap, and to build your choices from that place.

The final speaker of the day was Leeza Gibbons, author of Take 2: Your Guide to Creating Happy Endings and New Beginnings. She shared her pearls of wisdom gleaned from being an Emmy awardwinning journalist through winning Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice, and now most recently as a staunch advocate for caregiver ’s and supporting families dealing with Alzheimer’s. “Keep it classy” is her motto and it clearly has served her well. Women in leadership need to know what you stand for and run your own race.

Ron Tite masterfully summed up the day’s lesson in his inimitable style and it’s always astonishing how he can weave together key ideas to create a cohesive narrative of the entire day in such a humourous way.

Whether sharing ideas and business cards during the networking breaks, snapping photos of the wall where all of the day’s visual maps were hung, or lining up to get a book signed by a speaker, the energy was sizzling. The excitement and engagement of the attendees bodes well for helping women in leadership continue to make great strides in business.

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Negotiation Tips:

TAKE IT FROM WOMEN

By Tara Mohr

If I asked you to dream up a way to change women’s outcomes in their financial negotiations -- to help them ask for more and get more -- what would you suggest?

Give women negotiation training?

Make sure they had lots of practice?

Supply them with a mentor who could advise them?

A fascinating research study* made one small intervention that entirely changed women’s negotiation results, causing the women to perform better than then men.

What they did was simple and surprising. Through an intervention that took just a few seconds, they changed both women’s and men’s beliefs about what a successful negotiator looks like.

In the study, women and men were paired in a mock negotiation in which one person played the “seller” role and one the “buyer.” The seller was selling a pharmaceutical plant, and was instructed to try to get as high a price as possible. The buyer was to try and get as low a price as possible. In some pairs, women were assigned the role of seller and the man was the buyer; in other pairs, the opposite roles were 36

assigned, the study authors wrote.

Some of the pairs were given this information up front: “Highly skilled negotiators possess the following skills 1) a keen ability to express their thoughts verbally 2) good listening skills and 3) insight into others’ feelings.”

In other words, some pairs were told “highly skilled negotiators” possess feminine traits. It was as if some women were told, “highly skilled negotiators are people like you.”

The other pairs, the control group, were given different information. They were told that highly skilled negotiators possessed these skills: They are (1) well-prepared; (2) able to maintain a sense of humor; and (3) openminded. These are skills that had been proven to be associated with neither men or women in people’s

minds: they are gender-neutral.

Listen to these results: in the pairs told that highly skilled negotiators possessed those more “stereotypically “feminine” skills, women outperformed the men in the negotiation. In the control group, men outperformed the women.

Not only did women perform better when given the special information, they aimed higher from the start. In the pairs told that highly skilled negotiators possessed great listening, empathy and communication skills, women set much higher goals for themselves in the negotiation. Similarly, the men in these pairs set lower goals for themselves than the men in the control group. The new ideas about the feminine skills needed for successful negotiation changed everyone’s expectations of how well they could do.

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The theory behind the experiment is this: there’s a stereotype in our culture that “masculine” traits make a great negotiator (assertiveness, competitiveness, toughness). That concept gets internalized by women, who then adopt the notion that they aren’t good at negotiating, and this belief impacts their performance.

This study turned our cultural stereotype about what a great negotiator looks like on its head, linking stereotypically feminine traits -- listening skills, reading others emotions, verbal communication -- to effective negotiation. That new idea, simply mentioned once, dramatically changed how both women and men performed in the negotiation.

The implications of this are profound. It invites women to consider: what picture am I holding of what a good negotiator looks like

-- and is that an image that makes me more confident or less confident about my abilities?

Women, can you change your vision of a what a highly skilled negotiator looks like, to a picture that looks more like you?

More broadly, can you reenvision leadership and create a new picture that helps you feel more confident and ready to lead? Most of us have inherited a patriarchal concept of leadership that centers upon qualities our culture has associated with maleness: assertiveness, stoicism, ability to take bold action, decisiveness, comfort with hierarchical relationships. This study suggests that that mere stereotype, held internally by women, will impact women’s ability to lead.

What if we re-imagined, radically, our notion of what a leader is? What

would the description of a leader look like that would allow women to say, “Oh yes, exactly. I can do that.

That’s someone just like me.”

We have been asking women to assimilate into a very particular definition of leadership -- rather than looking to women to show us new ways of leading.

The research shows clearly: what we each believe about what it takes to lead will impact our ability to lead.

Make sure your vision of a leader looks like you Tara Mohr is an expert on women’s leadership and wellbeing, and the author of Playing Big: Find Your Voice, Your Mission, Your Message, named a Best Book of 2014 by Apple’s iBooks.

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The Art of

LEGAL LEADERSHIP Norrie Campbell Group Head & General Counsel, TD Bank Group

As Group Head and General Counsel of TD Bank Group, I’m keenly interested in how women from the legal profession are perceived as leaders. I recently had the opportunity to speak about diversity and leadership at an event sponsored by the Women’s Law Association of Ontario (WLAO).

My principal messages were that while great progress has been made, there is still significant opportunity to realize the potential of lawyers from diverse backgrounds, and we all have a role to play to make the legal profession more inclusive.

I began by sharing two contrasting statistics: Alex Johnston of Catalyst Canada was quoted in Report on Business Magazine stating that there are more CEOs of S&P 1500 companies named John than there are women CEOs. I compared that disappointing stat with an interesting one from Canadian

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Lawyer Magazine: in Canada more than half of our in-house counsel positions are filled by women. According to the Association of Corporate Counsel, that is not the case anywhere else in the world.

Even more encouraging, we have a proven track record of women attaining the highest in-house position – the General Counsel role – at many of the most prestigious Canadian companies and institutions. There was a book written in 2013, called Breaking Through: Tales from the Top Canadian Women General Counsel. It has some interesting conclusions on the skills, attributes and experiences that typically lead to this level of success.

When I first joined TD, my in-house counsel position allowed me to apply my legal knowledge to many areas of the bank. In addition to taking advantage of the opportunities presented to me

to grow my skill set, I was an early beneficiary of the bank’s focus on the Women in Leadership diversity pillar.

The Women in Leadership program is just one of many diversity initiatives at TD. When it began in 2005, only 22 percent of our executives were women.

Today, 36 percent of our executives are women, with 19 Women in Leadership chapters across Canada and more than 40 events annually.

At TD, we take a ‘multi-pillar ’ approach to diversity, advancing many pillars concurrently, rather than tackling one at a time. We believe that often what will advance one pillar of diversity can help in others.

For example, in Women in Leadership we learned the importance of allies. I was the beneficiary of wonderful advice, sponsorship and mentorship from male leaders. I am now very excited to “pay it forward”

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and lend my voice and support as an ally to our Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender inclusivity initiatives at TD. At its root, our diversity philosophy says: we believe you can look and feel and think a lot of different ways, and still be a successful leader at TD. I am very proud to be a part of that, and also very proud to be a part of the success of female General Counsels

within the legal community in Canada.

But my most important message at the WLAO event was that while we can be proud, we cannot be complacent.

We have to keep pushing forward and building on the momentum we have generated.

For example, think of the women’s groups created within your organization – either purposefully or organically –

are they inclusive of all women: visible minorities, lesbians, women with disabilities, and invisible disabilities?

And if not, why not?

We will not have made much progress if we have only defined a subset of women who can be successful. To do this, I shared with the audience some practical tips – for both women and men – that I have found useful:

1) Ensure your candidate slates are diverse – when you’re hiring, or you’re asked for candidate recommendations, insist on a diverse slate from which to choose. This is harder than it may seem, not because there aren’t terrific diverse candidates, but because the same names tend to come up time and again.

2) Ask for a diverse team from your law firm or other suppliers, or ask for a diverse candidate as your relationship partner.

3) Be outspoken about the importance of diversity to you.

4) Be a sponsor of diverse individuals. And make sure it’s an assignment that really matters. Money talks.

Too often women are asked to take on amorphous tasks where success is not readily measurable. Look for assignments where at the end, your candidate can show the value they delivered in financial terms.

AND FOR WOMEN, IN PARTICULAR: 1) Celebrate your career successes – it is remarkable what we have achieved.

2) Find role models whenever you can.

3) Recognize when to make that important transition from recipient of mentorship, sponsorship and camaraderie, to being a benefactor – pay it forward.

Many of us have benefitted from generous leadership and thoughtful diversity programs. It is now up to all of us to make sure we maintain and accelerate the progress we’ve made so far, by paying it forward – helping women and other diverse individuals who may not have found their voice yet – and creating a little more competition for those CEOs named John.

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ARE ARTISTS BORN OR MADE?

MADE. The Art of Learning will assist you in making sure you get the best from your best. We will work with you to identify training and development needs throughout your organization. We will set a plan to address your requirements and then implement a program that clearly and effectively tackles the issues you face today - and help remove the roadblocks of tomorrow.

To find out how, visit www.theartof.com/learning or call 1.866.99.ART.OF

WHY WE SHOULDN’T REWARD OURSELVES FOR GOOD HABITS – WITH ONE EXCEPTION Gretchen Rubin

Of the 21 strategies that I identify, that we can use to make or break our habits, the Strategy of Reward was one of the most difficult for me to understand.

In large part, because the lesson is: be very wary of using rewards to master habits!

Why? It sounds so sensible to reward yourself for sticking to a good habit. But it turns out that rewards are very, very tricky to use well. Why?

1. ONE COMMON FORM OF REWARD IS THE ATTAINMENT OF A GOAL, AND THAT REWARD MARKS A FINISH LINE – AND A FINISH LINE MARKS A STOPPING POINT Once we stop, we must start over, and starting over is harder than starting. The more dramatic the goal, the more decisive the end — and the more effort required to start over. By providing a specific goal, a temporary motivation, and requiring a new “start” once reached, hitting a finish line may interfere with habit-formation. Running

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the marathon, quitting sugar for Lent, doing a 30-day yoga challenge — once the goal has been met, and we feel the reward of hitting that finish line, the behavior tends to end. Also, once we decide that we’ve achieved success, we tend to stop moving forward.

2. A REWARD REQUIRES A DECISION (“DO I DESERVE THIS REWARD?”) Habits are freeing and energizing because they get us out of the draining, difficult business of using decisionmaking and self-control. We don’t

reward ourselves for brushing our teeth, so we don’t have to ask, “Have I brushed long enough to deserve my reward?”

We just do it. When we have to decide whether we’ve earned a reward, we’re forced to employ our decision-making; we’re not on automatic behavior. And every time we make a decision, we have the opportunity to make the wrong choice. So many loopholes to choose from! One for every occasion.

3. IT PERMITS AN OPT-OUT (“If I forgo the reward, I don’t have to do this activity”).

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4. IT TEACHES US THAT WE’D DO THIS ACTIVITY ONLY IF A REWARD IS OFFERED. A reward provides extrinsic motivation, which tells us that we don’t feel intrinsic motivation. We’re not practicing guitar because we want to practice guitar, but because we promised ourselves a beer every time we practice. Along those lines…

5. A REWARD MAKES US ASSOCIATE A BEHAVIOR WITH SUFFERING OR IMPOSITION.

Why else would we need the reward?

One person exercises in order to earn points at work to get swag. Another person exercises without that reason.

Who, do you suppose, is more likely to be exercising, a year from now?

FURTHERMORE, WE OFTEN CHOOSE PERVERSE REWARDS. A friend told me, “After I’ve lost this ten pounds, I’m going to reward myself with a big piece of chocolate cake.”

The one kind of reward that does

work? A reward that takes you deeper into the habit. Doing lots of yoga? Splurge on a new yoga mat. Bringing lunch to work every day? Buy that expensive set of great knives. One company had a smart policy: any employee who exercised at least 75 times in one year in the company gym was rewarded with…the next year’s gym membership free. The reward for exercise was more exercise.

For these reasons, rewarding an activity may make us less likely, not more likely, to form a habit. How about you? Have you noticed this in yourself?

Gretchen Rubin is a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Happiness Project, Happier at Home & Better Than Before

How Any Company Can Increase Employee Engagement to Drive Big Results with Their Customers Michel Falcon

How does your company acquire customers?

Sales, marketing, and business development teams are provided with the internal resources needed to succeed.

Companies use traditional methods, such as radio, television, and print advertising, to increase their chances of converting new customers.

But none of the aforementioned tactics are where the greatest opportunity lies. To grow our businesses, we must look internally before we try to expand externally.

As a management consultant and 44

keynote speaker, I’m trusted by companies of all sizes to look into their strategies and find new opportunities.

Whether it’s a small business, or a billion-dollar brand with international recognition, the story is often the same: they want to grow their business or increase their profitability.

After looking at their yearly plans, I tend to see the same thing - traditional programs are given a lion’s share of the company’s operating budget, which produce good results that achieve quarter-over-quarter success. However, living quarter-overquarter isn’t an advantageous position;

the greatest companies in the world build programs to secure their livelihood for the next ten years, not the next ten weeks.

When I work with a company that is trying to grow their business, I NEVER start with customer acquisition or loyalty strategies. Instead, I respectfully challenge the company to build a stronger relationship with their employees before trying to influence something that is external to their business.

But how can companies of all sizes achieve this? There are three essential ways for any company to increase employee engagement.

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Efficiently survey your employees The world’s greatest athletes ask for feedback from their coaches and mentors to better themselves and make necessary adjustments. The same approach can be taken with your employees with great results. Despite the importance of asking employees for feedback, a lot of companies don’t actually gather it. A company called Critical Metrics found that around 90% of companies believe

that gathering feedback from employees is important, yet only 30% have the processes in place to actually gather this feedback.

I highly recommend surveying employees to understand what makes them tick (and what ticks them off), so that you can embrace their feedback to drive change in your organization.

The word ‘survey’ can have a negative

connotation for some; we picture a long, outdated, and inefficient survey that takes employees forever to complete.

In this day and age you can’t survey employees like this if you want to truly understand their motivations and challenges.

Whoever is responsible for gathering the feedback must take the next steps, which include:

• Finding trends within the data and deciding what you are going to do with it.

• Quickly delivering the results back to the entire organization, with full transparency.

Don’t let this data live within the C-Suite or management team.

• Surveying employees more than once a year. You must keep your finger on the pulse of your employee culture at all times.

“To grow our businesses, we must look internally before we try to expand externally”

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Create meaning over delivering money While it would be naive to assume that employees don’t want a competitive salary or monetary incentives, if you’re hiring correctly your employees will sacrifice a higher salary for a meaningful relationship with their company or boss.

The idea that employee engagement is determined by financial incentives has long been disproven. A 2012 Aon Hewitt study, for example, found that the top engagement drivers for employees are career opportunities, recognition, and organization reputation.

When I got my start at 1-800-GOTJUNK? I worked within the call centre.

I was earning a fair wage, but nothing worth glamourizing. Why did I enjoy my time with the company? For me, I really

liked the culture of the company and the opportunities for growth.

Companies allocate incentive budgets and bonus programs for their sales teams to achieve greater results, which has been proven to work, but these incentives don’t tend to resonate with employees for very long. Why? The incentive they receive, be it cash, iPads, or vacations, can be spent very quickly, which erases the memory of their achievement. To genuinely create stronger relationships with our employees, and achieve greater business results, we must pull at their heart strings and make them emotional.

Whether you are the CEO, a sales manager, or customer service team lead, I recommend “hacking” your leadership

style to find cost-effective ways to inspire your team. My recommended strategy is to block off 30 minutes a week on your calendar and set it as a recurring, nonnegotiable meeting. For example, you may choose every Tuesday from 11:30am to 12:00pm. During this time you only have one responsibility: to identify someone on your team (or within another department) and acknowledge them for a personal achievement or for helping you achieve an outcome. This conversation can be done over coffee or lunch, sticking with the theme of being cost-effective. While hosting this conversation, there are a few rules that you should apply to make it a success for both parties:

• Keep the “business talk” to a limit • Get to know them as an individual and not as an employee • Using Simon Sinek as inspiration, understand their “why” • Close the loop. Ask them outright, “Can I help you?” and deliver on any promises you make If you hire correctly, this is what will inspire your salespeople to sell more, your PR professionals to pitch more effectively, your developers to code more efficiently, or your customer service staff to deliver better service.

Understand that employee relationships are a long-term investment Similar to our personal relationships, building memorable relationships with our employees takes time, but will ultimately create greater business results.

After all, lifelong relationships with our friends or family aren’t cemented by successfully dropping someone off at the airport one time or helping them move. Rather, it takes many instances of goodwill to build strong relationships.

Too many organizations believe employee engagement is a campaign. For it to be truly successful it must be part of the DNA of the business. In addition, it takes a champion within the organization to advocate for the strategy and rally the organization by continuously talking about the subject, not just creating an initiative that happens once.

When thinking about how your

company is going to sell more, market better, or deliver better service, consider what’s happening inside your organization before you look externally.

It’s not a coincidence that companies like Airbnb, Starbucks, or ZenPayroll are achieving massive success. They are successful because they hold their employee engagement in high regard, becoming admired brands in the process.

Michel Falcon is the Author of 28 Traits of Organizations Who Are Customer Service Titans & Renowned Customer Experience Speaker

How to Maximize the Learning ROI of

Your Training Program

By Bill G. Williams Learning is about behaviour change. It only happens when people stop doing something the old way, and start doing things the new and better way. If someone does something the same way over and over again, they can’t expect different results.

If people aren’t behaving the way you want them to, training isn’t the silver bullet to change that. I believe that you only need training when there’s a knowledge gap. Instead, ask yourself, why aren’t people behaving the way you’d like them to? What in your company’s culture keeps change from taking place?

Here’s a step-by-step checklist to ensure that your training program is set up to get people to behave in the new and better way.

1. ENSURE THE PROGRAM FITS YOUR COMPANY’S DNA Your training program should fit with your organization’s vision, mission, and values. If you ask people to do things contrary to the company’s culture, don’t expect learning to take place. That’s like recommending a Microsoft employee use Apple’s Pages instead of Word. It just wouldn’t happen.

The message has to be consistent with both your stated and the underground cultures for it to stick.

2. ALIGN THE TRAINING PROGRAM TO YOUR CORPORATE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES All programs should align with your goals. Explain how this program supports your corporate aim of ‘X’. If you decide on a training program, make sure you send the right message, especially during times of fiscal constraint.

3. CUSTOMIZE THE DELIVERY OF THE PROGRAM Generic examples aren’t good enough to drive change. They’re the reason why your participants say, “Yeah, but that will never work in our world. Things are different here in our

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industry.” Training programs should bridge the gap between the facilitator’s vision and lessons, and the status quo. Once that happens, participants will see the possibilities.

Make sure that the facilitator knows your business well enough to tackle tough discussions. They will need to share examples and practices from your company.

Off-the-rack suits get the job done, but they will never fit like a bespoke suit tailored for you. Similarly, generic training programs may produce the results, but not at the level of a training program that’s customized to fit your participants.

4. PARTICIPANTS AND MANAGERS SHOULD MEET BEFORE THE SESSION You should meet with the participant before they go through the training program. Look at the program objectives together.

Create a focus for the participant during the session. I believe that at least 25% of the value of training comes from this often overlooked meeting.

5. TAKE CARE OF THEIR DAY JOB Training should not be a vacation, but it also shouldn’t be punishment. Have a plan for things that might come up while 47

participants are in the training program. Adjust deliverable dates and priorities. Attending training shouldn’t just give participants more work to do before and after. Don’t text, email, or call them out of the program. Remember, every fire that they’re helping you put out comes at the cost of learning.

Let them focus on acquiring knowledge, and putting what they learn into action plans.

6. CREATE FOCUSED ACTION PLANS The best action plans are ones that your participants can actually put in place. I’m okay if they choose to take on three action items. I’m happy if they pick two action items. I’m ecstatic when participants take away one action item.

You might notice this reaction is the reverse of what many would think. Consider how busy you and your participants are. When a participant gets back to their world of work, they’ll see all the things that have piled up while they were away.

If they have a list of 10 ideas to choose between, they’ll get stuck deciding between which one to do first. They will end up implementing nothing.

Focus on one, two, or (at most) three, action items. I’m confident that by narrowing your focus, you will see an increased ROI from your participant learning.

7. PARTICIPANTS AND MANAGERS SHOULD MEET AFTER THE SESSION After the program, you and the participant can identify the obstacles you can help them remove. You can also show your support for your participant’s ideas. Have each participant make a commitment to their action plan. This is a great way to keep them accountable after training.

Participants will return to emails, meetings, messages, and the rest of the day-to-day whirlwind. Meet up with them to discuss their action plan. You’ll recognize at least another 25% of the training program’s value during this meeting.

8. REGULAR MEETINGS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY Participants should have an accountability coach or partner

from the program they can meet with on a weekly basis. The best accountability partners are ones that are not too familiar with each other. They might be comfortable shrugging off poor performance with their best friend, but not with a colleague. Also, conversations won’t get sidetracked. Even just a quick 10-minute coffee works wonders. During these meetings, they’ll share the roadblocks they’re experiencing in implementing the learning.

This means participants can connect with someone who heard the same message, the same way, in the same class. It clarifies questions and reinforces each other’s memories. They can remind each other of the key content that will help them apply the new techniques.

9. NOTICE PARTICIPANTS’ NEW BEHAVIOURS Remember that the new way will be slower at first. Set up transition targets and goals to improve performance.

Encourage participants who are changing their behaviours (and perhaps struggling a little bit) during this phase, because it will be frustrating for participants at first. When you notice and recognize new behaviours, participants will repeat them with pride.

10. INCENT THE NEW BEHAVIOURS Incentives and rewards don’t have to be monetary. In fact, frankly, we’d recommend that they not be.

But you have to set the expectation for behaviour change.

Oftentimes, there’s actually an unintentional misaligned reward for doing things the old way. There’s also a corresponding punishment, or lack of reward, for doing things the new way.

Make sure all incentives encourage participants to behave and execute in the new way.

Learning sounds simple, but it’s definitely not easy.

Having your team learn consistently means changing the processes around learning. You’ll have to reward participants for changing, and keep them accountable. The most outstanding organizations create the environment for their participants to turn acquired knowledge into behaviour change and learning success.

Bill G. Williams has 20+ years experience developing leaders across North America. Bill is a Partner & Vice President with The Art of Learning. For more information on The Art of Learning you can visit: www.theartof.com/learning or email Bill - bill@theartof.com

Achieve your aspirations.

AT TD, building great teams is our priority and expanding leadership opportunities for women plays a vital role. We have a strong network of thousands of women across Canada who are committed to connecting, encouraging and advising each other. We also support our employees as they balance responsibilities at work, in the community and at home.

“I believe that, as women, we have everything we need to be a smashing success. But the right attitude is essential to achieving our dreams.

Let’s focus on the opportunities, not the barriers, and go get it!”

Colleen Johnston, Group Head Finance, Sourcing and Corporate Communications and Chief Financial Officer, TD Bank Group

Where confidence and capability meet opportunity.

Year after year, TD is acknowledged on lists of Canada’s Best Places to Work. In 2015, TD was named as one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for the fourth year in a row. By recognizing your individual career goals, TD provides you with unique opportunities to grow, contribute and make a difference in every area of your life.

www.td.com/wil

CTIONABLE SUMMARY

Summary written by Zach Obront

The plan for creating that great search engine, and all the other great services, was equally simple: Hire as many talented software engineers as possible and give them freedom.”

- How Google Works, page 5

Google has created a culture that’s the envy of a lot of the business world.

How Google Works is a peek behind the curtain. Former CEO Eric Schmidt and SVP of Product Jonathan Rosenberg spill the beans on everything from office setup, to hiring, to leadership.

I can honestly say this is the most I’ve ever highlighted a book. There’s such a high density of ideas that it’s difficult to summarize, but I’ll do my best…

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Smart Creatives Not every smart creative has all of these characteristics, in fact very few of them do. But they all must possess business savvy, technical knowledge, creative energy, and a hands-on approach to getting things done.

Those are the fundamentals.”

- How Google Works, page 19 Smart Creatives are the lifeblood of Google. They are the employees Google seeks to hire — independent thinkers who are both experts in their technical field, but also have the other attributes necessary to thrive in their environment.

The authors attribute Google’s success partially to the company’s vision, but mostly to their focus on

hiring smart creatives, and their willingness to give these employees complete freedom.

Why is this so important? As the authors write, “The basis for success, and for continual product excellence, is speed.” By employing people whom you trust to make decisions independently, you can avoid a lot of the bureaucracy

that slows down many companies.

Surprisingly, the model for this is not corporate America, but academia, where graduate students are given direction and guidance from their supervisors, but also have the freedom to explore whatever topics they think are useful. This is why Google’s main office is known as a campus.

Hire The Best The objective is to create a hiring culture that resists the siren song of compromise, a song that only gets louder amidst the chaotic whirlwind of hypergrowth.”

- How Google Works, page 100 Google, as a company, has an obsessive focus on hiring the right people. They’ve realized that a team of great people not only does great work, it attracts more great people! This “herd effect” is even more pronounced early in a company, when early hires will impact who chooses to join the team in the future.

As attraction, selection, and attrition play

out over time, an organization becomes increasingly homogenous in its culture, so make sure to choose wisely.

How to choose wisely? Google uses four criteria in evaluating new hires: general cognitive ability, role-related knowledge, leadership experience, and Googleyness (a unique blend of ambition, team orientation, bias to

action, creativity, and integrity).

More important than the specific criteria is the willingness to put the time and effort required into hiring.

They would rather their hiring process generate more false negatives than false positives — meaning they are willing be patient and cut ruthlessly when people aren’t a perfect fit.

Forward Banking is about more than just banking.

It’s about helping people live better lives. That’s why we’re investing in programs that empower Canadians – to give them a sense of belonging and the self-confidence to embrace life with optimism and to inspire them, not only to find a bright way forward, but to create it. See how we’re helping to empower more than 500,000 Canadians.

BrightWayForward.ca The ‘Tangerine’ trademarks are owned by The Bank of Nova Scotia and used under license.

Forward Banking is a trademark of Tangerine Bank.

Radical Transparency [Everyone is] obligated to dissent if they believe something is incorrect or not in the best interests of the client. Everyone’s opinion counts.

While you might be hesitant to disagree with the team’s most senior member or the client, you’re expected to share your point of view.”

- How Google Works, page 41 In order to create a culture where everyone achieves without having to be babysat, Google has made a strong effort to foster a spirit of radical transparency in the organization.

Everyone is on the same page in terms of what the company stands for and what they’re trying to accomplish, and nobody is above the rules.

F i r s t a n d f o re m o s t , G o o g l e employees are required to be very public with their priorities and what they’re working on. Everyone from the lowest employee up to the CEO releases OKRs and snippets. OKRs (Objectives and Key

Results) are public, quantifiable goals that are published quarterly. Snippets are quick daily or weekly updates of important activities and achievements.

Through these two systems any Google employee can get a pretty good feel for any other employee’s work situation.

To complement this freedom of information, Google employees are encouraged to give negative feedback.

They do detailed, formalized post-mortems after most tasks and hold company-wide TGIF meetings each Friday, where any topic is fair game and employees often critique those above them.

This book is an incredible opportunity to learn from two of the best in the world at what they do. If you’re a startup founder, or anyone managing other people, looking to design systems to allow your employees to succeed without you peeking over their shoulders, this book will completely change the way you work. I can’t recommend it enough.

Since we’re all still constantly improving and learning, I want to turn it over to you guys: What practices have you learned to empower and motivate your employees?

This book summary was written by Zach Obront on behalf of ActionableBooks.com

GRAPHIC RECORDINGS FROM

THE ART OF MARKETING TORONTO

by Carolyn Ellis

“The sun never sets on planet cool...”

Since hearing KISS rockstar and marketing megamogul utter these words at The Art of Marketing in Toronto to explain why he always wears his sunglasses, I haven’t been able to put on my own sunglasses without hearing that phrase in my mind.

Every seat in the John Basset Theatre was spoken for as business professionals from all kinds of industries, sectors and size of organization came to network and learn from the experts and authors at The Art of Marketing.

The kickoff speaker was an astonishingly brilliant and accomplished young Canadian who now calls San Francisco home – Brian Wong, the founder of kiip. me. Whether a customer is gaming, working out at the gym or checking things off their “to do” list, there is always “The Moment” where they experience some level of success. Game won, workout logged, or your “to do” is one item shorter than it was before, there’s a moment when the customer is in a state of hyperengagement. With mobile technology, it is possible for marketers to interact with customers in those moments and build unexpected rewards and build engagement and consumer loyalty. Wong’s talk certainly got my brain excited thinking about the possibilities of mobile technology to add value and build relationships in new and unexpected ways.

The next speaker was Nir Eyal, behavior design expert and author of Hooked: How to Build HabitForming Products. He helped the audience understand some of the psychological structures that help users with problems stay connected to the solutions you provide.

If your product and your client’s experience of using that product takes them through the four habit-forming phases -- trigger, reward, action, and investment – you’re on your way to a successful, long-term relationship with your marketplace.

Charlene Li, researcher and author of the recently published The Engaged Leader: A Strategy for Your Digital Transformation, was next in the day’s line-up. She emphasized that despite the advances of technology to help you reach your audience, the relationship is always the foundation that needs to be built. Businesses need to build a coherent strategy for social business, and see it as part of the culture not just as an add-on. Leaders also need to think of strategy internally in the organization,

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Carolyn Ellis brings a unique set of skills and training to her clients as a visual facilitator, international speaker, award-winning business coach and author. Combining her deep intuitive abilities with her Harvard-trained brain and life-long love affair with colorful markers, Carolyn helps inspire, clarify and unleash the brilliant potential within individuals and organizations. Visit: www.brilliancemastery.com

not just out in the marketplace. After all, when employee relationships improved, the organization’s relationships with their customers also improve.

After the lunch networking break, host Ron Tite moderated an Executive Panel with Salim Maherali of Adobe, Jennifer Campbell of Canada Post and Rachel McQueen of Air Miles. The panelists emphasized the importance of really knowing your brand as the compass to guide decisions about marketing, innovation strategies, and how to bring together the sheer volume of information marketers can access now to profile their customer and develop marketing strategies. Each employee is a brand ambassador – something that must be somewhat daunting when you’re Canada Post and have several thousand carriers delivering mail every weekday.

When I first started my business over 10 years ago, the first book everyone recommended as a “must read” book was Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Hearing him share the top tips from his studies on the science of persuasion did not disappoint.

Cialdini’s talk was full of small, but powerful tweaks we can make in everyday interactions and conversations to help increase our influence, get a greater commitment to action from others, and build credibility.

The closing speaker of the event was Gene Simmons.

Far more than just being part of the iconic and wildly successful rock band KISS for over 40 years, he is also head of an ever-expanding empire of businesses that include merchandising, horror motion pictures, reality TV shows, restaurants, sports and much more. His bio describes him as “a multi-hyphenate entrepreneur and one of the world’s most recognized personalities” and in his talk he gave the audience an understanding of why that is absolutely the case. “Your name is your brand,” he told us, and it is of paramount importance to love your work. He credits his mother, who survived a Gernan Nazi concentration camp, as his first marketing mentor and it explained to me some of the fierce passion Simmons had when he urged the audience to “use the time you have.” Simmons endeared himself to the audience not just through his lively personal interactions with members while fielding questions, but also through his loving acknowledgement of his wife, Shannon Tweed-Simmons who was in attendance.

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The REAL Reason For

GOOGLE’S FREE FOOD David Burkus When I had the opportunity to visit Google’s headquarters to give a talk last summer, I found out first hand that the rumors are true: there’s a lot of food and it is delicious. From gourmet snacks to expertly prepared full meals, the choices can seem overwhelming at first.

The legendary food service is said to have begun when cofounder Sergey Brin once commanded his architects and office designers that “No one should be more than 200 feet away from food.” Since that proclamation, many

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outsiders have offered their take on the intent behind this well-publicized Google perk. The most pessimistic explanation for free food (as well as onsite haircuts, complimentary laundry, nap pods and the like) is that Google wants to create a workplace where workers don’t have to leave, and so it’s a thinly-veiled attempt to get more raw work hours out of their employees. A slightly more optimistic explanation is that happy workers are good workers, and that these perks provide a return

on investment by keeping employees happy and satisfied.

The truth turns out to be a little different. While there is a return on investment for all the food, the reason for it isn’t just to trick employees into staying on campus. Its purpose is actually to inspire innovative thinking.

As Laszlo Bock, the Senior Vice President of People Operations explains in his book Work Rules: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead, the purpose of the

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cafes and microkitchens (smaller areas stocked with food and drink closer to work stations) is to create a place for employees to leave their desk and interact with other people whose desks are not near theirs. Bock reveals that most of these food sources are strategically placed between two separate work teams, and the goal of that placement is to draw these different folks together and nudge them to interact and collaborate.

“At minimum, they might have a great conversation. And maybe they’ll hit on an idea for our users that hasn’t been thought of yet.”

Bock cites sociologist Ronald Burt, who famously showed that innovative ideas tend to occur inside the “structural holes” of a network.

Burt asserted that most social networks tended to be tightly clustered with a

strong feeling of community. Societies and even organizations tend to cluster around interests, backgrounds or (in the case of business) departments. But the tight-knit communities this creates tends to smother innovative thinking.

Information inside the cluster tends to be homogenous and redundant. New ideas drown in a sea of groupthink.

If and when people occupy the spaces between well-defined communities or business units, they are far more likely to connect different ideas from separate communities. As social networks (in this case a company) deliberately put more people into structural holes, they connect one community to other clusters and open it up to new information. That new information yields new and better ideas. As Burt puts it: “People who stand near the holes in a social structure are at

higher risk of having good ideas.” In my book, The Myths of Creativity, I discuss how all ideas are combinations of preexisting ideas and how, by keeping a working knowledge of various domains, we’re more likely to stumble across an original combination and a previously unseen idea.

Free food is the method of choice for filling the structural holes in Google’s overall network. Indeed, when I had the opportunity to eat lunch there with my host, I could not find a single two-seat table at which to eat. And, during the course of our brief lunch, I met multiple new people–none of whom worked in the same department as my host.

It’s too easy to see the free food as a means to just fuel workers and draw from them more work. At Google, free food is fuel for innovation.

David Burkus is the author of The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies Generate Great Ideas

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How to Marry

CONTENT & STRATEGY for Maximum Impact The only way to wring more value out of your content is to understand the intricate connection between your content and your strategy.

Now, don’t hit the back button just yet – I purposely left the word strategy out of the title of this article because I know that what you want is a magic bullet, but here’s the deal – content put in the context of strategy is the closest thing there is to the magic bullet.

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The purpose of a business is to make and keep a profitable customer – the purpose of content is to help you make and keep a profitable customer – if that’s so – and it is – then why don’t people create content with that intention?

The idea of content marketing begins and ends for so many with – “It’s Monday, what the heck should I write today?”

What if instead you thought a little

By John Jantsch bigger – what if you thought we want to be seen as the trusted, go-to service provider for what we do and our value proposition is that we bend over backwards to make you happy when nobody in our industry even tries to.

Now, perhaps you’ve had a strategy meeting with your team and you all agreed that’s your core strategy, but no one thought to bring that into the content you produce.

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John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker, and bestselling author of Duct Tape Marketing, Duct Tape Selling, The Commitment Engine and The Referral Engine.

• • • • • • • • • •

Write a blog post that outlined the 7 questions you should ask your current provider and make it a core lead generator Turn that blog post into a series of videos that the sales team can send out one by one to prospects Develop a Slideshare deck and presentation that you feature on your LinkedIn profile Turn that presentation into a value packed webinar Record the webinar and feature it on your homepage Create an autorepsonder series that delivers emails to prospects over the course of a month Create an infographic and shop it around to high traffic websites Turn your infographic into a direct mail postcard for a targeted blast Get seven of your happy customers to pose one of the questions via video and feature it all over your website Dig up case studies that map to each question and extend the original post and graphics into an eBook

Did you see what I did there – I just took one landmark content idea and turned it into 10 useful iterations. See, the secret to success with content isn’t quantity – it’s intention. If you create content with the intention of finding ways to use it to create awareness, trust, connection, education

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and conversion, you’ll likely create an asset that provides massive return.

Now, understand this isn’t simply recycling content into different mediums, it’s giving the same content a different and needed useful stop along the customer journey.

Oh, and I didn’t even get to point where you turn this content into an evaluation process and ultimately a part of your service delivery.

So you see you don’t need more content – you need the right content in the right context – and that’s all.

FALL 2015

A Not-So-Modest Plan To Save Bookstores From The Grim Reaper That Is Amazon Martin Lindstrom

I have a love affair with bookstores: the search, the smell, the tactile sensation of turning pages. I’m convinced I’m not alone. There are lots of customers who still love bookstores.

But bookstores keep shutting their doors. Is the bookstore doomed? Yes, I‘m afraid it is — if it continues to compete with Amazon on price and volume.

That’s a losing battle. But if bookstores compete on qualities that Amazon will never be able to duplicate, I believe there’s hope!

At Milan’s Malpensa Airport, I noticed how passengers were directed via different coloured lines. Transit: red.

Exit: green. Shopping: yellow. As soon as I figured out the system, I never looked up anymore; I merely followed the red stripe on the floor.

What does this have to do with bookstores?

Amazon introduced the concept of mass-reader reviews. Bookstores have

the ability to take this even further.

Reading the right book gives us a sense of power, influence, and newness. It makes us interesting, gives us a reason to talk, and puts us in the center of things. That’s the role a bookstore should assume.

Every bookstore has authors popping by to sign books. This should be the heart of any smart bookstore as it brings customers close to the source.

Every author is a repository of great books, amazing knowledge, creative thoughts and reflections. The bookstore might ask each prominent author to create a line through the store. If a store is lucky enough to host E. L. James, author of Fifty Shades of Grey, they could ask her to pinpoint 10 books she adores. Assign the colour grey to her (of course!). Draw a grey line through the store, leading the customer on a tour of James’s beloved books. Interview James about these books. Which book made her cry, which changed her life, which

“the entrance of every bookstore should become a sensory exploration zone: a movable kitchen, a minigarden, a tool shed — something which not only catches the customer’s eye, but generates interest by stimulating all the senses.”

inspired her? Record the interview, place iPads around the store, and let visitors play the video as they follow the grey line from book to book.

But recommendations can’t be the only answer. Bookstores need to tap into customers’ sensory experience.

How many cookbooks are released these days? What about garden books?

Do-it-yourself books? Think of all the book genres that lend themselves to sensory exploration.

In my opinion, the entrance of every bookstore should become a sensory exploration zone: a movable kitchen, a mini-garden, a tool shed — something which not only catches the customer’s eye, but generates interest by stimulating all the senses.

I would allocate two or three days a week for new cookbook authors to visit the store, bring their own ingredients, and use the kitchen freeof-charge. The bookstore would fill

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with the aroma of cookbooks!

I would invite garden authors to bring pots, seeds, and plants, and demonstrate some of their garden tricks. Do-it-yourself authors could come and demonstrate their skills, everything from building a model plane to restoring a door. Then I’d promote their books — in the store and online.

There’s no way bookstores can compete on price and selection with Amazon. Period.

But there’s no way Amazon can compete on the smell from the most amazing roasted chicken, the revelation you’ve just learned as you’ve witnessed first-hand how to renovate your beloved chair, or the aha! moment as Ms. James introduces you to her source of inspiration while you walk through your favorite bookstore.

Show me where this bookstore is, and I’ll go in a heartbeat. Wouldn’t you?

Martin Lindstrom is the New York Times Bestselling Author of Buyology, Brandsense & Brandwashed

FALL 2015

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