The pandemic was probably the most chastening social experience since the world wars. Especially for those in frontline leadership roles. If it wasn’t, for you, then you may have an empathy challenge and should probably take a break until the fog clears. Honestly!
Shock and disruption aside, we’ll probably never know the true human tragedy directly attributable to the disease, but it’s staggering. Worse still, we’ll never get to fully understand the hidden toll from the economic pandemic that shortly followed global lockdown’s tail. So, if you remain oddly unfazed by the human catastrophe, you should at least be able to recognise the devastation caused by the disruption to global trading and the subtler impact that Covid-19 and the prolonged contingency working has had on your key workers. And you should be striving to find a way to boost their coping mechanisms….and your own.
From what we’ve seen as consultants, most organisations leaned very heavily on the 20-40% of their colleagues who generate 80% of their outputs, while much of the rest went knowingly AWOL for an extended time, fighting their own insecurities, doubts and fears. Problem is, the same 20-40% have had to pivot several times now to deal with many conflicting demands that have arisen since, as most businesses settle back into old ways of working complete with commute, office and command and control structures. The fact is, the old system is no longer fully serving them.
They’ve also become accustomed to a lot more balance in their lives, have started to question where they get their self-actualisation from, and may have begun to look at alternatives to resuming the old normal. The same, however, can’t be said for the “working dead” who are marking down the days to retirement or redundancy, while making the most of the resources at work I exaggerate to emphasise the point but, I know you know what I mean.
The leadership paradigm has shifted, as has the old-style employer/employee psychological contract. Have you adapted in the same vein?
There’s been a lot of talk about human or humane leadership traits now that the dust has settled. It seems that people grew accustomed to seeing their managers in their natural habitats and quite liked the fact that they could all be themselves a little more, when all faced with a common enemy, an invisible threat that doesn’t discriminate on the grounds of status.
We have had increasing enquiries from leaders and managers concerned about the sustained pressure that their people have been under and asking for fresh approaches to coaching and mentoring that is a little more ethical, responsive and, dare we say, sustainable in this complex new world.
Now, some of you will snort, with scepticism at this point, especially those who recall how certain high profile business schools suddenly started talking about ethics and morality again after the banking thoroughbreds bolted from their golden stables at the turn of the century and almost collapsed global economies. Of course, very little changed other than a few more values and behaviours workshops, equality and diversity management roles, expensive ad campaigns and some re-arranging of top jobs. But this time, things are different. Because this time, the burning platforms has at least singed us all. And this time, there are no “off the shelf” workarounds and platitudes to resort to.
This time, both the leaders and their teams need to change and it isn’t sector specific. To illustrate my point, last month we announced the first of our annual Mosaic Top Ten Future Fit Leadership Traits rankings. As we announced, this will become an annual event, in conjunction with a leading business school (watch this space). We’ve just completed a deep diagnostic of a client’s leadership and management teams and, without any form of consultation, their leaders AND managers, as separate groups, both ordered the top five leadership traits exactly the same with Human, Ethical and Sustainable all near the top. The key point here is that these traits aren’t the pandering, politically correct stuff of the pipe dreams of the past which are feasted upon by the dogs of commercial war and competition, they ARE the traits that will enable future fit leaders to adapt and lead by listening and with empathy, responding and becoming comfortable with increasing ambiguity. Do you really doubt that the world of work isn’t going to become an increasingly complex place? Think leaders will survive by adhering steadfastly to models that applied to simpler times? Are you even the same person you were pre-pandemic? How did you use the time to reflect and dream and change? Intend to stick by those resolutions or, like a stress ball, are you resuming the old shape?
You may be interested to know that alongside Leadership Reflections thought pieces like this one, the team at Mosaic will be launching a podcast as well as running at least four Masterclass Workshops on key themes, this year. The first will be in Spring and will be packed with best practices, on these topics, for the HR, line management and general leadership communities. So, if you, or a friend or colleague would benefit from discussing the challenges you all face in more detail, picking up a few pragmatic tips and techniques or just wants to vent with like minds, do point your contacts towards our blog where news of the events will appear shortly.
Until we next meet, here’s hoping that your planning for the year ahead is going well. Best wishes for 2023 and beyond from the team at Mosaic. It promises to be a time of continued challenge and opportunity, calling for open minds and fresh thinking.
We look forward to continuing the conversation…
This is not only being fuelled by the pace at which technology is merging the physical and digital worlds, demanding more and more functionality from the same biological constructs, people, but it’s also being driven by the rapidly changing and constantly shifting socioeconomic conditions that bring daily influence to bear on organisations and by association us as people.
It’s tough enough rowing in a small boat in this perfect storm with no real sign of land. Imagine being in charge of the flotilla, morally and contractually obliged to steer a course through without losing anyone and emerging ready for the next set of challenges.
If you’re reading this blog, then I suspect you don’t need to imagine. It’s most likely your daily lived reality and we know, because our team has either spent significant time in-house helping to steer as internal change agents or they have been coaching and partnering on leadership programmes as external consultants. We see and hear what leaders across sectors are going through and it’s a time of huge demand and challenge, yet also full of opportunity.
Lewin famously speaks of unfreezing and then re- freezing corporate cultures to ensure that behaviour change sticks. Well, it’s especially tough when the water’s this salty and raging. So leadership skills are evolving. It may be tough to look ahead and through the storm clouds. But that’s part of the job, to remain future fit while doing the day job based on known paradigms…then being prepared to evolve them. That’s how we ensure the organisations, people and communities that we serve remain future fit and ready to sail through whatever conditions might be coming up next.
One of the ways in which we’re trying to help, as leadership coaches, is to keep stock of the forces at play and reflecting on the top leadership qualities required to meet the challenges of the time. We do this partly through critically exploring the hundreds of leadership coaching sessions we have across sectors at the highest of levels, every year. But also by reviewing what some of the more respected consultancy and other thinking houses suggest are future fit leadership traits.
This year, post lockdowns, leading into the current financial, identity, governance, establishment, and environmental influenced epoch, we suggest the following ten critical future fit leadership traits stand out as essential:
- Human, empathic and authentic
- Ethical and sustainable behaviour
- Inclusive coaching style
- Influencing skills
- Listening and adapting
- Evidence and data driven
- Decisive
- Handles complexity well
- Visionary, strategic and commercial focus
- Maintains focus regardless
Interestingly, in our research, maintaining focus was ranked just above visionary and strategic, a reflection of how the best leaders, through times that have uniquely tested everyone at once, have thrived rather than simply survived. And the teams that have been the most resilient have been working for leaders who have clear, balanced, inspirational goals with short as well as longer term deliverables. These leaders have been able to not only ensure the wellbeing of their colleagues in the face of immediate risk but have also taken advantage of down time and confusion to look to the longer term, post crisis and offer hope, purpose, opportunity, and a mission the other side of uncertainty.
There’s certainly some food for thought here for you and your HR teams especially to reflect upon as we enter the last few days of 2022.
We will be repeating this exercise annually and revealing the revised Future Focused Leadership Traits poll around the same time next year when we’re hoping to co-deliver a workshop, as part of our series of live sessions, with academics from a leading University. So watch this space and please circulate this blog to any colleagues and contacts who may be interested.In the meantime, if you have any thoughts, reflections or questions about this or any of our core topics, do drop us a line or get yourself onto our Newsletter mailing list. We publish thought pieces and case studies monthly and will be happy to welcome you to the Mosaic community.
If you’ve been attracted to this discussion piece because you’re hoping for someone to make the business case for equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, then you’re on the wrong page, literally and metaphorically.
We’ll gladly point people towards papers linked to studies that prove the financial benefits. These range from greater employee engagement through to better decision making, more innovation, happier customers and, quite frankly, respecting the law. But we’re long past the business case stage and hope you are too.
Interestingly, most of the business case pieces were written at least a decade ago. If you really still need a business case to embrace the concept of celebrating difference while creating a culture of inclusion in pursuit of your organisation’s goals, then you may be the wrong person for the job as the ED&I conversation has moved on from “what, who and why?” to “when and how?”. It really has.
Like my consulting colleagues at Mosaic, I’ve had the pleasure of working nationally and internationally in some very varied and diverse environments, helping develop work cultures within corporate and national cultural frameworks that have been challenging. Bringing change to countries like South Africa and Northern Ireland or implementing values-led leadership in global corporations that touch upon every major geography and which need to be personalised for local employee demographics, isn’t easy. Yet when inclusion is the focus while simultaneously celebrating the diversity of identities, skills, thinking styles and personal journeys that contribute towards that change, it can be an exhilarating challenge. And isn’t that what work should be?
Even when working in one of the ED&I epi-centres of global renown, Brighton, there are still lessons to be learned.
Just before the pandemic struck, I was helping a public sector organisation develop a future fit working culture and, in the process, continuously improve their employee engagement to become an employer brand of choice in a territory where they had an image challenge.
They had enabled the development of over a dozen special interest groups representing the spectrum of what they believed was their core ED&I demographic ranging from BAME through to the Proud Network.
Each group was clearly committed to the needs and interests of their core members and had an Executive lead. But as there was a limited budget for engagement activities, incongruence was never far from the surface and progress generally was a struggle at times.
I was able to help in a number of ways. Useful contributions included:
- holding listening sessions with them all and obtaining feedback from the 70% or so colleagues who weren’t members of any society or group
- providing all groups with a common platform at the annual, very high-profile colleague conference
- ensuring that the top team understood the business case for inclusion using a blend of bespoke data and several talks by prominent lawyers and accountants who had undertaken ED&I transformation journeys and were now advocates
The listening groups demonstrated, very clearly, that diversity wasn’t the challenge. The organisation’s recruitment process had ensured that they were meeting their quantitative demographic goals. Their greatest challenge was retention and inclusion. In short, once they managed to attract a great blend of talented people, they were struggling to keep them and the focus on “difference” was alienating, in some part, rather than unifying.
Having gained senior team endorsement for the conference agenda and the license to innovate, the catalyst of an empty stage for an hour with a collective ED&I banner above it proved to be the challenge needed to unite the groups. A couple of facilitators stood out as natural, inclusive leaders and between us we were able to devise an engaging and inclusive experiential workshop called In My Shoes.
The premise of the exercise was to capture a typical day in the life of someone with protected characteristics or a typical member of a special interest group and to illustrate the challenges they face. These were turned into immersive scripts and then the scripts were exchanged with members from another group who gave some form of performance to bring that day to life. These ranged from reciting poems through to role plays and silent monologues.
The content of the exercises was carefully guarded until the day of the conference and conference delegates got to self-select what breakout workshop sessions they would like to attend based upon the teaser communication provided by the group.
I had to manage a great deal of nervousness within the senior team and HR function, concerned by what promised to be a controversial session. This was on top of the usual performance anxiety of the workshop leads and the night before included tears and tantrums. However, when the bookings opened, it was the first session to sell out.
The conference was as stressful as these totemic events always are, and I had to wear many hats on the day. But I took time out to pop into the ED&I workshop and it was captivating.
The audience was truly inclusive and the performances were both touching and educating. The conference itself was a triumph, but the workshop breakout is the first time I’ve witnessed a session gain universal acclaim, with all respondents giving it maximum satisfaction and education scores.
At Mosaic, as you may well know, we pride ourselves on creating tailored, immersive and transformational strategies and leadership interventions that deliver sustainable results. This modest illustration hopefully shows why we’re so beyond the business case and why ED&I especially is a concept that means nothing unless fine words are matched by finer deeds.
When that balance is reached, magic happens. And when the intervention is part of an OD system where the components complement one another, then it’s the sweet spot. But as with all people initiatives, it takes a lot of hard partnership work and experience to reach that point
This is our 11th blog in this year’s series. Until next time, if you would like a conversation with one of our diverse leadership team about your own ED&I challenges, then we’d love to hear from you.
Best, as ever.
Ian
PS. If you would like more case studies like this then you can download specific chapters from Ian’s books by following this link.
Mosaic is more than a brand or logo. It reflects the way we work together, a group of people transformation specialists with varying levels of deep expertise in our specialist areas working together to offer a complete and comprehensive systems approach to transforming leadership practices, especially within the people disciplines.
A system is an inter-related set of variables or components functioning together as a whole. A human resource management system is an integrated and interrelated approach to managing human resources that fully recognizes the interdependence among the various tasks and functions that must be performed and deliberately sets out to ensure that those interdependencies are simultaneously managed.
That said, we are not conventional HR consultants. Why? Because our consultancy team favours long and deep, cross-sector experience and expertise above the normative experience of the CIPD training ground. Our team have all held frontline, corporate roles in the past as training, communications, consultancy or change agent professionals within the private and public sector. We have all undertaken continuous professional development with institutions as varied as Russell Group Universities or the best business schools and we are all writers, thought leaders and creatives, respected for our original approaches and focus on the bottom line.
Just as we blend together, we understand that HR, Operations and the people functions must synchronise their specialist functions if sustainable organisation transformation is to be achieved of the type that satisfies all key stakeholders and which delivers sustainable positive outcomes. Miss one element and the whole system collapses.
The Mosaic OD System has seven component parts, including:
We talk about employee engagement as a system equivalent to a leaky bucket that needs all elements to be covered to function properly. The same applies to the OD system. Each of the seven stations or enabling disciplines must be addressed simultaneously and be covered in the OD strategy and plan, or the system will break down, compromising the results. They may not all sit under HR or be performed by a single function (Comms often sits elsewhere and marketing is key to the employee life cycle/employer brand, for example). But they must all be simultaneously worked upon and continuously improved. That’s down to leadership and understanding that what gets measured gets done, which is why points 7 and 1 can be interchangeable as the initiation point for the system.
Mosaic is able to offer both consultancy and bespoke workshops majoring in each of the seven stations within our system. We will shortly be publishing a programme in which we invite cross-sector client representatives to attend specialist sessions dedicated to each station, complete with experts with a unique take on the subject to share best practices and resolve challenges.
If you’re interested in forming part of one of these webinars, do let us know. Numbers are restricted to ensure quality dialogues, so please do drop one of us a line responding to this blog using the enquiries form below if you’re interested.
It looks like the next couple of years are going to be an extension of the pandemic challenges as the financial tsunami hits; leaders and managers are going to continue to be tested. The practical support of a small, facilitated network outside of the day job may just be what you need.
We’d love to continue the conversation…
Think of a system and what comes to mind?
Hopefully some form of activity, pursuit or device with several component parts but where they are complementary and, when operating correctly, work together in order to achieve a desired outcome.
Countries have economic systems or legal or governance or education systems.
Organisations should be one big system of people and processes working together to achieve a vision and strategy and plan. But get beneath that level and systems are trickier to see, especially within the so- called softer skills.
Units within organisations, however, do have functions and ideally these functions or disciplines should work together to operate their system in pursuit of their strategy and plan. Comms and HR should be no different but often are. Why? Well, it’s partly because what they do is harder to measure and manage and partly because of the people they employ who, let’s be honest, like to hold onto notions of intuition, gut and art and resist process management and the science of their functions. Be honest, they do! Sadly, in a world of KPIs, agile and continuous improvement, this makes projects based on the people functions harder to lead and manage using tangible data.
Talent Management is a case in point. Some view it as a skill. Others delegate it to specialists. Some devolve or outsource it. But few take responsibility for it as a system. So it remains elusive, inefficient and a source of much malcontent.
Our Mosaic model of Talent Management suggests that there are seven fundamental steps or stages or components in any Talent Management system. None are rocket science, yet fail to address any of them or take your eye off one in favour of another and…the system fails leading to disengagement and employee churn with the best ones leaving first. But take a comprehensive strategy with a few punchy goals in each area and ensure that a single team owns them all and it can be one of the most powerful systems in the HR space, especially in devolved structures where HR reps live on and at the front line.
You may think of yourself as a “Compensation and Benefits” specialist or you may have “Learning and Development” experts within the HR team.
Unless you have covered at least these seven bases, however and more importantly have a systemic approach underway at line manager level, there will be fundamental failings across the employee life-cycle and that will eventually lead to culture, engagement and performance problems. It’s like having a great sales force but awful marketing. Lots of creative energy wasted because nobody is priming the talent pump at the right time.
If you would like to know more about this model or our approach to systemic talent management, we’ll be glad to share case studies. Or why not sign up to one of our masterclasses or even a coaching course?
However you decide to address your talent management challenges, we hope that you’ve found the last five minutes……… or so thinking through the issues, with us (via this and our other blogs) a useful investment of your time…
Until next time…..
Kate and the Mosaic team.
So, the “new age radical liberalism” has spread to organisations now, it would appear. Critics are claiming that performance management processes are dead, yes, dead. But before you cancel those achiever awards, bonus systems and outcome dashboards or start Googling “participation trophies”, allow us to de-bunk the madness.
Yes, some HR departments are literally tying themselves up in emotional knots afraid to so much as whisper the words “accountability”; “results” or even “objectives” for fear of being castigated as performance pushing bullies.
Sadly, I kid thee not.
We have had several requests to help HR leads (in certain sectors, it must be said) adapt their so-called appraisal systems to rescue their besieged line managers and release their line reports from the emotional strain of assessments that apparently compromise their mental health. And we’re not just talking about the alleged infamous brittleness of Gens Y&Z. This movement has become an all-encompassing challenge for all branches of the working family.
Let’s face it, individual performance review processes have had a very bad rap in certain quarters down the years. And to some extent, it’s been justified.
As an employee, consultant, or coach, you must have heard at least some, if not all, of these moans down the years. Maybe you’ve used them yourself:
- Our PM process is just a laborious annual form filling exercise, a SOP for the auditors and IiP police
- My manager is useless at it
- We don’t work with objectives
- If your face fits the process doesn’t matter
- I’m responsible for my own development and training not the organisation
- What’s the point as there are no performance rewards or consequences?
- It actually de-motivates as it’s just a case of going through the motions
Is it any wonder, therefore, that some organisations are threatening to abandon the performance review process altogether, for good?
Nirvana for HRDs who have to deal with the issues? Not really. And certainly a nightmare for CEOs, FDs and Performance Directors.
What is an organisation if not a group of people brought together to deliver a common purpose?
Purpose = goals and linking organisational goals to individual goals is at least chapter 1 in the book of leadership 101. But it requires both process and behaviour to exist in equilibrium as much as support and challenge, and therein lies the problem. As any decent Investors in People assessor will tell you, many problems come down to poor process. And as many leadership coaches and culture specialists will tell you, show me a performance management problem and I’ll show you a leadership problem at line management level, a behavioural dilemma.
Our senior team has been instrumental in designing PM systems and facilitating the adoption of PM systems across sectors for decades, whether part of a comprehensive Organisation Development programme, leadership programme, or one-off.
We would point to what we see as abdication on the scale we’re talking about here as extremely troubling and will be very interested to learn more about how the purpose, mission, vision, values, and goals of the aforementioned businesses are translated at an individual level at any or all stages of the employee life cycle from recruitment through to departure if there was no PM process in place. Put it this way, we’ve yet to meet a sustainable and grown-up business where this approach works.
Sure, there’s plenty that are woefully inadequate, or which cause more damage than good, alienating large swathes or provoking the churn of the wrong type of employee. But these are issues that can be fixed, provided the leaders are prepared to address process, behaviour and culture altogether.
At its simplest, the performance management process is the interface between the organisation’s goals and each individual’s job. It’s where they and their line manager evaluate their relative contribution, recognise achievement, and addresses any capability or competency shortfall. It’s supposed to be a virtual safe space; an appreciative tool and a mechanism for facilitating powerful conversations that in turn become productive relations. The process shouldn’t be an echo, torture or virtuous chamber and, when delivered well, it’s essential not disposable.
Let me end by sharing a story that cutely sums up the main point: people work better when they have a purpose, goals, and the right feedback.
We moved house recently. As we inspected the work of the decorator, we came across many coloured pieces of paper. Upon closer inspection, they were Post Its, little messages left at problem points critiquing the decorator’s work. Each was numbered and they included short messages like “Late night?” “Call yourself a professional?” and “Perhaps I’ll employ your guide dog next time.”
I was shocked and raised these with the painter when I bumped into him. But I was surprised by his reply:
>laughing<
“Oh, those are our love letters, as we call them. Basically, our team has set a maximum number of snagging points per job. We’re targeted on snaggings as a team by the site manager. Basically, he inspects when we’re done and if he finds a problem, he leaves a note and a witty message. At the end of the week, we buy a pint for the painter who has the fewest notes but also buy one for the manager who comes up with the wittiest way to describe a snag. It’s a bit of a win/win. We all take pride in our work and aim for zero notes, it becomes a bit of a giggle.”
Me: “Surely that doesn’t work for everyone?”
He: “No. Other teams use a different system. But this sort of feedback is normal and natural to us. It works for us and, by the way, this site team has a reputation for being a great place to work.”
A very simple example. But it’s an important and interesting lesson in linking corporate goals to individual targets and adding an appropriate human touch.
So instead of acting as slaves to a dead process or abandoning accountability all together…. why not take a lesson from the painters and develop a system and set of behaviours that works for your culture?
“Yes, yes, we know that your business is far more complex and the people far more needy, but the principle of starting with two or three simple goals that can be readily measured, can be handily fed back and actually mean something to the person doing the day job, is a pretty sound one. Try it. You don’t even have to call it PM!”
- Is your organisation going through a major transformation post Covid in an attempt to become future fit?
- Are you hoping to launch a fresh brand promise, purpose or vision?
- Do you struggle to explain the usp of your business to employees, suppliers and candidates?
- Have you had enough of working in survival mode and crave higher ground?
- Can’t manage the transition from smart or blended working back to bums on seats?
- Struggling to recruit, retain or engage employees?
If you answered “Yes” to any of the questions above, you may want to consider re-evaluating your employer brand.
Why employer brand and why now?
For some. It’s a 90s concept, when the war for talent was raging and was used to define the promises and expectations generated between employee and employer. But as I highlighted in Brand Engagement, it should more accurately be known as “employment” brand because the relationship between those who work for and who lead organisations has far more give and take than most realise. It’s an equation that factors in experience (promises made) and subtracts workaday reality (behaviour experienced). And the point is, it’s supposed to make you more attractive to stakeholders.
In the current, cynical environment where customers and employees alike are liberated by choice and empowered by a plethora of communications platforms, it’s more important than ever that organisations deliver on the promises they make to markets.
Whether stakeholders are customers, shareholders or staff, the truth will always out.
Employer brand informs the customer and colleague experience. Crafted and positioned properly, it has the potential to engage employees and candidates with your purpose and business aspirations. It can and should embody what marketeers call your employee value proposition (EVP) or the sum of what makes your organisation unique as an employer.
Communicated well, it can transform your employment offering into simple, actionable, enticing, powerful, and easily understood language so everyone, including suppliers and business partners understand and can align appropriately. It has the potential to be inspiring, empowering, and unifying or to suck morale dry with cynicism and hypocrisy. Managed well, your employer brand, should be an asset on your balance sheet.
Employer Brand as an Employee Engagement Driver
If you’re struggling with teamwork in the post pandemic blended working world and can’t seem to get people into your expensive offices, your employer brand may well need some serious re-work. Yet you probably aren’t even aware of the blind spots because the best people will just leave without telling you and your worst people, left behind, won’t be listening.
Likewise, if you’re going through a major transformation or change or need to launch a new project, programme or way of working a shift in attitude, behaviour, culture, and direction is most likely required. Focusing on the employer brand can galvanise and help to shape fresh and evolving employee expectations and synchronise them with the latest strategy, narrative, business focus and objectives.
A proper employer/employee brand programme also has the potential to build a cadre of brand champions and underpin an appropriate culture that will engage rather than antagonise customers. Too many leaders are too impatient at the moment, re-imposing ways of working that no longer fit employee and customer expectations post pandemic. If they were ineffectual during lockdown, they will probably be worse when the doors open again.
What about our Marketing?
If you’re re-defining or launching a new consumer brand promise, product line or service offering, it isn’t good enough simply to “show your employees the adverts”.
The so-called consumer brand requires translation for your employees so they understand how to deliver on the customer experience. They need to know where they fit in and you need to be clear about how this development adds to the organisation’s existing narrative and is communicated via the information superhighway of your workplace and in the behaviour of your people.
Recognition, Retention and Recruitment
For those in recruitment and HR communications who are wrestling with their performance management system and frustrated with their current careers website, social media platforms, internal recruitment procedures, third-party interpretation by agencies, student recruitment communications, and more – you may want to re-evaluate your current employer brand. It should tell a clear story about “why candidates should work here” and give existing employees a very clear picture of the part they play in their organisation’s journey and story.
Right now, enlightened senior executives will know that the bottom of the slump past the eye of the storm is a time rich with opportunities. But they will be losing sleep about employee engagement and churn, believe you me. They will also be frustrated by the potential loss of momentum as opportunities come from dark times, as they always do. Times like these call for changing gears in order to re-focus and re-motivate a jaded workforce. But it’s hard to do that when the leaders themselves are worn and hoarse from shouting.
Leadership development is one option. Culture change is another. Better communication is certainly up there as an improvement intervention. But you may well already be trying all of these. Under conditions like we’re all facing, taking a fresh, appreciative but critical look at your brand, at the interface between the promises you make to customers and those you make to staff, can provide a focal point for culture development and behaviour change or even a new spark in the marketing space. Call us outrageous but why not get your HR and Marketing functions together with your Comms team to create a joint strategy? It can work really well, you know, if you’re brave enough to want to stand out from the crowd?
Well, it wasn’t the most dynamic of openings I’ll admit, but we recently mentioned in a client meeting that it was Business Continuity week in May. You could hear the eyeballs roll like it was 1999.
What short memories we all have eh!
We may have just been through a global pandemic which permanently altered our ways of working in ways that we’re yet to fully appreciate. But have attitudes to crisis management really improved for good? And do we still afford Comms and OD colleagues the respect they deserve for their unique skills and invaluable role they play? Really?
Sure, we’re all worn out, weary of living on the edge of apocalypse, survivors of our own unique dramas hinting at PTSD. But leaders, especially first line managers, have borne the brunt of the constant scrambling for the latest new normal while privileged board members show their frustration with the slow pace of restoring bums to expensive seats.
Even if the more logical among us recognise that socio- economic circumstances suggest that the pace of change is going to be extreme, well, forever, let’s face it, crises are likely to be constant (the climate change activists think we only have 50 years left on this planet, for example), and most of us are largely living in denial for fear of the worst.
The last thing most leaders want to do is start re-examining our crisis and contingency plans. We want an office and a reason to anchor us there and real work to be getting on with until THIS weirdness all goes away, right?
Are you crisis ready?
I’m sure you’ve heard the moans and possibly even muttered these phrases yourselves from time to time when someone mentions the need to review contingency, comms or crisis readiness:
“Oh come on, we’re wasting so much time prepping for something that will probably never happen while I’m here” or “lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place…”
Better still: “I’ve got real work to do now” etc etc
“We all know the drill and have all become communicators. So let’s start reigning back on that stuff.”
Suffice to say: had it not been for each and every organisation’s contingency/emergency, crisis plans, developed and delivered largely by their IT, Ops, Comms and HR professionals, one thing’s for sure, more organisations would have gone down during the global pandemic than actually made it through. It’s not for nothing that Comms, HR and IT colleagues have been lauded as superheroes during this pandemic, popped almost on the same pedestal as frontline essential health workers.
So, before you rush forward and write off the pandemic as a one off event or start filling comms teams with “super secretarial services”, take a hard and long look around you. Take proper stock of the political and economic instability that is rampant at the moment, how 911 was followed by banking crisis by austerity by Brexit by the identity conflicts then by war. Where will it all end? Well, it probably won’t. Sadly. And you’re going to need communicators and crisis managers who are future fit, permanently.
Future Fit Comms
We talk a lot about future fit leadership traits here at Mosaic Towers. We’ve been chatting non-stop about future fitness since the pandemic really gripped as we knew then what we all know now, that the health crisis was only the first wave of permanent changes to leadership competencies. We’ve helped many clients develop their crisis communication strategies before, but often after the proverbial “horse” has bolted.
Business continuity skills are very much part of the future fit leadership constellation. The ability to horizon scan, strategize, plan agilely, recruit and engage stakeholders and express the organisation’s journey as an evolving narrative complete with trials and successes are all component parts of the future fitness leadership package. So how confident are you feeling, right now? How future fit are your crisis management skills, especially the communication element?
Well, to help mark Business Continuity Week in May, have a go at this simple test. Give yourself and your leadership collective a mark out of five for each of these ten questions. If you’re scoring less than 30/50, give us a ring. As you know, it’s good to chat.
Survey
(out of 5 with 5 = exemplary)
1. Rate your current crisis management strategy, plan SOP [ ]
2. Rate the current crisis comms management skills of your Comms, IT, HR functions. [ ]
3. Rate the current crisis comms management skills of your senior leaders [ ]
4. Rate the current crisis comms management skills of your first line managers [ ]
5. Rate your internal stakeholder engagement levels [ ]
6. Rate your horizon and issues scanning ability as an organisation. [ ]
7. Rate the resilience levels of your employees. [ ]
8. Rate your crisis management continuous improvement mechanisms. [ ]
9. To what extent is crisis management entrenched in your organisation’s goal setting and performance management for leaders? [ ]
10. To what extent do you benchmark your crisis management approach and share best practices? [ ]
Scores:
40-50: Head up: fancy delivering a masterclass on the subject for us?
30- 40: Chin up: You’re in the zone, but watch for blind spots
Under 30: Don’t hang up: Give us a call asap.
The Team @ Mosaic
We would love to hear from you…
From the Cool Britannia epoch through to the banking collapse, there was a cacophony of chatter about mindfulness. It eased when times got tougher. Odd that. Yet most people are still confused about what it is, male senior leaders especially, in our experience, and interestingly, as coaches, we’ve started talking about it again during the pandemic.
But is there a problem with the term and how useful is the concept now?
A coping strategy I deploy when faced with hyped, spun or contentious subjects is to tread the writer’s path and literally re-examine the semantic root of the challenge.
In this case, put simply, mindfulness is the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something. It’s also a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
Well, I’m not sure about the term “therapeutic” but it’s certainly useful as a coping strategy, especially as, from a leadership perspective, being mindful implies a positive coping mechanism and that the skills required to become and remain mindful, when necessary, are very useful. In short, it’s a handy strategy for keeping “one’s head when all about you are losing theirs” etc etc. And let’s face it, there are a lot of exploding heads in the world at the moment.
Yet why does the term trigger the gag reflex in most leader and serious business types? Surely mindfulness should epitomise inclusion. Yet it’s pitched as exclusive. Mention it in a meeting and watch for the heavy eye roll? And why have studies criticised it so, including respected publications like Psychology Today and Neuroscience News.
Well, let’s be honest, it has an image problem. If mindfulness were an animal it would quack, have a rainbow coat and reek of essential oils. It’s associated with exclusive “alternative” life-styles and the fringe behaviour of counter-cultural types. It’s more Brighton than Brixton and I should know, having lived and worked in both locations.
I do recall, with toe-curling clarity, a funky Omnicom leadership workshop on the Strand in which I and my senior colleagues were assaulted by what appeared to be a rabble of ragged troubadours wielding talking drums, peace pipes, vegan notebooks and recipes for knitting yoghurt (that last bit may be a fib). They taught us to juggle and breathe fire while channelling a speaking stick (I kid you not)…
It was supposed to bind the team and spark creative thinking. But it caused a rift in the senior ranks from which we never recovered. So we all had to take a few thrashings from the productivity learning stick of experience as a consequence.
The challenge with concepts like mindfulness is that they’re pitched as exclusive or “special”. While we all oscillate on a daily spectrum that ranges from panicked to distracted to grounded to mindful in response to internal and external environmental factors, many of those who teach it aim to live permanently on the margins. And they kind of like it that way. This has to be a prime reason why mindfulness has acquired a reputation for exclusivity, indulgence and for marginalising the mainstream in which most normal folk swim.
Having all been through a global pandemic together, however, everyday life has drawn heavily on the wellbeing resources of everyone, employees and leaders alike. Line managers have been the pivot point for much of the crisis management and change activity, HR functions have battled valiantly and it’s no surprise that most leaders are running out of ways to cultivate sustainable performance levels from drained colleagues who are obsessing constantly about how national and international socio-economic issues are going to impact their children’s lives.
In this scenario, an individual’s resilience is largely determined by the interplay of their coping mechanisms, also their ability to remain calm, grounded and focused for the sake of the team.
Now that sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
In a coaching setting, we’re able to compartmentalise each coachees stressors then explore coping mechanisms from the resilience circumplex to ensure that they become and remain focused on the moment rather than drained by fretting about the uncontrollable. It’s why our coaches focus on the whole individual, not just the person who presents for work. This approach gives us license to discuss sport, nature walks, spiritualism, hobbies, gardening, writing and reading and time with children and pets as a mindfulness element of the coaching mix. So we do.
Sorry if our approach to mindfulness sounds boring and may not always involve enough incense for some of you. But the way we’re now approaching this subject seems to be helping more senior leaders than you might think. And many are men. Though if it makes you feel any better, more than one has been known to hug a tree from time to time.
Was it Donald Rumsfeld, amongst others, who uttered this phrase?
Well, that should be pinned to every Boardroom wall at the moment. Because we truly are living through entirely unprecedented times and it’s the unenviable task of leaders to make some sense of it all, while feeling under siege themselves.
“On-going challenges and global threats such as the pandemic, climate crisis, political instability (particularly in Europe), and now outbreak of war continues to create a volatile and hugely unpredictable trading landscape for our clients.
As coaches and engagement and change specialists, we hear about their struggles every day. So if you’re reading this, you’re certainly not alone in finding it hard to see into the future.
Organisations are grappling with a unique set of unforeseen challenges. Leaders are scratching their heads about how best to implement classic thinking in the face of revolutionary conditions in search of a ‘catch all’ hybrid working model whilst meeting ever-demanding targets. Yet continued covid related pressures add further physical and mental resourcing issues into the mix. And all of this is precariously balanced on the heads of people, from first line manager level up, who are just about managing to keep above water level, for now.
None of us can deny that it is imperative that leadership development evolves at an appropriate pace to remain future-focused and ahead of the transformation curve. But there aren’t any textbooks about the how as noone has had the chance to write them yet. Some of the classics still hold true. But not all of them. Agility, evolution, listening and adapting to each unique set of circumstances is key. But who has the time and foresight in your organisation to do that when the workaday normality is so fraught?
It’s no coincidence that the Mosaic team is drawn from very experienced and versatile practitioners from across the organisation development spectrum. All are cross-sector experienced. All have been leaders in their own rights. Together we’ve provided support to dozens of household names and many more emerging brands.
All Mosaic programmes are unique, yet based on tried and tested foundations and each is purposely designed to act as a pathfinder for the transformation process within our client organisations, equipping leaders with the skills needed to adapt to a new world, at a new pace, ensuring a consistent model of leadership excellence for future fit organisations and their people, at an inconsistent and volatile time.
We partner with organisations to develop their leadership teams at all levels, from first line management through to senior executive teams. Always at the forefront of our approach is maintaining constant focus on the achievement on the business’s core outcomes and deliverables. We do this by concentrating on the enabling activities that drive those outcomes and ensure that they are, and remain, grounded in core purpose, outcomes focused and future fit.
We take a ‘done with’ rather than ‘done to’ approach, ensuring that we transfer ownership for all the goals, objectives and methodology to the client leadership teams over time. Our approach guarantees a sustainable versus over dependent relationship that empowers, encourages, and supports to unlock potential at individual, team, and organisational level.
In this age of information overload, our programmes are purposefully designed to cultivate co-created and co-owned outcomes that are unique to every client. We constantly learn from good practice but take nothing off the shelf. And where we genuinely don’t know, we create learning pathways to help our clients explore and evolve. Where we excel is in creating safe, informed, supported, and immersive development environments and pragmatic learning experiences that motivate leaders to think for themselves and in turn, deliver behavioural and cultural change aligned to business strategy.
This adaptability with a consistent core is what we believe future fit leadership looks like, for an uncertain world and, as ever…we would love to continue the conversation with you.
“A leader’s job is to look to the future and see the organisation, not as it is, but as it should be.”
Jack Welch