Business is about people.

I was at the TEDxSydney recently with the theme of IMPRINT. The talks that made an impression on me were those that connected most to my humanity – topics around equality, storytelling, and even love. They were inspiring subjects on a TED platform but I wondered how many of these topics make it to boardroom tables. It made me think when we come to work we still leave so much of our humanity at home (or at TED!) 

This is confirmed by The World Economic Forum Workforce Report, which states a fifth of workers globally planned to quit in 2022. Whether these numbers are as high as this, it should be a cause for concern for every business. The report cites money and increased pay as one way businesses can retain employees. But we know money will never be enough and it certainly isn’t a long-term solution. Job fulfillment and the ability to be one’s true self at work were ranked second and third among employees considering a job change.

It reminded me once again that business is 100% about people – products and services made for people by people. And people want to bring their whole self to work. They also want to bring more of themselves into their buying decisions. Everything else is an enabler.  

Why the HR Manager of the past is not the future.

I started out my career in marketing, before moving to sales and general management and now into the boardroom. The more senior I became the less time I spent on functional skills and the more focus I put into leading people and teams.  I have to say I thrived as a people leader. I found it rewarding to watch people in my team grow and experience success. It became clear to me that the only way to get sustained business results over a period of time was to have a people-first approach.

This meant spending a lot of time with my HR colleagues, many of which became friends beyond work. From recruitment to conducting performance reviews, developing talent and being a good sounding board in tough conversations, I found HR leaders to be invaluable in helping me become an effective people leader. 

As if they could see the winds of change coming, the company I worked for evolved their titles from HR Managers to HR Business Partners. More than being administrators of human capital, this name change signified the opportunity for HR to work alongside other functional and operational leaders to drive success. 

The move to People & Culture.

Over time, I found the business partnering I was doing with HR was having a positive influence on culture. And while culture is one of those tough things to measure, you know when you have a good one.  I found more than employee engagement, my team thrived when they were able to link the quality of their work to business results and importantly purpose.

Interestingly the 2022 Global Culture Report by O.C. Tanner encourages organisations to revisit employee engagement measures if the goal is business success.

“A near-singular focus on employee engagement has distracted organisations from what matters more: the production of great work. Research shows employees and leaders relate to engagement through the quality of their work. Plus, the behaviors and practices associated with great work are more specific and easier to define, measure, and train. They’re also more reliable and predictive of business success because they directly affect business outcomes.”

To measure great work shows the deepening role HR needs to have in organisations.  Functional leaders cannot do it alone. More than administration and even business partnering, HR can have a powerful influence on business growth and company culture. Some companies are getting this right renaming HR to become the People & Culture department.

The future for People & Culture.

This is a time not to take workers for granted. Yet many companies risk doing so by not paying attention to what people seek, which is personal fulfillment and meaning at work.

It’s also a time to review old measures that don’t line up with what makes people feel valued and motivated to bring out their best performance.

This calls for HR roles to evolve even further in unlocking the success of a company’s greatest asset, its people. I believe the future is the brightest it’s ever been for People & Culture.  Roles will evolve to enable companies to be more purpose-driven, benefit from real-time performance and the intentional creation of a diverse workforce.  AI and people analytics will of course be powerful enablers.

We are already seeing HR roles evolving to incorporate diversity & inclusion specialists. Future roles will encompass the management of the employer brand, employee experience design, talent sourcing specialists, workplace and skills design, wellness coaches, human tech specialists, cyber-security experts and more personalised people development and high-performance coaching.

It’s an exciting time for People & Culture leaders formerly known as HR.  I believe they have the opportunity to bring an insightful perspective into the decision making table to shape the thriving businesses of the future.  

If you work in the People & Culture space and find this inspiring, I’d love to hear from you on LinkedIn or book in a chat with me.

Listening in a VUCA world

As a Non-Executive Director and coach, I work with diverse people across many industries. My role means I spend a lot of my time coaching, mentoring, and advising through what I believe is my unique skill set – a commercially driven lens. But I’ve found all the above pointless without listening to people. Really listening.

So, what have I been listening to? The business world experienced unprecedented disruption in the last few years, with some changes being irrevocable. VUCA which is short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, has been supercharged to challenge leadership more than any other time in history. In response, leaders have shifted focus in their organisations to short-term activities and tactics to regain stability and control. This has led to cutting jobs, people development, and brand-building to survive.

At an employee level, the pandemic has challenged why, and how people work. It is no longer millennials that talk about purpose in a workplace context. It seems everyone has woken up to the fact that work accounts for a third of our lives and it has to do more than pay bills but align with our values and more importantly, provide meaning. Hence new terms like The Great Resignation and The Great Reshuffle.

All this can create a culture of discontent as organisations try to grow back revenues and profits while navigating more empowered employees who want to work to live rather than the other way around. 

Reframing the future

Listening to leaders wanting to rebuild in the aftermath of the pandemic, I believe those who take the opportunity to remake and rebuild their businesses through a consumer, customer, and people lens will future-proof themselves for growth.

Here are 5 ways to help kick-start change in your organisation.

1. Reset the vision in the context of purpose

Short-term thinking has to be replaced by giving people in an organisation a more inspiring future to look forward to. It can’t be a rehash of the old vision. It has to include new perspectives and new opportunities for growth. With that comes new roles and the opportunity to develop new business models. This doesn’t have to happen at a corporate level alone (although this is a great place to start) but at a department or team level. Defining a new future opens up hearts and minds helping people look beyond the here and now.

2. Define your hybrid

Senior leaders want to evolve ways of working but don’t know what the right hybrid model is for their business. They also have deep concerns that it will cause culture and productivity to suffer. Even before working from home became widespread, technology was changing how and where work was done. I believe we have to accept a hybrid way of working as the norm but ensure it aligns with each business model, is technology-enabled, and goes through a few iterations before it is optimal. The key is to develop your hybrid like prototyping a new product – research, trial, testing, measuring, and modifying – supported by clear communication to keep everyone in the organisation on the same page and moving forward together.

3. Be truly consumer and customer-centric 

To future-proof growth, every organisation must be focused on delighting consumers and customers above all else. This is the reason an organisation exists in the first place and the constant that will never change even in an uncertain world. The danger is as organisations grow or become risk-averse, they begin to rely on processes and hierarchy to manage and predict outcomes creating an internal focus at the expense of a market focus. This might have worked historically but is disappearing in a VUCA-driven world. Bring your consumers, customers, and users to life at every touchpoint and use new tools of engagement to be as connected to them as possible. Fortune will favour consumer-centric companies that operate in flat decision-making structures.

4. Value and reskill your people

“People are our most valuable asset.” I think I’ve heard a variation of this statement in every company I’ve worked in. But according to McKinsey’s Organising For the Future: Nine keys to becoming a future-ready company, we have to go to a new level of valuing people by treating them as scarcer than capital. The McKinsey report says people long to belong to something bigger than themselves and they will leave companies that don’t have a strong sense of identity and social cohesion. The Harvard Business Review in Future-Proofing Your Organisation goes on to point out that one of the ways we can give people meaning is by reskilling them. “More than 60% of a company’s roles can be filled by current employees, assuming that adequate programs are in place.” Smart companies build from within saving huge costs in recruitment and redundancies.

5. Move from sustainability to rejuvenation thinking in your corporate and brand strategy

As stakeholders demand more environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts, consumers increasingly expect companies to take action. I believe it is both imperative and possible to integrate sustainability and create meaningful change that is good for business, society, and the planet.

It will take collaboration to reimagine how our economy can be transformed into one that benefits all stakeholders and create a world that is not only sustainable but rejuvenated for the future. 

Conclusion

Leadership has never been more challenged than in recent times. Some things have to evolve like ways of working and the move to flatter operational structures powered by technology. Business also has a powerful role in ensuring sustainability is not just a box-ticking exercise but core to long-term strategy and building a stronger economy for all.

Other things remain the same, being consumer, customer, and people-led. However, uncertain the world becomes the winners will be those that are focused on meeting the needs of consumers and customers while staying connected to company culture.

If you’re a leader looking to future-proof growth in your team or business, I’d genuinely love to hear from you.

Connect with me today on LinkedIn or book a consultation with me.

It’s Mother’s Day this weekend.

I don’t have my mum with me anymore. But when I look back and think where did my passion for authentic leadership begin, my mum has to be my earliest role model.

She was a voice of change in her community as a nurse, board member, chairman, and author powered by the purpose to contribute to a more inclusive world.

Watch my video to hopefully inspire your journey to more authentic leadership. 

In coaching executive leaders across many different industries, I’ve found it’s not always the most well-known people that have the most impact in our journey to becoming more authentic leaders. Who has been a significant role model in your life?