by Joy Maitland | Oct 4, 2023 | Women Leaders
Black History Month in the UK is a time of profound significance, a moment when we collectively acknowledge and celebrate the invaluable contributions of black people to British society. This year, Black History Month 2023 takes on added importance as it revolves around the theme ‘Saluting Our Sisters.’ This theme aims to spotlight the often overlooked but important role that black women have played in shaping history, inspiring change, and building communities. From literature and music to politics and social care, black women have made indelible marks across various fields, enriching the cultural tapestry of the world.
Music: Shirley Bassey, Estelle, Emeli Sandé and Lianne La Havas
The UK has been blessed with musical talents like Shirley Bassey whose iconic voice has graced the world with timeless classics. Her powerful performances, including the James Bond theme songs, have earned her global recognition. In contemporary music, Estelle stands tall, blending soul, R&B, and reggae influences to create music that resonates with audiences worldwide. Emeli Sandé, with her soulful voice and heartfelt lyrics, has become a household name in the UK music scene. Her powerful ballads and uplifting anthems have earned her critical acclaim and numerous awards, making her a role model for aspiring musicians. Lianne La Havas, a talented singer-songwriter and guitarist, has captured audiences with her unique blend of folk, soul, and R&B. Her artistry and musical innovation have garnered international recognition, proving the depth of talent within the UK’s black female musical community.
Fashion: Naomi Campbell, Grace Wales Bonner, Pat McGrath and Adwoa Aboah
In the world of fashion, Naomi Campbell’s influence transcends the runway. As a supermodel and activist, she has broken barriers and paved the way for countless black models. Grace Wales Bonner, a rising star in the fashion industry, challenges conventional norms with her gender-fluid designs, redefining the boundaries of contemporary fashion. Pat McGrath, often referred to as the “most influential makeup artist in the world,” has revolutionised the beauty industry with her creativity and innovation. Her work as a makeup artist and entrepreneur has redefined standards of beauty and inspired countless individuals. Adwoa Aboah, a British fashion model and activist, has not only graced the covers of renowned magazines but has also used her platform to advocate for mental health awareness and challenge traditional beauty norms, making her a powerful voice in the fashion industry.
Literature: Andrea Levy, Zadie Smith, Bernardine Evaristo and Malorie Blackman
In the realm of literature, black British women have gifted the world with powerful narratives and insightful stories. Andrea Levy, the celebrated British author, left an indelible legacy through her novels, particularly “Small Island,” which explores the lives of Jamaican immigrants in post-World War II Britain. Her work delves deep into themes of identity, race, and belonging, sparking essential conversations about the immigrant experience in the UK. Similarly, Zadie Smith, with her acclaimed works such as “White Teeth,” captivates readers with her unique voice, addressing themes of multiculturalism and social dynamics in modern Britain. Bernardine Evaristo, a celebrated author, is known for her innovative narrative styles and insightful exploration of race, gender, and identity. Her novel “Girl, Woman, Other” not only won the Booker Prize but also became a cornerstone of contemporary British literature, challenging conventions and broadening perspectives. In the contemporary literary landscape, Malorie Blackman stands out as a prolific author of young adult fiction. Through her best-selling series like “Noughts & Crosses,” she tackles issues of race and prejudice, sparking essential conversations among young readers.
Sport: Dina Asher-Smith, Nicola Adams and Denise Lewis
Black women athletes have showcased unparalleled skill and determination, inspiring generations. Dina Asher-Smith, an Olympic gold medallist, continues to break records in track and field, becoming a beacon of hope for aspiring athletes. Nicola Adams, a trailblazer in boxing, made history as the first openly LGBT person to win an Olympic boxing gold medal, championing both diversity and inclusion in sports. Denise Lewis, a former heptathlon champion, not only excelled in athletics but also became a prominent sports commentator and advocate for youth sports development.
Politics and Activism: Diane Abbott, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, and Dawn Butler
In the realm of politics, Diane Abbott made history by becoming the first black woman elected to the House of Commons. Her advocacy for social justice and racial equality has left an enduring impact on British politics. Baroness Doreen Lawrence, a tireless campaigner for justice, founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, working to empower young people and promote community cohesion. Dawn Butler, a prominent black politician, has been a Member of Parliament and has passionately championed issues related to social justice, equality, and diversity. Her unwavering dedication to creating positive change has made her a respected and influential figure in British politics, inspiring future generations to engage actively in the political arena.
Science and Technology: Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Anne-Marie Imafidon
In the fields of science and technology, black women have made significant strides. Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a renowned space scientist and science communicator, has inspired audiences with her passion for astronomy and space exploration. As a co-presenter of the BBC’s “The Sky at Night,” she has made complex scientific concepts accessible to the public. Anne-Marie Imafidon, a prodigy in mathematics and computing, co-founded Stemettes, an organisation aimed at inspiring the next generation of women in STEM fields. Her pioneering work encourages young girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Celebrating Black History Month
As we celebrate Black History Month 2023 under the theme ‘Saluting Our Sisters,’ it is important to recognise the remarkable contributions of black women throughout history. Their resilience, creativity, and leadership have shaped the cultural, social, and political landscape of the United Kingdom. By acknowledging and honouring the achievements of black women, we not only celebrate their individual triumphs but also highlight the collective strength and diversity that enrich our society.
This October, let us stand united in appreciation, gratitude, and celebration of the invaluable legacy left by these pioneering black sisters, and let their stories inspire future generations to continue the pursuit of excellence and equality for all.
Until next time…
Best of the Best
Feel free to contact us here
by Joy Maitland | Sep 2, 2023 | Human Resources (HR), Leadership Development
Today, we confront a widespread but difficult phase experienced by many: redundancy. Although being made redundant might seem like reaching a dead-end, I consistently remind my coaching clients that it marks the commencement of a fresh chapter in their lives. While specific outcomes cannot be guaranteed, I can confidently affirm that all those whom I have coached are now in positions that far surpass any initial expectations. By harnessing the power of optimism, resilience, and self-exploration, a bright and rewarding life awaits after redundancy. So, let’s embark on this transformative journey together!
Stress and Fear
Stress and fear are intimately linked, often making stress a manifestation of underlying fears. In my coaching sessions, I encourage my clients to delve into the root causes of their stress and identify any hidden fears that might be contributing to their anxiety. This process involves introspection and a willingness to confront their beliefs about what they expect to happen or not happen in various aspects of life. By addressing these fears directly, clients can gain a clearer understanding of their thought patterns and emotional responses. Together, we work on strategies to cope with these fears, whether they are related to career changes, relationships, personal challenges, or any other life situation. Confronting these fears head-on empowers my clients to take proactive steps to overcome stress and embrace a more positive outlook on life. I emphasise the importance of being open and honest with oneself during this exploration. Sometimes, acknowledging and accepting our fears can be challenging, but it is a necessary step towards personal growth and development. By adopting a mindset of self-discovery and self-compassion, my clients can gradually reduce the impact of fear-induced stress and build resilience to face life’s uncertainties with greater confidence.
“The last step on your current journey could be the first step on your greatest adventure!”
Embracing Change
Redundancy can be a sudden and unwelcome change, leaving us feeling uncertain about the future. But guess what? Change is the essence of life and embracing it can lead to exciting possibilities. We often find our true potential when faced with challenges. By acknowledging the change, we free ourselves from the grip of fear and open doors to new opportunities.
The Power of Optimism
Optimism is not just a feel-good mantra; it’s a scientifically proven approach to improving mental well-being. When we maintain a positive outlook, our brains become more receptive to creative thinking and problem-solving. Positivity can be cultivated through gratitude practices, surrounding yourself with supportive people, and engaging in activities that bring you joy.
The Resilience Within
Human beings are incredibly resilient creatures. Throughout history, people have overcome numerous setbacks and adversities, emerging stronger and wiser. Redundancy might be tough, but it’s essential to recognise your resilience. By learning from past experiences and believing in your ability to bounce back, you’ll discover that you possess an indomitable spirit.
Unleashing Your Passions
Often, we get so wrapped up in our careers that we forget our passions and hobbies. This is the perfect time to reconnect with those interests that have taken a backseat. Whether it’s painting, gardening, cooking, or even starting a new business, pursuing your passions can rejuvenate your soul and lead to new and exciting opportunities.
Self-Discovery and Personal Growth
Redundancy can serve as a catalyst for self-discovery. Take this time to assess your strengths, opportunities for improvement, hidden treasures, and values. Engage in introspection to understand what truly makes you happy and fulfilled. Investing in personal growth, such as learning new skills or taking up mindfulness practices, can elevate your self-esteem and boost your confidence.
Building a Support Network
Remember, you are not alone on this journey. Reach out to friends, family, and even professional networks for support. Surround yourself with people who uplift and inspire you. Building a strong support network will not only provide you with encouragement but also open doors to potential opportunities.
Embracing New Opportunities
When one door closes, another opens. Redundancy can be a gateway to explore alternative career paths, entrepreneurial ventures, or even a change in lifestyle. Stay open-minded and proactive in seeking new opportunities. Embrace the journey with confidence, and you’ll be amazed at the extraordinary potential that lies ahead. Here’s to an exciting new chapter in your life!
Until next time…. Best of the Best
by Atiya Sheikh | Sep 2, 2023 | Human Resources (HR)
Digital Transformation in HR and the Future Potential Impact of AI
The integration of digital technology into human resources (HR) practices has revolutionised the way organisations manage their workforce and enhance employee experiences. As we move forward, the future potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on HR promises to bring even greater transformation. In this post, we will explore real-world examples and case studies that illustrate the current state of digital transformation in HR and discuss the exciting possibilities AI holds for the future.
1. Streamlining Recruitment and Hiring Processes
Digital transformation has already made significant strides in automating and streamlining recruitment and hiring processes. However, the future potential of AI in HR presents exciting opportunities. AI-powered applicant tracking systems can intelligently screen CVs, identify top candidates, and even conduct initial interviews using natural language processing. Unilever, for example, implemented an AI-based pre-screening tool that assessed candidate video interviews. Unilever has asserted that it is achieving substantial cost savings annually by substituting human recruiters with an artificial intelligence system. This move came amidst concerns about a potential public backlash against the increasing prevalence of machine learning. According to Unilever, post implementation, the AI system saved 100,000 hours of human recruitment effort.
2. Personalised Employee Experiences
AI has the potential to personalise employee experiences by leveraging data and predictive analytics. By analysing individual employee data, AI algorithms can suggest relevant learning and development opportunities, career paths, and even well-being programmes tailored to each employee’s unique needs. IBM’s Watson Career Coach, for instance, uses AI to provide personalised career advice and development recommendations, helping employees make informed decisions about their professional growth. Watson Career Coach matches employee profiles with open job requisitions, identifying internal job opportunities and career transitions.
3. Enhanced Employee Engagement and Performance
The future potential of AI in HR lies in its ability to enhance employee engagement and performance. AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can provide real-time support to employees, answering questions, guiding them through HR processes, and offering personalised feedback and coaching. Salesforce’s Einstein AI-powered virtual assistant, for example, helps employees navigate HR policies and procedures, creating a seamless and engaging experience. It leverages artificial intelligence and natural language processing capabilities to understand and respond to employee inquiries regarding HR-related matters. By interacting with the virtual assistant, employees can obtain self-service support for their HR-related queries, reducing the need for manual intervention from HR personnel.
4. Augmenting Decision-Making with AI Insights
AI has the potential to transform HR decision-making by providing valuable insights and predictions based on vast amounts of data. Machine learning algorithms can analyse historical HR data to identify patterns, predict turnover risks, and even recommend optimal compensation and benefits packages for employees. For instance, Xerox uses AI to predict which employees are at risk of leaving the company, enabling HR professionals to intervene with targeted retention strategies. Xerox collects a wide range of employee data, including performance reviews, employee demographics, job history, compensation details, and other relevant factors. This data is typically stored in a centralised HR database or system. AI algorithms extract relevant features from the collected data, such as employee tenure, job satisfaction ratings, recent promotions, work engagement levels, and other relevant attributes. These features serve as inputs for the prediction model.
5. Ethical Considerations and Bias Mitigation
As AI integration in HR grows, addressing ethical issues and bias is vital. AI can unwittingly amplify historical biases in data, leading to unfair outcomes. Organisations must actively detect and mitigate AI bias to promote fairness and inclusivity. Gap Inc. is a case in point, responding to concerns of gender bias in its AI hiring tool. Designed to aid recruitment, worries arose about gender-based biases favouring or disadvantaging candidates. Gap Inc. took action by thoroughly reviewing the tool. This likely entailed examining algorithms, scrutinising training data, and assessing recommendations. The aim was to identify and correct any gender biases in the tool’s functionality. They recognised the importance of preventing inadvertent gender disparities or discrimination during the hiring process.
Future HR Practices
The digital transformation of HR has already revolutionised the way organisations manage their workforce, and the future potential impact of AI promises even greater transformation. From streamlining recruitment processes to personalised employee experiences and augmented decision-making, AI holds immense potential to optimise HR practices and enhance employee engagement and performance. However, it is essential to approach AI implementation in HR with careful consideration of ethical implications and the need for bias mitigation. By harnessing the power of AI while ensuring fairness and inclusivity, organisations can shape a future where HR processes are more efficient, personalised, and supportive of their employees’ growth and success.
We’d love to hear from you. Contact inemmo
by Atiya Sheikh | Sep 1, 2023 | Leadership Development
Leaders play a pivotal role in shaping the direction, culture, and success of an organisation. Their decisions and actions have far-reaching implications, affecting not only the bottom line but also the well-being of employees and stakeholders. While many leaders excel in their roles, there are instances where behaviours of concern may emerge, signalling potential issues that warrant attention. In this article, we’ll explore some red flags and ways to spot behaviours of concern in leaders.
-
Lack of Transparency and Communication
Effective leadership hinges on open and honest communication. Leaders who consistently withhold information, evade questions, or fail to address concerns may be exhibiting a lack of transparency. Such behaviour can erode trust within the organisation, leading to misunderstandings and decreased morale among employees.
-
Micromanagement
While it’s important for leaders to stay involved and provide guidance, excessive micromanagement can stifle creativity and autonomy. Leaders who obsessively control every detail of their team’s work can hinder productivity and demoralise their staff.
-
Unwillingness to Accept Feedback
A leader’s ability to accept constructive criticism is crucial for growth and improvement. Those who dismiss or react negatively to feedback may hinder their own development and create an environment where employees hesitate to share valuable insights.
-
Inconsistent Decision-Making
Leaders who make erratic or inconsistent decisions can create confusion and instability within the organisation. A lack of clear decision-making processes can lead to mistrust and frustration among team members.
-
Favouritism and Bias
Leaders who display favouritism towards certain individuals or groups may undermine a sense of fairness and equality. This behaviour can lead to decreased employee motivation and a perception of unequal opportunities.
-
Lack of Empathy
Empathy is a vital trait for effective leadership. Leaders who demonstrate a lack of understanding or disregard for the emotions and concerns of their employees can create a toxic work environment and negatively impact team morale.
-
Resistance to Change
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, adaptability is key. Leaders who resist change or cling to outdated practices can impede innovation and hinder the organisation’s ability to thrive.
-
Overemphasis on Short-Term Results
While achieving short-term goals is important, leaders who prioritise immediate gains over long-term sustainability may compromise the organisation’s future success. This can lead to burnout, high turnover, and a focus on short-sighted strategies.
-
Lack of Accountability
Accountability is essential for building trust and credibility. Leaders who avoid taking responsibility for their actions or shift blame onto others can undermine the organisation’s integrity.
-
Poor Work-Life Balance
Leaders who consistently prioritise work over personal well-being may set an unhealthy precedent for their teams. A lack of work-life balance can lead to burnout and decreased performance among employees.
Identifying behaviours of concern in leaders is crucial for maintaining a healthy and productive organisational environment. While no leader is perfect, recognising and addressing these red flags can help mitigate potential issues and promote positive leadership practices. By fostering transparency, open communication, empathy, and accountability, organisations can create a culture that supports the growth and success of both leaders and their teams.
We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch
by Joy Maitland | Jun 29, 2023 | All Employees, Leadership Development
Leadership is an ongoing journey of growth and development. Whether you are a seasoned executive or a rising star, it is essential to constantly strive for improvement and avoid falling into the trap of complacency. Complacency can hinder your effectiveness as a leader and limit your potential for success. In this article, we will explore five tips to help you overcome complacency and enhance your leadership performance.
1. Embrace a Growth Mindset
A growth mindset is the belief that your abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication, effort, and continuous learning. Leaders with a growth mindset are open to feedback, view challenges as opportunities for growth, and seek out new knowledge and skills. Embracing a growth mindset allows you to push past your comfort zone, take on new challenges, and continuously improve as a leader. Cultivate a thirst for knowledge and a willingness to adapt and evolve in response to changing circumstances.
2. Set Stretch Goals
Complacency often stems from achieving a certain level of success and then settling into a comfort zone. To break free from this pattern, set stretch goals that push you beyond your current capabilities. These goals should be ambitious but attainable with effort and dedication. By challenging yourself and your team to reach new heights, you create a sense of purpose, motivation, and continuous improvement. As a leader, encourage your team members to set their own stretch goals and support them in achieving those objectives.
3. Seek Feedback and Act on It
Feedback is a powerful tool for growth and improvement. Actively seek feedback from your team, peers, mentors, and even clients or customers. Create a safe and open environment where individuals feel comfortable sharing their honest perspectives. Listen attentively to feedback, both positive and constructive, and use it as an opportunity to reflect on your leadership style and performance. Identify areas where you can enhance your strengths and address areas for improvement. Remember, feedback is a gift that can propel you towards becoming a better leader.
4. Foster a Culture of Innovation
Complacency can stifle innovation and creativity within an organisation. As a leader, it is crucial to foster a culture that encourages and rewards innovation. Create opportunities for your team members to explore innovative ideas, take calculated risks, and challenge the status quo. Embrace diversity of thought and encourage open dialogue and collaboration. By nurturing an environment that values innovation, you inspire your team to think creatively and drive positive change.
5. Develop Your Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions while effectively navigating and influencing the emotions of others. It plays a pivotal role in leadership success. By developing your emotional intelligence, you can build stronger relationships, inspire trust and loyalty, and effectively communicate with your team. Practice self-awareness by reflecting on your emotions, motivations, and reactions in various situations. Cultivate empathy by seeking to understand the perspectives and feelings of others. Develop your interpersonal skills to communicate clearly, resolve conflicts, and motivate your team effectively.
Overcoming complacency is a vital step towards improving your leadership performance. Embrace a growth mindset, set stretch goals, seek feedback, foster a culture of innovation, and develop your emotional intelligence. Remember, leadership is a continuous journey, and by actively working on these areas, you can unlock your full potential as a leader and drive positive change in your organisation. Challenge yourself to take the necessary steps today and become the exceptional leader you aspire to be.
About inemmo
Our vision is to be the catalyst for a new era of exceptional leadership, where individuals and organisations thrive by harnessing their full potential. As a top-tier leadership development and executive coaching and company, we envision a world where every leader possesses the skills, mindset, and courage to drive meaningful change, inspire others, and create lasting impact. Through our transformative programs and unwavering commitment to excellence, we strive to shape a future where extraordinary leadership becomes the standard, igniting a ripple effect of success and empowerment across industries and communities.
by Joy Maitland | Jun 8, 2023 | Leadership Development
Mindfulness is sometimes dismissed in business circles as New Age fluff – yet it has a powerful knack for refocusing employees and helping them boost their performance
It’s no exaggeration to say that workplaces often feel like the working definition of chaos. Even when it isn’t necessarily the case that chaos is underway, the busiest phases routinely make us think that it is. The abundance of work that we need to get through during those times is often expressed in our physical actions. Gestures and tics become showier; struts down office corridors or around workstations grow more urgent and emphatic; typing gets aggressively louder – and voices climb in pitch. Those are the symptoms of organisations in full flow, and many workers find them unsettling. Could mindfulness be the cure?
(more…)
by Joy Maitland | Aug 18, 2022 | Awards, Leadership Development
INEMMO wins ABP Award for ‘Excellence in Using Business Psychology for Social Impact’
The ABP Award
Inemmo received an award at the prestigious Association for Business Psychology annual awards ceremony in the ‘Excellence in Using Business Psychology for Social Impact’ category. Additionally, Inemmo was a finalist in three categories: Excellence in Development Interventions, Excellence in Embracing Diversity, and Excellence in Using Business Psychology for Social Impact.
The Levelling-Up Interviews
Atiya Sheikh and Joy Maitland recently met with individuals they have coached through their ‘Levelling-Up’ coaching and mentoring program. They discussed how these coachees successfully tackled social inequalities and biases in their careers, focusing on five key aspects.
- Parental Influence
- Cultural Identity
- Influence of Teachers
- Workplace Environment
- Coaching and Mentoring
About the inemmo ‘Levelling-Up’ Programme
Inemmo’s ‘Levelling-Up’ coaching programme is a resounding success, offering crucial support to young individuals facing various forms of inequality and discrimination.
Starting with weekly sessions, the programme gradually adapts to the mentee’s growing confidence, tailoring interventions based on ongoing assessments. Remarkably, this valuable program is entirely cost-free for these young individuals.
The impact is profound. It nurtures their resilience, boosts self-understanding, refines emotional intelligence, encourages self-direction, responsibility, and drives career advancement. Since its launch in 2015, the programme has witnessed significant growth.
Joy Maitland and Atiya Sheikh, the visionary directors of Inemmo, are wholeheartedly committed to connecting with individuals at their current stage and helping them achieve their desired objectives.
by Joy Maitland | Aug 8, 2020 | Leadership Development
Leaders may be lucky enough to stay in their roles for long stretches of time. But if they are trapped in a perpetual present, rather than eyeing the future, they will no longer be relevant
Before I get into the meat of this topic, I just want to drop off a quick phrase that encapsulates what I’m about to discuss: What got us here, won’t get us there. Keep that in mind… you may see it again very soon – and all will become clear! And with that, here we go…
It probably wouldn’t have escaped your attention that Robert Mugabe was recently deposed as leader of Zimbabwe. That watershed – which could easily have been a lot nastier than it was, but miraculously played out within reasonable boundaries – had occurred because, for all his love of power, and his Herculean efforts to keep it over the decades, Mugabe was no longer relevant.
Zimbabwe’s economy has been buckling under the strain of fiscal mismanagement for as long as anyone can remember. And when one considers the headway that is being made in other parts of Africa to kindle the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that thrives in the developed world (see here, here and here), Zimbabweans could be forgiven for feeling more than a little envious.
Robert Mugabe may have been an effective force when it came to fighting his own, personal corner – but he’d ceased to be relevant in an Africa that is changing, becoming more tech savvy and wanting a slice of the economic action that can flow from innovative habits. While Africa was striving to move with the times, Mugabe was stuck in the past.
Pain points
One sign of whether or not a leader is relevant is whether the solutions they are throwing at particular problems are taking effect. One case where that proved not to be so was the final stretch of Andy Clarke’s tenure as chief executive of Asda – a torrid time for the retail chain, in which Clarke launched a turnaround plan on the back of a £1 billion investment to slash prices. Fast-forward two years, to June 2016, and Clarke was clearing his desk. By that point, Asda had suffered seven quarters of falling sales in a row. On that kind of timeline, it’s clear that the medicine isn’t getting to the pain points – and is therefore no longer relevant.
Interestingly, before he stepped down, Clarke had achieved the distinction of being the longest-serving CEO to have led any of the UK’s Big Four supermarkets. However, while it would no doubt be encouraging for any business leader to achieve that kind of record, staying in place for a long time is not, in and of itself, an ideal goal. If it’s going to happen, then it should preferably be a symptom of your achievements – not something that plays out despite your firm’s performance.
Another test of whether leaders are relevant is whether they can spot threats that go to the very heart of their firms’ business models. Back in the summer, Benny Higgins stepped down from his role as CEO of Tesco Bank, following a large-scale cyberattack of November 2016, which siphoned off £2.5 million from 9,000 customers. In a Financial Times report on the attack, security experts suggested that senior figures at Tesco Bank had ignored warnings about their organisation’s cyber weaknesses for several months up to the hack, providing wrongdoers with a clear opportunity.
One of the most critical tasks facing any leader is the requirement to keep watch for threats that could shake customer confidence in their organisation’s core functions. On that basis, it’s easy to understand why, in the wake of the attack, Higgins’ leadership was no longer relevant. After 10 years as CEO, he moved on.
Undoubtedly, a huge chunk of personal pride encourages leaders to hang on to their roles for as long as they can. It’s only natural – and, of course, there’s an argument to say that it suits organisations from the perspective of continuity. But in the long run, that will only work with the aid of two qualities: critical self-reflection, and self-evaluation. They are the assets that are most likely to help a leader keep their sell-by date at bay.
Petering out?
You see, the thing about leaders is that they reach certain professional milestones, and bring their firms with them, by overcoming challenges. But what worked for the challenge you faced yesterday is not always what’s going to work for the challenge that’s coming tomorrow. And the danger that looms over each and every leader is that those who don’t put in the groundwork now to prepare for the challenges that are rolling towards them will start to underperform without even knowing it.
In other words (and I can feel you knew the phrase was on its way back!): What got us here, won’t get us there.
While most of us tend to think that competence is the deciding factor in advancement, that notion was fiercely contested half a century ago in Dr Laurence J Peter’s landmark piece of workplace scholarship, The Peter Principle. The book’s title became the name for Dr Peter’s theory that people are promoted to the point where their competence drops off, and turns into incompetence – so for a leader, there’s actually quite a lot of fear attached to being in a senior position, tasked with steering an organisation through test after test.
If Dr Peter is to be believed, leaders are operating on the outer fringes of their abilities. You may have just blitzed a hefty challenge this week, but will your skills and talents be enough to see you through the one that’s on its way? Will you remain relevant?
Switching surfaces
It’s a similar story when, following a spell of success, a leader moves to a larger organisation, and is tasked with applying the talents they’ve demonstrated to a whole new working environment. Of course, a leader who has transferred from one organisation to another would be tempted to do exactly the same things in their new surroundings as they did in their previous milieu, because those things got them noticed in the first place. Why wouldn’t someone have that psychological reflex?
But what was relevant for their previous firm may not be relevant for the one they’ve just joined. Its challenges may be very different – and the reason the leader has been brought in is because the board is counting on them to have the required intellectual and imaginative flexibility to plug into what the organisation needs, in order to fulfil its business goals. That puts a responsibility on the leader’s shoulders to be as adaptable as possible.
The only way that can be achieved is through development – and the type of self-awareness that will help you understand why you need it. Whether it’s through coaching, training or being mentored, you will only be relevant for what is coming tomorrow if you keep yourself fresh, and open to new ideas.
Look at Rafa Nadal. Early in his career, he made a name for himself for being the greatest clay-court player on the circuit, which was fabulous – but experts said he was restricted to that surface and wouldn’t do well at Wimbledon. But then, all of a sudden, he started to get really good at playing on grass. What changed? It was his adaptability, rising to meet the threshold of his ambition, ensuring that he would be relevant not just in one type of tennis – but across the whole game. He was using the foundation of his skillset, but was taking it to new places and adjusting to the demands of his new surroundings.
If you do the same, then you’ll hit a few aces in your career, too.
Find out about the workplace areas where Inemmo Leadership Development Solutions can deliver change
Image courtesy of PublicCo, via Pixabay
by Joy Maitland | Aug 8, 2020 | Uncategorized
In the interests of friendly familiarity, leaders may be tempted to hire people they trust over more competent candidates. But this may not always make for a smooth path
Amid the pressure of running a dynamic, ambitious organisation, one of the greatest comforts that a leader could have is the confidence to be able to say, “Someone has my back.” Often, the types of people that a leader wants by their side in a senior management team are those they have become accustomed to and grown to like – to the extent that those individuals are no longer merely professional associates, but bona-fide friends. And these will be the people in whom a leader will be happiest to invest their trust.
A leader cultivates friends across an entire career, throughout numerous organisations. Those who are most likely to be remembered are the people among whom the leader feels most excited, inspired – or possibly even challenged, if the leader happens to relish the more positive end of the conflict spectrum. Alternatively, these friends may represent a collective comfort zone, from which the leader can expect reliable, safe feedback and the bare minimum of friction.
Whatever the case, a leader’s most trusted friends will fall into one preferential bracket or another – and being preferred is always a handy shortcut to securing someone’s trust.
That trust dynamic can have an enormous influence on a leader’s hiring habits.
“Getting the old gang back together”
For 99% of the time, a leader who is going to a new organisation is required to sign a ‘restrictive covenant’, or ‘post-termination restriction’, in which they will agree with the firm they’re about to leave that they won’t recruit from its staff pool once they have moved on. That type of recruitment, commonly known as ‘poaching’, is generally viewed with distaste in business circles, as it encourages dishonesty and unfair competition. Indeed, in some industries, it can even incur regulatory sanctions, as this Financial Conduct Authority statement from early 2014 demonstrates.
Covenants and restrictions – and other measures, such as strict, internal advertising of vacancies – can place limits upon a leader’s ability to “get the old gang back together”. But there are still workarounds: the leader may be able to hire friends they trust from two companies ago, or perhaps encourage a more recent, trusted colleague to go freelance and then scoop them up once they are ‘out in the wild’, so to speak. However. While I fully acknowledge the tremendous importance of trust, I would urge leaders to take great care before they lurch wholeheartedly down this particular road. Because there are some potentially destabilising dangers in betting the entire house on trust, and taking focus off another crucial value: competence.
For example, one such danger may be that you recruit a trusted friend into a new role, and that person’s hitherto impeccable performance drops off because they are unable to get to grips with that position amid a wave of additional newness – eg, a new organisation, with a new culture and a whole new set of targets. Therefore, whether or not they have your back becomes completely irrelevant, because they’re not hitting the mark and are actually making you look bad. To your other senior colleagues, it may even feel as though you have misled them with claims that the person you’ve hired would be a genuine asset.
Taking a gamble on whether that person you trust is actually capable of doing the job that you have in mind for them – a job that, in and of itself, may be untried – is a significant risk.
Also, you need to examine that scenario from the perspective of the person you’ve hired. Expectations go horribly sour overnight if shared dreams somehow don’t work out. If you recruit a trusted friend into your new organisation and the plan hits the buffers, then that could be very hurtful for both of you. You wanted that person to come in so they’d have your back. That person answered your call because they wanted to have your back. There are some rather moving emotions behind those objectives. But if your hire’s approach to the actual job runs aground, then it is not just you who has been exposed – you have inadvertently exposed your trusted friend to a whole storm of criticism, embarrassment and perhaps even hostility from the other people around you.
There would definitely be a “That wasn’t in the script” feeling of deflation in the wake of a scenario like this. But even worse, that overarching aim of harnessing trust would have completely backfired, sowing distrust in its place.
Ever-decreasing inner circles
I myself can completely understand why a leader would be tempted to prize trust above all other factors… and yet, I can also grasp the drawbacks inherent in that line of thinking. I can draw upon examples from my own career to illustrate each side of the coin:
Once, I was headhunted into a leadership role, and everybody I was managing had applied for the same position. In that environment, it would certainly have been handy for me to have someone alongside me who was a friendly face and who’d have my back – because for all the time I was there, I just had a sense that people were waiting for me to fall. There was so much bitterness over the fact that the company had decided to bring in an external figure that no matter how good I was, I would never have been accepted. There was a great deal of pressure as a result. So, based on how I felt while I was in that role, and how it made me wish for an ally, I can see why a leader would be motivated to hire on trust.
On the other hand: in another example, I once restructured a department at a client company and created two associate manager vacancies. A very good manager who I worked with – and trusted – applied for one of the roles… but I didn’t offer it to him. The person I decided to offer it to did not have my back. In fact, much like the previous example, I think that she was waiting for me to come a cropper so that she could assume my responsibilities. But I hired her because I thought that what she had in terms of competence and experience would fit with how we had structured the new-look team. Strangely enough, a few years later, the guy who I didn’t offer the job to ended up getting another job that was quite similar to that role – and he told me that my decision to reject him on that occasion was the best thing that had happened to him, because it made him really step up and work harder.
So, we can see from these examples that trust is not always to be… trusted. There will definitely be biases at the heart of a leader’s decision to recruit primarily on trust – particularly confirmation bias – but those inclinations will not always bear fruit.
For the grimmest insight into where trust goes wrong, we need only refer to cronyism – and for a major example of that, look no further than the Trump administration. We’re just about a year into his Presidency, and many of the allies he initially brought into his inner circle have fallen away – gradually proving themselves less and less worthy of the confidence and trust that he, and others, invested in them.
Trust is a wonderful value – but it must always work in conjunction with a broad, and holistic, set of other qualities.
Find out about the workplace areas where Inemmo Leadership Development Solutions can deliver change
Image courtesy of rawpixel.com, via Unsplash
by Joy Maitland | Jul 30, 2020 | Human Resources (HR), Uncategorized
Promises are a double-edged sword for businesses – and evidence shows that simply keeping them works better for customers than surpassing them.
The dangers of a business stockpiling its promises and over-committing itself have been thrown into sharp relief by the traumatic collapse of infrastructure giant Carillion. Following the 15 January announcement that the firm was going into liquidation, the finger pointing began in earnest. No wonder: as the UK’s largest supplier of municipal facilities for a host of different public services, Carillion had instilled in its primary customer – the government – a major dependency, becoming pivotal to the fulfilment of numerous policy programmes.
Its failure bodes ill for the delivery of projects in both the near and long term – and for the health of the public purse, should the taxpayer be required to step in.
Among the reams of analysis that have stemmed from Carillion’s predicament, this piece at the Financial Times reveals much about the risks that the company shouldered by making too many promises and overselling its capabilities. For example, it points out that the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital, a Carillion project that was due to open this March, has been plagued with setbacks – the most concerning of which is that cracks have begun to appear in its concrete beams. As a result, it is experiencing severe delays.
The article then notes: “Carillion was not only suffering problems on the Liverpool project but other flagship developments also over-ran, adding to a burden on the company that helped bring about its collapse. Analysts estimate that Carillion may have lost as much as £150 million after more than six months’ delays on a £745m Aberdeen bypass – while the £350m Midland Metropolitan Hospital in Smethwick, near Birmingham, has been heavily delayed by engineering problems.”
It adds that a pattern of over-reach at Carillion was detected by hedge funds as early as 2013. “After noting that Carillion took 120 days to pay its subcontractors,” the piece says, “short sellers decided the company was built on fragile financial foundations.”
There are many lessons that leaders can take away from the Carillion debacle. But the one that covers the greatest ground is akin to the warning that blares out at train platforms across the land: MIND THE GAP – between your promises and your ability to bring them to fruition. Making bold claims for what you’ll be able to deliver is, of course, part and parcel of the salesmanship process that any organisation must navigate in order to win new business. In that milieu, moon-on-a-stick promises are the order of the day, and in some cases are almost weaponised in order to fend off industry competitors who are thronging and drooling around particularly juicy tenders.
However, once you’ve gone through that rite of passage, you have to immortalise your bending-over-backwards patter into something altogether less fanciful: a contract.
It is here that the cold light of day intrudes, and perhaps highlights the first tinge of regret over promised ways of working that were dreamt up pretty much on the spot. For example, tales of clients being promised one, dedicated executive for their workload when, in reality, that person will also be managing another three or four existing accounts, are legendary in the business world. Those sorts of promises are made with painful regularity, and one can hardly be surprised if the employee in question – and the work they’re attempting to battle through – start to suffer.
So, what are ambitious go-getters to do?
For many experts, the way ahead lies in entirely the opposite direction. This piece at US personal-finance and business advice site The Balance advocates that under-promising and over-delivering is the most effective route to a customer’s heart – quite reasonably noting: “Over-promising is a wonderful way to set yourself up for failure. It is also a great way to put your company and customer support teams in a no-win situation. When you over-promise, you are essentially telling your customer that you can do something that you either know you can’t or don’t feel confident that you can fulfil.”
It adds: “Simply put, when you deliver more than what you suggested to your client, and more than what they were expecting, [your] perceived value increases. With increased value, you are much more likely to get referrals and additional sales.”
Sounds marvellous. But does that ethos hold up to evidence-based scrutiny? Well, er… no.
I know – it doesn’t sound right. But a couple of workplace scientists have looked into this, and it’s well worth paying attention to what they found out.
In 2014, University of California San Diego (UCSD) associate professor of marketing Ayelet Gneezy conducted a thorough study of what she termed “promise-exceeding” behaviours among individuals, and how those traits were reflected among the beneficiaries. As Gneezy told online science journal EurekAlert!, her research was sparked by thoughts of how Amazon had routinely delivered packages to her much earlier than expected – and yet she’d never actively bubbled over with appreciation for those outcomes.
Working alongside Booth School of Business behavioural-science specialist Professor Nicholas Epley, Gneezy carried out a series of experiments to gauge levels of gratification following instances of over-delivery. In one such exercise, a group of test subjects was split into equal numbers of ‘promise-makers’ and ‘promise-receivers’. Each receiver was required to solve 40 puzzles. Each maker, meanwhile, was paired with a receiver and tasked with promising that they’d help out with 10 of those puzzles. Under Gneezy and Epley’s directions, certain makers were asked to assist their receivers with either five puzzles (five less than promised), or with 15 (five more). In the latter cases, the over-delivering makers barely even moved the needle on the receivers’ sense of gratitude or appreciation – a result that shocked the researchers.
As Epley explained: “I was surprised that exceeding a promise produced so little meaningful increase in gratitude or appreciation. I had anticipated a modest positive effect, [but] what we actually found was almost no gain from exceeding a promise whatsoever.” The other experiments supported that finding. What did it all mean?
Epley said: “Keeping a promise is valued so highly, above and beyond its ‘objective’ value. When you keep a promise, not only have you done something nice for someone. You’ve also fulfilled a social contract and shown that you’re a reliable and trustworthy person.”
With that in mind, he advises business leaders: “Invest efforts into keeping promises – not in exceeding them.”
It may seem counterintuitive – against the grain of received business wisdom. But there’s a great deal of sense to it. Thanks to the disjunctions between people’s (and companies’) online and true selves, not to mention the war that’s being waged against empirical facts by certain leadership figures around the globe, we live in a world where it’s often hard to tell who deserves our trust. In that environment, when we discover that someone’s word is truly their bond, it is a real pleasure.
And the simple requirement to keep promises should encourage leaders who are jostling for tenders to pitch from a place where ambition and resources are working in harmony, rather than butting heads.
Find out about the workplace areas where Inemmo Leadership Development Solutions can deliver change
Infrastructure image courtesy of Ricardo Gomez Angel, courtesy of Unsplash
