Hi everyone – it’s Harriet here and my theme for the newsletter this month is Leadership & ReEmergence.
As we emerge through the incredible vortex of change, we all need to lead ourselves and others very differently. The need and real demand for us to find new ways to drive growth, purpose, and innovation are very here, now and compelling.
Really honing in on the word growth, it reminds me of a great post from Vala Afshar and the great and not-so-great bosses I have worked for. I have found that from both sets, you can learn – but it’s the great leaders you most remember and emulate, that stand out.
Reflecting on point 5: ‘Developed me as a leader’ The Head of Investor Relations went on maternity leave and my wonderful boss and CEO suggested I take this role!
I was irritated and a tad offended as this seemed like a step aside and how would it really advance my career? He knew though, I would learn more from this assignment than any other bar running a region or company. Learning about what being a public company really means, how you encourage investors to buy your stock, what happens when they sell it was the most valuable training for being a public company CEO!
Growth is learned through mistakes, as I lead to talk about point 9 where my boss ‘Forgave us when we made mistakes:
The Annual Report project for a listed company was such a big responsibility but also new and fun, the themes, financials, regulatory requirement, graphics, photos, etc. I was thrilled to be put in charge with a sensational legal/financial/marketing team – imagine then signing off the first print run (a big deal in those days). I managed to omit the key required signatories, and boy did I need forgiveness so graciously given by my amazing boss.
Though at the time, it was difficult to digest the impact of the mistake I had made – my boss showing grace and understanding allowing me to admire them more as a leader, but also to ensure that I am able to remember this situation and show more grace to others.
Grace and understanding are key fundamentals when leading, in addition to this, I also believe it’s important to be adaptable and innovative. I had the privilege to be a guest on an episode of The Human Factor Podcast with Michael Esau and Simon Humphreys from SAP SuccessFactors
In this episode here we deep-dived into the important topic of purpose and what it means today for individuals and organisations. I shared my thoughts on the brand promise, how we build emotional fitness and the role of the leader.
With leadership, there are many other elements to the role and it is important to understand that is not enough to lead ‘differently and better’. As leaders, we simply must lead and reengage with our purpose and ignite this purpose in others to have an impact.
Recently, I have been digging deep into some of our economic constructs and how they are changing and I loved this article by Bloomberg, “Belief in Capitalism? Then Don’t Work on Weekends”. One of the themes in this piece is “if your labour is free, you devalue yourself”.
Many next-gen workers are defining their value, purpose, and how they measure themselves very differently. There’s a real shift to it not being ‘cool’ to work after hours and on weekends as perhaps it once was.
Now there is a huge opportunity for us all to be working on compelling consumer-grade employee value propositions as I share in the podcast above, to refresh or completely reset our organizations’ purpose and the key performance indicators that track our progress and productivity, but most of all our happiness!
Now that having a ‘purpose-driven workplace’ is becoming a must for Gen-Z employees, leadership needs to reengage with their purpose, and ignite this purpose in others.
When working at IBM between 2015 to 2020, the senior leadership team would draw on its ‘over 110 years of change agility as one of IBM’s defining enduring strengths.
The extraordinary Chairman and CEO Ginni Rometty would often share publicly and privately that growth and comfort just can’t co-exist. I learned much from her, this period, and fellow leaders about how to adapt fast and well to the realities of our future.
However, as a leader, despite the rapid changes that occur, the key takeaways for me are openness and trust. Trusting and encouraging those who work with you to bring new ideas to the table, challenging constructively, and being totally open with the brutal facts them on what’s happening internally as well as to clients and critically in the market.
With the growing trend of purpose being the forefront of new organisations, there is now a new executive role called a Chief Purpose Officer, CPO.
The CPO will lead efforts to set the agenda, own the measures, and inform the Organisation on what societal issues will be tackled across climate change, inclusion & diversity, sustainability goals, etc.
Companies are increasingly expected by their employees to act with purpose and impact. Perhaps going hand in hand with a generational shift in the workplace with Values and Beliefs far outweighing loyalty to a company and job security for younger generations.
A company’s purpose or mission statement was originally about “what’s within our four walls, but more and more it’s about what’s outside of our four walls,” says Shannon Schuyler, chief purpose and inclusion officer at the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Every day, firms are making new promises, either to cut emissions or hire and promote women and people of colour. “But they don’t have a singular person focusing on that,” notes Kwasi Mitchell, Deloitte’s chief purpose officer — which can mean those commitments aren’t followed up on or met for.
Leadership is the key role in any organisation. In order for there to be growth, it’s vital to understand the importance of active asking, and the importance of not being afraid to ask and to ask the right questions:
Here’s a recap:
1. Go for it, 100% of the shots you don’t ask for, likely won’t happen!
2. Be prepared, cover all bases of the potential ensuing discussion, and be thoughtful about what you ask for!
3. You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.
4. Do your research and have a plan. Know really what it is that you’re asking for.
5. What’s the worst that can happen? A potential no – but at least the seed is planted!
6. Roleplay in front of a mirror, look at how you intonate and think carefully about how you sound.
7. The helper must believe in your need, and be able to provide the help that you’re asking for.
8. Make people feel that they are helping because they want to, not because they must.
9. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
10. Don’t be apologetic, if you’re prepared, thoughtful and polite you have every right to ask!
Now merging the idea or growth and possibilities, there is one example that is very close to my heart, and also gives me so much joy – that is Singapore.
56 years young, Singapore’s growth mindset has led them to become the most competitive city. The professionalism, smarts, courtesy, greenery, and the value placed on social capital in Singapore is extraordinary
For me, the Botanical Gardens rate is in my all-time top 5 places in the world to think and breathe! But I believe the greatest, most defining element of life imbued into all Singaporeans, as highlighted by this photograph, is the commitment to a growth mindset and embracing change.
The rallying cry for Singaporean decision-makers is equipping its citizens to have the skills the world needs and to create an environment that fosters productivity and forward-thinking.
Maintaining a growth mindset is the perfect road to becoming an effective leader. The importance of always wanting to learn more, and to do it with real vigour, can help us achieve so much in comparison to those with a more fixed mindset considering that they already know all they need to know.
I strongly believe that a focus on an inclusion and diversity mindset is also a vital accelerator to growth and allows great leaps in productive learning. Teams made up of individuals bringing different cultural experiences, varying cognitive skills, fields of expertise, and demographic experiences to problem-solving can create extraordinary new services, products, and solutions to huge problems.
An example of growth, grit and a champion’s greatness, attributes I know are key for great leaders – are the exceptional Olympians this year. The Olympics gave us hope and a whole cadre of leaders and champions.
After a thrilling two weeks of extraordinary sport, champions stories, and amazing achievements, this quote and graphic sums it all up.
I am inspired by our Olympic champions. In my previous posts https://bit.ly/37KSGlf and https://bit.ly/3yPXDoH, I expressed how the contests have proved to be some of the most exciting ever.
I was particularly amazed by Peter Bol. The 27-year-old Sudanese-Australian, who placed 4th in the men’s 800m track final. The first Australian to make it to the final in 53 years!
Bol’s journey to the Olympics is unlike many others. His family fled war-torn South Sudan and emigrated to Egypt when he was 4 years. They lived there for 6 years before migrating to Australia. When they arrived, no one in his family spoke English.
From a young age, Bol remembers his father telling him stories about Sudan’s conflict and their family’s struggles. “My father always tried to push us a bit harder in whatever we do…”
Bol discovered his sprinting skill – or, rather, a teacher spotted his potential at 16 years. Bol made his first Australian team selection for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio when he was 22 years old where he placed sixth in his heat. In early 2018, he suffered a stress fracture which saw him miss the Commonwealth Games. By 2019, he had come back stronger and managed to be Australia’s only representative at Doha’s world championships. In Tokyo, he just missed a medal placing 4th in the final.
I was also captivated phenomenal woman – Kinaua Biribo, a 27-year-old female from the small Pacific island of Kiribati, who also happens to be the country’s first-ever Olympic judoka.
In this wonderful Guardian Article that caught my eye, it highlighted her mission is to combat domestic violence in her home country.
She says. “Most of the men beat their wives. And there is no one to stop them. We think it’s a couple’s fight, so we have to mind our business. I don’t agree with that… I see this opportunity as a chance to give hope and strength to my sisters struggling back home.
This is my chance to remind them that being a woman is a blessing and not a curse.”
Inspired by this story, it also leads me into recognising that leaders can emerge through distinguishing from the norm.
My thinking about ‘Rebels With a Cause Driving Innovation’ might interest you
This theme of Left-Field-Candidates, those ‘outside the norm’ is deeply intriguing to me particularly when every once in a while, an outsider comes along with a new vision or a new way of doing things that revolutionizes a scientific field, an industry, or a culture.
This brilliant article takes the case of Katalin Karikó, who defied all odds to pioneer the mRNA technology that ultimately gave the world Covid-19 vaccines in record time. Daughter of a butcher and raised in a small adobe house in the former Eastern bloc with no running water or refrigerator, Karikó started working with RNA as a student in Hungary but moved to the United States in her late twenties.
For decades, she faced rejection after rejection, the scorn of colleagues, and even the threat of deportation. Yet today, Karikó’s foundational work on mRNA is at the heart of the vaccines developed by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna, and many researchers are now calling for Karikó to win the Nobel Prize.
Key take-aways for me are:
1. Outsiders are not outliers, their connection to the mainstream world is very important
2. Behind every Steve Jobs is a champion on the inside – someone who will be their ally and back their ideas
3. Fracture points let outsiders in – gaps, crisis, huge need where innovation can thrive as in this vortex of change
4. Outsiders shouldn’t be daunted – their traits and uniqueness make them extremely special.
Throughout my career, I’ve always valued the rebels ‘with a cause’. The stars in your organisation who dare to take risks and are not afraid to be out there and seen! As long as you’re being kind, can articulate the organisation’s capabilities, and believe in your clients, you should bring your curiosity to the forefront and let your ideas flourish!
As Tanmay Vora’s wonderful graphic (2017) highlights the goal for rebels is very clear: to inspire a rich array of great ideas to make our endeavours that much more successful and engaging for all our stakeholders: internal and external around the venture or organisation.
However, as exciting as being a workplace rebel sounds fun, but it’s also important to figure out if it is doable… Here are some pointers:
1 – Set regular, exciting, out-of-the-box brainstorms! These no fear / ‘nothing is crazy’ sessions encourage great ideas to collide and flourish.
2 – Use visuals, graphics, and fun multimedia to bring alive the team’s innovation process, and further explore creativity. This stimulates your troops and makes us as leaders an equal and collaborative part of the process.
3 – Create a feedback loop or iterative process that enables the fast application of several ideas a session: what worked, why and how, and what’s next? What didn’t, understand why and move on.
Leaning in to innovate not renovate.
Innovation and creativity should always form part of the performance review process. There isn’t an entity around that wouldn’t benefit from this becoming a core cultural element!
We cannot as leaders are glib or in any way be seen to be playing lip service to our teams. Edge and potential conflict are okay.
We must express how we want our ‘Bold Ideators’ to act and celebrate them for bringing their whole selves to the table! Being a non-conformist in every form one of my favourite quotes to end on:
“Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of ‘crackpot’ than the stigma of conformity” – Thomas J. Watson.
Thank you for reading and I always appreciate your thoughts, insights, and ideas each day as we support each other through this unprecedented vortex of change. As we emerge and lead, change and innovate, you are all a constant source of warmth and energy
Thank you – Harriet
