This is not about false optimism, mass gestures of “team building” or always being likable. A leaders job is to bring energy and give hope. The last two years have tested so many leadership traits, arguably the resilience to instill energy in others the most.
The research is clear. Leaders, both in positions of authority and not, have the power to give energy or to take it. And employees will vote with their feet for the type of leader they want to be aligned with.
So how do you and your leaders stack up in terms of positive relational energy?
In our analysis of these energizing and de-energizing individuals in the work environment, we were especially interested in studying the energizing effects of leaders, because leaders are the single most important factor in accounting for an organization’s performance.
I’ve been unfortunate enough to sit through more than one boring presentation over the years. The worst are those jam-packed with detail or bullet points of wordy sentences, read out line by line without any sort of verbal punctuation or enthusiasm. The content and any key messages are completely lost on an audience who switched off after slide 1 of the 100-slide deck.
This is an extreme example granted, but there are some common themes that link many presentations that fall far short of the intended mark.
So where are presenters going wrong? Well, aside from the obvious of throwing too much content into a slide, presenters are failing to engage their audience and presentation software seems to be getting in the way of this. Don’t get me wrong, I love PowerPoint and the creative “art of the possible” it gives us, but PowerPoint and other digital delivery mechanisms are nothing if the slides are replacing the presenter.
Think back to a great presentation that is memorable for you. I can guarantee it wasn’t the slides that had an impact on you, but more likely the presenter. It might have been a story or anecdote they told, characters they used or an emotion they evoked. Importantly they were able to connect with their audience. It was the presenter and possibly the “storytelling” that was memorable and not the slides.
To be successful in getting our message across we need to re-think our approach to presentations if we want them to be truly impactful. Slides should complement the story and not replace the storyteller.
TED talks are the modern gold standard of presenting and their success is no coincidence. They are a brilliant example of how the powerful art of storytelling can be incredibly successful.
The presenters don’t always use visual aids but when they do, they are there to help tell their story. Importantly, what makes them successful is that the TED speakers go beyond just reciting facts and know how, they captivate the audience with emotional influence and by speaking passionately about the topic. These presenters touch the hearts of their audience, use enthusiasm, and inspire the audience to positive action.
For my next presentation I will certainly be taking a different approach. Rather than starting by opening the blank slide deck I might follow a few of Carmine Gallo’s tips outlined in Harvard Business Review “What the Best Presenters do Differently”, prioritising the story over the PowerPoint slides.
Our minds are wired for story. We think in narrative and enjoy consuming content in story form. So understanding the difference between presenting and storytelling is critical to a leader’s ability to engage an audience and move them to action.
I have spent a lot of my life studying concepts like servant leadership, team building, and mentorship. I lean towards those concepts, but the reality is that history is filled with leaders who have been narcissistic, authoritarian tyrants. While I don’t recommend that style of leadership, the truth is that it is not enough to be nice and kind – you truly need to lead.
As a leader you need to focus on understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your team and getting them to work together like a well-oiled machine. You don’t have to do everything. And everyone doesn’t have to be you. In fact if they are, some of you are redundant. Leaders set a compelling course and take others on the journey to a mutually beneficial reward. I am an advocate for being a compassionate human leader, but you still have to lead if you want the joy of accomplishing your goals.
Leadership is the accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistants. The man who successfully marshals his human collaborators to achieve particular ends is a leader. A great leader is one who can do so day after day, and year after year, in a wide variety of circumstances.
https://hbr.org/2004/01/understanding-leadership
Organisations have a social responsibility to build new skills, enabling employees to find the most rewarding work. Reskilling is one way to engage and therefore retain your workforce, but it’s not only digital skills that are needed when we think about reskilling. Cultural change above all, is necessary, and this requires flexibility, and the ability to adapt quickly in a world of constant change.
As companies seek to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, how they invest in reskilling their workers is paramount.
As companies innovate and adopt green solutions, reskilling employees becomes a top priority
In welcome news for truck drivers looking to work for Walmart, news has broken that salaries for these essential workers will now range from $95-$110K. The Covid-19 pandemic has seen an increased demand on freight and logistics services in all areas of the globe, and has put significant pressure on organisations looking to get their product to customers.
This move by Walmart gives their 12,000 strong driver population the opportunity to double the average truck driver salary. Such measures will no doubt be well received by prospective and current workers, however no doubt presents a continued question around long term implications.
With well reported talent shortages in a range of industries, it appears certain that this will be the last example of above average salary inflation for essential workers we will hear.
The pay raise for its 12,000 truck drivers makes the starting range for new drivers between $95,000 and $110,000, according to Walmart spokeswoman Anne Hatfield.
2021 saw increasing attrition in many organisations, a phenomenon now referred to as “the great resignation”. Now we see the outputs of data collected over this period which gives us insight into some of the main predictors of employee turnover, providing clues on how to shift our thinking for a new work reality.
The research is clear. Culture remains king. In fact, a toxic culture is 10.4 times more likely to contribute to employee attrition than compensation.
The other significant topics of material influence over an employees decision to resign include job security and company reorganisation, level of organisational innovation, performance recognition and Covid-19 response.
corporate culture is more important than burnout or compensation in predicting which companies lost employees at a higher rate than their industries as a whole.
We know that to achieve net zero greenhouse gases by 2050, decarbonising electricity generation whilst producing more of it is critical. Different countries are setting out their renewable energy ambitions and some are in enviable positions already:
Iceland already derives 85% of its energy supply from naturally occurring geothermal sources including hot springs and volcanos;
in the US, Vermont produces 100% of its electricity supply from its utility scale investments in hydro-electric power and wind farms;
Norway leads globally in electrical vehicle adoption at 23% of all passenger vehicles; and
the UK has stated its ambition to produce 5 times as much offshore wind capacity by 2030 as it has today to become ‘the Saudi Arabia of wind power’.
This type of vision and purpose is deeply appealing to millennial talent who increasingly seek careers with ‘purpose’-driven organisations. This can only favour those energy organisations who place technological innovation and net zero targets at the core of their strategy.
bp has announced new plans to invest £1 billion in electric vehicle charging in the UK, supercharging the roll-out of fast, convenient charging across the country.
Whilst employees still expect a competitive salary, the importance of meaning, purpose and company culture is prevalent post pandemic. Optimizing employee experience is a key business imperative against a backdrop of another challenging year from a talent perspective. We are still living through uncertainty and volatility, with businesses needing to recognize the drivers for high levels of employee satisfaction and welfare.
Establishing a clear purpose is one of the ways in which this can be achieved. This has been an increasing trend over the last couple of years, with many employees wanting to work for a company that has clear purpose and recognizes factors that are larger than the organization itself.
Recognition is also critical, with a recent survey showing that 77% of employees would work harder if they felt better recognized and 68% stating that they would remain loyal to their employer if they were regularly thanked for their efforts.
Collaboration, building strategy together, wellbeing, learning and development, a superb onboarding experience – the list of considerations that we need to give to the overall experience is not limited, and needs to be considered with a holistic viewpoint.
Salary is clearly important, but the value of these factors should not be underestimated, now more than ever.
An employee-centric workplace is where employees are valued, engaged, paid well for the work they do, have opportunities to develop, and their wellbeing matters. Workers want to be happy and to do meaningful work
Few organisations are untouched by the recent “Great Resignation” phenomenon. With an unprecedented focus on retaining the best talent, what are some of the tools available to get proper insights into what is keeping (and more importantly, repelling) your best and brightest?
Stay interviews are one of the interventions being used to capture lead data, and determine what is retaining your best talent. Investing in preparation, making your employees comfortable and asking targeted questions are key to success.
Of course, once the interview is finished that is when the real work starts as you look for how to improve your employee experience and respond to feedback. Providing insights to employees, sharing insights and comitting to practical change are all important building blocks of any retention planning process.
A Gallup report found that in the three months before surveyed employees left their jobs, 51% said neither their manager nor any other company leader spoke with them about their job satisfaction or future with the organization.
The genie is out of the bottle. The pandemic has given workers a taste of freedom. Freedom to be human. Freedom to work where, when and how they want.
There is no getting the genie back in the bottle … to secure talent, organisations are going to need to a fresh approach to work design.
Offer flexibility of time
Remove barriers to geographic flexibility
Address spans of control / spans of attention
Develop genuine measures of personal productivity
Give employees more agency to find and do work that they love
Develop a competitive, differentiated and personalised proposition to attract and retain employees
What people are really looking for isn’t flexibility of location. It’s flexibility of time. The pandemic has kind of shown everybody that we’re whole humans.
