Blog - Page 6 - Carole Cooper Consulting

Culture
7 Key Strategies to Supercharge Your People & Culture
- 29 January, 2023
- 0 comments
- by nick
No matter the time of year, reviewing your People & Culture Strategy is a valuable opportunity to pause, reflect, and reset. The way people work is shifting — and so are the expectations employees have around leadership, support, inclusion and purpose. These seven priorities provide a clear starting point for building a people-first strategy that’s grounded in real impact.

1. Let Data Shape, Not Just Support, Your Strategy

It’s no longer enough to run the occasional engagement survey and call it a listening strategy. Data-informed decision-making is essential to ensure People & Culture work is responsive and relevant. But it only works when the data is consistent, purposeful and used to drive real change.

When employee feedback is ignored or left unexplained, trust erodes. Recent studies show a wide perception gap between HR teams and employees on whether feedback leads to action. This kind of disconnect can undermine even the best cultural intentions.

Start here:
Use short, repeatable pulse surveys that measure key themes over time, like psychological safety, clarity of expectations, or team dynamics. Keep questions consistent so you can track movement and trends. Just as important as collecting feedback is what you do with it. Share insights openly, take visible action where possible, and always close the loop. Employees notice when their voice leads to change, and when it doesn’t.

2. Redefine Productivity for a Modern Workplace

The shift to hybrid and remote work has reshaped the meaning of productivity. In many organisations, legacy thinking still links performance to visibility such as being online, attending meetings or answering emails quickly. But these signals don’t always correlate with meaningful output or long-term value.

Leaders are grappling with how to measure productivity when they can’t physically observe their teams. Meanwhile, many employees feel trusted and effective working remotely, but disconnected from decision-making processes or unclear expectations.

Start here:
Rethink what successful work looks like in your context. Move away from monitoring hours and toward measuring impact, progress and shared outcomes. Redesign roles if needed to allow for flexibility and autonomy. Revisit collaboration rhythms and tools to ensure alignment without overload. Your People & Culture Strategy should help guide the business through these structural shifts and not just react to them.

3. Reimagine the Employee Experience

Employees today are asking deeper questions about the role of work in their lives. They want more than a list of perks or a polished employer brand. They’re looking for workplaces that see them as whole people and back that up through daily experience.

This means the employee experience must go beyond onboarding or performance reviews. It needs to reflect how people feel day to day about their manager, their growth, their wellbeing and their sense of purpose. I think rituals are so important here.

Start here:
Start by mapping the full employee lifecycle and identifying key experience moments. Where are the pain points? Where are the opportunities to personalise or humanise interactions? Consider how your organisation’s values show up in policies, team rituals and communication. A strong People & Culture Strategy centres the real experience of working at your company, not just the version written in handbooks.

4. Respond to the Cost-of-Living Pressure

Financial stress has a real and measurable impact on engagement, health and performance. Even for employees on decent salaries, the rising cost of living continues to erode stability and focus. For People & Culture teams, ignoring this context risks seeming out of touch or uncaring.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. What matters is recognising the stress and responding in ways that are both practical and empathetic. Support doesn’t have to be expensive to be meaningful, but it does need to be intentional.

Start here:
Talk to employees about what’s making life harder. It might be fuel, food, childcare, rent or unexpected medical costs. From there, explore options that make sense for your business: flexible work locations, discounted transport, cost-of-living stipends, or access to financial education tools. A modern People & Culture Strategy considers the broader context people are living in.

5. Make Inclusion the Everyday Standard

Diversity, equity and inclusion cannot live in a separate strategy. They must be embedded throughout the People & Culture Strategy, and visible across recruitment, development, promotion and culture-building. Anything less risks performative action that does little to change actual experiences.

Inclusion is not just about who’s in the room. It’s about whose voice is heard, who feels safe to speak, and who sees themselves reflected in leadership and decision-making.

Start here:
Audit your systems and language. Who is your process designed for? Who gets the benefit of the doubt? What behaviours are rewarded? Focus on making inclusion a day-to-day norm — not just part of some campaign or celebration week. When diversity becomes part of how decisions are made and how teams operate, it creates lasting cultural shift.

6. Build for Circularity and Sustainability

Sustainability is no longer just a business operations issue. It’s a people issue too. As the circular economy gains traction, People & Culture teams must help prepare the workforce for new types of roles, skills and mindsets.

The shift includes more than technical training. It requires a rethink of performance expectations, collaboration structures and long-term workforce planning. Employees need to see how their work contributes to sustainability goals in tangible ways.

Start here:
Begin with awareness. Help teams understand what circular thinking is and why it matters. Then look at where your current systems could support or block sustainable behaviours, beginning with how projects are scoped to how success is measured. The most future-ready People & Culture strategies are those that connect sustainability to the everyday decisions people make at work.

7. Engage with Intention, Not Habit

In the post-pandemic world, habits have changed but expectations haven’t always caught up. Many organisations are still stuck between reacting to change and trying to return to “normal.” The next frontier of People & Culture is about conscious engagement — knowing why you’re doing something, not just doing it out of habit.

Meaningful engagement is not about more communication or more meetings. It’s about making space for the right conversations at the right time, and building a culture where people feel seen, understood and involved.

Start here:
Define what intentional engagement looks like in your organisation. Where are you over-communicating without impact? Where are you under-communicating on things that matter? Equip leaders with tools to hold real, purposeful conversations, especially during change, challenge or uncertainty. Culture is built conversation by conversation, and strategy must support that.

Final Thought

A People & Culture Strategy doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does need to be alive. These seven priorities can help guide your thinking, spark discussion and align your efforts with what people actually need to do their best work.
Leadership, News
Mums in the workplace: How to support them
- 21 November, 2021
- 0 comments
- by nick
From putting their career on hold while taking maternity leave to raise children, to balancing childcare and work, the role of a working mum can be very challenging. According to the Women in the Workplace Report 2021, mums in the workplace also do significantly more childcare and housework than men. That means, even if they’re working full-time, they sometimes go home to do a ‘double-shift’ of work around the home.

So, what can leaders do to support mums in the workplace?

Supporting their return to work

Aside from the logistics of childcare, returning to work from maternity leave can also prove an emotional challenge for someone with a new baby. Be empathetic to the needs of a team member re-entering the workplace after maternity leave. Consider offering a staggered return (such as reduced hours for the first month or so). Also communicate clearly any company changes or developments that have occurred while they have been on leave.

Work-life balance for mums in the workplace

Leaders can look at ways of establishing clear work-life boundaries. Try and ensure that meetings are held during normal working hours. If this is not always possible, at least have policies in place that allow mums in the workplace to recoup their overtime as time off in lieu.

Leaders should appreciate that lots of employees – not just women – feel like they are always ‘on’. So, rethink that after-hours email, or make it clear to your team beforehand that you don’t expect them to respond out of work hours. This goes for you too – ensure you are striking a good work-life balance and be a positive role model to your team.

Flexibility with working hours

Have a ‘family first’ outlook. Kids get sick, they also take part in all kinds of extra-curricular activities and are rewarded in lots of different ways at school. Enabling your working parents time out to be there for their children when they need to be will help to keep them engaged at work. So, consider allowing mums in the workplace flexibility with their hours. You could even give them the option to leave work for the school run and then finish the rest of the working day from home, for example.

Enabling this kind of flexibility could help you to retain talent – after all, many companies are now starting to offer this kind of working practice so employees might consider looking elsewhere if you lag behind in this area. In fact, the Women in the Workplace Report 2021 found that 93% of companies now say more jobs can be performed remotely, and nearly 70% predict many of their employees will regularly work remotely a year from now.

Help mums in the workplace to climb the career ladder

According to a recent report, mums in the workplace who work full-time are typically paid just 70 cents for every dollar paid to fathers. That amounts to an average deficit in working mums’ pay packets of $1,500 a month or $18,000 a year.

Why is this still happening?

Some leaders may view working mums as being unable to take on challenging work because they are often stretched at home with chores and childcare. They might also consider any time working from home – to take care of a sick child, for example – as somehow inferior to that spent working in the office.

This might subconsciously (or even, unfortunately, consciously) mean that mums in the workplace aren’t afforded the same opportunities to advance in their career as their colleagues without children.

Ensuring that you have policies in place to mitigate this gender bias when it comes to pay and promotion will go a long way in helping mums in the workplace take their rightful place at the leadership table.

I have a special interest in helping women fulfil their leadership potential. Contact me now to see if I can help you.
Human Resources, Leadership, Leading Self
Top 5 qualities of a better leader
- 3 November, 2021
- 0 comments
- by nick
If you want to build a better business, you should be working on becoming a better leader.

So, what qualities do better leaders have in common? Where should you start on your journey to becoming a better leader? Here are my top 5 suggestions.
1. Build your personal brand
To be a better leader, you need to understand who you are. If you stay true to your personal values, you’ll find it easier to be your authentic self at work. This, in turn, allows your team to understand what makes you tick – both at work and, to some degree, in your personal life – which will help to build trust.

No-one is perfect and your team isn’t expecting you to be. Acknowledge your flaws and weaknesses and improve them to become a stronger, more confident leader. Being a better leader is about nurturing your team so they can be the best they can be – and this should start with yourself. Continual self-development and learning should be a part of your personal brand as a better leader.
1. Build a culture of trust and transparency
Trust is important in the workplace. According to the Harvard Business Review, people who work in a business with a culture of trust report “74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, 29% more satisfaction with their lives, 40% less burnout”.

Pretty impressive statistics!

Your job as a better leader is to help cultivate trust in your business. Make sure that your people can trust you to keep your word, even if it’s not always the easiest option.

It is also important to be transparent. Most people will appreciate you for telling it how it is, especially if you are also empathetic (another key quality of a better leader).

And make sure your team are kept in the loop as much as possible. Communication is integral to this. See below for some tips on ensuring communication is not overlooked in your business.
1. Better leaders cultivate Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence at work is the art of understanding what motivates your team and how to get the best from them. You are aware of your emotions and can use them in a positive way to build your team up, resulting in a more productive, profitable organisation.

Being aware of, and working on, the 5 elements of Emotional Intelligence as proposed by Daniel Goleman is a great place to start when it comes to becoming a better leader. These 5 elements are: ⁠Self Awareness⁠, Self Regulation⁠, Motivation⁠, Social Awareness⁠ and Relationship Management⁠.

For a full explanation of Emotional Intelligence and how it relates to the workplace, read my blog on the topic here.
1. Better leaders communicate, communicate, communicate
If you consistently hear the phrases ‘I didn’t know about that’, or ‘Nobody told me’, chances are you need to up your communication game.

Better leaders communicate with their entire business, not just other leaders.

Internal communication tools can include:

Staff newsletters – these are a great way to help communicate any changes in the organisation, break down barriers between colleagues and inform them of any social events.

Teams – this Microsoft program is an easy way to bring people together. You can set up different channels for your different teams and it also allows for more informal interaction (using emojis and gifs, for example).

Regular face-to-face meetings – be sure that any decisions made at the top level (that your team should be made aware of) are filtered down throughout the entire business. An effective way to do this is to have each leader or head of department hold their own team meeting to encourage two-way conversations with employees.
1. Treat your people as individuals not robots
In a world where we are becoming more isolated (thanks to many of us now working from home, social distancing and the like), the need for human connection is more important than ever.

And, as many of us spend as much, or more, time at work as we do with our family, it’s important that we get that human connection in the workplace – whether it’s remotely or in an office.

Not to mention that being treated as an individual is a simple matter of respect. Better leaders treat their people as individuals, not money-making machines. Emotional Intelligence and communication are key factors here.

It’s about making someone feel valued at work. Those employees who feel heard, valued and understand that they are making a real difference to the business will stick around longer and be more motivated in their role.

Plus, embracing individuality can help formulate new ideas – which just might boost your profitability.

Now you’ve made a start on your leadership journey – why not continue? Speak to us about our leadership development training or executive coaching programs.
Leadership
Bad leadership: Why do we tolerate it?
- 17 October, 2021
- 0 comments
- by nick
I have a saying, “Never sacrifice the team for one person”. Yet I continue to hear how badly people are being treated in the workplace because of bad leadership.

People leave leaders not companies! According to a Gallup survey of 1 million employees, a massive 75% who left their job voluntarily did so because they had a bad leader.

Recognise this person as a leader:
- Arrogant
- Huge ego
- Know-it-all
- Disrespectful
- Has a group of favourites in the team
- Not interested in you as a person
- Takes the credit for your ideas?
(Also the kind of leader who will send ranting emails in red bold caps…on a Friday night – more about this later).

Why do organisations continue to accept bad leaders?

So, we can all probably agree on the type of person that qualifies as a bad leader.

Why, then, do poor leaders continue to be at the helm of our companies? Could it be that it’s simply too hard to manage the problem of poor leadership? That organisations are worried about how these leaders will react if confronted about their leadership style? That business owners have condoned these bad leadership traits for so long that these managers are almost an ‘iconic’ part of the culture (think The Devil Wears Prada)?

Whatever the reason, it’s clear that poor leadership is detrimental to business success. Who would want to work for Mr or Mrs Arrogant, when they could work for a human-centred leader instead?

Good leadership v bad leadership

Human-centred leaders value good communication, respect their employees and provide a clear picture of the organisation’s goals and how team members can help to attain those goals. Great leaders listen, are transparent and help their people grow.

While bad leadership tears a company down and leads to poor engagement and increased turnover, great leadership helps build a company up. It does so by developing a company culture that values its people, increases motivation and lowers turnover – all while increasing profit.

Those leaders that invest in their employees understand how much an engaged, motivated, productive employee means to their company. And the respect works both ways. Employees that trust their leader are more likely to follow their leader.

Dealing with poor leadership styles

So, if your business is having problem with staff retention and morale, it’s worth taking a closer look at those on your leadership team.

If you determine that an employee’s leadership style is lacking, there are some steps you can take to solve the issue:
1. Understand why they are making poor choices as a leader
Has the business undergone significant recent growth or has the nature of the leader’s role changed? The leader might be feeling out of their depth or lacking the confidence to lead a team because of these changes. Do you have clear business goals? It’s impossible to lead a team if a manager is not sure where they should be leading them. Are they simply a poor communicator? This can lead to many different problems within the team, including confusion and mistrust.
1. Provide leadership training
Once you are aware of the areas in which your leaders are lacking people and culture skills, you can provide training to address those gaps. There are many valuable courses (both online and in person) specifically designed to strengthen specific leadership skills.
1. Conduct performance reviews regularly
Use these sessions to set clear expectations of your leaders and review past performance. These reviews will help you to identify any areas of weakness so you can implement a plan to address them right away.

If the above fails, you might need to replace these bad leaders with human-centred leaders that will bring your people together, working towards clear goals – happy, engaged and productive.

It’s important to make a positive, proactive people and culture change in your organisation as soon as is needed, before employees seek it elsewhere. After all, it’s rare that an employee will stand up to bad leadership – especially if it is seen to be accepted by you, the business owner.

“Be a voice – not an echo.” – Albert Einstein

My experience with an arrogant leader

I had a leader that would send what I called the ‘Friday bomb’. At least once a month on a Friday at 5pm I would receive an email in CAPS shouting at me about something in the business. The first time it happened I was so upset that it ruined my weekend. Still, I responded politely and it was never spoken of again.

The next time it happened, I called him and he did not answer, ruining my weekend for a second time. Again, I responded politely and nothing was mentioned after the incident.

The third time it happened, I was so angry that he treated me this way that I booked a meeting with him on Monday.

In the meeting, firstly, I asked him why he was sending these emails at that time and why he didn’t pick up the phone. Secondly, I said the matter clearly wasn’t important as he did not respond to my reply. Thirdly, I stated that if he did it again, I would report his behaviour to his manager as it was unacceptable.

I’m happy to say I never received an email like that again! My learning? Deal with any issue immediately by discussing it with your leader – and don’t allow incompetent leaders to ruin your weekend.

If you need help making a positive people and culture change in your business, get in touch with me here for a free, confidential consultation.
Leadership
Top 5 Leadership Lessons for Business Owners
- 6 October, 2021
- 0 comments
- by nick
Great leadership can motivate people. Great leaders nurture, inspire and grow with their team, communicate their ideas effectively and are flexible enough to solve problems along the way.

If you take a closer look at how great leaders actually run their business, you will find that most have similar methods of ensuring they get the most from their people, and themselves.

Here are my top five leadership lessons for business owners so you can develop your skills.
1. Continue to learn
The workplace is always evolving. Not just in terms of the people and projects that may come and go, but in the way that it needs to be run to ensure growth and profitability. Like any professional, leaders must keep their knowledge and skills up to date to better equip themselves to deal with the changing landscape of business.

The past two years are a great example of how those in leadership roles must also be able to adapt to better guide their team and continue to drive profits, even in challenging times. Most businesses who have weathered – or even excelled in – the Covid-19 storm have leaders who are flexible and committed to learning how to guide their people in the most trying of circumstances.

Self-improvement is the cornerstone of learning – to understand how to lead people, you must first understand how to lead yourself. Lead by example and you will gain the trust and respect of your people.

“Never stop learning because life never stops teaching.” – Unknown
1. Ensure you have the right people in the right role
Job satisfaction is key to ensuring an engaged, committed, highly-functioning team. You could have an excellent team member who is reliable, a great communicator and goes above and beyond, but if they are not in a role where they can flourish, they will never be truly satisfied at work.

An unfulfilled employee will also likely be more reliant on external drivers, such as bonuses, and will be more likely to leave if a better monetary offer comes along, even if you have the best people and culture practices in place.

However, those in the right role are more likely to be self-motivated and self-fulfilled because they are doing a job they enjoy.

An accurate job description can help ensure you get the right person for the right role, even before you start the interviewing process. Also try and think of ways to assess compatibility with the role beyond an interview – having them complete a role-based task, for example, or an aptitude test.

“You can’t make a square peg fit in a round hole. The time you waste trying to figure that out could be spent finding a round peg.” – Unknown
1. Don’t underestimate the importance of your personal leadership brand
Just as your business brand conveys your values to your customers, your personal brand helps communicate what you stand for to your team – your values, goals and beliefs.

Your personal brand is about curating the aspects of your personality that make you the best leader you can be. Draw on the personality traits that your close friends and family admire about you and use these attributes as a cornerstone of a powerful personal brand that people respect, trust and want to emulate.

It is also important, however, to acknowledge your weaknesses. This makes you more human and more relatable to your people. It comes back to leading by example. Be the person you want your people to be – aware of their strengths and weaknesses and striving for self-improvement. Provide a nurturing workplace culture to allow this.

Read more about developing your authentic leadership style here.

“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” – Jeff Bezos
1. Seek and embrace new ideas in leadership
A sure-fire way to make your people feel undervalued is not allowing their opinions to be heard.

No-one has all the answers, not even those in a leadership position. As I said before, flexibility is key to navigating the ever-changing business landscape. Those businesses that embrace new ideas are the ones that are more likely to profit – and you have a great source of new ideas in the form of your people.

To find new ideas for your business:
- Stop talking and start listening
- Actively ask your team for ideas – you can use meetings, surveys, 1:1s, etc
- Keep an open mind
By embracing new ideas, you gain respect from your team, and might just unearth a winning business strategy in the process.

“Creativity in life is about saying yes to new ideas.” – Nolan Bushnell
1. Give back to the community
Of course, everyone should make time to give back to others. The great thing about giving back as a business is that you also get to make a difference to your people.

Giving back as a business makes employees proud to work for the company, boosts morale and directly impacts the very community where your employees and their families live.

You might also want to consider company-sponsored volunteering when it comes to charitable giving as it is shown to:
- Broaden skill sets and improve staff leadership – reported by 92% of staff
- Boost employee wellbeing – reported by 77% of staff
- Boost morale – reported by 70% of staff
- Strengthen bonds with work colleagues – reported by 64% of staff
(Source: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/us-deloitte-impact-survey.pdf)

“Those who are happiest, are those who do the most for others.” – BT Washington

Which of these leadership lessons do you think is the most important for aspiring business leaders? What other lessons do you live by as a leader?
Leading Self
Emotional Intelligence
- 22 June, 2021
- 0 comments
- by nick
Your Emotional Intelligence or EQ is your ability to understand other people, what motivates them and how to work cooperatively with them. You have the ability to understand and use your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.⁠
⁠
Can you improve your EQ? Yes you can:⁠
- By practicing how you react to people⁠
- Observe how others react to situations⁠
- Self reflection on your own emotions
⁠According to Daniel Goleman there are 5 key elements to EQ:⁠
1. ⁠Self Awareness⁠
2. Self Regulation⁠
3. Motivation⁠
4. Social Awareness⁠
5. Relationship Management⁠
Element #1: Self Awareness

Over the years I’ve often heard… “he or she is just not self-aware”. Actually I’ve said it myself. Self Awareness is simply understanding how you feel, why you feel that way and how it impacts our behaviour. I say simple but it can be challenging for many. The good news it is something you can work on and develop.

How can you develop self-awareness?
Know what triggers your reactions to situations
Reflect on how you respond to situations
Think before you speak or act – give yourself time
Understand what makes you happy

Are there benefits? Absolutely
You will become a better leader
You will improve your happiness
You will grow as a person
You will have better relationships

Element #2: Self-Regulation and Emotional Intelligence

You’ve decided to do dry January and your friends invite you out for a drink. You decide to order a mocktail or non-alcoholic beer. This is an example of practicing self-regulation.

Self regulation is the ability to manage your thoughts, emotions, behaviours and actions.

There are 2 types of self-regulation:
Behavioural self regulation – how you respond to situations
Emotional self regulation – how you control your emotions

People who practice self-regulation have the following traits. They are:
- Self-aware
- Persistent
- Adaptable
- Optimistic
Can you develop or improve self-regulation? Absolutely!

How?
Educate yourself
Practice self-awareness (see last week’s post)
Be kind to yourself
Exercise
Seek feedback

What are the benefits of self-regulation?
A positive mindset
Improved well-being
Stress management
More productive
Stronger level of discipline to achieve goals

Element #3: Motivation and Emotional Intelligence

When discussing motivation as an element or skill of emotional intelligence, we are talking about intrinsic motivation. This means you are motivated by the act of doing something without any obvious external rewards like money. If you eat a chocolate – you are doing so for the joy of it. If you play tennis, you do it for the love of the game or for fun.

Why is intrinsic motivation a key element? It simply drives performance. Motivated people and leaders consistently work towards achieving goals and have high expectations of themselves.

Daniel Pink says “we are motivated by other forces: autonomy, mastery and purpose.” He defines these as:

“Autonomy: This is the need to self-direct.
Mastery: This is the intrinsic motivation to get better, to master a skill.
Purpose: This is the ability to connect to a larger cause, the highest form of motivation”

Can you develop intrinsic motivation? Absolutely!

Ask yourself why you are doing what you are do.
Do things you are passionate about.
Do things that make a difference to others – do something for the greater good

Element #4: Social Awareness

Social awareness as an element or skill of emotional intelligence, means that you understand how you react to different social situations and effectively modify your interactions with other people so that you achieve the best results.

According to Daniel Goleman the competencies associated with being socially aware are:

Empathy: understanding the other person’s emotions, needs and concerns.

Organizational Awareness: the ability to understand the politics within an organization and how these affect the people working in them.

Service: the ability to understand and meet the needs of clients and customers.

Can you develop your social awareness skills? Absolutely!

How?
Listen, listen, listen – generally this is a great skill to develop but quite important when it comes to social awareness.

Repeat what is said to the person so that you are sure you heard what they intended to say.

Pay attention to the person’s tone.

Watch their body language.

Place yourself in other’s shoes.

Identify your own emotions.

Reflect

Element #5: Relationship Management

Relationship Management as an element of EQ, means using your awareness of your own emotions and those of others to manage interactions successfully. Simply, it is about your interpersonal communication skills.
⁠
This is the aspect of your emotional intelligence that enables you to succeed in inspiring other people and helping them to reach their full potential. It is also important in negotiating successfully, resolving conflicts and working with others toward a shared goal.
⁠
According to Daniel Goleman the competencies associated with relationship management are:

Influence: persuading others.
Inspirational leadership: providing a vision that motivates others.
Developing others: providing feedback and building skills and knowledge.
Change catalyst: recognising the need for change and supporting the process.
Conflict management: Settling disputes, differences of opinion and misunderstanding.
Building bonds: creating and maintaining networks.
Teamwork and collaboration: building effective teams.

The stronger your emotional intelligence, the better you understand yourself which empowers you to make change happen.⁠
Leadership
7 Leadership Principles Every Effective Leader Should Practise
- 5 April, 2021
- 0 comments
- by nick
Effective leaders have the ability to communicate well, motivate their team, handle and delegate responsibilities, listen to feedback, and have the flexibility to solve problems in an ever-changing workplace. These are my 7 guiding leadership principles to be high performing leader of a team and business.

#1 – Model the Way

What does it mean to ‘model the way’? It’s the act of authentically embracing and displaying your values to those around you. Leaders who model the way encourage others to follow by setting an example.

They lead with optimism and positivity. More importantly their actions align with their shared values and greatly influence those of others. Kouzes and Posner believe “values influence every aspect of our lives: our moral judgements, our responses to others, our commitments to personal and organizational goals.” Talk is cheap. Anyone can talk up a good game, however people are more likely to act when they see their leader doing.

“When people see you doing what you say, then they have the evidence that you mean it. Otherwise, it’s just words. Your actions send the loudest signals about what other people should be doing.” Kouzes and Posner.

Two ways you can adapt this leadership principle:
- Be clear about your values and the organization’s values so others can see why you do what you do.
- Show your values in how you talk and act to establish credibility and authenticity as a leader.
#2 – Develop Your Team

Leaders who take the time and make the effort to develop their team will reap the rewards tenfold and have an advantage over competitors. ⁠ ⁠

Who is responsible for team development? In many organisations the answer is HR, trainers or senior leaders. They’re all part of the picture, but the primary responsibility sits with leaders. Leaders are accountable for their team’s performance and, by extension, their team’s development. They should draw on the support, tools and expertise available to them, but no one understands the needs of a team better than the leader working with them every day.

How do you develop your team?⁠
1. Ensure each person understands their role.;
2. Provide training based on skills gaps;
3. ⁠Don’t micro-manage – let them do their job;
4. Mistakes happen and it’s a learning- support them, don’t chastise them⁠;
5. Discuss their personal and professional goals regularly⁠;
6. Use your resources – HR, Trainers, other leaders.
What’s in it for the team member?⁠
- Engagement;
- More productive;
- Successfully contribute to the team;
- Become and expert ⁠
What’s in it for you as the leader other than results?⁠ Great leaders attract, hire, and inspire great people. People will be lining up to work for you!

#3 – Business Acumen as a Leadership Principle

Understanding the big picture and inter-relationships between various areas of the business that drives growth and profitability. It is not a skill but rather a combination of competencies, knowledge and awareness of multiple aspects of the business.

Why is it important as a leadership guiding principle? If you are business savvy, you are able to contribute to the goals of the organisation, solve simple and complex problems while understanding the bigger picture and understand the consequences of your decisions. As a leader you are able to effectively guide your team and their contribution.

You can develop business acumen through experience, self-learning networking, reading and training. Good to Great by Jim Collins remains an excellent read and a great place to start on this topic.

#4 – Effective Communication as a Leadership Principle

Confusion, missing deadlines, lack of understanding, poor execution, missing information. Sound familiar?

When we interview team members as part of our work, their #1 complaint is that their leaders’ communication is ineffective.

Communication is the ability to exchange information clearly to another person or group of individuals. Effective communication is communication that is delivered, received and understood successfully so that what you say is interpreted as you intended. Some skills to focus on to be an effective communicator.
- Listen, listen, listen – one of the most important aspects
- Non-verbal communication – body language and tone
- Clear and concise – the more concise you are, the easier to understand – less is best
- Personable – make it about the person not yourself
- Confidence – be clear on what information you want to convey
We work with many organisations on communication skills because you can’t resolve issues of culture, leadership or engagement without paying attention to how people communicate with one another. For tips, start here with my article on communication.

#5- The Right Environment

Why is this leadership principle so important? Have you ever walked into a place of work and felt the negative energy and tension? That environment is not good for employees or customers. So how do you create a positive work environment as a leader?

I always think about it from the perspective – if this were my son or daughter, brother or sister, what kind of environment would I want them to work in?

A few tips:
- Have a robust onboarding process that includes the entire team.
- Empower your team to do their best work
- Have regular informal check-ins with each individual
- Encourage collaboration
- Facilitate training and development
- Have fun
The benefits of a positive work environment:
- It alleviates stress
- Removes negativity
- Increases productivity
- It is inspiring and motivational
- You achieve better results
- Teamwork and collaboration improve which leads to innovation
- You will be able to solve problems as a team more effectively
As the leader this is your responsibility, but use the strengths of your team to create a positive work environment.

#6 – Vision Plans and Goals

A vision, plan and goals give purpose and direction to you and your team.

A vision is a picture in words and is aligned to what the organisation hopes to achieve in the future. It is inspiring and motivational. It helps with long-term planning. A vision should have the following elements:
- Be concise
- Be clear
- Have a time-line into the future
- Be challenging
- Be abstract
- Be inspiring
An example of a vison:

Patagonia “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”

A plan is a clear roadmap on how you will achieve your vision. It shows the actions needed to achieve the goals. A plan usually has the following elements:
- Defines your competitive advantage
- Focuses on systematic growth
- Is agile
- Is inclusive
- Overcomes challenges.
Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. Goals should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely

Once you have your vision, plan and goals it is important to communicate it regularly and review it at a minimum annually.

#7 – Discipline as a Leadership Principle

Discipline is… what is meant to happen, happens! Yes, it’s easy to say, but not always easy to do.

I know that discipline sometimes conjures up the image of the big stick. It is actually the complete opposite when done well. As a leader it starts with you and is incredibly important. Being disciplined creates clarity and consistency for your team. It supports building a high performing team and creates accountability. It also allows your team to have the space to perform their role successfully.

Ever worked for a leader where they change their mind about the strategy or plan every week? Remember how frustrated you felt as the direction was not clear and it probably caused turmoil amongst the team? This is an example of an undisciplined leader. Having the discipline to stay on course and execute your plan leads to success.

Of course we need to be flexible as the environment is changing, however the change in strategy and plans should be supported by fact not whim. A disciplined leader identifies what is important and focuses on the 20% that will drive 80% of the result. Discipline improves productivity, execution of strategy, growth and profit.

These are my seven guiding principles. None of us ever truly finish the work of becoming better leaders, and that’s the beauty of leadership. It asks us to keep learning, growing and improving. I encourage you to embrace these principles, adapt them to your own style and put them into practice. The results may surprise you, and your team will thank you for it.
Employee Experience, Human Resources, Leadership
What is Generational Diversity and How Can it Work For You?
- 4 February, 2021
- 0 comments
- by nick
For the first time in history, there are five generations in the workplace. People are living longer, healthier lives, and many are delaying their retirement beyond age 65, increasing generational diversity. This is a unique development for the 21^st century workplace, and a novel challenge for today’s leaders and HR managers – but also a real opportunity for businesses to grow and outstrip their competitors.

As an ardent Diversity and Inclusion advocate, to me, embracing generational differences is just another facet of establishing diversity and inclusion, and another way to enable the positives that come from a diverse and inclusive workplace.

What Are The Generations

As a starting point it is important to understand how the generations are grouped and named:
- Traditionalists—born 1925 to 1945
- Baby Boomers—born 1946 to 1964
- Generation X—born 1965 to 1980
- Millennials—born 1981 to 2000
- Generation Z—born 2001 to 2020
Working with team that embodies generational diversity – employees who were born well before World War II plus those who have never known life without the internet – can be a challenge for leaders and HR managers. Employers need to grapple with very different motivators for these different groups. I outline at the end of this article their different world views, characteristics, communication preferences and drivers – I encourage you to read this section, it makes for interesting and surprising reading – and may offer some useful insights into what really engages and encourages your staff.

Generational Diversity: All About Collaboration

Beyond being politically correct or complying with legal obligations, embracing generational diversity and collaboration provides real opportunity to drive your company forward and put you ahead of the pack. There are a number of articles that outline some tips and hints on how to communicate to and motivate these very disparate groups but where I see the greatest possibilities are when the generations genuinely collaborate.

The concept of the potential of inter-generational collaboration was reaffirmed by a recent meeting I had as a Gen Xer, with a young woman born in 2000, a Gen Zer. Our initial small talk strayed into where and what she was studying. We discussed degrees, career goals, and I mentioned that in my experience careers paths were often not linear. I also reassured her that just because she did not have everything mapped out at the ripe old age of 20, there was nothing to worry about.

Ms Gen Z, in return outlined that although she did not have everything sorted, she was quite financially literate and commercially savvy as were most of her female friends, and this knowledge base had been encouraged by school and university educators. I found this emerging trend for young women to develop fiscal literacy greatly reassuring – and a promising skill base to bring to the workplaces of the future.

In previous organisations, I have championed the need for women to develop greater financial awareness in order to be empowered with choices that come from having their own financial independence. Too often, women push financial responsibility to their partners, only to find themselves severely disadvantaged when there is a relationship breakdown or death of a spouse.

So, from this inter-generational encounter, Gen X and Gen Z both gained a better understanding of the other’s worldview, became better informed and knowledgeable, plus were ultimately buoyed by the experience – and this from one chance meeting – imagine if we had actually planned to collaborate, what we could achieve?

Three Methods To Encourage Cross-Generational Collaboration

As we have seen, generational diversity in the workplace should be celebrated. If you do want to plan some collaborations with your staff to harness the collective knowledge that spans over 90 years, here are some options to help the age groups learn from each other:
- Create cross-generational mentoring: Allocate each employee a corresponding partner from another age group and encourage them to meet often to share knowledge – and the subject matter can be beyond the workplace – the important aspect is the sharing of different perspectives.
- Establish collaborative projects: Creating teams with generational diversity helps reduce bias and surfaces the skill sets of employees of different generations.
- Go off-site: Team activities off- site help employees get to see each other as individuals rather than age-based stereotypes.
Employers need to keep abreast of what employees need and want to stay engaged and motivated at work – because happy employees, equal happy customers and a happy business.

Ultimately, by using all the benefits that generational diversity can provide, you can boost your rating among employees and customers and be a standout from the pack.

Generational diversity in the workplace – Drivers and Motivators *

Traditionalists

Born 1925–1945
- Dependable, straightforward, tactful, loyal
- Shaped by: The Great Depression, World War II, radio and movies
- Motivated by: Respect, recognition, providing long-term value to the company
- Communication style: Personal touch, handwritten notes instead of email
- Worldview: Obedience over individualism; age equals seniority; advancing through the hierarchy
- Employers should: Provide satisfying work and opportunities to contribute; emphasize stability
Baby Boomers

Born 1946–1964
- Optimistic, competitive, workaholic, team-oriented
- Shaped by: The Vietnam War, civil rights movement, Watergate
- Motivated by: Company loyalty, teamwork, duty
- Communication style: Whatever is most efficient, including phone calls and face to face
- Worldview: Achievement comes after paying one’s dues; sacrifice for success
- Employers should: Provide them with specific goals and deadlines; put them in mentor roles; offer coaching-style feedback
- Stats:
  - 65% of baby boomers plan to work past age 65
  - 10,000 baby boomers reach retirement age every day
Generation X

Born 1965–1980

Flexible, informal, sceptical, independent
- Shaped by: The AIDS epidemic, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dot-com boom
- Motivated by: Diversity including generational diversity, work-life balance, their personal-professional interests rather than the company’s interests
- Communication style: Whatever is most efficient, including phone calls and face to face
- Worldview: Favouring diversity; quick to move on if their employer fails to meet their needs; resistant to change at work if it affects their personal lives
- Employers should: Give them immediate feedback; provide flexible work arrangements and work-life balance; extend opportunities for personal development
- Stats:
  - Gen Xers make up the highest percentage of start-up founders at 55%
  - Gen Xers will outnumber baby boomers by 2028
Millennials

Born 1981–2000
- Competitive, civic-minded, open-minded on diversity including generational diversity, achievement-oriented
- Shaped by: Columbine, 9/11, the internet
- Motivated by: Responsibility, the quality of their manager, unique work experiences
- Communication style: IMs, texts, and email
- Worldview: Seeking challenge, growth, and development; a fun work life and work-life balance; likely to leave an organization if they don’t like change
- Employers should: Get to know them personally; manage by results; be flexible on their schedule and work assignments; provide immediate feedback
- Stats:
  - By 2025, millennials will comprise 75% of the global workforce
  - About 15% of millennials age 25–35 live at home with their parents
Generation Z

Born 2001–2020
- Global, entrepreneurial, progressive, less focused
- Shaped by: Life after 9/11, the Great Recession, access to technology from a young age
- Motivated by: Diversity including generational diversity, personalization, individuality, creativity
- Communication style: IMs, texts, social media
- Worldview: Self-identifying as digital device addicts; valuing independence and individuality; preferring to work with millennial managers, innovative co-workers, and new technologies
- Employers should: Offer opportunities to work on multiple projects at the same time; provide work-life balance; allow them to be self-directed and independent
- Stats:
  - 40% of Gen Z wants to interact with their boss daily or several times each day
  - 84% of Gen Z expects their employer to provide formal training
*Generational profile information sourced from Purdue University
Employee Experience
Happy Employees = Happy Customers: Five Ways HR Creates a Happy Place for Both and Your Bottom Line
- 20 January, 2021
- 0 comments
- by nick
A recent Glassdoor report shows clearly that employee engagement drives customer satisfaction, which in turn positively impacts the bottom line for most companies.

The report states, “there is a strong statistical link between employee well-being reported on Glassdoor and customer satisfaction among the largest companies today.”

There is in fact a growing body of research that shows a direct correlation between employee engagement and the satisfaction of customers, that ultimately translates to positive business outcomes.

Key Drivers in the Workforce

Before I expand on the five strategies, it is important to understand that there are key drivers or base desires for your workforce – these are explained by a favourite author of mine, Daniel Pink who has created six thought provoking books about business and human behaviour.

Daniel has been proposing for over a decade that for an employee engagement strategy to work, the following human workplace drivers need to be considered:

·      Autonomy – The desire to be self-directed. It increases employee engagement over compliance.

·      Mastery – The urge to get better skills.

·      Purpose – The desire to do something that has meaning and is important. Businesses that only focus on profits without valuing purpose will end up with poor customer service and unhappy employees.

Interestingly, there is no mention of obvious things like more money or less hours for improving employee engagement or satisfaction. A recent study from Bath University also reaffirms this concept where intangible things, like meeting professional goals, assistance to reduce stress at work, or achieving personal growth, rated just as highly as salary increases.

The Five Strategies For Employee Engagement

1. Improving Employee User Experience at work

Forbes recently released a report Why HR and UX Should be Best Friends which explained that when you put in the time and effort to create great experiences for both customers and employees, morale, capacity to care and productivity go up, and ultimately the success of the organisation.

Businesses pursue a positive customer experience that is low stress and high in value – the same principle needs to apply to their staff in the form of employee engagement. This means examining your employees’ experience much like you would assess your customer pipeline. Improving the employee experience of your organisation centres on enabling your staff to do their jobs effectively – this is achieved by providing the tools, training and the ability required to create better customer experiences through their work.

2. Organisational support – for development and for life

Enabling your team members to work how they think they can best perform involves a lot of trust in that person. As a manager, you can also show your support, by providing the opportunity to present and profile skills across the organisation, access to training and development, or the allocation of some interesting projects to demonstrate that they are valued and mean a lot to the organisation. These will all improve employee engagement.

With 2020 being dominated by COVID-19, I was encouraged how often I saw managers showing real commitment to their teams’ wellbeing and supporting team member’s entire life, not just their professional life. It is a simple concept that when employees feel valued, they tend to value their employer in return.

3. A place for constructive feedback – for managers and team members

The prospect of feedback, giving or receiving, can often connote fearfulness and negativity. In reality, it is something that most of us appreciate, and can be positive or negative, plus it is crucial to our development – after all how can we learn, grow, and get better at a whole range of things when we are not aware of errors or incorrect assumptions.

I should emphasise that constructive feedback needs to be respectful and it is no surprise that giving such feedback is a bit of a skill – there is room for improvement for managers to get better at giving feedback, and employees to get better at receiving it.

Further, constructive feedback needs to be a two way street and managers need to receive it as well – for many years I have strongly advocated for leaders to enable their teams to provide 360 feedback sessions on their leadership skills and abilities – feedback enables us all, as managers and team members to continually improve and will also bolster employee engagement.

In the words of famous philanthropist Tara Winkler: “When we know better, we do better.”

4. A fair and open workplace can lead to employee engagement

Within the Australian identity, there is the firmly held tenet that everyone deserves “a fair go”– although I think fairness or what is the right thing to do is probably something that is part of our collective moral compass. I have witnessed colleagues and staff members become disengaged, and sufficiently frustrated to drive them to seek new employment due to their perceptions of favouritism, prejudice, or where things just don’t seem fair.

Establishing a culture of fairness in the workplace comes about from openness and transparency – this can be achieved with simple things like strong visible values in the organisation, understanding and addressing employee expectations, and clear career pathing processes with tailored development programs to help employees achieve their goals.

5. Help to improve

As humans, we are hardwired to learn and improve every day, even if outwardly we are unaware of it. Whether providing time and money for training, access to mentors, the ability to work across the business, or the availability of development opportunities, these have been proven ways to drive employee engagement.

Providing resources and investing in your staff is a clear indication of your trust and belief in them which generates increased loyalty and retention.

It is How You Make People Feel

On a final note, a hero of mine, Maya Angelou, an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist said: ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’

My recommendation is to keep this philosophy in mind and think about how you can positively impact the work life of your employees. Investing in their happiness and creating employee engagement will generate positive outcomes for your customers and your organisation right now and into the future.
Career
The Candidate Experience is vital to your brand! Are you measuring it?
- 10 December, 2020
- 0 comments
- by nick
The candidate experience: using NPS for recruitment applicants

By Dominique Pomario and Carole Cooper

A few years ago we completed a Mini MBA in Marketing with Mark Ritson, which proved to be one of the most valuable courses we’ve done in recent years.

One of the key takeaways during our time spent immersed in the Mini Marketing MBA was learning more about Net Promoter Scores (NPS). Net Promoter Scores are typically used as a customer satisfaction benchmark that measures how likely your customers are to recommend your business or services to a friend. It’s a measurement tool that companies use to evaluate and improve customer loyalty.

At the same time we were dealing with the challenge of how to improve the candidate experience and better protect the employer brand of a large retailer during the recruitment process, so, we took our new found and in-depth understanding of NPS to overhaul the system.

Research showed that NPS hadn’t really caught on as a candidate experience tool as yet but we had seen that Citrix in the US had been using it for a few years with some great results.

As a major Australian retailer, this employer received a large number of job applications for various roles each month, and as a result, the recruitment team had to regularly reject a large number of candidates.

With an acute awareness that candidates were also either existing or potential retail customers, it became clear that more needed to be done to protect the employer brand as en employter of choice but also its consumer-facing brand.

In order to truly understand how candidates felt about their recruitment experience with the aim to improve it, we implemented an NPS system to easily translate feedback across the candidate experience.

As a process of continual improvement, NPS scoring enabled the recruitment team to make informed decisions to better protect both its employer and consumer brands.

Overall response rates were good, with 20 – 25% of candidates who were sent the email taking the survey. Overwhelmingly, candidates were also very willing to provide written feedback and answer three optional questions which proved invaluable in determining the different opportunities for improvement within the various stages of the recruitment process, as well as within the recruitment teams.

To establish where the biggest opportunities were to improve on the NPS score, the team explored the optional commentary to identify two key – albeit glaringly obvious – areas for improvement:

1. email communication when rejecting candidates – what they actually wanted was an opportunity for personal feedback and less words spent trying to conciliate them;

2. the phone interview experience for candidates was inconsistent.

As a result of the initial first month in trial, we were able to overhaul all communication templates to really simplify the message and provide an opportunity for candidates to receive personal feedback if they desired.

Similarly, thanks to the comments received, it was determined that recruiters were conducting too many phone interviews in a day and in many instances, it was fatigue that was affecting how they were dealing with candidates. With some simple adjustments to workflow and expectations to manage the volume of phone interviews, as well as the time between them, the team was able to improve on results within a short 3 month period (moving up -41 NPS points to a score of -25).

With the expectation of continuous improvement, this large retailer set its sights on achieving a positive NPS within 18 months In June 2019, 19 months after the initial launch they received an NPS score of +8.

Today, NPS is an embedded program within the recruitment team’s processes and helps to better control the perception of its employer brand to ensure a positive experience for all those who engage.

Need some help with your people and culture practices? Find out exactly how we can help you here.

1. Let Data Shape, Not Just Support, Your Strategy

2. Redefine Productivity for a Modern Workplace

3. Reimagine the Employee Experience

4. Respond to the Cost-of-Living Pressure

5. Make Inclusion the Everyday Standard

6. Build for Circularity and Sustainability

7. Engage with Intention, Not Habit

Final Thought

Supporting their return to work

Work-life balance for mums in the workplace

Flexibility with working hours

Help mums in the workplace to climb the career ladder

Build your personal brand

Build a culture of trust and transparency

Better leaders cultivate Emotional Intelligence

Better leaders communicate, communicate, communicate

Treat your people as individuals not robots

Why do organisations continue to accept bad leaders?

Good leadership v bad leadership

Understand why they are making poor choices as a leader

Provide leadership training

Conduct performance reviews regularly

Continue to learn

Ensure you have the right people in the right role

Don’t underestimate the importance of your personal leadership brand

Seek and embrace new ideas in leadership

Give back to the community

Element #1: Self Awareness

Element #2: Self-Regulation and Emotional Intelligence

Element #3: Motivation and Emotional Intelligence

“Autonomy: This is the need to self-direct. Mastery: This is the intrinsic motivation to get better, to master a skill. Purpose: This is the ability to connect to a larger cause, the highest form of motivation”

Element #4: Social Awareness

Element #5: Relationship Management

#1 – Model the Way

#2 – Develop Your Team

#3 – Business Acumen as a Leadership Principle

#4 – Effective Communication as a Leadership Principle

#5- The Right Environment

#6 – Vision Plans and Goals

#7 – Discipline as a Leadership Principle

What Are The Generations

Generational Diversity: All About Collaboration

Three Methods To Encourage Cross-Generational Collaboration

Generational diversity in the workplace – Drivers and Motivators *

Traditionalists

Born 1925–1945

Baby Boomers

Born 1946–1964

Generation X

Born 1965–1980

Millennials

Born 1981–2000

Generation Z

Born 2001–2020

“Autonomy: This is the need to self-direct.
Mastery: This is the intrinsic motivation to get better, to master a skill.
Purpose: This is the ability to connect to a larger cause, the highest form of motivation”