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Wow, how times have changed in just two years. In 2020, of the Top-Ten Hot Leadership Topics, only three were related to people. Now in 2022, eight out of ten leadership topics are related to people.
When I work with my CEO and executive clients these days, yes, they are worried about inflation, interest rates, fuel prices, supply chain disruption and the war in the Ukraine, but when they talk about what keeps them awake at night, they all focus in on:
- Finding talent that aligns with their culture
- Retaining talent
- Developing their people
- Succession planning
- What does a ‘Hybrid Workplace’ that actually works look like?
What does all this mean? There has never been a more important time in history as a leader to embrace:
- Bringing your values to life. Get the words you call values off the Boardroom wall and teach your leaders to honor and protect them every day. Values are a magnet to attracting and retaining talent.
- Unlocking your ‘Why’. Why do customers buy from you is what you do but why you do it. Get serious about figuring out your why and it energize and inspire your team to work for a cause. Oh, and your why has zero, nada, nothing to do with what you sell.
- Embracing Diversity and Inclusion. Hire for a cultural fit first and foremost. Then hire for attitude. All other skills can be taught. Hunt down and terminate anyone in the organization that is holding on to archaic biases around race, gender, religion or anything else that does not determine what kind of a human being someone on the team is. This includes anyone that harassing, bullying or marginalizing any other employee.
- Getting serious about developing team members. A CFO once said to the enlightened CEO: “What if we spend money on training someone and they leave?” The enlightened CEO replied, “What if we don’t invest in training someone and they stay?”
- Teaching Leaders to get off their butts, out of their offices and out onto the floor. When I go into to see a new client, I like to go to where leader’s offices are at lunch time and count how many are sitting at their desk eating lunch. If you want to engage the hearts and minds of team members, leaders have to get out there and talk to people about the progress, encourage development, recognize their efforts and just plainly be a leader that connects ‘H2H’ (That means heart-to-heart in case you’re wondering).
Robert Murray is a Vancouver, BC based Business Strategy Consultant, #1 Best Selling Author, International Keynote Speaker, and TEC Top Speaker of the Year for 2018. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, connect with Robert on LinkedIn.
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Robert Murray,
Robert S. Murray
