Strategy

Edelman Trust Barometer 2020: CEOs can seize the day

When the World Economic Forum kicks off in Davos, the first thing I look out for is the Edelman Trust Barometer. Now in its 20th year, the PR agency Edelman has been measuring public trust in people and institutions.

And this year, this stuck out particularly for me:

Business is seen as the most competent of institutions, inching ahead even of NGOs. And it is seen as competent, even if seen as too self-centered by most respondents.

Time for CEOs to step up!

The survey shows that people have a high expectation that their company’s CEO takes the lead in speaking out on important issues – from climate change, diversity or jobs of the future. A whopping seventy-five percent (75%) believe CEOs should lead the way to change, almost that it is imperative for them to speak out and not wait for politics and government to step in.

Larry Fink only last week spoke out on jobs lost to automation and the need for ESG-only investments. Microsoft taking more carbon out of its operations. Steps in the right direction. But the level of consciousness needs to be raised! Just think to Siemens who recently have been criticized around their decision to invest in coal mining in Australia despite the recent environmental (fire) crisis.

More needs to be done and being a change enabler should move to the top of any CEO’s agenda in 2020.

Technology is a worry

83% of respondents said they were concerned also about losing their jobs for various reasons like a weak economy, lack of job security, automation, or a lack of skills. Meanwhile, 62% feel work technology is “out of control,” and technological change is happening too quickly. Yikes.

Therefore CEOs will need to make real investment efforts in the coming years in people, not just technology. Why? Because we need a perfect balance of the two!

Mastering challenges collectively

But also engaging stakeholders across the board will be a key opportunities for businesses and CEOs alike. 87% say that customers, employees and communities are more important to a company’s long-term success than shareholders alone.

Maybe we have already seeing a shift when looking at the announcement by The Business Roundtable Group of CEOs who said that we should start to move away from a sole focus on shareholders to a more balances purpose centred on all stakeholders.

My encouraging question to all CEOs out there: How will you use your opportunity to own the narrative and to drive change to build trust in the coming years?

2020: The human decade

The end of the year always brings about many reflections for me, especially as we are about to step into a new decade, still in the middle of our global technology revolution.

And even though we only hear terms like tech or digital, we need to remember that this revolution is first and foremost a cultural transformation with humans in the driver’s seat.

For business leaders it is imperative in the coming decade to truly put humans at the center of their organizations. It’s all about creating positive employee experiences to make employees feel valued, appreciated, safe and energized to bring their best to work.

We need to take a close and hard look at how we define leadership, work and collaboration, saying goodbye to the old normal of “business as usual”. This may be painful but it will be an amazing window of opportunity.

We need to provide a “north star” that brings a sense of meaning and direction, showing us what place our organization and therefore also us as humans have in the world. We need to create a space for everyone where we can share knowledge and experience, continue to learn and have the time for critical and creative thinking. We need to ask ourselves how can we create more connection, kindness, wellness, diversity, inclusion and happiness even amid the crazy pace of technological change that we are feeling.

After all, humans have always been the driving force behind every innovation and will continue to be so.

Leaders who understand how to meaningfully invest in others will have a critical competitive advantage in the coming decade. Maybe we are already seeing a shift when looking at the announcement by The Business Roundtable Group of CEOs who said that we should start to move away from a sole focus on shareholders to a more balances purpose centred on all stakeholders.

I am excited and am looking forward to working with leaders as we move into the new decade to support you in seizing the vast opportunities to advance the work you do and the people you do it with in truly transformative ways with a focus on the humans inside your companies.

Feedback is not only about giving

Many companies spend a lot of time coaching managers on how to give feedback but little time is spent on how to receive it! Dealing with negative feedback is never easy. It can make us feel defensive which can impair on how we use it effectively. Having a better feel for how we can (or even if and when) we should respond is just as important as understanding how to give it. Here are five empirically supported actions that can help with hearing critical feedback:

Don’t rush to react
Get more data
Think about “public relations”
Don’t be a martyr
Remember that change is not your only option

If you want more insights, take a look at Tacha Eurich’s article in HRB.

Making sure teams can work together

Working with many companies over the last couple of years, one of the biggest challenges often is to get teams to work across the organizational boundaries. Often the main part of the problem is that we expect collaboration to occur in networks of relationships that do not mirror that of the formal reporting structures. Collaboration needs to be managed by leadership with a focus on setting up informal networks. This article from Harvard Business Review provides some good, pragmatic approaches.

Grow through experiments

Harry_Waisman_lab Practice makes perfect. Who hasn’t been told that at some point in their life? But is it true?

I like Adam Grant’s take who believes that what separates the good from the great is the willingness to try new things. You may be successful the way you are, but regardless of whether you are a company or an individual if you follow the same thing, the same routine, the same strategy over and over again you are more or less standing still, it means you are not growing.

Especially today where our world is changing at an incredible speed we need to have the willingness to experiment. To experiment with what you already know, and to experiment beyond that.

As Adam Grant said in a recent interview with GQ:

“..I would love to see every individual, every group try at least one experiment every week. Whether that’s shifting the structure of your meetings, or rotating around the leader for that decision—you can make a long list of what kind of experiments might be relevant. But to me, that’s kind of the big lesson of organizational psychology: the people who are willing to try new things beat the ones who don’t.”

How can you break your silos of your own built routines and start to experiment?

(Photo Credit: Harry Waisman Lab)

Company values drive behaviour

“One of the most important dimensions of job satisfaction is how you feel about your employer’s mission.” writes Robert H. Frank, an economics professor at Cornell University. Futura1-1024x720

Values shape company behaviour. It is about how we treat employees, our customers, the type of products we build, the office environment we provide and much more. Most companies state values that usually always sound great, but actually are not shown in behaviours.

Some questions that leadership can ask themselves could be:

How do we live our values at this company?
What are stories and examples we can share that show how our values are put into practice?
When a department, team or individual does not stick to the company values are there consequences? And what would these look like?
How do we as leadership ensure that even when making difficult decision we can stay true to the company values?

Who makes a better boss – men or women?

Gender doesn’t matter, talent does. And when you know that between 2014 and 2016, only 15% of workers in Germany were engaged at work then it is more than urgent to take a look at the management culture and to not just hire for experience or skills but for the talent to truly work with and inspire people.

Read more in Gallup’s latest blog post.

So you want to be a CEO?

Adam Bryant has interviewed 525 chief executives through his years writing the Corner Office column for the NY Times. In his last column (unfortunately) he sums up what his takeaways are from what’s important about leadership, culture and the “men vs. women” question. A great read – this is my favorite takeaway from the article:
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“You have to be open and alert at every turn to the possibility that you’re about to learn the most important lesson of your life.”

(Photo credit: NY Times)

Digital transformation dreaming

creative There is a huge pile of research reports and studies on my desk how digitization will change the way we do business. And I am sure there are similar piles in many managers’ offices. But what good are the best reports if you are unable to move the transformation forward?

Those that are succeeding in moving along their digital transformation have two things in common: one, they not only understand what digital transformation means, they also know that it means a fundamental change for the whole company. And two, they ensure that they have the right resources with the right expertise to transform their corporate culture to meet the upcoming challenges.

Digital transformation needs to driven by the CEO. Not your Head of IT. Not your Head of Sales. Not your Head of Something Something. It needs to be one of the top strategic priorities for the whole company driven from the top down.

Digital transformation is not walking down a straight path. You will need to be open for new business models. For new ways of implementing products and services. And your corporate culture will need to allow failure.

Digital transformation can be driven an internal facilitator like a Chief Digital Officer or even be outsourced into a new venture that can work without any “analog”disruption from the organization in form of resistance or doubts. But whatever way is chosen at the end of you will need a leader.

Digital transformation needs a leader who has a strong project management background, who is a multitasker, open to try new things. You will need someone who is impatient, a fast thinker , who plays well with others and is able to influence change within the culture of the board and with it the rest of the company. And you will need someone who is a strong communicator. Someone who can combine the “old” with the “new”.

That is why it is imperative for all organizations to start understanding what digital transformation means for their business and how the digital competencies of new and existing directors will fit emerging strategies. And it is the CEO’s task to ensure that this journey is started on the right path.

Enabling (digital) transformation

film Next week I am joining a panel discussion about “Digital Transformation and Shared Economy – what family owned companies can learn from start-ups”as part of the Pioneer Festival in Vienna, a major event for future technologies and entrepreneurship.

The impact of digitalization presents unprecedented challenges for all companies – big or small. Digitalization can not only extend the reach of organizations and improve management decisions, but most of all it can speed up the development of new products and services. But this can also mean that your traditional business model may become disrupted. Having a solid strategy for your digital transformation is therefore key.

For established companies working together with start-ups for their digital transformation can have many benefits. These range from having better access to new technologies to an increase in innovation as well as learning to be more lean and fast.

But what are the most important pre-requisites for a successful transformation? I know that there are a few but here are my top 4:

The C-suite is boss
Digitalization is a key change for any business model. But it will also mean changes in your corporate culture. Therefore it can only be successful if the transformation process is owned and backed by CEO.
Startup mentality is part of your DNA
If you want to be innovative and foster new technologies, you will need people that have an entrepreneurial mindset in your organization. And you will want to give them all the support they need. Digitalization means being hands-on, open to trial and error and being convinced of its success. And being given the space to to develop new business models will be key to get ahead in the process.
Protect innovation
Innovation, just like any change, can often fail if the organization does not embrace it. As mentioned above, it is critical that people working on digital transformation are given the (protected) space to create and develop new ideas and are able to test these in an agile manner. Give them the autonomy to go and impact things.
Truly understanding your customer
The key word here is “customer centricity” – if you do not know who your customers are nor what they really need you will already have lost. Services and products should be developed with a focus on what the customer needs rather what the organization believes is needed. And ideally, this should be done as fast as possible to quickly meet the market demands.

But something we must not forget: digital transformation is not only driven by technology but also by humans and how they communicate this transformation. I think the latter is often forgotten when we hear or read about digital transformation. But that is something I will focus on in my next article. Watch this space!