Leadership 2.0

Nowadays it is fashionable to bash annual staff performance reviews. 

Many companies abandon them to demonstrate how progressive they are.

This often results in a less transparent process, potentially negatively impacting the development of employees.

One of my core beliefs as a management consultant is that the root cause of why change projects fail is the lack of a clear and convincing business case. In my experience, the vast majority of people are willing to change (even if this change has negative implications for them), as long as they understand the rationale behind the change and have the means (resources) to change.

However, I also have come across a number of people who did not want to change, even when there was a clear need to do so, and they had all the required capabilities and resources at their disposal.

Examples include:

• A CEO who did not want to embark on a savings program, despite the fact that her company was on the brink of bankruptcy
• A leader of a national operating company of a global corporation, refusing to implement global policies and processes (aimed at harmonizing and streamline decision making) in the  subsidiary she led
• A struggling department head who was told by the executive board to get a grip on his portfolio, but, despite the help of an executive coach, continued to be unable to produce a list of his top-10 priorities

All these examples have three things in common: a clear case for change, a clear course of action, and the availability of the necessary resources (support from senior leaders and/or the possibility to use external consultants and coaches). 

I never understood why, given their intelligence and the consequences associated with their lack of action, the people in the examples mentioned above were not able to change their behaviors... until I came across Freud’s concept of ‘epinosic gain’. 

#coaching #freud #changemanagement #resistance #secundarygain #epinosticgain #conversation #resistance #blockers #change #unconscious

In the past decade, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become more and more popular, not in the least because it makes sense from a commercial perspective. Already in 2009, a study by McKinsey showed that two-thirds of CFOs and three-quarters of investment professionals agreed that CSR activities created value for shareholders in normal economic times. 

According to a recent article by the same consulting firm, this is true in the current COVID-19 crisis as well: ‘The way organizations deal with their customers, their employees and the broader community in a crisis is likely to leave lasting memories in customers’ minds.’ 

Despite the positive impact CSR can have on our society, there are at least three reasons why it is often seen as a marketing ploy:

• No common definition and robust standards
• Inconsistent business practices (Walking the talk)
• The way companies treat their own employees

In our society organizations are free to choose to which extent they want to invest in CSR. There are several examples of well-known companies that do not (significantly) invest in CSR, without a noticeable effect on their business results. 

However, once a company decides to publicly choose the moral high ground, it needs to be willing to also invest in this... starting with the way it treats its employees... 

#CorporateSocialResponsibility #ethics #newnormal #employeengagement #businessprinciples #futureofwork #COVID-19 #futureofwork #reskilling #megatrends #upskilling #newnormal #disruption #worldofwork #futureworkforce #renewableworkforce #employability

The Negative Feedback Paradox

I never liked receiving negative feedback, and have spent the largest part of my professional life ignoring it.

It was not until I hit a serious roadblock in my career, that I started to see the fact that systematically ignoring feedback was not necessarily a great idea.

Since that time, I moved on from rejecting feedback to grumpily accepting it, and lately to even being grateful for it. Grateful, because the business world is a complex place, and negative feedback can be a very useful pointer.

#negativefeedback #feedback #coaching #personaldevelopment #organizationaldevelopment #coaching #coach #motivation #mindset #leadership #feedbackparadox

In 2018, the Cambridge Analytica scandal shocked the world. It became clear that Cambridge Analytica had used data from tens of million Facebook users, to influence the elections in the US, and the Brexit referendum. 

Christopher Wylie, the ‘creative genius’ behind Cambridge Analytica, later became the most important whistleblower. Late 2019, he published a fascinating book about his activities for Cambridge Analytica with the brash title ‘Mindf*ck’. 

The book is a fascinating mix of an autobiography, a description of the scandal, a thriller and a portrait of our current society. The most valuable and interesting part of the book consist of Christopher Wylie’s observations about the interlinkages between psychology, sociology, politics, and social media.

As human beings we like to explain developments in our lives by simple stories, with a beginning, a middle part, and an end, populated with heroes and villains. Based on the outcome of our stories in the past, we decide how our stories in the future will play out.

This is very dangerous because the reality is often much more complex than our simple stories suggest. Therefore, we should be careful with believing in our own simple stories. To quote an interviewee in ‘Immunity to change’ by Kegan & Lahey: ‘If you oversimplify in the face of complexity, you do enormous damage. You bring a sledgehammer to bear in circumstances where what’s needed is a scalpel or whatever’. Additionally, as Reeves et al argue in ‘Taming complexity’, complexity is not necessarily bad and can have a number of advantages for organizations. It even has the potential to prevent corporate scandals...

COVID-19 is having a devastating impact on our society and the economy. This impact will be felt long after this pandemic has passed: there are at least five trends that will distinguish the ‘new normal’ from the ‘old normal’. In order to survive, businesses need to address three questions, the most important being what the world of their customers will look like post COVID-19. At the same time employees need to ask three questions to review if they are ready for a post Covid-19 world.