Leadership and success: tips for HR
Presenting his new provocative research on lifework what were his suggestions for employees’ personal and professional development?
What are the major transformations in the way we work?
The nature of work is changing dramatically: benefits and HR professionals have to deal with major shifts and be able to evolve with them. I would highlight two major changes. The first one is the impact of new technologies, which allow people to find new ways to interact with their organisations and to collaborate with colleagues.
The second one is the change in how people are thinking about success. When I started as business educator in the early 2000s, success was pretty much determined by salary, status and responsibilities. In particular after the financial crisis, more and more people question what success means at both organisational and individual level.
How can organisations cope with these new trends?
For HR and benefits managers it may not be enough anymore to put policies and procedures in place. They need to think strategically about the way they are advising people in their careers and also addressing work-life balance needs.
What is life-work about?
I will share with you my personal career story. In my late 30s I was in a position of success and prestige. But I was not happy, and I did not get the support I needed, not just for my success but also for the wider spectrum of needs and desires I had in my life.
In the end I chose to become self-employed and entrepreneur. I chose this path not to get more money or more status, but just to seek for happiness and to be fulfilled in other areas which could be related to family, sport or any other passion.
I would like to encourage people to reflect on their role in helping people not just to increase their productivity level but also to achieve success in their lives overall.
So organisations should look at their employees’ happiness as a way to retain them and enhance their performance?
Absolutely yes, we need to think more creatively about the way we engage employees.
The industrial age culture (we need to be productive every day, exactly from 9.00 to 5.00) is not realistic anymore, nor appropriate to compete in increasingly complex economies.
This approach is also detrimental to an organisation's capacity to compete for talents. Many high potential professionals choose start-up environments and would never go into big organisations exactly so that they don't have to deal with inflexible and unsmart policies.
In my work advising many leading organisations, I can still sense resistance to flexible arrangements. Older generations tend to be more distrusting in allowing people to work the way they want.
What are the risk for an organisation of making their employees unhappy or cynical?
It is very dangerous for an organisation not to think about the risk of making employees unhappy (and keeping them in their payroll). Disengaged people tend to lack energy and focus, they are not purposeful and entrepreneurial enough, they are not particularly willing to collaborate and they have no interest in driving the business forward (they just keep doing the same every day).
Needless to say, this attitude reduces productivity, innovation and creativity of an organisation.
How leadership can contribute to fostering creativity?
Hierarchy gets in the way of collaboration and innovation. A new, unhierarchical approach to leadership is needed in our modern business world to face complexity and rapid changes.
So leaders should get rid of their ego, stop thinking they are better than others, and understand they need to get things done with and through other people. And they will not get it done with command and control, but with what I call active orchestration.
They will drive focus and directions ahead, and they will manage social dynamics to favour collaboration. They will need to roll up their sleeves and get involved, to understand and get into complex situations much more actively, asking people to bring them all the information they need.
A final message to HR professionals?
It is not only about your key role in enabling other people success, but also about sharing common reflections and concerns about our own personal and professional fulfilment. It's about how these two can go together and support each other.
This article was provided by Generali Employee Benefits.
In partnership with Generali Employee Benefits Network
Generali Employee Benefits' solutions are to protect and enhance the wellbeing of their workforce.
