Not another article about Leadership

I know what you’re thinking...

“Not another Leadership article with some pop psychology about behaviors and a few tricks about how to make people do what you tell them to.”?

I’ve read the articles and many books too on Leadership and how to manage people. But in my view, there’s a simpler approach we need to talk about: BE AUTHENTIC. BE YOURSELF. THEN, COMMUNICATE.

For the people who have worked with me over the years, this will be no surprise as I’m all about simplicity. Many people succumb to incorporating more and more “corporate speak” as they move up the ladder. But in my view, this only makes you less real and less accessible to the team working at the coal face.

So: Rule 1 is Be Authentic

In my view, authenticity is the leadership hack that everyone’s forgotten about.?

The value of authenticity is not new – it’s been on the rise since the advent of Social Media. The biggest influencers of today are the ones that are out there on TikTok, Instagram and Twitch, unscripted, uncensored – being themselves.?

The workforce of today – the Gen Zers at entry level, the Millennials entering middle management – need to be able to trust an influencer, understand who they are and what they stand for, to feel confident they’re not being ‘sold to’.?

What else is a business leader, other than an influencer within the company??

Every 1:1 I have with a member of my team, I make sure around 25% is non-work conversation. I have this formalized in a 1:1 template I use so it can help structure every conversation. 25% is non-work related, 25% key work updates and career planning, and 50% reviewing work-in-progress. In the non-work part I’ll share with them how I’m doing, being open and authentic. This enables my team to feel comfortable with me and over time, they are comfortable sharing how they are doing – what’s going on with them, their family, at home etc.

This helps me work with my team better, because fostering genuine relationships based on compassion and understanding means more trust, more empowerment and in turn, leads to better performance and results.

?When you actually care about the person asking you to do something, you’re much more likely to want to do your best work, right? Plus it works the other way, when a team member needs support or help, they’re much more likely to ask because trust is high.

Authenticity in a crisis

Being authentic isn’t always easy – I’ve worked in tech a long time, and there have been crises to manage, not least the recent pandemic. I recall during the GFC I was forced to lay off over 90% of my team, keeping just one team member. So I sat down with each to tell them what was happening face to face, how to best manage it, offered support in re-training and my personal reference for everyone impacted directly. It was a deeply traumatic time for us all, but I did it in a caring way, and those who were involved valued that authenticity.?

Fast forward to COVID times with me one year into my role as Global CMO with Johnson Controls - Hitachi Air Conditioning. By this time I’d built genuine relationships, and established influence internally by ensuring my team members knew that I was a person they could be honest and open with. Positively, instead of layoffs, we were able to lobby for furloughs - taking unpaid time-off - with executives leading by example and taking greater unpaid time off than others. I asked for the Global Marketing Team to opt-in to the furlough, rather than layoffs, and 100% of the staff agreed. The good news is we were able to rebound from COVID strongly and cut short the planned furlough time, helping the team by minimizing the pain.?

It was a challenging time for us all, but I knew I had to use my influence to protect my team members. Since I’ve started, I’ve lost just under 3% of my staff in 2 and a half years (and they got a great job so I was happy for them), and all of us are coming out the other side, as a stronger and more united team than ever (probably busier than ever too!)

So this brings me to Rule 2 - Communication

We all have a Business Management System (BMS) to run our businesses, so I find having a People Management System is a similarly structured way to ensure timely and regular communication with the team. This makes time for All-hands, Team Meets, Quarterly and Annual Reviews and regular 1:1’s with direct reports bi-weekly, with “Skip-Level” reports every 2 months.

This means I spend over 60% of my time each week talking with my teams in meetings. A lot yes, but it means I know how the team is feeling, if they are motivated, when they aren’t, what’s going on in their lives and how I can help them do their job better and be more successful.?

While authenticity and good communication is good for teams, I also think it’s good for company culture and reputation too. As it’s becoming more important for us in the workplace, it’s also creeping into Advertising too. Some of the best Marketing campaigns I’ve seen recently are the ones that have been built around being honest about a company mis-step. When KFC’s "#ChickenCrisis" became international news in February 2018, after the almost total collapse of its UK operations, millions of customers were left disappointed, vowing never to visit the fast food chain again. What began as a damage limitation exercise, grew into one of the most successful Marketing campaigns in recent years, picking up one silver and three gold Lions awards at Cannes.?

In times of crisis, being overly communicative and super authentic yields the best results. More people in positions of influence would do well to incorporate this vulnerability into their leadership style.?

How are your team doing? Five simple questions to ask them

While we do send out company-wide Employee Engagement Surveys every year, to help us get a gauge on how we’re tracking as a company and by department, I developed a simpler system that gets a quick “pulse check” on my team members based on 5 simple questions. This helps me as a leader know where to focus in on during those communications:??

Rate each question out of 5 (1 being bad, 5 being great)

1. Pay. Is your pay fair Vs the market Vs your peers? Did you make your bonus? - A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay sounds reasonable!
2. Making a difference. Are you making a difference and having an impact in the work you do? This measures internal motivation and results in the impact you have as an individual.?
3. Growth and learning. Are you growing and learning in your role? What about personally? Personal and professional growth is key for future career success and learning is key to building high performing teams.?
4. Do you like the people around you? Your boss, your peers, your team? The #1 reason people leave companies is because of their manager. Who wants to go to work with people they don’t like?!
5. Have some fun! At the end of the day, you have to have some joy and fun. Work can be really fun and motivating when done right - it doesn’t have to be a chore!

At the start of each 1:1 I ask my team member to score themselves between 1 and 5 to each of these questions. Often our meeting will then be structured around their ratings, deep diving into the low score areas and how to make them better.?

Averaging the overall score out of 5, if they rate themselves at 4 or above, they’re pretty motivated ??. A score of around 3 I'm going to be worried and need to go to work on improving areas for the individual to retain them. However a score of two or less means we need to work together to change something drastic ??. I may need to move them into a new team, or even a new company and I’ll provide a reference so they can look to go elsewhere.?

While this framework isn’t particularly sophisticated or data driven, it has worked for me well during the past 20 years at Dell, Lenovo and now JCH.?

I’m no scientist and I’m certainly not the smartest person in the room at any of my meetings at Johnson Controls - Hitachi Air Conditioning. But I do my best to do the right thing, push myself, walk the walk, and talk to people as much as I can.?

I hope that by being authentic to this best version of myself, and communicating it regularly, I am influencing others to do the same.

Thanks for reading and cheers!

Nick