Davos Daily Digest: Day 3

Where else in the world would you find four Chief Executive Officers and a Chief Digital & Innovation Officer in a conversation solely focused on people and culture? Only in Davos at the Accenture lounge! 

Today, Michael C. Bush, CEO at Great Place to Work, led an extraordinary discussion with Chuck Robbins – Chairman and CEO at Cisco, Aneel Bhusri – Co-founder and CEO at Workday, our own CEO – Julie Sweet, and Lindsey Argalas – Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Santander, where they shared insights on their journeys to elevate their people and create a great place to work for all.

The room was filled with top executives who had notebooks out, capturing the lessons shared by these four recognized Great Place to Work companies. Here are some of the top learnings I captured:

• A great place to work for all starts with people leadership. While the tone needs to be set at the top, we need to help leaders at all levels become role models and advocates for their people. Because people join companies and leave managers.
•  Fail fast and celebrate the learnings, not just the green dashboards. Growth comes from giving people the support to take risks and fail safely. That’s the only way we learn and grow.
• Transparency is an essential ingredient. Respect and trust are built by being open and transparent with your people.
• It’s all about the data. The insights are there, if you ask. Make capturing your people’s thoughts, concerns and ideas a regular part of how you work together.
• Return to simplicity. At its core, a great place to work for all is one that is built upon caring and unleashing your employees’ hearts. Doing that will help your people love you.
• Have the courage to talk it out. Organizations need to break out of the paradigm that some topics are not appropriate to talk about at work. If the topic affects and is important to your people – race, sexual harassment, religion, etc. – it becomes a workplace topic. This sends the message to an individual that we’ve chosen you – whoever you are outside of work is who we welcome inside of work.
• Focus on shared success. Your people are one of your most important stakeholders and sources of competitive advantage. Their success drives positive outcomes for your business, your shareholders and the communities where you live and work.
• I also had the opportunity to sit down for a quick chat with Michael to hear more of his insights and share some of what we’re doing at Accenture to create an exceptional employee experience. Watch here:

Tomorrow, I’ll continue the focus on people, culture, inclusion and equality but through the eyes of what is important to next gen leaders. Be sure to check back!