It's all about creating the right conditions

Welcome to the Strategic Leader newsletter! In each edition, I give you a perspective, resource (e.g. a tool, framework), and a recommendation (for a book, article, talk, service, or person).

If we haven’t met yet, thank you for joining me! You can learn a little more about me?here?and by watching this short?video

Perspective

How can you encourage people to show their best self at work?

That’s a question many strategic leaders face day in day out. They’re not looking for more effort or grind per se but more of their people’s attention, energy, and quality.

Research shows that we’re clearer about what we want from work and what we feel the ‘deal’ is. We have a lower tolerance for toxic cultures, a greater sense of purpose, and a higher expectation of our ability to craft our role and make decisions.?

Opening up is a critical ingredient. This breaks down into:

• What we want from work.
• Who we are – our skills, experience, styles, background.
• What we can offer when we’re at our best.

Try these strategies:

1.?????You go first. Share your own story, as well as your hopes and fears. If you’re asking others to give more of themselves, as you’re looking to transform a business, how can you not lead from the front?

2.????Explain why sharing something about ourselves creates more understanding, and, in time, trust in each other. Too many people hide or at least fully utilise incredible talents from outside work that could make a distinctive contribution; don’t me an expert mountain-climber wouldn’t be able to help with planning, and problem-solving, resilience.

3.????Start projects with a session about how we work – ask ‘where do I come from?’, ‘what do I do when I’m at my best?’, ‘what do I need from this team to do my best work? ‘how can I best contribute to this team?’. Develop a ‘deal’ that reflects ways of working, strengths, and something about the team. Come back to it throughout to check that you’re staying true to it.

4.????Create platforms for people to share their stories – short videos, text, photos.

5.????Showcase the brilliance of the team – the talents, backgrounds, achievements – in a way that demonstrates pride.

6.????Draw out how experience in our personal and family lives – e.g., as a parent or carer or a person with a passion for a hobby – improves the way we work.

7.????Show respect for how much and in what way people open up – this will depend on their personal and family norms, including how they’ve been brought up, as well as any prevailing cultural norms (e.g., in the country, by race, or religion).

8.????Ask with sincerity and interest. If you feel the time is right, ask simple, open questions about what they think, what they feel, and who they are.

Don’t rush it. Certainly, don’t force it. You’re creating the conditions in which people feel safe enough to share – and indeed want to share.

Often that happens when you least expect it.

I was impressed with how Tom Fussell , the CEO of BBC Studios (the BBC’s production and distribution business), encouraged his people to share their stories. Tom is the latest guest on my podcast Lancefield on the Line and a long-standing client. You can listen to the conversation here.

Early in his tenure as CEO, he was keen to empower people to do their best work. To do that required developing an inclusive environment, convincing them of the exciting opportunities ahead for the business and for the people within it, and starting a conversation about who they were. This built trust, energy, and commitment to the cause. Tom led from the front, sharing his own story – for the first time – showing his authenticity. His people followed, without prompting, sharing their own videos about who they were in what they called the ‘This is me’ campaign.

An incredibly powerful and moving moment. All of this, and more, has contributed to BBC Studios becoming an even better place to work and posting record financial results.

Resources

Generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT) is all the rage. But what about using it to help tell stories? The Tome App does just that, the first of its kind. You type a prompt into the command bar (e.g., I’d like to create a story about…) and Tome ‘generates a presentation, outline, or story for you—complete with text and images.’

I like how this team canvas can be used to capture goals, roles, skills, values, rules, and activities when you’re creating a team, kicking off a project, or welcoming a new team member.

Helpfully, the guide sets out how to run a session that captures all these points, including question prompts.

Recommendation

I was reading the Guardian – another client – and was stopped dead in my tracks when I was reading this excerpt of the book ‘Wavewalker: Breaking Free’ by Suzanne Heywood. It’s a riveting, shocking, inspiring account of her childhood, mostly spent on a boat sailing around the world with her family. Talk about opening up – specifically about how she educated herself by correspondence, looked after herself and her brother, and broke free of her parents by getting a place at Oxford University.

I’m delighted to that I’ll be sharing my Lancefield on the Line podcast conversation with Suzanne, now the COO of EXOR and a former McKinsey partner, later in the summer.

Let me leave you with this quote from Yousuf Karsh:

“Look and think before opening the shutter.?The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera."

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Thank you for reading this edition of the Strategic Leader newsletter. I hope you found it insightful and useful. Here are some ways to access further perspectives, tips, and resources:

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