Latest HR Trends: Moral Leadership, Coach-like manager, Everyday Bold, Joy at work, Frist-time leader, People and performance
Newsletter N°38 - Weekly People Research - By Nicolas BEHBAHANI

Latest HR Trends: Moral Leadership, Coach-like manager, Everyday Bold, Joy at work, Frist-time leader, People and performance

?? Hello Everyone and Happy Sunday !

?? Welcome back to the 38th edition of Weekly People Research! ??

?? Thank you so much for all your inspiring and insightful comments last week - It was a fantastic week of learning with so many new names coming up: Coach-like, Everyday Bold,...

? Some of you have coffee while reading this newsletter, some have lunch,... in short, enjoy reading as always! ??


?? In this new edition,?you will learn more about :

??Why moral leadership extends beyond team dynamics to affect overall organizational performance? The HOW Institute for Society researchers found that the quality of moral leadership demonstrated by CEOs is a key driver of enhanced organizational performance.

??Why focusing on both People and Performance for organizations means they can thrive and generate 30% higher revenue and 5% lower attrition? 麦肯锡 researchers found that companies that prioritize human capital development help employees grow by making promotions and internal transfers more readily available

??Why Coach-like managers engage their employees 8 times more and have a positive impact on organizational learning culture? Forrester researchers found that to become Coach-like, managers need only three ingredients: Time, Training and Support.

??Why first-time leaders still have the same expectations of their organization as they did 5 to 10 years ago? The RBL Group researchers also found that there is a critical need of focused development efforts for first-line leaders.

??Why HR leaders must become “Everyday Bold” to help their organizations become top performers? Gartner researchers found that Stability is the first ingredient to achieving Everyday Bold because it's significant accelerator of employee engagement.

?? Finally you'll understand that employee Joy at work is a major factor for retention. 波士顿谘询公司 researchers found also that Senior-Level employees feel more effective and enjoy work more than managers and individual contributors.


These insights continue to evolve as we all learn more - as Dave Ulrich said wonderfully.

???Now, let's do a recap of the week on published research:


Just 10% of CEOs and 13% of managers are in the highest tier of moral leadership which affects the overall Performance of organizations!

The State of Moral Leadership in Business 2024 - The How Institute for Society - February 2024

?? Findings of researchers:

The influence of Moral Leadership extends beyond team dynamics to affect overall organizational performance !

?? Executives are much more likely than junior employees to report experiencing consistent moral leadership from their managers.

?? Moral leadership or the lack of it impacts everything, from the levels of trust within teams, to employee loyalty, to the bottom line.

?? Moral leadership when it is present, it inspires elevated behavior in people, shapes values-based organizational cultures, strengthens performance, nurtures meaningful relationships within teams, and builds stronger links to society and communities

??Moral leadership and especially the quality of moral leadership demonstrated by CEOs is a key driver of enhanced organizational performance, according to a new interesting research published by The HOW Institute for Society using data from a survey from a broad cross-section of 2,500 US based employees in October 2023.


?? Recommendation of researchers:

??Finally researchers recommend organizations to promote Moral Leadership development as the more moral leadership development opportunities an organization offers, the more likely employees are to recommend their organization as a good place to work, and the less likely they are to be searching for a new job.


??My personal View:

This exceptional research has found one of the most sought-after characteristics of today's leaders is Moral leadership which, as shown in this study, fully impacts all organizational results but also external customers. Moral leadership is a significant factor in cultivating healthier and more productive team dynamics, with this study showing that teams led by higher-tier managers experience a range of positive outcomes. This wonderful research further demonstrates that leaders with high Morale Leadership can calmly face the current challenges of companies, namely the return to work but also AI or talent retention.


???? What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich I really like the link between these four factors and customer results. I wonder if moral leadership is highly correlated to other organization capabilities like the right culture, strategic clarity, agility, collaboration, etc.
Shiroz Hamid (CAHRI) : In a world driven by untamed technology, formal authority is less potent compared to moral authority, which alone can build trust, inspire colleagues, create meaning, and help people imagine a better future. To foster a culture of moral leadership, create a value system ensuring that every business decision follows the golden rule: treat others as you would have them treat you.
George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL I would add a fifth fundamental pillar: Total honesty. Ensuring that people are aware of what is happening within the organization is essential. Good communication coupled with honesty are elements that can improve employee engagement.
Alex Killick : My take away is that leaders need to be authentic and words and deeds should be aligned. My main issue is the language- for me moral is about what you think think/what you believe and ethics is about what you do. I think we should foster a culture of ethical leadership - acting in the right way, values driven for the best interests of those served. What’s in a name…..?
Katie Kaspari Moral leadership is a crucial factor in organizational success.
Svetlana Kruglova (RS) In my view, it is important to ensure tone from the top/role modelling, so organizations should develop serious approach to promotion to senior roles with attention to values and soft competencies, regular further assessment of values and soft competencies of the leaders, (not only financials); regular 360 feedback for the leaders; active role of the Supervisory board and HRD.
Daniel Tealdi Breitwieser Probably the most worrying post I read in a long time. Wondering how our society is supposed to tackle the huge threats to our long term survival and short term security with this current leadership and management behavior in place?

Organizations thrive and generate 30% higher revenue and 5% lower attrition rate when they focus on both People and Performance!

Performance through people - McKinsey Global Institute - February 2024

?? Findings of researchers:

Companies that emphasize human capital development are more consistent and resilient than their sector peers.

?? Developing human capital helps firms retain talent and deliver a better payoff for their people.

?? People and Performance Winners generate roughly 30% higher revenue growth for every dollar invested in compensation and organizational overhead than Performance-Driven Companies.

?? People and Performance Winners are talent magnets, with attrition rates almost 5% points lower than those of Performance-Driven Companies.

?? Companies that prioritize human capital development help employees grow by making promotions and internal transfers more readily available, according to a new interesting research published by McKinsey & Company using data ?? from 1,800 large companies with annual revenue of more than $100 million and across all sectors in 15 countries.


?? Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers found that while Performance-Driven Companies are challenging, goal oriented environments that focus on optimizing resources, People-Focused Companies are more caring, encouraging, and nurturing


??My personal View:

This interesting research by the consulting firm McKinsey Global Institute is the continuation of their research started a few years ago - and researchers demonstrate that companies focused on People and Performance - therefore on Human Capability - once again outperform traditional companies which focus only on performance. But it's NOT a new finding at all ! People Centricity is - once again - a winner and organizational capital is one of the key activators of human capital in the workplace.


???? What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich As you note, the connection of both high performance and high people focus has been studied and drives long term results. I like your question that then asks how to transform to make these findings come alive. Among all the potential talent, leadership, organization, and HR function initiatives, where should a company focus their investment to deliver the stakeholder results that matter most? We have labeled this priority setting as discovering opportunity with a three step algorithm: status impact differentiation. This people and performance research validates that this opportunity for human capability impact is worth pursuing.
Kirsty Jagielko : At a recent event I talked about how it sometimes feels like employers pay more attention to maintaining their real estate, car fleets and production line equipment than they do their people! These things cost a lot of money to replace so maintaining them is essential. Why isn't it the same for people?
Layla Halabi I'm always cautious of overly correlating revenue growth with humanistic practices since profit-driven motives can undermine intrinsic motivation plus, employees always know/sense when caring is performative versus genuine. Revenue/profit goals and people-centered practices inherently have some tension. However, if seen from the lens of leadership, the profit gains can perhaps be the motivation to challenging shareholder primacy norms and commit to a culture that values and prioritizes human capital as much as financial performance.
Adi Adi , SPHRi , SHRM-SCP? Adopting the performance-people model requires a shift in the mental models of top management or decision-makers within the organization. HR professionals play a pivotal role in making this change a reality. They must demonstrate how their agendas contribute to the strategic transformation sought by management. Numerous drivers fuel this change from an HR perspective, with one major trajectory being people analytics—a true game changer. Unfortunately, it remains underutilized by both HR and top management.
Dara Bidwell, SHRM-CP Companies which prioritize people & performance tend to be more resilient or maintain a strong employer brand even if the they have a sluggish year and reorganize or layoff. People first strategies with strong value driven leadership grow revenues.

“Coach-like” Managers engage their employees 8 times more and have a positive impact on organizational learning culture!


Coaching - International Journal of Evidence based Coaching and Mentoring



?? Findings of researchers:

?? Coaching can deliver huge benefits to individuals, teams, and organizations and is also linked to higher individual performance and confidence, along with organizational benefits.

?? Employees who feel like they have a coaching manager are eight times more likely to be highly engaged compared to their peers with managers who don’t take a coaching approach,

?? Managers need to maximize the drivers of coaching outcomes, readiness to be coached and the quality of the coaching relationship, by incorporating coaching skills into their management style.

Adding coach-like expectations to the workload of managers already stretched to their limits without providing additional support won’t help...but to become Coach-like, managers need only three ingredients: Time, Training and Support, according to a new interesting research published by Forrester using data ?? from their internal clients.


?? Recommendation of researchers:

For managers to be more coach-like, they need:

?? Time: Coaching interactions and developing a trusting relationship take time. Leaders need to manage capacity and expectations appropriately.

?? Training: Maximizing the key drivers for effective workplace coaching doesn’t come naturally to most managers, even if they want to be better managers. They need specific training and reinforcement to counteract habits such as jumping to offer suggestions, advice, judgment, criticism, and feedback.

?? Support: Managers are direct reports, too. They have their own hopes, fears, and career aspirations, and they look to their managers for advocacy and support.


??My personal View:

This interesting research demonstrates the benefits for organizations of having Coach managers and the direct relationship that coaching employees has with their engagement. At a time when employee engagement is at its lowest level, according to several researches, training managers to become good coaches is a simple but effective way for productivity and retention.


???? What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich I like the validation of coaching that leads to 8x on engagement... almost hard to believe. I also like the 3 parameters (time, training, support that could enable any manager to become a better coach. We have seen coaching become an important part of our senior executive development efforts. Coaches help personalize ideas, give direct feedback, and support leaders through adopting new behaviors.
Hannah Yardley This component of “time” is such a good call out. It can’t be trained, it can’t be bought, it can’t be given to you (well, it can be given and we should all try to gift time back to each other!). It just takes time and space for these relationships to develop - and all the other good things they mention too!
Christian Madsen : I love how a coaching-like leadership style can elevate engagement 8 times Leaders sure can enable an organizational learning culture through coaching. When it comes to effectiveness of coaching, other research shows that presence, the ability to be in the here and now and listen to build the rapport and relationship, impacts more how effective coaching can be than using different coaching tools and questions actually.
Sanketh Ramkrishnamurthy : From my perspective we need to make more managers act like coaches, we can start by figuring out their current skills. Then, we can set up special training sessions that focus on coaching tricks like good listening and asking helpful questions. We should organize workshops where managers can practice coaching in pretend situations. It would also be great if managers could get certified in coaching from outside experts. Peer learning and mentorship can help, too. We need to keep the learning going with online resources.

First-time Leaders still have the same expectations of their organization as they did 5 to 10 years ago but need Leadership development!

What are New Expectations for First-Line Leaders? - The RBL Group - February 2024

?? Findings of researchers:

??Putting talented, productive people into leadership roles with the hope that they can succeed is not enough.

The “softer” but increasingly critical leadership skills merit and require intentional development.

?? If you are a first-line leader in today’s world, you need different behaviors to be successful than you did even just three years ago.

The first-line leaders who think future forward, act quickly, think clearly, and make good decisions amidst complexity; are open to feedback; help their teams align their individual career goals with the organization’s goals; get the right things done; and model well-being will have the strongest organizational impact.

?? So there is a critical need of focused development efforts for first-line leaders, according to a new interesting research published by The RBL Group using a database ?? of more than 32,000 leadership behavior ratings collected over the last ten years.


?? Recommendation of researchers:

So first-line leaders must also be able to:

?? Personalize work. Help each member of your team see what’s in it for them if they stay.

?? Create meaning and hope. Clearly and consistently communicate how the work the people on your team do contributes to goals that are both compelling and achievable.

?? Look ahead. High-value first-line leaders over-index on attracting and retaining talent with the skills their organization needs to be successful into the future.


??My personal View:

This outstanding research - which is carried out by the serious RBL group researchers - with a large internal data set, draws a precise portrait of the needs of today's first-time managers, clearly based on the need for training and development. Organizations must clearly prioritize the development of their first-time managers in order to achieve high business results.


???? What were the HR expert opinions:

Leslie Kawai You pose a critical question: How can organizations prioritize the needs of their first-line leaders (in addition to traditionally prioritized senior leaders)?... We feel optimistic that both advancements in technology and data-informed development strategies are increasingly improving the suite of options organizations have to provide their first-line leaders with critical support. Your share helps focus in on key considerations.
Steven Claes To truly prioritize the needs of first-time managers, organizations must create a culture of continuous learning, emphasizing the importance of both soft skills and strategic thinking. Tailored leadership development programs with a mix of mentoring, training, and real-world projects can offer first-line managers the tools they need.
Alex Fonnesbech this research emphasizes the importance of training before landing in the first job as a leader. That role and the role of becoming member of the C-level is the most transformative and challenging task for the leader - and should also be recognized as such from the organization. The real showstopper is primary loosing the balance game between delivery and development.
George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL In the UK there has been a problem, for some time, with people being promoted into management positions with little, if any, thought given to the management of people. Training and coaching/mentoring are a must for anyone moving into management positions for the first time and this should be a continuous process. There is also a need for them to realize that they will often be the focal point for communication and collaboration with other teams - especially when undertaking the management of change (when change is undertaken in one area it is likely to have a knock-on effect in other areas within an organization).
M?d?lina Marinca? Unfortunately, there are still a lo of situations in which subject matter experts are promoted and become managers, without any training. Yet their subject matter expertise is not what will make them great managers or leaders for their team.

HR leaders must become “Everyday Bold” to help their organizations become top Performers!

Everyday Bold : How HR Leaders Can Unlock Human Performance in Any Context - Gartner - February 2024

?? Findings of researchers:

Employees of organizations that embrace Everyday Bold are six times more likely to be top performers.

?? Stability is the first ingredient to achieving Everyday Bold because it's significant accelerator of employee engagement. Organizations that offer these stable handholds report employee engagement levels 61% higher than at organizations that don't.

?? Everyday Bold depends on a foundation of mutual trust between the workforce and the organization, but organizations today are experiencing a trust crisis.

? Everyday Bold requires commitment, but employees who distrust their organizations are 3.3 times more likely to leave.

Organizations that are best at letting go to forge ahead, have employees who are 10 times more likely to say their organization enables innovation, which is a critical aspect of Everyday Bold, according to a new interesting research published by Gartner using data from a survey of 3540 employees.


?? Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers defined Everyday Bold, when HR managers take three approaches:

?? Build Stability

?? Initiate Trust

?? Forge Ahead


??My personal View:

This interesting research about "Everyday Bold" approach demonstrate how to empower HR leaders to leverage past successes and achieve new levels of performance. In a way, if HR leaders adopt this bold mindset, then employee engagement increases and performance peaks. Now it remains for HR to adopt this "Everyday Bold" strategy into their daily projects!


???? What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich I had not heard of "Everyday bold" but the three elements: trust, stability, and future focused make sense each with its own legacy. I especially like the principle of trust that so many have highlighted as a foundation on which to build stability and forge ahead (21%). (see Stephen M. R. Covey ). It would be interesting for me to see the correlations of these three items along with the employee performance outcome measure. My high level takeaway is that the way leaders lead (stability, trust, future) matters.
Jos van Snippenberg From my experience, I can say that when there is a "will," there is a great result achieved. Companies can't afford to leave the initiative to the employees. That's why these figures demand action from the business community.
Elizabeth Eze MILR, MCIPM, MCFP I agree with you. It would be highly beneficial to any forward-thinking establishment.
Nibhanipudi V S Murthy : Unleashing Organizational Excellence: The Power of Everyday Boldness Briefly: Innovate Fearlessly: Encourage creative solutions and challenge norms. Decisive Leadership: Make bold decisions to propel progress. Empowerment Culture: Foster an environment where initiative is rewarded. Visionary Strategy: Set ambitious goals and inspire action. Lead by Example: Demonstrate courage and integrity in leadership. Embracing everyday boldness empowers HR leaders to drive transformative change and elevate organizational performance.

Employee Joy at work is a major factor for retention, but only Executives feel more effective and enjoy their work!

Making Work work - BCG - February 2024

?? Findings of researchers:

Employees who enjoy their work are 49% less likely to consider a new job than employees who don’t enjoy their work.

?? Nearly half of employees may be looking for a new job and the risk is greatest among newer, younger, and more diverse employees.

?? Senior-Level employees feel more effective and enjoy work more than managers and individual contributors.

?? Individual contributors spend only 5% of their time on high-joy work, compared with managers and executives, who spend 56%

?? Same 6 factors are impeding both employees joy and companies talent retention, according to a new interesting research published by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) using data from a survey of 1008 employees from different roles, gender and roles.


?? Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers recommend below actions for business leaders to promote Joy effect:

?? It's time to move on from the return-to-the-office debate and to embrace and enable team-driven hybrid work models.

?? Make an effort to deeply understand what your employees need to enjoy work and what gets in the way

?? Enable and resource teams to re-engineer their day-to-day work to drive more joy and effectiveness

?? When deploying technologies like Generative AI to improve productivity, make sure to account for it's impact (positive or negative) on employee joy.


??My personal View:

This wonderful and insightful research demonstrate and recognize the importance of employee joy. Attraction and retention of top talent depends on it. With a better understanding of what employees need, similar to the depth of knowledge that companies seek about their customers, leaders can start to design programs and policies that flip the script. Joy looks different for everyone and there is need to focus on joy for individual contributors. Finally leaders need to be inspired by the four recommendations of researchers to promote Joy Effect to their employees!


???? What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich Again, fascinating insights by an outstanding research team Boston Consulting Group (BCG).There seem to be a lot of terms that capture somewhat the same concept: well being, energy, experience, engagement, happiness, PERMA, and now joy. Whatever, the term, when employee have a better work experience, they stay longer and worker harder. What I like about this confirming research is it shows that this "sentiment" varies by person (personalized), level or role in the organization, work task requirements, time in organization, and (possibly) use of AI tools. Any leader's job would include helping his/her employees find "joy" in their job so that their customers, investors, and communities will also have positive experiences.
Andrew Smith MBA : For me it’s about the building blocks people can’t find joy when they come up against friction. In a customer centric world we want everything to be seamless to be friction free why do we treat our employees any differently. Remove bottlenecks and then we can start to have joyful discussions
George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL : We seem to see a lot of different words that tend to capture the same concept. The better the experience the greater the engagement - the more likely employers will retain their staff.
Danuta Yefimchyk : I noticed that with the hybrid, our employees spend more time talking to colleagues when they come to the office. You work from home for two days and fully concentrate on your tasks, and for three days, come to the office and add to work on tasks a little communication with colleagues. So I think that you can create ?? ???????? ?????????????????? ?????????????????? through communication and acquaintance with colleagues and finding common interests.
Dr. Bhanukumar Parmar I have understood that Joy at Work does not mean Fun and Frolic, its fine once in a while.

If you've enjoyed this piece, don't hesitate to press like, comment on what you think, and share these articles with your network.

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That's it for last week's recap - Happy Sunday and wishing you health and success?!???

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Thank you so much for your support and Happy Sunday !

Nicolas BEHBAHANI

#futureofwork #peopleanalytics #hr #research


Nimrata Randhawa Kapoor

CHRO ? Top Voice ? Transformative Leadership ? Guiding Organizations Through Change ? Building Organizational & Leadership Capability ? ex JPM/Headstrong/Reliance/Randstad

8 个月

Nicolas BEHBAHANI - I must confess the last 2 weeks I had not managed to keep on top of your articles and this digest is such a power packed confluence of ideas. I have been making mental notes as I read every word and will tomorrow be making these into action items. Singlehandedly by curating the research diligently day after day and then also crafting this weekly digest, you do not know the impact you have had on empowering HR leaders with the right thought leadership nuggets. Huge thank you and shout out to all HR professionals who don't follow you - they don't know what they are missing.

Diana Carolina Perez Cabas

Business Humanizer/Executive Coach/Psychologist/Leadership mentor/ HR Consultant / Change Management Professor/Soft skills Trainer/Gcologist/IT Recruitment. Understanding business & people for boosting Engagement

8 个月

Reading this feels like listening music! Thank you!

Masresha Hawaze

Senior Manager, Performance Management (MA in Business Leadership, MA in Public Mgt & Pol (Specialization in Dev Mgt), and Certified in Balanced Scorecard)

8 个月

This will help me

George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL

Lead consultant in HR Strategy & Value Management. Enhancing Value through Human Performance. Delivery of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Training. Lecturer and International Speaker on HRM and Value Management.

8 个月

Yet again you have provided a week full of interesting and insightful research Nicolas BEHBAHANI. Thank you so much for making a continued contribution to our learning. Looking forward to your posts next week. Happy Sunday.

Dr. Bhanukumar Parmar

Industry Veteran | Exploring Future of Work | Great Manager’s Coach & Mentor

8 个月

Again an awesome week Nicolas BEHBAHANI, God Bless you ??for keeping us abreast with new knowledge & words. ??♀?Picking up a Gem ?? from Jewellery Box is always difficult. ?? Both The RBL Group & McKinsey & Company, research focus is on people (First Time Managers also). It’s all about Human, Human & Human & it’s development. Thanks!

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