Leadership lessons in the new normal from an “Apple watch”

Strange as it may sound, I am actually putting my thoughts together on the leadership lessons we can learn from the apple watch! I was introduced to this device by my wife just at the beginning of the “covid period” and I am glad I adopted it, adapted to it and embraced it. Its been a revelation!

Yes, and obvious it should be, I was introduced to it to motivate me to be more health conscious (and I was not) given my increasing age, lifestyle and of course the importance of health in the current situation. The journey with my apple watch has been a pleasantly surprising one and the way this device motivates me to achieve goals, practically talks to me every day, every now and then and nudges me to do more, keeps me posted on progress on my goals and more is simply amazing!

Without any more background, let me get straight into the leadership lessons which we can all learn from the apple watch and imbibe in our day to day lives, specifically in the “new normal” which is likely to keep on evolving very fast, as quickly as it became a “new normal”. My take on this is – it’s a “normal” world now! We have to get into ways of working which adapt practically as fast as this “normal” will evolve from here.

1.      Set a clear goal and track it every day: Nothing new about it? It’s a basic requirement, however, given the current ways of working where most of us are working in digital/virtual environments, what matters is how we set goals and measure progress digitally. Yes, “digitally” is important in the current context and the most impressive thing or the fundamental take away from this device is the whole experience of not only setting the goal, also dashboarding – the visual representation of data, analytics, an excellent colorful ring structure to tell you how much of each goal have you achieved.

Learning: In this world of humungous amounts of data, perhaps there is a possibility of missing out on critical aspects or getting lost in the ocean of data, how we present the data digitally in terms of visually simple and easy to understand dashboards is critical. Boring, elaborate excel sheets can be converted into dashboards that visually present the same information using colorful, intuitive symbols, graphs, bars, rings that are interactive and can be played around with to see various aspects of performance. This not only gives the team an easy to understand tracking tool to measure performance, its also engaging, interactive – again all the more important in the digital/virtual environment.

2.      Agile ways of working – always have options available: You have a goal to achieve which is being measured, example that’s an outdoor goal like playing tennis and it rains, oops, what do you do! The apple watch gives you a plenty of options to pursue your goal – indoor activities, indoor games – indoor walk, indoor run, indoor cycle, yoga etc. Lesson there is what is required today is an open flexible approach to business keeping all options open. Quickly adopt and adapt to the best option available and never let go off the goal.

3.      Analytics as a backbone: Apple watch bring to you analytics in a way that as a layman you are able to understand your hourly, daily, weekly, monthly performance; what you achieved – time, distance, kcalories, trends around heart rate, average pace etc., that’s so much data - analyzed and presented to you in the simplest possible dashboard!

That brings me to the next learning, for any organization to succeed in the new normal, what is most important is capability in terms of advanced analytics, business intelligence and like I said before, the way this analytics is visually presented to the user teams. Again, this is not something new, however, we now have the dire need and hence the opportunity to take a step jump forward – get it going at the fastest possible pace to execution and implementation.

4.      Rewards & Recognition, inter team challenges, Awards: Again, something very basic and all of us have been doing this all our lives – contests, foreign trips etc. of which I personally also have a lot of fond memories. And it works, basic human nature we all like achievements and more than that being appreciated and rewarded. “Achievement motivation is the best form of motivation” – will always remain a fact and being recognized and acknowledged is perhaps equally important.

So whats new here? From the apple watch, we learn how best to do it digitally in the current context – how it does on a small screen of 1.73” x 1.50”! There are monthly challenges, there are very nice digital badges, goal achievement notifications etc. Not only that, it tells you and keeps on reminding you via notifications as to how far you are from achieving your goal. In the conventional world, this was easily done via emails, townhalls, company notice boards, workplace, certificates, R&R ceremonies etc.

The way apple watch does it, a key learning is that we must have an organization wide app – all teams and individual team members should have monthly goals, of course customized/personalized by function. How then within that one app we build digital ways of engaging teams on R&R, awards, challenges. Teams achieving targets are presented with badges, stars of achievement, there are inter team competitions etc. Top performing teams and individuals get recognized and noticed across the organization and all of this is done within the app!

5.       How to encourage and work with team members lagging behind on performance: Some excellent learning here, the way apple watch motivates you everyday if you are behind your targets is “beautiful” for the want of a better word. Let me give you a few examples, notice how nice and personalized it is:

You can still do it. 389 calories and you will close your move ring, Alok!

“Get in a workout today and it will be a 7-workout week. Don’t let up, Alok!

Its as if a friend is pushing you to go for the achievement of your goal. Leaders can actually have a lot to pick up here – “you can still do it” culture from “WHY are you not doing it”.

6.      And finally, how you digitally express appreciation and motivate teams to achieve more: What stands out in the apple watch is the words, articulation and personalization, lets look at a few examples:

You have passed your exercise goal, Alok! Excellent work!

Exercise goal achieved. Right on, Alok!

Keep it going. Yesterday you rocked your exercise ring. Unstoppable Alok. What will you do today.

As you notice, everything is personalized, as if someone human is actually curating these messages. I don’t need to elaborate further but imagine a scenario where employees are receiving these personalized messages from leaders, CEO, CXOs inside the organization app; not only on achieving targets/goals but also if they are running behind their targets – motivating them, pushing them gently, nudging them to go for it!

7.      Last but not the least : Build a culture of “take a break, relax and be more productive”: My apple watch frequently tells me “BREATHE: Every minute of breathing helps you think clearly”. “Time to stand up and move a little”.

This is perhaps a new learning. Leaders must realize that in a virtual world, people are constrained to a room in their home, fair to assume small rooms or small spaces where there is little space to move around. Its important there are breaks between meetings, people are encouraged to move around within the constraints, do physical exercise, personal time such as lunch hour, weekends is respected.

It is important to take a break! Again going back to my favorite concept of apple watch like organization app, within that app, we should define breaks within meetings, set rules on the calendar, have digital engagement activities like games, quizzes etc. This will only make us more productive, working in the new normal engaging and fun and ultimately deliver better results.

Take a break!

-Alok Verma