Leading today’s workforces is complicated. A strong Trusted Advisor can help you find the right path forward.

Shaping the Future of Work begins with the attitude, actions, and decisions we make every day. ?????????

Since COVID-19, individual employees and the workforce as a system are not behaving the way they used to. New and different expectations may not align with organizational goals. Previous approaches to employee attraction, engagement, and retention are no longer guaranteed to deliver anticipated results. The economy, industries, and workforces have all changed simultaneously. Leaders have also changed as individual needs and interests shifted.

Leaders are not immune to the same forces that impact staff. But leaders are expected to have all the answers. This is where traditional approaches to professional development (focused on trends and skills) or coaching (focused on personal leadership and accountability) are set up to fail. Leaders need strategic and personal support, in the moment, as circumstances change. They need a skilled triage partner who can highlight emerging risks and opportunities to consider, while also being unafraid to highlight personal blind spots.

Challenge Factory’s Trusted Advisors provide senior leaders with perspectives outside their company and industry echo chambers. They make it easier for leaders to access expertise relevant to their organization’s future strategy, to improve current workforce productivity and culture, and to lead without burning themselves out. We specialize in future-focused strategic topics, while also addressing personal and day-to-day challenges. Whether a leader has a workforce of 500 employees or a global team of 150,000, people issues are always the most complex and difficult to navigate.

Here are two examples, from different sectors, where a Trusted Advisor delivered a strong return on investment to leaders.

Emree Siaroff , Challenge Factory’s Vice President, has more than 25 years of human resources and global C-suite leadership experience. He supported a CEO—let’s call him Theodore—who was working to realign his business to be ready for the Future of Work. Talent attraction, turnover, and succession planning were top strategic priorities, and Theodore needed an objective outsider’s perspective on a handful of issues that were brewing before committing to new investment strategies. A year later, with new insights and approaches related to workforce demographics, leadership, and strategic HR enablers, Theodore now has a future-focused plan that is having an impact.

I also take on a limited number of Trusted Advisor clients, especially senior leaders in large public sector institutions or other organizations where Future of Work trends are already impacting strategy and operations. One of my clients—let’s call her Penelope—is a senior administrator at a university that’s facing long-term COVID-19 recovery challenges, significant financial constraints, and a charged campus climate due to geopolitical events. I work to provide Penelope with a richer understanding of the leadership levers within public institutions, how workplace cultures are shaped and nurtured, and what options are available to her when it seems like there are no good paths forward. Penelope’s time is precious, and time spent with me needs to give her results that span the personal to the visionary. At the end of each contract term, Penelope decides if she would like to renew our relationship, and we change how we work together to suit her needs. ?We’re in our seventh year working together and, during that time, Penelope has grown her capacity, confidence, and commitment to leading a better workplace for hundreds of staff and students.

Our work as Trusted Advisors provides us a unique perspective on the many challenges facing organizations currently. Providing value requires deep specialization in workforce strategy and the Future of Work, and an understanding that no two clients are the same. No topic is too personal or too large to bring to the table. We shift and move with our clients as they experience work as leaders as well as human beings. It feels different to work with us, and our commitment to impactful and measurable results starts with the audit we do up front and guides how we work together.

Finding the right Trusted Advisor is not always simple. Leaders recognize that they need someone to be in their corner with them. Any advisor can give you pre-packaged tips and advice. What we provide is wisdom, experience, and empathy so you know you aren’t alone. We are informed and committed to your success.

Here are a few questions to reflect on as you consider working with a Trusted Advisor.

1. Does a lack of time, capacity, tools, or energy prevent you from taking on future-focused planning that you know is critical but keeps falling down your priority list?
2. Has it been more than three months since you had an honest conversation with an objective advisor about your organization and your own career?
3. Are workforce and people-related issues or concerns becoming more frequent and challenging to solve?
4. Is uncertainty about the future of your workforce—due to demographic change, shifting workplace policies, or technology and AI advancements—impacting strategic plans and key decisions?
5. Is there a specific issue that currently seems unsolvable but, if it could be resolved, would bring you personal and business benefits in the next 3-6 months?

If you answered yes to at least 3 of these 5 questions, let’s connect.

The first step is a simple conversation focused on what attitudes, actions, and decisions would be easier and more strategic if you had the support you need to lead your organization into the future. Let’s talk about it. Send me a message or connect with Emree Siaroff .

You need a Future of Work that is different. We’re different.

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