Words are all we have

As 2022 comes to a close, following two full on pandemic years, it’s timely to reflect on another year that’s been like no other. We are leading our people in dynamic and changing times that present, once again, new challenges.

• We have adapted and are living with COVID, but we now have new challenges to overcome, including navigating ongoing uncertain economic conditions, rising inflation and higher interest rates
• The business world is now truly hybrid, but there is no proven playbook for this new era of work
• There has been a big shift in expectations, not only from people external to our organisations, but also the expectations we have of ourselves. The change in our external operating environment - alongside the rebase of how tech companies are valued - requires us to have even greater focus on how we operate to demonstrate both growth and efficiency
• The culmination of theses factors in our? environment is creating a lot of noise, and is compounded by varying global, political, social and work-related agendas that in many ways are having meaningful impacts, but in some cases can be distractions for us and our people

So what does this all mean? In 2023, we will need to step up the quality and frequency of conversations we have with each other and our people about what we must focus on, the expectations we have, and the progress we are making individually and collectively.

• We must continue to be unrelenting in the way we focus and connect our people to the most important things to our success. This means spending more time critically thinking about and ensuring the work our people are performing is aligned to the most impactful things that preserve the best interests of our customers and all our stakeholders
• We must continue to enable and expect high performance, and demonstrate by example a strong sense of energy and urgency.? The COVID-era focus was on keeping our people and customers safe and supporting them to do the best they could in uncharted times. We are in a different environment now and that demands a different mindset
• We need to continue to ensure our expectations align and encourage all our people to work with urgency and energy to do the most important work, making sure performance expectations are clear and are set to a high standard

It is important to appreciate that words are all we have. Words matter. Without the spoken or written word, there is no action, there is no feedback, there is no coaching and there is no change for the better. And it is critical to remember that it is the effective use of words that has the biggest impact, not just words for words’ sake.?

Demanding and enabling open, honest and direct conversations about what is most important and the standard of what is expected, will help define organisational and individual success as the new year emerges.