THERE IS GROWING EVIDENCE THAT THE INCREASE IN WOMEN IN BOARDROOMS IS CREATING A NEW BUSINESS ETHOS THAT IS THE SIGNIFICANT DRIVER OF A SET OF VALUES AND AN EMERGING PATTERN, PUTTING SERVICE AND SUPPORT OF PEOPLE, COMMUNITIES AND THE WIDER WORLD AHEAD OF SELF-INTEREST AND FISCAL PROFIT. LEADERSHIP MODELS HAVE SHIFTED FROM AUTOCRATIC AND AUTHORITATIVE TO DEMOCRATIC AND AFFILIATIVE, WITH BENCH[1]MARKERS OPERATING WITHIN A PARADIGM OF CHANGED MOTIVATION, OBJECTIVE AND VISION. UNQUESTIONABLY, RECENT EVENTS AND SHARED EXPERIENCES WILL HAVE INFLUENCED CHANGING VALUES.

The pandemic has changed the face of leadership for good and accelerated a high-touch, high-tech leadership model. During the pandemic, we looked into colleague’s homes as if a curtain was lifted. Work is intertwined with our personal lives and human connections are built across a digital world. Now leaders must go further still, as COVID-19, socio-political tensions and the climate crisis have spurred a more profound sense of business purpose. Concurrently, employees demand an inclusive, forward-thinking and sustainable company culture.

As we move into this new business era, the way we lead and manage people must evolve. In line with a shift of focus, from profit to upholding the values, leaders of the future will emerge with new management styles, diverse teams and democratic visions. The nature of work, the workplace and the relationships between companies, customers and employees have dramatically changed. In our organisation, we believe these new ways of working are focused around five key areas of: Digital First, Hybrid Working, Agile, Multi-Hub and Wellbeing. The first three areas are relatively simple, with the shift to digital having fuelled more virtual collaboration and a paperless workplace. Hybrid working requires a more flexible culture, with the workplace becoming an environment to connect, collaborate and spark innovation. We survey our global workforce regularly to gain an international view on organisation-wide strategy. In a 2021 survey, 83 percent of global employees stated that they prefer a hybrid work model between the office and home, which we have listened to and strive to implement, balancing the needs of our diverse workforce and customer. For us, agile relates to how we must trust and empower teams across organisational and international boundaries, to speed up decision-making and create simpler, effective working methods. Multi-hub is more complex for a truly global organisation such as ours. We have a well-balanced global presence across our seven global hubs, which supports our ambition to be the most local of global companies and drive greater speed and empowerment. Then as leaders, we are responsible for proactively supporting our teams’ mental health and wellbeing.

Listening to our leaders and employees ensures that our culture and transformation remain current, consistent and relevant. We compared our 2017 and 2021 Culture and Leadership Survey results, which showed our strengths in ethics, integrity, a sense of purpose and opportunities to progress our culture further. It can be challenging to reset an organisation’s leadership culture, but it all starts with the foundation of trust. All our employees sign up to our Trust Charter, that drives our interactions with stakeholders, relationships with customers, shareholders and employees – as well as the communities we serve – in a meaningful, inclusive and positive way. Each leader must be firm in what they stand for and amplify a trusting and safe environment with their teams. Our management teams are encouraged to disrupt business models or strategies to fit their needs and have the autonomy to accelerate and simplify processes and remove bureaucracy and roadblocks that impede progress. Looking at learning & development, we have found that switching from yearly appraisals to pulse surveys and regular check-ins, ensures consistent growth and supports our philosophy that all employees are talents. Across the UK & Ireland, our leaders go by a ‘first team first’ mentality, loyalty not just to those above and below in the traditional company hierarchy, but to your peers, with an emphasis on driving results for the greater good of the business.

The autocratic leader of the past is gone. Working as a democracy may seem utopian, yet the last two years have shown us that being agile and flexible can be sustainable. Leaders are allowing their teams to feed into goal setting and direction, redistributing decision making and taking the heavy burden off the shoulders of leaders. Active interest in workforce opinions goes further than the personal, our leaders go through regular Upward Feedback to review their leadership styles, values and impact. Pro[1]active feedback makes leaders more self[1]aware and emotionally intelligent. Treating your people and the ethics instilled in company culture, are just as important as a democratic vision. Success is not based on business performance alone, it depends on how you deliver it. Fifty percent of how we assess and reward our leaders is based on how they drive company culture and values. People want to work for organisations where values align and sustainability is fast becoming a key driver. As an impact company, driving sustainability through the supply chain, customers, operations and how we work with employees is at the heart of what we stand for as a business. For us, sustainability and the company mission go hand-in-hand. However, for many organisations, it is not that simple. Companies must focus on sustainability and their role or risk losing a large cohort of talent. Educating yourself as a company, affirming your purpose and educating your workforce are essential. It can be challenging, but a shared sense of purpose will drive your business forward long-term and deliver better results. You can drive real profit only when you have the right processes to support your people and promote your purpose.

Having a team that is diverse in mind, heart and experience is a key enabler for growth. We made a bold commitment to gender parity – 50/40/30 and our 2025 ambition is that women should represent 50 percent of all new hires, 40 percent of all frontline managers and 30 percent of senior leadership. Future leaders will be those that support and trust people to work at speed, enable teams to be confident to innovate, as well as truly care for, listen and respond to peers and colleagues. This new breed of leaders is not just nice to have, they will prove essential to bringing in the best, feeding the pipeline and continuing this cyclical process.

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