“That was one of the best interviews I have ever had, in fact the whole process has actually been enjoyable!” said a recent candidate to me. And funnily enough, that wasn’t the first time I had heard this. So what? What’s that got to do with leadership?
Everything. The candidate experience during a 3 round interview process is an excellent proxy into a number of crucial areas; are the interviewers (that’s your team) engaged? Can they articulate the vision when asked? Do they project a sense of team togetherness? Do they communicate in a style that is open and honest? Are they creating a sense of excitement around our practice? Candidates are in super high listening mode, antennae quivering and trying to pick up on everything in order to make a big career decision… If we offer, and they say yes (and in our digital transformation world, they tend to have multiple offers on the table) then we know we have done a good job throughout the team. Clear vision, high engagement, open communication and a sense of team togetherness – a lot of that does stem from leadership.
In today’s hybrid world, leading is a pretty tough job; 46% of managers have said they don’t find the experience of managing other people easy over the last 12 months¹. The corporate world has changed rapidly, that change is here to stay so it is imperative leaders adapt their style and don’t remain rooted in the pre-covid environment. And it is definitely worth putting in the effort to adapt otherwise your team attrition rate could really increase. A recent report suggested that 54% who are looking for a new job believe their supervisor doesn’t know how to lead a team²
So what are the leadership behaviours and actions required in today’s world? That’s the $1m question. There are 60,000 books about leadership listed on Amazon, most of them written before Covid hit. It’s easy to get lost and so what follows is a straightforward, practical list of my experience running a change management practice across 4 countries in Europe
- Remove your corporate cloak and liberate yourself
Lots of talk about authentic leadership these days. That’s fine but if you try and read the books, fit in with the ‘authentic leadership framework’ then surely you are in danger of becoming the opposite. I have found that being yourself is the best advice; use your judgement built up of years of experience, drop all the corporate buzz words, be more direct, be open with your weaknesses and communicate in your own style is the best advice. Take off the corporate cloak, it is honestly liberating. - You’re going nowhere alone. Invest the time in creating a tight knit leadership team.
When I first started this role in 2018, I had one credible person in the team who was part of the leadership team. For 2 years we struggled to grow and retain people. Waited too long to bring in more senior leaders and I see that now as a big mistake. Fast forward another 2 years and we now have a leadership team of 9 people and its made a huge difference. Why?
a) we have great camaraderie together and share the pain and the joy. b), a core group of people as an experience sounding board for new ideas and challenges c) Help engage and support more junior team members d) Experienced people to lead our client delivery projects. Invest the time in recruiting and engaging a leadership team; it’s worth it, will accelerate practice/team growth and makes your job more enjoyable - Set a direction (even if short term) and get buy-in
OK sounds obvious but how many teams have you worked in where they just drift along, amble away and just react? Exactly. Today’s business environment does change rapidly with seemingly once-in-a-generation events happening every year (Brexit, Covid, great resignation, Russia / Ukraine, global recession, stagflation, energy crisis) however you simply have to set out where your team/practice is going.In our practice, we got the leadership team together a month before the new Financial year, and agreed on a set of 9 objectives around 4 key themes. Leadership buy-in tick. We then got the whole practice together to go through and discuss. Team buy in done. It’s evolving, 6 months in we won’t hit a couple of them but pulling in the same direction. - You want to be in the office, your team don’t. Be flexible on office / home working.
I like going to the office twice a week, most people in my team don’t. Once a fortnight is about the average time people want to come in. People now see travel cost as an extra rather than part of the monthly budget and don’t want to come in to sit in a booth doing teams call all day. Fair enough, so be flexible and instead think about arranging team events where people feel ‘it is worth’ coming in. We have away days every quarter and every month we have a social committee that encourage lunches, picnics (in the summer) and virtual evenings (1 hour max). Again, just maintains that connection between the team - Dedicate way more time to 1-2-1s with your team than before
Remote working has its benefits but it leaves the team feeling, well, remote. As Clive Woodward (England world cup winning rugby coach) says³, building a successful team is about getting the best out of each individual. Make the time to speak 1-2-1; be open, ask how they are, be interested in them as individuals – Gen Z have very different concerns and worries to Gen X so get to know what they are and try to help then solve. It is time consuming but guaranteed you will improve engagement/productivity and reduce attrition by doing this.
So what have the results been for us by adopting this approach? We’re certainly not perfect, we do get attrition at the more junior levels but overall we have a clear direction (for 1 year at least!), a team that feels they can raise issues openly and that feel supported and a leadership team that has not suffered any attrition for over 18 months.
And what of the candidate who loved the interview process? She joined and is doing really well so that’s great to see.
References
- Adecco Group, Resetting Normal: Defining the New Era of Work, 2021 (link)
- Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey data, 2022 (link)
- Interview with Clive Woodward, HRD Connect, 2016 (link)
