Ukraine: The Latest Shock to Africa’s Food Security. 6 Ways You can Help

Posted on by Real Leaders

The war in Ukraine is exacerbating an already dire food crisis in the Horn of Africa. Just a few weeks ago, in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, roughly 13 million people were waking up severely hungry every day.

Now, given their reliance on Ukrainian and Russian imports such as wheat and cooking oil, food prices are skyrocketing, putting access to basic nutrition even further out of reach. 

In 2020, African countries imported $4 billion in agricultural products from Russia and $2.9 billion from Ukraine, with the Horn as the top destination. My organization’s market assessment in Mogadishu, Somalia, found a 50% increase in the price of flour in just the last few weeks. African economies also relied on about $5 billion in product exports to Russia, including coffee, fruits and tobacco, which have all halted recently, crippling already fragile financial systems.

Just this week the UN Conference on Trade and Development issued a report predicting food shortages and civil unrest. The governments of Kenya and Somalia have declared national emergencies. 

Sadly, the conflict in Ukraine is only the latest in a bombardment of shocks to the Horn of Africa. The region is experiencing the worst drought in recent history, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes in search of water. Many are living in refugee camps where they are unable to grow food on the dry lands. Pastoralists, who make up about half of Somalia’s population, are not able to feed the livestock that they depend on for survival. Our best estimates are that at least one million heads of livestock have already died or migrated.  

6 Ways You Can Help

There are many ways to help people suffering in these forgotten crises, and we hope that leading companies and individuals will consider the following: 

  • Donating to trusted organizations like Action Against Hunger 
  • Using their platforms – social media, websites, newsletters – to inform and inspire others 
  • Exploring Board and Advisory positions with nonprofits  
  • Offering to match donations made by their employees 
  • Calculating and mitigating your personal and corporate carbon footprint 
  • Reaching out to charities to explore new and creative ways to partner over the long-term

Afifa Ali Abd is one of the 2.6 million Somalis forced to leave home. She is now living in a refugee camp in another area of the country. A mother of seven children, Abd says more people are arriving at the camp, but there is no shelter, food or water to be found. “My family went to sleep hungry last night, we will go to sleep hungry tonight,” she said. Neither she nor her husband can find work and food in the market is unaffordable without any income. 

In addition to rising food prices, ongoing armed conflicts in parts of the region also are forcing people to search for food, water and safety elsewhere. In recent years, floods and cyclones have destroyed homes, displacing even more families. Locusts have destroyed crops. 

And of course there are the economic impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns and ongoing supply chain disruptions. Africa had no safety nets in place before the pandemic, and our economies have not recovered. According to the World Bank, the pandemic pushed 40 million more people in Africa into extreme poverty. I am not sure how much more the people in this region can take. 

Prior to the conflict in Ukraine, we had a massive deficit in food supplies. Now, it’s becoming increasingly hard to find solutions. In Kenya, upwards of four million people will need assistance because of drought, including and 600,000 children younger than age five who are already suffering from acute malnutrition. We are trying to treat as many children as we can for malnutrition and make sure they have nutritious food so that they can grow normally, but we can’t reach everyone. 

We’re trying to help people become more self-sufficient. In Uganda, for example, where the government has given millions of refugees small parcels of land, we are teaching people to grow drought-resistant crops, and sell any leftovers at the market. We’re also providing cash to help families buy food. But it’s not enough. People are barely surviving.  

I’ve been a humanitarian aid worker in Africa for 18 years. We are accustomed to crises. There have been food shortages, droughts and conflicts that have impacted people’s livelihoods and food security. But in the last couple of years, the shocks are coming from all directions and compounding each other, creating a dire situation for the world’s most vulnerable. It’s hard not to feel overwhelmed. 

It’s difficult even for donors to focus on more than one issue at a time, but the people we serve don’t have that luxury. Right now, the global community’s attention is on helping the people of Ukraine, and rightly so. But we can’t lose sight of the daily, life-threatening crises elsewhere around the world. 

Climate collapse, conflict, and the economic impacts of COVID-19 stretched the already-fragile system in the Horn of Africa. The situation in Ukraine is putting even more strain on our dwindling energy and resources. My hope is that this horrible conflict will bring more visibility to the ways we are all interconnected and to the need to address the multiplicity of challenges humanity faces together.

Ukraine: The Latest Shock to Africa’s Food Security. 6 Ways You can Help

Posted on by Real Leaders

The war in Ukraine is exacerbating an already dire food crisis in the Horn of Africa. Just a few weeks ago, in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, roughly 13 million people were waking up severely hungry every day.

Now, given their reliance on Ukrainian and Russian imports such as wheat and cooking oil, food prices are skyrocketing, putting access to basic nutrition even further out of reach. 

In 2020, African countries imported $4 billion in agricultural products from Russia and $2.9 billion from Ukraine, with the Horn as the top destination. My organization’s market assessment in Mogadishu, Somalia, found a 50% increase in the price of flour in just the last few weeks. African economies also relied on about $5 billion in product exports to Russia, including coffee, fruits and tobacco, which have all halted recently, crippling already fragile financial systems.

Just this week the UN Conference on Trade and Development issued a report predicting food shortages and civil unrest. The governments of Kenya and Somalia have declared national emergencies. 

Sadly, the conflict in Ukraine is only the latest in a bombardment of shocks to the Horn of Africa. The region is experiencing the worst drought in recent history, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes in search of water. Many are living in refugee camps where they are unable to grow food on the dry lands. Pastoralists, who make up about half of Somalia’s population, are not able to feed the livestock that they depend on for survival. Our best estimates are that at least one million heads of livestock have already died or migrated.  

6 Ways You Can Help

There are many ways to help people suffering in these forgotten crises, and we hope that leading companies and individuals will consider the following: 

  • Donating to trusted organizations like Action Against Hunger 
  • Using their platforms – social media, websites, newsletters – to inform and inspire others 
  • Exploring Board and Advisory positions with nonprofits  
  • Offering to match donations made by their employees 
  • Calculating and mitigating your personal and corporate carbon footprint 
  • Reaching out to charities to explore new and creative ways to partner over the long-term

Afifa Ali Abd is one of the 2.6 million Somalis forced to leave home. She is now living in a refugee camp in another area of the country. A mother of seven children, Abd says more people are arriving at the camp, but there is no shelter, food or water to be found. “My family went to sleep hungry last night, we will go to sleep hungry tonight,” she said. Neither she nor her husband can find work and food in the market is unaffordable without any income. 

In addition to rising food prices, ongoing armed conflicts in parts of the region also are forcing people to search for food, water and safety elsewhere. In recent years, floods and cyclones have destroyed homes, displacing even more families. Locusts have destroyed crops. 

And of course there are the economic impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns and ongoing supply chain disruptions. Africa had no safety nets in place before the pandemic, and our economies have not recovered. According to the World Bank, the pandemic pushed 40 million more people in Africa into extreme poverty. I am not sure how much more the people in this region can take. 

Prior to the conflict in Ukraine, we had a massive deficit in food supplies. Now, it’s becoming increasingly hard to find solutions. In Kenya, upwards of four million people will need assistance because of drought, including and 600,000 children younger than age five who are already suffering from acute malnutrition. We are trying to treat as many children as we can for malnutrition and make sure they have nutritious food so that they can grow normally, but we can’t reach everyone. 

We’re trying to help people become more self-sufficient. In Uganda, for example, where the government has given millions of refugees small parcels of land, we are teaching people to grow drought-resistant crops, and sell any leftovers at the market. We’re also providing cash to help families buy food. But it’s not enough. People are barely surviving.  

I’ve been a humanitarian aid worker in Africa for 18 years. We are accustomed to crises. There have been food shortages, droughts and conflicts that have impacted people’s livelihoods and food security. But in the last couple of years, the shocks are coming from all directions and compounding each other, creating a dire situation for the world’s most vulnerable. It’s hard not to feel overwhelmed. 

It’s difficult even for donors to focus on more than one issue at a time, but the people we serve don’t have that luxury. Right now, the global community’s attention is on helping the people of Ukraine, and rightly so. But we can’t lose sight of the daily, life-threatening crises elsewhere around the world. 

Climate collapse, conflict, and the economic impacts of COVID-19 stretched the already-fragile system in the Horn of Africa. The situation in Ukraine is putting even more strain on our dwindling energy and resources. My hope is that this horrible conflict will bring more visibility to the ways we are all interconnected and to the need to address the multiplicity of challenges humanity faces together.

How to Help Employees and Job-Seekers Thrive Despite a Chaotic Landscape

Posted on by Real Leaders

No wonder we are hearing so much lately about “the future of work.” So what is that future? No one knows for sure. (You might say the future of work is a work in progress.) But here at CareerBuilder, we are seeing some clear trends right now that can help us predict where things will land. 

What employees want

Let’s start with the engine that makes everything go: the workers. Employees find themselves in a great moment of leverage. As a result, we are hearing more than ever about what they want and need, pausing more often to reflect on what it might take to make them both happy and productive.

Unsurprisingly, the first thing workers want right now is flexibility. After two years of truly trying times, people want real work/life balance and not just lip service from an employer. They want the kind of balance that will head off burnout before it starts. One trend to keep an eye on is the shift to a four-day workweek. Another, as mentioned in a December 2021 Atlantic article, involves letting workers scale down their hours when caring for children or aging parents and scaling them back up subsequently.

After two years of taking stock, workers are also dialed in on fulfillment. That means they want opportunities for career growth and a healthy company culture that works to foster a sense of belonging.

The third thing workers want right now (and always) is a competitive salary and a well-rounded compensation package that motivates them to reach their potential while driving success for the company.

The “New” Office

The role of a physical office space has been forever changed by the pandemic era. The old office was stable and predictable if sometimes stagnant. It was often assigned seats, cubicles and 40 hours on-site.

The new office, still taking shape at this writing, is defined in a far more fluid way. It is hybrid at its core as people seek to find a balance between the office and other spaces. The new office may be a co-working facility, a desk in a hotel lounge, a rented conference room or a coffee shop. It may be a person’s home.

Remember when we said the future of work is a work in progress? Well, the transition to that future will require patience and empathy from employers along with a healthy dose of roll-with-it from employees.

The Future of the Job Market

Just as we’ve seen entire industries wildly expand and contract over the last two years, we’ve seen the job market continue to reshape itself. Expect that to continue. Expect a rise in the number of available remote roles. And expect an increase in overall job inventory across all 50 states, including a rise in in-person jobs as restaurants and other face-to-face businesses fully reopen.

Three trends worth noting:

  • The monthly number of job postings available on CareerBuilder has nearly tripled over the course of the pandemic
  • Double-digit growth in job postings for most states between December 2020 and December 2021
  • Explosive growth in job postings for high demand positions in transportation, warehousing, healthcare and education

What Employers Can Do Now

A forever-changed employee pool. A brand new definition of “office.” A constantly reshaping job market. It’s no wonder many employers find themselves asking two questions.

1) How can I keep my current employees engaged, productive and happy in an increasingly disconnected and dispersed world?

2) How can I help take the burden off the shoulders of job-seeking possible future employees?

For current employees, work relentlessly at building a shared sense of mission and belonging. Lead with empathy. Where there is an opportunity for team building, go all in whether it’s virtual or in-person socials/happy hours, lunch-and-learns and Wellness Wednesdays. Let yourself be more human than ever in the workplace.

When you meet with prospective employees, come to the table prepared to listen as much as you speak. Be sure to allow for some flexibility in the hiring process and tout the aspects of company life that allow for serious work/life balance.

Nothing is as it was. No one is as they were. If you’re an employer, seize this rare moment to reimagine your working landscape and rethink your hiring process. Opportunity knocks.

How to Help Employees and Job-Seekers Thrive Despite a Chaotic Landscape

Posted on by Real Leaders

No wonder we are hearing so much lately about “the future of work.” So what is that future? No one knows for sure. (You might say the future of work is a work in progress.) But here at CareerBuilder, we are seeing some clear trends right now that can help us predict where things will land. 

What employees want

Let’s start with the engine that makes everything go: the workers. Employees find themselves in a great moment of leverage. As a result, we are hearing more than ever about what they want and need, pausing more often to reflect on what it might take to make them both happy and productive.

Unsurprisingly, the first thing workers want right now is flexibility. After two years of truly trying times, people want real work/life balance and not just lip service from an employer. They want the kind of balance that will head off burnout before it starts. One trend to keep an eye on is the shift to a four-day workweek. Another, as mentioned in a December 2021 Atlantic article, involves letting workers scale down their hours when caring for children or aging parents and scaling them back up subsequently.

After two years of taking stock, workers are also dialed in on fulfillment. That means they want opportunities for career growth and a healthy company culture that works to foster a sense of belonging.

The third thing workers want right now (and always) is a competitive salary and a well-rounded compensation package that motivates them to reach their potential while driving success for the company.

The “New” Office

The role of a physical office space has been forever changed by the pandemic era. The old office was stable and predictable if sometimes stagnant. It was often assigned seats, cubicles and 40 hours on-site.

The new office, still taking shape at this writing, is defined in a far more fluid way. It is hybrid at its core as people seek to find a balance between the office and other spaces. The new office may be a co-working facility, a desk in a hotel lounge, a rented conference room or a coffee shop. It may be a person’s home.

Remember when we said the future of work is a work in progress? Well, the transition to that future will require patience and empathy from employers along with a healthy dose of roll-with-it from employees.

The Future of the Job Market

Just as we’ve seen entire industries wildly expand and contract over the last two years, we’ve seen the job market continue to reshape itself. Expect that to continue. Expect a rise in the number of available remote roles. And expect an increase in overall job inventory across all 50 states, including a rise in in-person jobs as restaurants and other face-to-face businesses fully reopen.

Three trends worth noting:

  • The monthly number of job postings available on CareerBuilder has nearly tripled over the course of the pandemic
  • Double-digit growth in job postings for most states between December 2020 and December 2021
  • Explosive growth in job postings for high demand positions in transportation, warehousing, healthcare and education

What Employers Can Do Now

A forever-changed employee pool. A brand new definition of “office.” A constantly reshaping job market. It’s no wonder many employers find themselves asking two questions.

1) How can I keep my current employees engaged, productive and happy in an increasingly disconnected and dispersed world?

2) How can I help take the burden off the shoulders of job-seeking possible future employees?

For current employees, work relentlessly at building a shared sense of mission and belonging. Lead with empathy. Where there is an opportunity for team building, go all in whether it’s virtual or in-person socials/happy hours, lunch-and-learns and Wellness Wednesdays. Let yourself be more human than ever in the workplace.

When you meet with prospective employees, come to the table prepared to listen as much as you speak. Be sure to allow for some flexibility in the hiring process and tout the aspects of company life that allow for serious work/life balance.

Nothing is as it was. No one is as they were. If you’re an employer, seize this rare moment to reimagine your working landscape and rethink your hiring process. Opportunity knocks.

Self-Coaching: Become the Best You Can Be

Posted on by Real Leaders

Everyone wants to find success in their life and career. The question is how to get there.

A few years ago, Google created Project Oxygen with the purpose of discovering what makes someone a good manager—or determining if managers even matter for success. Team members went to work gathering and analyzing data and came up with a definite conclusion: Not only do managers matter a lot, but the best ones display a consistent set of eight traits. Can you guess what was number one on the list— the most important quality successful managers should have? First and foremost, good managers are good coaches.

Of course that shouldn’t come as a surprise. The importance of good coaching has been studied and written about for some time now. It can help people see themselves and their experiences more clearly. It can help them respond to situations more effectively. It can help them expand their knowledge and capabilities. It can help them define what they need to do and stay on track as they do it. In short, good coaching can help them reach more of their potential and become the best they can be.

Yet, despite all the known benefits, good coaching doesn’t seem to be practiced all that much. Following up on his identification of six defining leadership styles, Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author of the bestselling Emotional Intelligence, wrote that even though coaching has been shown to improve results, “the coaching style is used least often [among the six leadership styles] in our high-pressure economy.”

Where does that leave all the people out there in need of a good coach?

The need is clear. How many times have we heard how disengaged people are at work? The Gallup numbers come out every year and they never seem to budge all that much. According to Gallup’s recent State of the Global Workplace report, 85% of employees are not engaged, or worse, are actively disengaged at work. That means there are a lot of people out there who just don’t like their jobs, despite the fact that they spend at least a quarter of their time at work.

Americans are also starting new businesses at the fastest rate in more than a decade, and they are opting for freelance or gig work more and more often. And they are increasingly working from home, which means they are likely without a manager or mentor on hand to act as their coach. People in these kinds of situations often don’t have options for personal coaching without paying high prices for it. Whether you work for yourself or for someone else, the market is becoming increasingly competitive and dynamic—if you don’t know how to develop yourself and your skills, you will fall behind.

So what are people who want to grow and achieve more supposed to do? Are they supposed to sit around and hope that their organizations get with the program? Are they supposed to wait and see if their bosses develop the coaching skills they need to succeed? And what about all the people who are self-employed, have lost a job, are transitioning to new careers, or retiring? It’s often in those transitional moments, whether professional or personal (i.e., moving to a new town, deciding whether to start a family, recovering from grief or illness) when people need coaching the most. But so often those are the moments when we end up having to figure things out on our own. Where are people who find themselves in these kinds of situations supposed to find the coaching help they could so sorely use?

As important as coaches are, there just aren’t enough good ones to go around—in fact, there’s a real coaching deficit out there. And the coaches who do exist are often far too expensive and in too high demand for most people to consider hiring their own. But that doesn’t mean you should go without. Your life is too important to leave your personal growth and professional development up to chance. It’s time to take the responsibility for coaching into your own hands and give yourself what you need to succeed, grow, and lead a more fulfilling life. It’s time to take charge of you and learn how to coach yourself.

Self-Coaching: Become the Best You Can Be

Posted on by Real Leaders

Everyone wants to find success in their life and career. The question is how to get there.

A few years ago, Google created Project Oxygen with the purpose of discovering what makes someone a good manager—or determining if managers even matter for success. Team members went to work gathering and analyzing data and came up with a definite conclusion: Not only do managers matter a lot, but the best ones display a consistent set of eight traits. Can you guess what was number one on the list— the most important quality successful managers should have? First and foremost, good managers are good coaches.

Of course that shouldn’t come as a surprise. The importance of good coaching has been studied and written about for some time now. It can help people see themselves and their experiences more clearly. It can help them respond to situations more effectively. It can help them expand their knowledge and capabilities. It can help them define what they need to do and stay on track as they do it. In short, good coaching can help them reach more of their potential and become the best they can be.

Yet, despite all the known benefits, good coaching doesn’t seem to be practiced all that much. Following up on his identification of six defining leadership styles, Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author of the bestselling Emotional Intelligence, wrote that even though coaching has been shown to improve results, “the coaching style is used least often [among the six leadership styles] in our high-pressure economy.”

Where does that leave all the people out there in need of a good coach?

The need is clear. How many times have we heard how disengaged people are at work? The Gallup numbers come out every year and they never seem to budge all that much. According to Gallup’s recent State of the Global Workplace report, 85% of employees are not engaged, or worse, are actively disengaged at work. That means there are a lot of people out there who just don’t like their jobs, despite the fact that they spend at least a quarter of their time at work.

Americans are also starting new businesses at the fastest rate in more than a decade, and they are opting for freelance or gig work more and more often. And they are increasingly working from home, which means they are likely without a manager or mentor on hand to act as their coach. People in these kinds of situations often don’t have options for personal coaching without paying high prices for it. Whether you work for yourself or for someone else, the market is becoming increasingly competitive and dynamic—if you don’t know how to develop yourself and your skills, you will fall behind.

So what are people who want to grow and achieve more supposed to do? Are they supposed to sit around and hope that their organizations get with the program? Are they supposed to wait and see if their bosses develop the coaching skills they need to succeed? And what about all the people who are self-employed, have lost a job, are transitioning to new careers, or retiring? It’s often in those transitional moments, whether professional or personal (i.e., moving to a new town, deciding whether to start a family, recovering from grief or illness) when people need coaching the most. But so often those are the moments when we end up having to figure things out on our own. Where are people who find themselves in these kinds of situations supposed to find the coaching help they could so sorely use?

As important as coaches are, there just aren’t enough good ones to go around—in fact, there’s a real coaching deficit out there. And the coaches who do exist are often far too expensive and in too high demand for most people to consider hiring their own. But that doesn’t mean you should go without. Your life is too important to leave your personal growth and professional development up to chance. It’s time to take the responsibility for coaching into your own hands and give yourself what you need to succeed, grow, and lead a more fulfilling life. It’s time to take charge of you and learn how to coach yourself.

Use This Period of Business Uncertainty to Create Leadership Opportunities

Posted on by Real Leaders

The annual celebration of International Women’s Day, as we saw earlier this month, always invokes talk of change — whether it’s the progress that’s been made in advancing female rights and representation over the years or the extent of the work still to be done. But it’s not often that Women’s Day comes around at a time when the world is undergoing seismic, existential changes of the kind that only come around every hundred years or so. 

The pandemic is the most obvious and direct example that’s changed the way we work. After over two years of successive waves that necessitated social distancing and stay-at-home orders, the office will never be the same again. Whether or not we as individuals like or dislike home working has become irrelevant – two years, remote or hybrid working is now the new normal. The idea of entire workforces undertaking a grueling commute to sit at a desk and work on a laptop as efficiently as they could at home already seems to be part of a bygone era. 

Only thirty percent of British businesses expect to have their whole workforce back on-site within the following year. We can safely assume many, if not all, of these will be in industries that require a physical presence in at least some of their workforce. 

However, it’s not just logistical attitudes to work that are changing right now. Over the course of the pandemic, something shifted in our collective consciousness regarding the environment. Research from Boston Consulting Group across eight countries found that around 70% of people reported a heightened awareness of the impact of human activity on climate change. This shift is becoming more evident in how we do business, with ESG now taking center stage on boardroom agendas. It’s also changing the shape of executive teams, with more Chief Sustainability Officers hired in 2020 than in the previous three years combined. 

Riding the Changes

As leaders grapple with how to make sense of this ever-shifting landscape, many have taken the opportunity to make long-term changes. A transition towards more flexible working arrangements in the long term may entail leaders having to think differently about how work gets done. But there’s a recognition that employees want the quality of life that comes with being able to self-determine where and how they work. 

This shift benefits everyone, but particularly for women, it offers an opportunity to change paradigms and begin to address the representation gap in leadership and key roles. It’s not simply about the somewhat simplistic idea that if women can work flexibly, they can better multi-task their domestic responsibilities. It’s about addressing some of the more insidious and deep-rooted biases that act as barriers to female representation in leadership and key positions. 

For example, the idea that women taking time off for maternity leave creates an absence in the workplace that allows men to accelerate past them on the career ladder. In a workplace that places a lower priority on physical presence, this “absence” takes on far less significance and actually makes it easier for parents on maternity or paternity leave to maintain a meaningful connection. 

Changing Mindsets

So as you can see, if we’re to use this current period of discontinuity to address representation issues, it requires a different kind of leadership and a mindset shift regarding how work gets done. Leaders need to craft a culture that optimises for different ways of working to be as inclusive as possible. 

Doing so will create opportunities across the board, but particularly for women, it’s a chance to begin to address the gap in representation at the senior level. For firms, it’s an unprecedented chance to unlock the potential that women in leadership can bring, using inclusivity as a strategic tool to promote growth, innovation, and performance. 

Creating an inclusive culture isn’t something that happens overnight or without a sustained, committed effort to drive change. We’ve identified five principles based on decades of helping companies craft cultures that support their performance goals. Firstly, leaders need to draw a clear line between business priorities and DEI objectives, which includes the strategic advantages of increasing female representation in leadership and other key roles and functions. 

Secondly, leaders need to effect personal change, identifying their own biases and blind spots and being open about how their mindsets have shifted. 

Next, the changes need to be disseminated throughout the organisation in a program of broad engagement, and there needs to be an exercise to attain systemic alignment to inclusivity across all policies, processes, and practices. 

The final principle is representation – employees from all groups need to be able to look out across the workforce and see themselves reflected at all levels. 

So this International Women’s Day can be about more than just talking about change. We’re all living a change right now, so let’s seize the chance to bring about a meaningful transformation that breaks down the remaining barriers for women in the workplace and supports a more inclusive organisation overall.

Use This Period of Business Uncertainty to Create Leadership Opportunities

Posted on by Real Leaders

The annual celebration of International Women’s Day, as we saw earlier this month, always invokes talk of change — whether it’s the progress that’s been made in advancing female rights and representation over the years or the extent of the work still to be done. But it’s not often that Women’s Day comes around at a time when the world is undergoing seismic, existential changes of the kind that only come around every hundred years or so. 

The pandemic is the most obvious and direct example that’s changed the way we work. After over two years of successive waves that necessitated social distancing and stay-at-home orders, the office will never be the same again. Whether or not we as individuals like or dislike home working has become irrelevant – two years, remote or hybrid working is now the new normal. The idea of entire workforces undertaking a grueling commute to sit at a desk and work on a laptop as efficiently as they could at home already seems to be part of a bygone era. 

Only thirty percent of British businesses expect to have their whole workforce back on-site within the following year. We can safely assume many, if not all, of these will be in industries that require a physical presence in at least some of their workforce. 

However, it’s not just logistical attitudes to work that are changing right now. Over the course of the pandemic, something shifted in our collective consciousness regarding the environment. Research from Boston Consulting Group across eight countries found that around 70% of people reported a heightened awareness of the impact of human activity on climate change. This shift is becoming more evident in how we do business, with ESG now taking center stage on boardroom agendas. It’s also changing the shape of executive teams, with more Chief Sustainability Officers hired in 2020 than in the previous three years combined. 

Riding the Changes

As leaders grapple with how to make sense of this ever-shifting landscape, many have taken the opportunity to make long-term changes. A transition towards more flexible working arrangements in the long term may entail leaders having to think differently about how work gets done. But there’s a recognition that employees want the quality of life that comes with being able to self-determine where and how they work. 

This shift benefits everyone, but particularly for women, it offers an opportunity to change paradigms and begin to address the representation gap in leadership and key roles. It’s not simply about the somewhat simplistic idea that if women can work flexibly, they can better multi-task their domestic responsibilities. It’s about addressing some of the more insidious and deep-rooted biases that act as barriers to female representation in leadership and key positions. 

For example, the idea that women taking time off for maternity leave creates an absence in the workplace that allows men to accelerate past them on the career ladder. In a workplace that places a lower priority on physical presence, this “absence” takes on far less significance and actually makes it easier for parents on maternity or paternity leave to maintain a meaningful connection. 

Changing Mindsets

So as you can see, if we’re to use this current period of discontinuity to address representation issues, it requires a different kind of leadership and a mindset shift regarding how work gets done. Leaders need to craft a culture that optimises for different ways of working to be as inclusive as possible. 

Doing so will create opportunities across the board, but particularly for women, it’s a chance to begin to address the gap in representation at the senior level. For firms, it’s an unprecedented chance to unlock the potential that women in leadership can bring, using inclusivity as a strategic tool to promote growth, innovation, and performance. 

Creating an inclusive culture isn’t something that happens overnight or without a sustained, committed effort to drive change. We’ve identified five principles based on decades of helping companies craft cultures that support their performance goals. Firstly, leaders need to draw a clear line between business priorities and DEI objectives, which includes the strategic advantages of increasing female representation in leadership and other key roles and functions. 

Secondly, leaders need to effect personal change, identifying their own biases and blind spots and being open about how their mindsets have shifted. 

Next, the changes need to be disseminated throughout the organisation in a program of broad engagement, and there needs to be an exercise to attain systemic alignment to inclusivity across all policies, processes, and practices. 

The final principle is representation – employees from all groups need to be able to look out across the workforce and see themselves reflected at all levels. 

So this International Women’s Day can be about more than just talking about change. We’re all living a change right now, so let’s seize the chance to bring about a meaningful transformation that breaks down the remaining barriers for women in the workplace and supports a more inclusive organisation overall.

5 tips for Building a Successful Public-Private Partnership for the SDGs

Posted on by Real Leaders

Everywhere you look these days, companies, governments, and communities are talking about ‘better business,’ what it means, who it affects, and why it is relevant.

The UK’s proposed Better Business Act is rallying behind the cries for how we define the ‘future of the corporation.’ The suggested contract defines it as the legal obligation for every company to align their interests with those of the wider society and the environment.

I want to talk about one successful public-private partnership evidencing this ethos in action; TRANSFORM.

TRANSFORM is a collaboration between Unilever, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and EY that supports social entrepreneurs in South Asia and Africa, improving the lives of low-income households. We offer a combination of grant funding and bespoke business support through expertise and connections to corporate value chains.

Driven by the UN SDGs, in particular no.17, “partnerships for the goals,” it follows the mantra that no other UN SDG is possible without it – which is why it is so key for sustainable progression.

At the initiative’s six-year mark, and now with governments and corporations worldwide leaning further into their broader purpose-led strategies, it seems appropriate to share our learnings on building a global public-private partnership that supports the world’s most innovative impact enterprises. 

These enterprises range from the likes of Folia Water, an enterprise increasing access to clean drinking water for low-income consumers in Bangladesh, to Mr. Green Africa, the first recycling company to be a Certified B Corporation on the African continent.

With this in mind, I’ve selected our five significant learnings for building a successful public-private partnership.

1. The Holy Trinity: 3 core organizations are the perfect balance

These core organizations should be responsible for the overriding vision and direction of the partnership and the relationships with suppliers, enterprises, and stakeholders. A leaner central body will strengthen the management of potentially conflicting processes, rules, and requirements all partnerships undoubtedly face!

2.  Start small

A committed group of kick-starters allows the core organizations to form trusted relationships, stress-test, and empower the initiative. Avoid getting overexcited about the PR – the successes built from a tight-knit foundation will speak for themselves. 

3.  Define a shared purpose

Ask yourself, where do the common values between the core organizations lie? And how do we ensure this forms the foundation for a specific partnership goal? Remember, the optimal point you’re trying to hit is a vision with enough specificity that the whole team is clear and aligned while allowing enough room to explore different avenues and respond to crises.

4.  The Compatibility Test

Testing your area of collaboration helps build a pipeline by reviewing real projects and finding out where to set your boundaries. This is where reality starts to sink in, and the funding prospects are front and center of the conversation. Remember, if you encounter difficulties with the projects, you can always return to the mapping stage and redefine the shared values.

5.  Ground rules: balancing everyone’s needs

Make sure you prioritize the necessary requirements for each organization. Creating contractual templates means you’ll be best placed to deal with even the most unprecedented of events – for TRANSFORM, this meant a well-established blueprint for a rapid Covid-19 response. The model built on the collaboration’s firm relationships and frameworks meant that Unilever and the FCDO could launch the Hygiene & Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC), which provided funding, technical assistance, and hygiene products to over 20 NGOs throughout 2020.

The partnership in practice 

Over the last six years, TRANSFORM has brought together three organizations with distinct areas of expertise, meaning we can offer blended business support; the accomplishments of the enterprises speak for themselves.

With advice from TRANSFORM, Drinkwell overcame growing pains to develop a new business model and partnered with Unilever’s extensive sales force to help sell their new innovative water ATM to communities in Bangladesh. This helped make Drinkwell what it is today: a nationally viable business model that solves the shortage of sanitized drinking water.

Similarly, Unilever’s counsel on recruiting, training, and expanding a network of formidable sales and distribution representatives, contributed to the growth of e-commerce and self-care platform Kasha. Experiencing five times year-on-year revenue growth, it has become one of the leading FemTech organizations in Africa.

TRANSFORM has shown that building a successful public-private partnership takes time, commitment, and resilience. The same is true of reaching the SDGs; no one organization can do it alone. We wanted to put the needs of society at the heart of our mission – and in the hands of some of the most exciting social entrepreneurs. TRANSFORM has shown that combining market-based ingenuity with unique capabilities of business and government offers a pathway to accelerate progress quicker.

If that’s not better business, I’m not sure what is.

5 tips for Building a Successful Public-Private Partnership for the SDGs

Posted on by Real Leaders

Everywhere you look these days, companies, governments, and communities are talking about ‘better business,’ what it means, who it affects, and why it is relevant.

The UK’s proposed Better Business Act is rallying behind the cries for how we define the ‘future of the corporation.’ The suggested contract defines it as the legal obligation for every company to align their interests with those of the wider society and the environment.

I want to talk about one successful public-private partnership evidencing this ethos in action; TRANSFORM.

TRANSFORM is a collaboration between Unilever, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and EY that supports social entrepreneurs in South Asia and Africa, improving the lives of low-income households. We offer a combination of grant funding and bespoke business support through expertise and connections to corporate value chains.

Driven by the UN SDGs, in particular no.17, “partnerships for the goals,” it follows the mantra that no other UN SDG is possible without it – which is why it is so key for sustainable progression.

At the initiative’s six-year mark, and now with governments and corporations worldwide leaning further into their broader purpose-led strategies, it seems appropriate to share our learnings on building a global public-private partnership that supports the world’s most innovative impact enterprises. 

These enterprises range from the likes of Folia Water, an enterprise increasing access to clean drinking water for low-income consumers in Bangladesh, to Mr. Green Africa, the first recycling company to be a Certified B Corporation on the African continent.

With this in mind, I’ve selected our five significant learnings for building a successful public-private partnership.

1. The Holy Trinity: 3 core organizations are the perfect balance

These core organizations should be responsible for the overriding vision and direction of the partnership and the relationships with suppliers, enterprises, and stakeholders. A leaner central body will strengthen the management of potentially conflicting processes, rules, and requirements all partnerships undoubtedly face!

2.  Start small

A committed group of kick-starters allows the core organizations to form trusted relationships, stress-test, and empower the initiative. Avoid getting overexcited about the PR – the successes built from a tight-knit foundation will speak for themselves. 

3.  Define a shared purpose

Ask yourself, where do the common values between the core organizations lie? And how do we ensure this forms the foundation for a specific partnership goal? Remember, the optimal point you’re trying to hit is a vision with enough specificity that the whole team is clear and aligned while allowing enough room to explore different avenues and respond to crises.

4.  The Compatibility Test

Testing your area of collaboration helps build a pipeline by reviewing real projects and finding out where to set your boundaries. This is where reality starts to sink in, and the funding prospects are front and center of the conversation. Remember, if you encounter difficulties with the projects, you can always return to the mapping stage and redefine the shared values.

5.  Ground rules: balancing everyone’s needs

Make sure you prioritize the necessary requirements for each organization. Creating contractual templates means you’ll be best placed to deal with even the most unprecedented of events – for TRANSFORM, this meant a well-established blueprint for a rapid Covid-19 response. The model built on the collaboration’s firm relationships and frameworks meant that Unilever and the FCDO could launch the Hygiene & Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC), which provided funding, technical assistance, and hygiene products to over 20 NGOs throughout 2020.

The partnership in practice 

Over the last six years, TRANSFORM has brought together three organizations with distinct areas of expertise, meaning we can offer blended business support; the accomplishments of the enterprises speak for themselves.

With advice from TRANSFORM, Drinkwell overcame growing pains to develop a new business model and partnered with Unilever’s extensive sales force to help sell their new innovative water ATM to communities in Bangladesh. This helped make Drinkwell what it is today: a nationally viable business model that solves the shortage of sanitized drinking water.

Similarly, Unilever’s counsel on recruiting, training, and expanding a network of formidable sales and distribution representatives, contributed to the growth of e-commerce and self-care platform Kasha. Experiencing five times year-on-year revenue growth, it has become one of the leading FemTech organizations in Africa.

TRANSFORM has shown that building a successful public-private partnership takes time, commitment, and resilience. The same is true of reaching the SDGs; no one organization can do it alone. We wanted to put the needs of society at the heart of our mission – and in the hands of some of the most exciting social entrepreneurs. TRANSFORM has shown that combining market-based ingenuity with unique capabilities of business and government offers a pathway to accelerate progress quicker.

If that’s not better business, I’m not sure what is.

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