The business world, like the world at large, is more complex than ever before. While that’s largely due to the pandemic, other factors have come into play. There is the influx of those in Generation Z into the workforce. There is ongoing evolution of technology. There is the tilt toward environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG).

In short, the entire landscape has changed, and it is incumbent upon business leaders to do the same, lest they fail to negotiate their new surroundings. They must have a greater understanding of their reports, a great understanding of what it takes to motivate them – and, increasingly, retain them. Leaders must be more aware, more agile, more adaptable. Failure to do so means failure, period.

The Gen-Z factor alone has led executives to rethink their leadership styles. The Pew Research Center considers anyone born after 1997 to be part of that age group, and it has reached a point where Gen-Zers comprise nearly a quarter of the workforce. 

While it is always dangerous to over-generalize, those in this demographic grew up under tougher economic circumstances than Millennials, having seen nationwide economic slumps in 2001 and 2008-09. As a result they are more likely to hang onto a job than their predecessors, who tend to hop from one to another after two years. And certainly Gen-Zers are no less driven to succeed. They expect to earn a promotion after a single year in a job, and believe that in time they will earn six figures.

For those reasons, they have no qualms about working outside the parameters of a 9-to-5 workday, and welcome an employer who provides flexibility, in addition to opportunities for professional growth. Moreover, they prefer a collaborative environment, not one featuring a traditional top-down structure.

Finally, they want to make a difference. They yearn for things like greater diversity, social justice and sustainability, for a company that strives to meet ESG goals. The best companies understand and embrace that, knowing that it is in their best interests as well. A 2020 McKinsey study concluded that diverse enterprises are more profitable than those that are not.

The best leaders fully embrace that, and meet their employees halfway, creating an environment characterized by transparency and collaboration. John Hall, co-founder and president of a company known as Calendar, writes for Inc. that leaders would do well to understand what they don’t know, and learn from those on their teams:

Those who have not been humbled by recent world events are doomed to fail. Leaders should be OK with acknowledging mistakes, identifying lessons learned, and getting back to work. Employees who watch it happen will become more resilient and be willing to take greater risks as well.

This speaks to the necessity of having emotionally intelligent leaders – i.e., those who are self-aware, socially aware, empathetic and capable of managing themselves and their relationships. Central to that is having excellent communication skills, especially in an era where the workforce is often scattered (with hints that that might continue, even after the pandemic is over). 

A recent Gallup poll showed, however, that only 19 percent of U.S. employees believed that management communicated effectively after the pandemic broke out, up from 13 percent beforehand – a strong indication that leaders still have miles to go before they fully engage their reports.

Indeed, such engagement is crucial for establishing a company’s vision for the future – for making clear something like its ESG action plan, how it hopes to incorporate cutting-edge technology like artificial intelligence and quantum computing and how, exactly, it hopes to foster greater trust with customers. The 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer, a measure by the U.S. consultancy and public relations firm of the public’s belief in different institution, showed that while 61 percent of respondents trust in business – more than non-governmental organizations (59 percent), government (52 percent) and media (50 percent) – the overall results are seen as being disappointingly low for all concerned.

That trust needs to be rebuilt, from the inside out, as opposed to the top down. An example would be the Clif Bar and Company, which lists among its five aspirations sustaining people, sustaining the planet and sustaining its business. The company’s leadership seeks to do that by paying employees a living wage, and by trying to make possible a healthy work-life balance. Additionally the business produces a plant-based product, and aspires to develop zero-waste packaging.

The ultimate goal, as executive vice president Roma McCaig told Katherine Klein of the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, is to create a “virtuous cycle where productive growth allows us to deliver positive impact, and positive impact allows us to continue delivering productive growth.”

It is a noble goal in this day and age, when the needs of the workforce have changed dramatically, to say nothing of the world at large. But that is the mission that business leaders must embrace, as they forge ahead.

Leaders can activate their teams by helping them capture and share their stories in ways that acknowledge their superpowers.

I remember so clearly the morning that I stood at the bottom of the stone staircase, staring up at the larger-than-life building before me. I had just walked through a massive iron gate that wound around the perimeter of my new workplace, and I could feel my chest slowly tightening with uncertainty. It was September 2001 and my first day working on Parliament Hill for a political office in my home country of Canada.

The lead-up to this day had been three months in the making. I bought the right outfit, researched my new boss, read up about the history of the building. I tried to be ready. But there are some moments that you can never truly be prepared for. And this was one of them. Because there I was, walking into one of the most fiercely competitive places in the country with a coffee in one hand and my arts degree in the other. I had never taken a political science class in my life. I didn’t know what the various parties stood for. I didn’t know how any of this would work. But somehow, I had landed there. And I felt like an alien that had been dropped on the wrong planet.

It’s been said that it takes a few months to get your bearings in a new job. When I left politics three and a half years after that day in September, I still felt completely out of place. And looking back, 20 years later, that feeling of not belonging ended up giving me one of the best gifts I could hope for: the gift of starting to understand my own story and realizing the benefits of sharing that story with others.

Getting to Know Our Authentic Stories 

As I navigated my way through the political landscape of Parliament Hill, I came to learn about the nuances of a universe I had previously known nothing about. Committee meetings, legislative agendas, and the House of Commons became part of my day-to-day routine. I dressed the part, talked the part, and walked the part. And yet, I always felt like an outsider there. My lack of political background seemed to haunt me, like the shadows that followed me through the underground tunnels connecting the three main parliament buildings.

On my last day working for the member of Parliament who first hired me, I knocked on the thick wooden door to his office and asked if I could come in to say goodbye. He’d always been an incredibly kind man, and I needed to tell him how grateful I was for the opportunity to step into his world. We sat on the oversized couches next to his desk and talked for a bit about what would come next for me.

As our conversation came to a close, I knew this was my last chance to ask him the question that had been on my mind since the day I first stepped foot in the building. “Why, of all the people who applied for this job, did you hire me?”

A puzzled yet delighted look spread across his face, and he leaned back in his seat as though to ponder the question a bit longer. “Nearly everyone here has a master’s degree in political science, Gen,” he replied, boldly stating the very words that seemed to cage me in isolation. “They know everything about politics.”

“But here’s the thing,” he continued. “I can teach you politics, but I can’t teach you how to communicate with other people effectively. You either have it, or you don’t. And you have it. Your arts degree and your ability to connect gave our office something that most other offices didn’t have: the ability to demonstrate our love of people — not just our love of politics.”

It took everything in me to hold back my tears at that moment.

He smiled. We hugged. He thanked me for my time serving his office. And I walked out of that building, understanding something I had never understood before: Not only did my own authentic story matter, but it mattered to other people. Furthermore, my story became intricately woven into a much bigger story in the workplace. And it’s a story I feel so thankful to have been a part of.

We each have these kinds of superpowers that we bring into our workplaces. So the question is: Do we know what those superpowers are?

Unleashing the Heroes on Our Teams With Storytelling

Humans are natural storytellers; we’re constantly seeking to complete a picture or connect the dots. And in the instances where we lack the appropriate information to do so, our brains automatically fill in the blanks with our own stories. Sometimes, those stories are rich and empowering, leaving people filled with a sense of belonging. Other times, they become detrimental to ourselves and those around us, leaving people feeling isolated and irrelevant. This raises a specific question: What would be the benefit of sharing our story and exploring it more intentionally?

How different would my political experience have been had I thought to ask my haunting question much sooner? How different might all of our work experiences be if we understood what special superpower we bring to the table?

The reality is that the workplace is changing along with our relationship with our work. Employees are seeking more purpose, connection, and well-being. They want to belong to something bigger than a bottom line and a profit margin — they want to be a part of something they believe in. Leaders are the key to making that happen. By helping your employees become part of an authentic story, you help them become heroes within your team. Here are a couple of ways to make this happen:

1. Share your own story with others.

It always starts with you. As the leader of your company, you have the opportunity to build a foundation of truth, authenticity, and vulnerability. The example you set will pave the way for all those who work with you. And part of that example is being honest about your own authentic story. What led you to where you are now? What obstacles have you faced along the way? What do you stand for as a leader? What do you feel really good about as a leader? What are areas you would like to work on? How you go about sharing your story with others can vary, be it through internal newsletters, team meetings, or one-on-one check-ins. All of these stories give your team a doorway into the bigger story of you and the company, not to mention imparting a sense of belonging.

2. Encourage your team to uncover their authentic stories.

Now that you’ve shared pieces of your story with others on your team, it’s time to start weaving the thread of everyone else’s story. Each person you work with has walked their own road to get to where they are. That road has likely been filled with trials, victories, and rewards that have all shaped the person they are today. That road has also gifted them with the unique strengths that they bring to your team. Leveraging honest storytelling to unearth your team’s superpowers is a powerful way to help team members recognize their unique contributions to the goals that you’re all trying to accomplish.

3. Allow your team members to see the heroic nature in each other.

It’s one thing to recognize the heroic nature in yourself, but it’s a far more impactful experience to see the heroic nature in those around you. Bringing your people together to share their stories with others on the team will reveal the humanity and courage that might not be naturally visible within a workplace setting. Seeing the superpowers of those around you — and hearing about the dragons that had to be slain to get those superpowers — is an incredible way to build high-performing teams. It provides team members with a sense of trust, psychological safety, and humanity, reminding people that they’ve all had their own battles to overcome.

Sharing our authentic stories and the challenges we’ve all faced along the way will bring your teams closer and create a foundational anchor for moving forward as the workplace changes. Because once we see the hero in one another, we start to ask: “What can we heroically accomplish together?”

Female ‘techpreneurs’ are taking their place in Africa’s male-dominated fintech boom, but gender bias makes it harder for them to access finance and grow their businesses.

When financial analyst Oluwatosin Olaseinde moved back home to Nigeria in 2013 after a decade studying and working abroad, she decided it was time to tackle her own finances, so started reading up on stocks and mutual funds.

Shocked at how little guidance was available for young professionals like herself, Olaseinde began sharing her learnings in fun, bite-sized tutorials on Instagram, and much to her surprise, her posts went viral.

“I had no idea my page would just blow up,” said the 34-year-old by phone from Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos.

“Just like me, there were young people who wanted to know how to manage their finances, but needed information in an easy-to-understand way.”

Almost four years on, Olaseinde heads MoneyAfrica, an online financial literacy portal providing courses from budgeting and currency risk to inflation and treasury bills, and more recently also founded Ladda, an app-based one-stop investment platform.

Collectively, the platforms have a 300,000-strong social media community and more than 15,000 active users. MoneyAfrica is projected to earn $1 million in revenue this year, said Olaseinde, and Ladda has $700,000 in assets under management.

From digital payments, loans and insurance to share trading and cryptocurrency, Olaseinde is among a growing number of female entrepreneurs in nations such as South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt taking a lead in Africa’s fintech revolution.

Since pioneering mobile money services in the late 2000s, Africa has become a hotbed for fintech – financial technology – innovation with an explosion of startups vying to tap the region’s unbanked millions.

Last year, fintech companies attracted more than 60% of the nearly $5 billion in investments to African startups, according to market intelligence and research firm Briter Bridges.

For female entrepreneurs, however, getting their innovations off the ground is often hampered by gender biases that stifle their ability to access finance, gain exposure and grow their businesses, industry experts and women founders said.

From 2013 to 2021, less than 5% of the total $12.6 billion in funding to Africa’s tech startups went to all-female founding teams compared with 82% to all male-ones, data shared by Briter Bridges showed.

BREAKING INTO THE ‘BOYS’ CLUB’

But while the sector is very much a “boys’ club”, research shows Africa’s fintech sector fares better than other regions when it comes to women at the top.

Around 3.2% of fintech firms in Africa are founded solely by women – double the global average of 1.6%, according to Findexable, a market research company that tracks gender diversity.

The continent’s fintechs also have more female board members compared with other regions, Findexable’s 2021 data shows.

Trailblazers include Kenya’s Jihan Abass who founded Nairobi-based Lami Technologies in 2018, aiming to boost almost non-existent insurance coverage among Africans.

“I became interested in insurance after having a conversation with a waiter who told me how he didn’t have medical insurance,” said Abass, 28, a former commodity futures trader at a London trading house.

Lami’s application programming interface, or API, enables businesses to offer flexible digital insurance products such as vehicle and health insurance to customers.

Through its API, users can get a quotation for motor, medical, or other insurance products in seconds, then customize the benefits and adjust the premium to suit their needs and get their policy documents instantly.

Since inception, Lami has raised more than $1.8 million in seed funding and partnered with companies including Kenya Commercial Bank and e-commerce platform Jumia to sell more than 72,000 policies.

Lami now operates in Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as Kenya, and also runs Griffin, a car insurance app fully built on the startup’s API.

Another female-led API fintech company is Lagos-based Okra, co-founded by Fara Ashiru Jituboh.

Launched in 2020, Okra aims to digitise financial services for Africa. Okra has built an open finance platform that enables developers and businesses to build personalised digital services and fintech products for customers.

“Essentially, we play the ‘middleman’ by enabling individuals and businesses to connect their bank accounts directly with third-party applications in real-time,” said Jituboh, 33, a former software engineer.

In less than two years, the startup has drawn more than 400 clients, including more than 20 banks in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, and has raised $4.5 million in venture capital.

But despite such success stories, many female fintech entrepreneurs struggle to attract investment.

Funding Gap

The stark funding gap between male- and female-led startups in the sector is often attributed to the shortage of female “techpreneurs”, but some industry experts disputed this.

“It’s nonsense for investors to claim that there aren’t any women entrepreneurs in fintech to invest in,” said Martha Mghendi-Fisher, founder of African Women in Fintech and Payments, a non-profit with a network of thousands of members.

“Investors are simply not looking hard enough.”

Female fintech founders said that even when they do have the opportunity to pitch to venture capital (VC) firms, gender biases mean they often raise less and receive lower valuations.

“I don’t think it helps that the majority of VC panels tend to be men who are white and much older,” said Faith Mokgalaka, founder of Johannesburg-based Puno, a digital platform enabling farmers to sell shares, or a portion of their next harvest.

“They aren’t openly sexist, but you do feel there is more scrutiny on you compared to men. More questions are asked, additional documentation and due diligence is required,” added 22-year-old Mokgalaka.

A recent study cited by Findexable estimates that white men control 93% of venture capital dollars.

An increasing number of accelerators – which provide early-stage companies with training, mentorship and financing – and venture capital firms are now shifting focus to women-led businesses.

The Catalyst Fund, an accelerator working with inclusive tech innovators, has supported 61 companies – more than one-third of them founded by women.

Maelis Carraro, the fund’s managing director, said investors need to rethink how they interact with female entrepreneurs.

“The whole setup in the VC space such as the Q&A, the aggressive pitching, the need to demonstrate over-confidence has to change,” said Carraro. “We need to make the whole conversation more inclusive.”

More diverse VC boards, programmes to encourage girls to pursue STEM careers and initiatives celebrating successful women founders would inspire others and foster a more supportive environment, entrepreneurs said.

“It’s a ‘tech bro’ environment, for sure,” said Delila Kidanu, 26, co-founder of Koa, an app-based savings and investment platform in Nairobi.

“It would be important to have some training on gender biases so that people can realize how their actions and decisions can adversely affect women entrepreneurs.”

By Nita Bhalla, Editing by Helen Popper.

To bring back women who have left the workforce, it’s up to employers to create an environment where women can prosper and meet their family obligations with no resistance.

A shocking number of women have exited the workforce since 2020 — as many as 3.5 million, all told — but we can reverse this disturbing trend if those of us in leadership positions operate with purpose, compassion, and creativity. Hiring more dynamic women on our teams and into deserved leadership roles means better business, after all.

But before we can encourage women to come back to work, we need to understand why they left. For far too many, the choice wasn’t made by them. Instead, the daunting and unrealistic expectations thrust upon them by a society coping with a global pandemic decided for them. Women historically have tended to carry the load at home, as noted in a piece from the Brookings Institution, and that load has only gotten heavier during the pandemic. 

According to a 2021 survey from MetLife, almost half of women say their career paths have been disrupted due to COVID. About one-fifth told MetLife they couldn’t continue working for reasons outside their control, yet two-thirds vowed that they were planning to come back.

Those promised returns haven’t happened. In September 2021 alone, more than a quarter-million additional women left the workforce, per CNBC reporting. By contrast, the World Economic Forum suggests that men are globally on a trajectory to return to 2019 work levels any day now.

Meeting the Needs of Women at Work

Look through today’s headlines, and you’ll find plenty of worrisome pieces discussing the current labor shortage fallout. While employers across the country have gone on record saying that they can’t find qualified candidates, many talented women are at home contemplating whether rejoining the workforce is even worth it. 

So what can be done to reengage this latent talent pool? It’s up to employers to create an environment where women can prosper and meet their family obligations with no resistance. Empowering and supporting women to shine as brightly as possible might mean thinking outside conventional working constructs.

It’s a lot to unpack, but the process to clear a path for women to start submitting résumés en masse is worth it:

1. Teach leaders how to manage with empathy

Admittedly, I was a less than sympathetic leader to the mothers on my team when I took my first management position. Why? I hadn’t become a parent yet. I had no comprehension of what it was like to have real priorities outside of work. It’s not that I didn’t care; I just couldn’t relate to what it was like to have so little downtime. After all, being a parent is a 24/7 endeavor that always takes precedence.

Businesses must train their leaders to acknowledge and respect the personal lives of working women. I have a great example of how this can play out, too. When I was the mother of a 2-year-old and pregnant with my second child, my male boss offered me the role of company president. He understood what far too many leaders don’t: Just because I was juggling family and work didn’t mean I couldn’t be a bigger asset to the organization or even take up the helm. Once in this role, I made it a deliberate practice to tell my team when I was leaving early or taking a personal day to be present with my children. Sharing this explicitly with my team set the tone that it was acceptable for them to do the same when needed. 

2. Empower women to control their schedules

Ambitious women, particularly those with younger children, have hectic calendars. From sports practices and recitals to doctor’s office visits and early school dismissals, moms often feel like they have to be in two places at once. Of course, this is impossible, as everyone knows. But plenty of companies can allow their employees to adjust their schedules as needed.

For example, your organization might not be able to offer remote work all the time. However, you could potentially offer it as an alternative a few times per week. Remote work is hugely empowering. A Catalyst survey found that having access to virtual work arrangements made moms about one-third less apt to say goodbye to a job. Consequently, consider bringing this and other types of flexibility into your working procedures. Just make sure that women who take advantage of scheduling freedom aren’t penalized by being passed over for promotions or salary raises just because they occasionally work from home.

3. Refresh outdated hiring and mentoring practices

When sourcing new talent and looking over résumés, rethink what employment gaps may mean. Historically, employers have seen gaps in a negative light. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that a temporary employment pause means that the applicant is flighty or irresponsible. It’s likely quite the opposite. I’ve found that mothers who leave the workforce temporarily and are ready to come back often have much greater productivity than the average worker. 

Being a mother breeds efficiency, problem-solving, and leadership. If you can get a toddler or a teenager to follow directions, leading a team of adults feels like a walk in the park. And once you’ve found great women to bring aboard, help them avoid stress and burnout by giving them access to formal or informal mentorships so they understand that they can pave their paths and be rewarded for leaning into their novel skill sets.

Women still want to climb the corporate ladder and make their mark. And research shows that when they do, businesses are more profitable as a result. So the onus is on the current leaders to lend them a hand. You’ll be amazed at how quickly a determined woman will blaze an impressive trail after receiving a bit of encouragement and support.

The companies and businesses that survive have leaders who model the kind of resilience that makes them change proof. They are undaunted by events and so are the companies that they lead.

I often wonder why some people are more resilient than others. What particular set of circumstances makes them able to withstand the slings and arrows that life rains down upon them with dignity, humor, and grace? 

The truth is, nobody knows for sure if resilience is something you are born with or something you just learn. But we know resilience when we see it. We know resilience leaders when we meet them. Take Monty Williams (pictured above), for example. You may not know that name offhand, but he’s a recent example of someone who embodies resilient leadership. 

Monty Williams was a journeyman NBA player where he bounced from team to team until he landed with the San Antonio Spurs organization, who helped him transition from playing to coaching. Today, he’s the NBA head coach for the Phoenix Suns. By all accounts a wildly successful life. It was, until everything in Monty Williams’s world changed forever. 

In 2016, when he was a coach with the Oklahoma City Thunder, his wife, Ingrid, mother of his five children, was killed when a woman with meth in her system and a dog in her lap crossed the median on a highway in downtown Oklahoma City, going over 90 miles an hour colliding with the Williams family van. The dog owner, Susannah Donaldson, died on impact along with her pet. The three children who were in the vehicle with Ingrid survived, but she succumbed to her injuries the next day.

In less than a week, Monty Williams was delivering the eulogy at Ingrid’s funeral in front of his five children and almost a thousand members of the NBA community. With almost superhuman control Monty spoke for just over seven minutes without referring to his notes or losing his composure. In calm measured tones, he spoke about forgiveness and about the need to move on. He was, in his own inimitable way, saying you have to love your life. No matter what. Even at his lowest moment, he was living out his resilience. In a dark and lonely valley, Monty Williams could have chosen despair. But he didn’t. He chose to be resilient. 

When I think about resilience I think about people who aren’t undaunted by events but no matter what happens, they maintain some fundamental core of what makes them who they are.  Like most resilient people, Monty Williams chose to be moved to grow. How did he do that? And how can we do the same thing for our organizations?

The American Psychological Association defines resilience as “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or even significant sources of threat.” 

Dennis Charney of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York and Steven Southwick at the Yale School of Medicine performed an analysis of resilience by talking to people who had experienced traumatic events like war, sexual abuse, acts of terror, or natural disasters and asked them simply how they dealt with the awful things that happened to them. What they found was that some folks who had experienced tragedy eventually began to suffer from depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), others had mild symptoms of trauma that went away after a period of time, and still others had no symptoms of psychological distress or depression. Their research identified the main factors marked for resilience: 

• Attention to health and good cardiovascular fitness
• Capacity to rapidly recover from stress
• A history of mastering challenges
• High coping self-efficacy—our belief in our own ability to succeed
• Disciplined focus on skill development
• Cognitive flexibility—the ability to reframe adversity in a positive light
• Positive emotion and optimism
• Loving caretakers and sturdy role models
• The ability to regulate emotions
• Strong social support
• Altruism—service
• Commitment to a valued cause or purpose
• Capacity to extract meaning from adverse situations
• Support from religion and spirituality 

Based on what I’ve observed, Monty Williams likely would have some if not all the preceding markers for resilience, perhaps almost all of them.

We’re going to be unpacking each of these markers. We’ll be addressing them from a holistic perspective. That means that they’ll be applicable markers for you and your performance, but if you’re a leader it will also help you diagnose and help your teams and organizations  

Resilient people are the ones who don’t just bounce back, but are able to bounce forward. It’s not just about getting back to where you were, it’s about getting further than you were. It’s about letting change change you. 

Senior executives across every industry are feeling the pressure. Investors are growing more impatient by the day. Technology is disrupting the workforce and uprooting traditional business practices.

Lawyers — in-house counsel in particular — are particularly at risk. Regulators are growing more assertive. Our political environment remains increasingly dynamic. To help companies navigate this complex business landscape, senior management is leaning more on their general counsel than ever before. This can make a GC’s job much more exciting, but it also increases the pressure.

Every company views success through a different lens. As a former general counsel in the financial services and technology space, I know this all too well. As a leader, I’ve learned to live by what I call the Kenny Rogers Rule of Business. In other words, you’ve got to know when to hold ’em; know when to fold ’em; know when to walk away, and know when to run. Growing into success as a legal executive is not only about learning business competencies — it’s also about knowing when to spot red flags and walk (or run!) away.

Competencies and Characteristics of Strong GCs

When we talk about the traits of anyone in a leadership position, we usually like to qualify these characteristics as learned versus innate. Wherever you stand in this discussion, I believe many of these traits can be instinctive and developed through learned experiences. This is why companies would do best to look for a general counsel who demonstrates a combination of sound judgment and a growth mindset. Many characteristics make strong legal leaders, but below is a list of some of the most prominent:

Tested Judgment

It’s vital that senior executives not confuse “good brains” with “good judgment.” I’m paraphrasing a Wall Street Journal article written by Peggy Noonan over a decade ago, but it’s still a powerful message today. GCs, in particular, must be able to evaluate and weigh the impacts of every single decision and course of action made by a company’s senior executives. In-house lawyers must also use their judgment to lead cross-functional teams. So when looking for a general counsel, don’t look just for intelligence, but rather for people who can show good and tested judgment.

Versatile Communication

GCs must regularly communicate with diverse audiences, from the company’s senior management team to the board to its employees. Whether you are the GC or looking to hire a GC, a good legal executive needs to adapt their communications to any group and simplify complex legal matters whenever necessary. Versatile communication skills are not just intuitive; they are learned through experience. Good communication skills are also a key part of a growth mindset.

Strategic Thinkers

When asked about choosing people for a team, General Colin Powell once said to look for those that “see around corners,” and I believe this applies to general counsels as well. GCs must anticipate and prepare themselves for issues and risks before and after they arrive. Strategy-oriented GCs can proactively identify solutions to eliminate risks and grow the business. A purely reactive lawyer without a strategic “see around corners” focus may react too soon or, worse, too late.

Cultural Fit

Anyone that works for a company must fit in with that organization’s culture, including the legal team. They must work directly with senior management while also meshing with the company’s other employees. If they aren’t a good cultural fit, it could be damaging to that company’s growth and success, as well as that of an in-house lawyer.

BUT, sometimes, the expectations senior management has for a general counsel are meant to cover up red flags within the business. GCs must look for these red flags, as many regulated businesses have personal liability for them.

Red Flags: Knowing When to Run

Serving as a general counsel or legal executive often comes with personal liability. Here are some business red flags I’ve uncovered during my time in-house:

Values Mismatch

If your values as a lawyer and those of the organization you’re serving don’t line up, it’s time for a new job. Whether the misalignment is because of the culture, diversity, or other issues within the organization, if senior management is cultivating these values, it may not be the place for you. In my parents’ era, people stayed in their jobs for decades, maybe even for life. However, as you grow your career, you can no longer be afraid of leaving a job that doesn’t align with your values because a short stint with an employer “doesn’t look good on your resume.” The costs to your reputation may be far higher for staying than for leaving quickly. The same goes for companies who hire lawyers whose values don’t align with those of the company!

Risky Business

As a lawyer, it is often your job to manage business risk. This can mean everything from financial risk to employment risk to premises risk. At first, risk management can seem like a way to work hands-on with senior management, but it can also have a darker side. If you believe people within your organization are hiding or misrepresenting risks to you, run, don’t walk away. 

Blame Game

This isn’t a popular thing to talk about, but occasionally, senior executives choose to “blame the lawyer.” As general counsels, we’ve all experienced this at one point. It’s a common refrain from the boardroom to the courtroom: “My lawyer told me I could do it.” 

If a company wants you to succeed, you’ll succeed. But if you’ve noticed any of these red flags working with your company, follow the Kenny Rogers Rule of Business and know when to run.

As a leader, you’re really busy. While mentoring a rising high performer may sound like a great opportunity, you might worry that you just don’t have the bandwidth. But here’s something you may not have considered: Most people think of mentoring as a giving exchange, but it’s really a getting exchange.

Bert Thornton, the former president and COO of Waffle House, and Dr. Sherry Hartnett founder of the experiential learning Executive Mentor Program, share ten ways this relationship can benefit to you.

1. Mentoring can reignite your engagement. 

As you share your accumulated knowledge with your mentee, you’ll explain why you chose the path you did and reflect on what your career means to you. Especially if you’ve just been going through the motions for a while, this self-reflection can help you rediscover your enthusiasm for your job and reconnect you with your professional purpose. 

2. It can help you hone new skills

Mentees can teach, too! Often, they keep their mentors up to speed with current tools and technologies (for instance, what apps they’re using for productivity), help them learn to work with those of a different generation or background, and give them new insights into topics like inclusivity and unconscious bias.

3. Mentoring can help you get to know yourself better

You’ll sometimes need to take a step back and ponder what you really “know.” You’ll confront topics such as the nature of leadership, what success really means, and how to be a better person. This introspection will either reinforce your viewpoint or change it, driving learning and personal growth. 

4. You can develop lifelong relationships

“I still have contact with men and women who sat across the table from me 40 years ago,” shares Thornton. “Through the years, we’ve talked about college, jobs, surviving and thriving in the business world, marriage and kids, finances, and stress. Now we talk about how they enjoy the fruits of a successful life. No one can doubt this is the perfect outcome.” 

5. It expands your network

Over the years, many of your mentees will go on to work for other organizations. Maybe you will too. You never know how these connections might eventually help you, your company, or your future mentees.

6. It raises your profile in the organization

In most organizations—especially those with a formal mentoring program—mentors are considered an influential, successful group of leaders. When you add value to your company by developing mentees, your reputation will benefit.

7. Being a mentor pushes you to always do your best

“Knowing that your mentee is closely observing how you think, act, tackle challenges, manage conflict, etc., will ensure that you’re not cutting any corners,” points out Dr. Hartnett. “If you give your mentee advice, they need to see you implementing it in your career as well.”

8. Mentoring feels good

“To me, true success isn’t as much about wealth or power as it is about adding value, and where better to add value than in another person’s life?” says Thornton. “It’s a privilege to pay my experience forward to deserving, emerging leaders, and I have gained a deep, abiding sense of satisfaction from doing so.”

9. It can give new life to your self-development

Great leaders consistently consume an impactful list of books, articles, podcasts, websites, videos, etc. If your self-development has fallen by the wayside, you’ll need to kickstart it again if you expect your mentee to invest in themselves in a similar way. Revisit resources that have been of value in the past and discover new ones.

10. Mentoring gives you faith in the future

“Mentors often report that their opinion of the next generation has improved because they have a better understanding of younger workers’ strengths and potential,” says Dr. Hartnett. “Mentors also say they’ve become more effective leaders because they’ve gained important insights about younger people’s outlooks and priorities.”

“When you pass on your hard-won knowledge, experience, and wisdom, you powerfully impact rising high performers, your organization, and your industry,” says Thornton. “What better legacy can you leave?” 

“And remember, developing mentees into better employees helps not just them, but your whole organization,” adds Dr. Hartnett. “An investment in a mentoring relationship is an investment in your professional success.”

Bert Thornton and Dr. Sherry Hartnett’s new book is High-Impact Mentoring: A Practical Guide to Creating Value in Other People’s Lives.

Some people withhold information on purpose. They say yes when they don’t mean it. They may even schedule meetings when key players can’t attend.

These people seem to care more about dominating the terrain they’ve decided is “theirs” than they care about collaborating to improve everyone’s success.

If you don’t play their game, they may treat you like a threat. Initially you may avoid confrontation and try to work around them. And when the last straw lands it is easy to lose your cool or, worse, start playing games in return. The thing to remember is that unchecked, these games destroy trust, decrease the flow of information, sever relationships, unplug empathy, and waste resources.

Recognizing how many people interpret work primarily through a competitive lens is the first step to understanding these behaviors without demonizing the game players. We must find a way to turn them into allies: playing tit for tat only escalates bad feeling. It is sweet to imagine a game player suddenly seeing the error of their ways, apologizing, and collaborating, but it’s just a fantasy. Nope: The best way to build collaborative narratives at work is to help game players decide for themselves to stop playing games and collaborate for their own reasons.

Offering them the chance to change their behavior without ever admitting there was a problem gets the best results. Understand that for them, collaboration can feel like a loss. Sharing information, listening to diverse points of view, and backing up to rethink goals makes them feel unfocused and/or weak. Yet when we refuse to respond in kind and give game players a second chance to play collaboratively, we make more progress than if we stay silent or retreat.

Here are three common examples of workplace games — and what to do in response:

The Occupation Game

Back when territory was a matter of geography, strategies to control and occupy an area were tangible. Today, competitive players seek to control less tangible “territory” like information, relationships, and communication channels. Controlling conversations, withholding information, and mocking empathy are common strategies. Deterred by warnings to back off, many of us disconnect rather than risk “invading” their territory to ask for collaboration.

How to Respond

Disrupt the game by sharing some of your own “territory” to prove that work needn’t be a battle. Creating new channels of communication that reveal a bigger picture to produces more innovative solutions. Tell a story about the harm of “winner takes all” reasoning. Show up even when you aren’t invited. And stay present and alert instead of shutting down or getting angry.

The Intimidation Game

When a competitive player is threatened by what you have to say, they try to convince you to shut up. They often blame “how” you communicated, when the truth is that they actually didn’t like “what” you said. If they can get you to feel responsible for their failure to listen, it keeps you busy on the wrong tasks. Some of the behaviors used to intimidate and silence others include loud throat clearing, raising eyebrows, or verbal attacks. Some game players invade your physical space or threaten harm to your status. Unfortunately, sexual harassment is a terribly effective form of intimidation.

They may accuse you of being the one who is intimidating. This often happens in cases when male game players get emotionally triggered after women expose injustice.

How to Respond

Women who stay calm in the face of intimidation keep others calm as well. Developing the ability to hear/see/feel the threat while taking a deep breath and staying sane often flips the focus back on them and their bullying behavior.

When we persevere, we expose that most of these acts of intimidation are bluffs. So it’s key to speak up — and protect others who are being bullied.

The Invisible Walls Game

Competitive players often agree in public to collaborate only to buy time to set up roadblocks that keep people divided. Once they label you as an enemy, misdirection and disinformation seems justified. All it takes is a disdainful or mocking attitude to encourage others to also block efforts to collaborate. Impossible timelines, logistical impediments, and unwarranted barriers for participation keep their battle lines strong.

How to Respond

Once a competitive group characterizes decision-making as a prize to win rather than an opportunity to collaborate, they implement “control the narrative” campaigns to belittle the more complex strategies that blend multiple narratives into a new story. And yet we must avoid accusations of ill intent that escalate aggression. It may be necessary to go toe to toe for a bit to illustrate that you could fight, but you choose not to. If you suspect insincere agreements, your best strategy is to track progress and expose invisible walls before they do too much damage. Perseverance is vital.

Our ability to anticipate these games rather than being blindsided by them builds up a shared immunity to tactics like gaslighting and intimidation. There are many more kinds of games — filibuster, noncompliance, discrediting, shunning — that undermine collaboration every day.

The key is to encourage vibrant conversations about how this kind of game-playing harms relationships and results. Plan innovative experiments that demonstrate the successful results of collaboration. It is high time we stop undermining each other — and pay better attention to our shared safety and our shared goals. There’s strength in numbers, and grace and power in collaboration.

As a business leader, choosing impact is a challenging career choice. Not only is it different from conventional shareholder-centric businesses, but many of us haven’t experienced working in for-profit organizations with an impact focus before.

You must accept that you’ll be inventing new ways to lead and that sometimes you’ll struggle. Hiring and retention are critical issues for all organizations right now, and impact-focused companies have some unique challenges and strengths in this area. Because we’re not venture-backed and focus on impact first, the incentives for working at our organization are different. Sometimes, there are fewer extraordinary monetary gains to be made; we are flatter in our structure and compensation, including our senior team.

Recently we were hiring for a business development executive and interviewed some great candidates. Still, many professionals in this field are more motivated by financial reward than impact, so it has been a challenging role to fill. We can show growth and great compensation packages, but it’s hard to compete on financial rewards alone. Instead, we compete by focusing on our culture and benefits and by offering support for employee health, wage growth, and personal and professional development. I’ve adopted a “stretch don’t break” approach to creating growth opportunities for everyone, and we recently adopted a 4-day workweek that allows for more personal time. You need to define what makes your organization a great place to work.

The results have been phenomenal. We’ve had amazing people approach us to see if we’re hiring and to find out how to get involved. We know our formula is working because we’ve attracted people who fit our culture and impact focus. But it’s not for everyone — and that’s OK.

The other area we see our impact model making a difference is in our growth strategies. When we launch a new product or service line, we are continually focused on the impact of that new idea. Does it bring something new to the marketplace? Is it having an outsized impact on our customers relative to its cost?

This thinking causes us to look for better ways to measure impact and focus heavily on innovation in our work. The easier path might be to chase all ideas that generate revenue, but revenue is not always a good impact indicator. For example, we launched the Fearless Leaders MasterClass to develop the next generation of leaders in response to succession pipeline challenges, but many HR leaders sought “microlearning” and online solutions. Those systems are an easy sell as they are low-cost and on-demand for employees, but do they really change behavior or elevate skills? So we decided to go for a product that has a lasting impact and stands for real change. As an impact leader, you sometimes forgo easy revenue to build something with lasting value.