Books on professional success often say that it is more important to strengthen your strengths rather than improve your weaknesses. On the one hand, they’re right; on the other, this doesn’t go far enough.

It sounds logical – and it is: You shouldn’t waste your time trying to be good at things you never stand a chance of being among the best at. It is far more efficient to focus on your strengths and become even better in these areas. If you heard me sing and I asked you to rate me on a scale of minus 10 to plus 10, you would probably give me a minus nine if you were charitable and a minus ten if you were honest. I believe that, with a lot of hard work and perseverance, I could improve by 10 points over the next few years. That is an enormous improvement. But where would that get me? Would that get me any form of recognition? Well, my friends, who knew that I started as a minus 10, would pat me on the back and congratulate me. But for everyone else, I’d still be a zero: no one would hire me as a singer; I wouldn’t be able to earn a single dollar with my singing, let alone win a prize. Would it be worth the effort?

Strengthening your strengths

This requires an alternative scenario: Let’s take an activity where I am good, e.g., a keynote speaker. The fact that I regularly receive invitations from all over the world to give lectures indicates that I am good in this field. Probably most people would give me an 8 or 9 on our scale of minus 10 to plus 10 – at least if they experienced me at my best, on a day when I am on top of my game. Professionals, however, i.e., the world’s best speakers, would probably be more critical and perhaps give me a five or a six. If I focused all of my time and energy on improving my skills as a speaker rather than working on my abilities as a singer, I might improve by 3, 4, or even 5 points – and I would be one of the best speakers on the circuit. People would want to hear me speak, and I could earn a lot of money giving talks. 

So, the idea that we should focus on strengthening our strengths rather than working on our weaknesses has a lot going for it. Nevertheless, I would like to make an essential qualification. As Geoffrey Colvin demonstrates in his book Talent is Overrated, it is not talent but “deliberate practice” over years and decades with unrelenting self-discipline that is the main reason for people’s success. The length of time spent practicing, and the intensity and method of practice vary considerably between the best performers and average experts in their field. 

The secret of elite performers

But it is not only the length of time and the intensity of the practice that counts, but also the type of practice. What many people understand by ‘practice’ has nothing to do with the “deliberate practice” of which Colvin speaks. Performing a particular activity in the same or similar way over and over again does not, of course, lead to the kind of dramatic improvements necessary to achieve excellence. Instead, a key feature of “deliberate practice” is that great performers concentrate on a very specific aspect of what they do and focus on that until they make significant progress. They identify very specific sub-areas that need improvement and approach them systematically. True masters of their trade focus their practice on those specific aspects and work on them, single-mindedly, relentlessly until no further improvement is possible.

Learn from the superstar Andrea Bocelli  

Once you have identified a particular strength, you may need to hone in on any residual weaknesses and work on them. This is precisely what Andrea Bocelli did. He is not only one of the most successful Italian singers of all time, but he is also one of the few who have established themselves on a global stage in both pop and classical music. He has performed in front of presidents of the United States and several popes and filled concert halls worldwide. His albums have reached the upper echelons of the charts, received multiple platinum awards, and won major music prizes such as the World Music Award, ECHO, Classic Brit Awards, a Bambi in the field of classical music, and a Billboard Award. He has also been nominated for several Grammys.

Although Bocelli, who was born with an eye disease and went completely blind at the age of 12, earned praise for his singing from those around him early in his life, he remained self-critical. For his friends and acquaintances, he was the greatest – and increasingly for other people too. In his autobiography, however, he writes that he subjected his songs to critical analysis and came to a conclusion, “that they did lack a certain originality and, probably, even strength.” 

A piano tuner told the singer to take singing lessons

One day a piano tuner said to him: “Forgive my frankness, but I feel it is my duty to tell you that, with your voice, you could go a long way if only you entrusted yourself to a good singing teacher.” Bocelli was amazed. For years, no one had spoken to him about studying singing. The piano tuner recommended an exceptional teacher, Luciano Bettarini, who had trained numerous opera singers, including Franco Corelli. Other singers might have been offended to have a piano tuner recommend that they take singing lessons. Bocelli, however, listened to the advice he was given and contacted Bettarini.

After Bettarini had heard him sing, he said: “You have a voice of gold, my son!” before adding, “But you do the exact opposite of what you should do when singing. Proper study would not only improve your interpretative qualities, but it would strengthen your voice; in short, it would put you in a new league. What I mean, to be frank, is that to the ear of the uninitiated, you may sound surprising, but to the ear of an expert, the defects of your voice are egregious.” Nobody had ever spoken to Bocelli this way before, but he was eager to learn and from that day on took lessons with the maestro. Thus, Bocelli did the two things that matter: He focused on his strength – singing – and dedicated himself to systematically improving the weaknesses of his voice. 

I try to learn from Bocelli’s example. I often give lectures in Asia and the United States – in English. I have no natural talent for foreign languages. Even at school, I was better at maths, physics, and chemistry and awful at French. So, I had to work on my English. For a few months now, I’ve been taking a – very expensive – course three times a week with a leading coach to help me improve my pronunciation in English and reduce my German accent. So, within a field of strength, I am working on my weaknesses. And after my last lecture in China, I gave the recording to one of the best rhetoric trainers in Germany. I asked him to critically analyze the weaknesses in my delivery.

So, yes, strengthening your strengths is a good idea. But if you don’t self-critically and persistently focus on your weaknesses within your area of strength, you will never be one of the best. 

A simple search on Amazon reveals more than 100,000 results for leadership books. Not one of them contains the script for the current pandemic scenario.

COVID taught us many things. One of them was that the way we are running our businesses and our society is not fit for the future.

Society is relying on our corporate leaders to change the way things were. Society too. Transformation is needed. It’s needed quickly. We may need a new American way. We do need a new world order.

As the pandemic enters its second year, recovery seems a Herculean task. As Zen put it, “The obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.”

We have already woken up to the fact that it’s a waste of time and energy making millions of workers take agonizing daily commutes to soulless city offices. Now we need to create an entirely new world of work. One that genuinely respects diversity and inclusion and works to a higher purpose than profit.

We need to face up to the black hole of unemployment—which unequally strikes our women, Black and Latino co-workers, and our youth. We need to address the digital divide that sees poorer families excluded from the same education as others and leaves more than 40 million unable to reach the internet.

We have been given the starkest notice of the fragility of humanity and the world we inhabit. We need business leaders who can save our planet before it’s too late.

We need leaders who will recognize the behavioral and consumer trends that will cement a new way of life as vaccines jab into more American arms. We will travel less. We should prefer local produce. The doctrine of globalization will need to be re-thought. We must reform our health and care services with technology and telemedicine at the heart of a new way to treat the sick.

Attitudes to physical and mental well-being in the workplace will change. Right now, so many people are just exhausted. Our leaders must press stop on the treadmill of corporate life and seek a better way.

Employees need a different way to be inspired, engaged and motivated. COVID must herald the end of the Superman command-and-control boss and the beginning of a new era of compassionate leaders.

The current crisis is proof that any group of human beings’ real potential is only realized when they are united behind a common purpose that they believe in. Purpose must be put at the heart of all meaningful enterprises in a way that meets the wishes of consumers, employees, and investors.

May we also see the death of so much corporate hypocrisy? For years consumers have promised to vote with their wallets against the corporations who don’t behave and in favor of those who do. May that moment have truly arrived?

The challenge for our corporate leaders is to take these issues and create that new world order. We owe it to the 122 million who’ve been infected so far and the 2.7 million who’ve died.

In time, this may be as great a challenge as dealing with the deadly virus itself.

Social distancing restrictions aren’t an excuse to cut corners on compassion.

In light of recent economic challenges, countless businesses face the prospect of needing to furlough, limit hours, or at worst, say goodbye to their employees. Layoffs are a crucial strategic measure that must be, above all else, implemented with empathy, compassion, and gratitude for all that those released from the company have done.

But empathy doesn’t always translate well across a computer screen. As the current global situation compels companies to remain remote, HR departments and managers find themselves needing to conduct layoffs over a Zoom video feed rather than via an in-person meeting. The results aren’t always optimal.

In late April, 406 employees at the e-scooter company Bird lost their roles over a Zoom audio call in just two and a half minutes. According to a Verge report on the layoff, the speaker’s camera remained off, and the announcement concluded without any personal reassurance. After the call ended, the ex-employees watched in shock as they were automatically logged out of their email accounts, and their computers switched to a gray lock screen. One moment, those 406 employees were appreciated and valued, part of the family. The next, they were jettisoned like so much unwanted baggage.

This outcome is unacceptable. For employees, losing a job is often a traumatic experience on par with divorce, death, or eviction. The notice marks the loss of an income, community, and professional home; it plunges workers into sudden uncertainty and anxiety. The unexpected negative experience can prompt understandable feelings of resentment and hurt, and compel several to post scathing, brand-damaging reviews of a business’s conduct as an employer.

Make no mistake: the decisions that leaders make during a crisis matter, and there will be consequences for those who choose to expel people without treating them with the respect and care that a colleague deserves. They deserve more than having a door — or Zoom window — shut in their face.

But even if we put ethics aside, the conduct of virtual layoffs matters from a pragmatic business perspective. In our digital age, an employer’s brand is readily accessible with a quick Internet search. Roughly 70 percent of job searchers consult review platforms before making a career decision. If you received offers from two competing companies, one with an excellent employer brand and one with a subpar one, which would you choose? The answer is obvious — and demonstrates exactly how important such branding is in the war for talent.

It’s true that for now, employers are navigating uncharted territory. Few companies have ever needed to make crucial personnel decisions over digital channels, let alone on a large scale. It falls to organizations to create offboarding plans that empower managers to conduct digital layoffs in a compassionate and respectful way.

Sound impossible? Let’s reconsider the Bird example for a moment.

In our hypothetical re-do, all 406 employees receive a calendar invite to a Zoom call. But, rather than being subjected to a droning, faceless announcement, an upper-level leader breaks the news. Rather than reading from a script, they share the change with gratitude and empathy and gently explain that the employees’ managers will be in touch to discuss offboarding and next steps.

The employees then break into smaller, more personal sessions to have a real conversation about the decision with someone they know and trust. The former team members are guided through the offboarding process and given access to outplacement resources to help them prepare for a new role beyond the company. Employees leave knowing that they were treated fairly and with compassion — and share that bittersweet experience in reviews.

Remember, a layoff is painful; it constitutes one of the most frightening and uncertain times in an employee’s life. By connecting the former employee to post-employment resources, a company can provide critical reassurance and support during that transitional time. To be able to ask for help and guidance when you need it most is life-changing. That provision of support demonstrates empathy and ensures that they do so on good terms even when employees leave.

More than ever, businesses need to accept that empathy isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. Organizations need people as much as, if not more than, cost-cutting strategies and quick decisions. Take the time to assess your layoff protocols. You may find that the way that you treat people now will define you for years to come.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst that accelerated change in almost every industry. What used to take some companies five years to accomplish remarkably took them only five months during the pandemic.

From at-home grocery retailing to working at home virtually, companies digitized their businesses and changed how they delivered services at unprecedented rates.  
 
Many businesses had no choice but to rethink how they created value for customers and how they operated, creating new ways of delivering existing services. Entirely new products and services were developed and launched in record time.  
 
While some companies were better positioned to deal with the challenges the pandemic presented, others struggled.  
 
Given this, consider these three relevant questions for all business leaders in the context of their own organization and industry:  

• Why did it take a pandemic to accelerate innovation and change? 
• How did your organization fare? 
• What will your organization do differently to stay ahead moving
  forward? 

Businesses that were far along on their digital transformation — those who’d already moved to a more agile organization and had a deep understanding of their customers — were in a better position to deal with the challenges the pandemic introduced. They could seize the market opportunities it presented.  
 
For example, the unprecedented rate of change and disruption occurring in the financial services industry, along with changing customer preferences and expectations had caused some organizations to already rethink everything they do, adopt technology, and be more agile and innovative. US Bancorp of Minneapolis was well positioned coming into the pandemic, having gone through its own agile transformation the few years prior. This enabled them to maintain business continuity, effectively serve customers’ needs, and quickly launch new products and services. Robinhood and Reddit had business models and the digital reach that enabled them to continue creating value and growth. Peloton, Roku, and Zoom were poised to pounce when the lockdowns hit.  
 
For some companies, lockdowns increased the demand for their products and services. However, their ability to meet those demands was contingent upon how agile and digitally connected their organizations were both inside and outside. For US Bancorp, products and services that used to take them years to develop took them months by the time pandemic struck, giving them an advantage going into it. 
 
Other businesses were not so fortunate. Coming into the pandemic, what used to take them years still took them years, putting enormous pressure on organizations. Traditional retail is one such example. While low-end retailers like Walmart and Target weathered the storm (in part because they were allowed to stay open), many other high-end retailers couldn’t quickly adjust, as evidenced by the many closures in 2020 — including Pier 1 Imports, Papyrus, and Victoria’s Secret. 
 
Although some companies weren’t as well positioned as others coming into the pandemic and had slow cycles of innovation and technology adoption, some rose to the occasion and adapted. They rapidly adopted technologies and found new ways to deliver products and services to add additional value to customers.  
 
For example, one European company that delivered on-site quality management auditing services found new ways to conduct remote audits through the use of video inspections and how information was shared. Now, this is being sold as having more value to customers than the way it used to deliver these services and this the approach will outlive the COVID pandemic.  

Moving forward, smart manufacturing technologies, remote sensing and monitoring and direct connections into systems will open up more possibilities to innovate and provide quality management services that create even more value and better outcomes. 

The opportunity to create more value for customers was always there.

Every industry has examples of products or services that were traditionally delivered one way, but fundamentally changed in response to the pandemic. You can probably think of some in your own industry and company. The opportunity to radically change how a service is delivered and how customers are engaged has always been there: the technology to enable it has been available. Why did it take a pandemic to force change in some industries and for companies to discover different ways of working that also create more value for both their companies and their customers? When the pandemic fades and is no longer a catalyst for accelerating change and disruption, what will be the driving force?  
 
Many organizations learned they could get done in months what previously took them years. Why was it taking them years? They learned they could fundamentally change how a product or service was delivered and consumed, creating more value for the customer. Why didn’t they see this before and act on it? These are fundamental questions that every business leader should consider.  

How to stay ahead 

The pandemic has provided many important lessons. It will serve business leaders well to reflect on their organization before the pandemic, what they observed about their organization during the pandemic, and what learnings they can apply to help make their organization more agile and resilient in a world where the pace of change only accelerates around them.  
 
Here are five things to consider moving forward: 

1. Speed. If you discovered that it took a pandemic to get done in months what usually takes years, identify the underlying root causes that previously held back progress and address them. Your organization needs to be able to keep up with the pace of change without having a virus to force the issue. Next time it will be a competitor — or possibly a new entrant not constrained by a legacy culture or traditional industry practices — that disrupts your business and creates more value for your customers. 
    
2. Opportunity. Don’t underestimate the opportunities that exist to proactively transform how you can create value for customers, disrupt your industry, and differentiate. It’s possible to do things very differently than your organization may have imagined. When everyone in an industry does something the same way, a wonderful opportunity exists to find a way to do it differently and create additional value for customers.  
    
3. Advantage. Did you come into this pandemic well positioned? If your organization has the ability to think differently, is digitally capable, and can develop and implement forward-looking strategies quickly, you are in a position to put your competitors on the defensive, create more value for customers, and drive growth. Don’t wait for the next pandemic to strike and force everyone in the industry to change. Be proactive and continually find opportunities to rethink what you do and how you’re uniquely creating value for customers. It will be harder for competitors to catch up.  
    
4. Risk. Pre-COVID, risk in some corporate cultures might be doing anything that changes the status quo or is difficult and could fail. During COVID, risk was not doing what was difficult and needed to be done. Post- COVID, organizations have a choice regarding which path is riskier. How does your organization perceive risk? 
    
5. Strategy. Evaluate your organization’s strategy development capability. How is it helping the organization think differently, challenge assumptions, and take an outside-in view? Is it able to effectively facilitate bringing together a deep understanding of customer needs, opportunities in the value chain, and the organization’s unique competencies to reimagine how value is created? Can it develop strategies that lead to differentiation and growth — not just differentiation from your competitors, but differentiation from how your organization has been doing things? 

The winners moving forward will be organizations that are agile, digitally capable, and proactively willing to rethink everything they do. Applying some of these lessons to your organization will help position it in front of change, not behind it.

Phil Burns and William Putsis are co-founders and partners at The Platform for Strategic Growth, a strategy services firm focused on matching deep-seated customer needs with unique points of strategic control. Find out more at theplatformforstrategicgrowth.com or how to learn about the concepts at chestnuthillassociates.com/education.

Whether you’re working on assignment in a foreign country or hosting Zoom conferences with teams around the world, your ability to build relationships can make or break your business success.

In some cultures, the strength of a relationship indicates your trustworthiness as a business partner — and building the relationship depends on five key behaviors. Ask yourself:

How do you greet others?

We’ve all been socialized on how to greet other people. We might kiss (be it once, twice, or three or four times on the lips or cheek — or in the air), bow (after gauging how low and with whom), or shake hands (using one or both hands to firmly pump one, two, or more times).
 
In the U.S., a firm handshake and a toothy smile are the norm. In Italy and France, a double kiss is more appropriate. In Iran, men might greet other men with a kiss or handshake, and women kiss women. In Japan and Korea, bowing is more common.
 
In the digital realm, how team members are addressed when greeted — and who speaks first — deeply matter. In many cultures, failing to use formal titles or adhere to protocol means being written off as discourteous, impolite, rude, or worse.
 
Tip: In unknown situations, err on the side of greater formality. Use Mr., Ms., or Dr. with a surname and more deferential speech. While this may feel inauthentic if you’re more informal, it’s easier to start with greater formality and move to informality over time.

What’s your social distance?

During the COVID pandemic, everyone is thinking about social distance and how far they are from others. It turns out, we’ve been doing that long before the pandemic. Even in pre-COVID times, think of the last time someone stood too close or too far from you when they spoke with you. Without any thought, you reflexively moved back or closer depending on your socialized norm. It was a subconscious judgment resulting in an automatic behavior.
 
If the person moved closer or further again (using his or her automatic behavior), the subconscious action became a conscious violation. You might judge the person to be “creepy” or “weird” — or just different, depending on how much time you’ve spent with those from a different culture.
 
A study of social distance in 42 countries found that preferred distances vary considerably depending on the country. For example, in China, the preferred distance from a stranger is about 110 centimeters, whereas it’s only 90 centimeters in Spain.
 
Tip: When you first meet someone, try to remain still. As a reflex, the other person will move to the distance that feels right. For you, it might feel too close or too far, but it will be comfortable for the other person. 

Are you hands-on or hands-off?

As with greetings and social distance, there’s a wide range across cultures in how much people use touch in conversation. In some countries, it’s a norm to touch another person’s arm for emphasis, to foster connection, or to show empathy.
 
In a study of European countries, researchers found many differences. In Greece, for example, 32% of conversations included some form of touch. Yet, in the Netherlands, only 4% of conversations did.
 
Tip: Be mindful of gender and age differences with respect to who will be open to touching — and whether touching someone of the opposite sex will be viewed as appropriate. 

Are you chatty or silent?

Do you remember the last time you were in a conversation with someone who either remained silent when you were expecting a response or interrupted you when you were talking? In either case, the flow of conversation was disrupted.
 
The use of both silence and interruption has vastly different meanings, depending on the cultures. At one extreme, in some Latin cultures, talking over another person (i.e., interrupting) is a way to express enthusiastic engagement for what’s being said. At the other extreme, in some Asian cultures, remaining silent before speaking is a way to show thoughtful engagement.
 
When silence is used correctly in multicultural interactions, those interacting go into a state of conversational flow, experiencing a greater sense of belonging, social connection, and consensus. Without conversational flow, people may feel rejected, and it can sour their view of you and others. Wherever you are on this continuum, your speech pattern can affect how you will be viewed as a conversational partner.
 
Tip: Learn how your team members’ cultures affect their communication patterns and use of silence. Seek out foreign movies and tv shows to practice listening to a member’s native language or accented English) to learn the intonation, rhythm, use of silence, and how engagement is shown verbally and nonverbally.

Are you comfortable with self-disclosing?

Zoom calls from kitchens and living rooms have heightened our awareness of our colleagues’ comfort with privacy. Yet these differences are present with or without bringing our colleagues — virtually — into our homes. For example, have you ever met someone for the first time while on a plane, bus, or in line at the market, and, without inquiry, he or she begins to tell you something you thought was too personal? What’s your reaction? If you’re like most, it’s to get away from the person as quickly as possible (if doing so doesn’t require a parachute).
 
What’s deemed too personal, however, differs across cultures. In some cultures, as in the U.S., self-disclosing personal information about family, health, and work is comfortable. In other cultures, personal information is limited to a small circle of loved ones and therapists.
 
Tip: Begin conversations with something neutral, like the weather. Do your homework on topics. In some cultures, even commenting on a family photo or making a cultural inquiry might seem rude. In team conference calls or Zoom meetings, acknowledge each team member’s personal and professional milestones, respecting differences in privacy. Celebrate virtually if that’s comfortable for everyone.
 
These behaviors all influence how you perceive others — and how they perceive you — as you foster relationships. However, this list is not exhaustive. To learn more, consult with colleagues, mentors, and friends who understand the culture and how to effectively build rapport, communicate, and, ultimately, gain trust within it.

A recent virtual roundtable, The Business Soul Forum hosted by Soul Corporations, brought together senior leaders and professionals of influence, and opened up a discussion on the importance of bringing soul to business, and how leadership teams can create a connected organizational culture.

The forum followed a series of in-depth interviews, highlighting how people need to feel personally accountable and empowered, not just being informed, to feel committed. For many organizations, purpose and values exist, however in too many, they struggle to reach people or inspire them at a deeper level.

1. Individual and organizational well-being

The team’s current well-being and what the future of work will look like remain a crucial concern for many leaders as we continue the prolonged periods of uncertainty. For many organizations, the pandemic has shown that employee effectiveness is not defined by the number of hours they physically spend in the office but by the quality of the work they produce and the quality of the life they live. Over the last year, significant changes have had to be made to address employees’ most pressing needs. In the long term, leaders need to build on the trust earned. They need to achieve this by learning how to be fully present, authentic, and transparent when they communicate online.

Maccs Pescatore, Chief Executive Officer of Montessori Centre International, believes that the pandemic has magnified workplace landscapes. “This creates an opportunity to focus on the person, not the work person – their well-being and whether they feel valued. We need to ensure that each employee feels engaged with the business’s mission and strategy.”, said Maccs.

2. Learning and development

This is a critical time for learning and development, not just to thrive in the current economic climate but also to strengthen companies for future disruptions. It’s a common misconception that during a crisis, employees have to do what they have to do, utilizing their existing skills and limited resources. However, this is especially untrue during the Covid pandemic. We have seen major changes to the economy and the linked demand for new ways to mobilize the existing talent base.

Supporting and coaching leaders to reset their leadership approach to support and enable all stakeholders to thrive is a priority for Paula Leach, Founder and Executive Coach at Vantage Point Consulting. “We need to see a shift in leadership accountability. Although it is shifting slowly, investors presently primarily focus on profits. The same applies for the selection process for leaders – it needs to shift from financial and operational acumen to include strategic creation and vision and enabling and inspiring a shared collective endeavor.”, added Paula.

In the past year, the Food Standards Agency has invested in a program of executive, senior leader, and professional speaker coaching to transform the way communications are managed online. This initiative demonstrates an increasing need for leaders to drive their agenda with real humanity with a focus on cultivating authentic presence and empathy and engaging with emotions.

People are the most critical element of organizational success, and leadership development programs can provide support for faster, more agile organizations to keep them moving forward. Most leaders right now have an opportunity to improve performance by reshaping and strengthening their work cultures significantly. This can require them to develop a team and organizational climate that genuinely supports and enables people to address the key challenges. 

3. Diversity, equity, and inclusion

Historically, progress on advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion has been slow. However, the pandemic has amplified this even further. Leesa Hill, Senior Director and DI+B Head at Enspira, highlighted how leaders need to continue to learn how ‘DEI’ plays a role in employees’ lives through remote work. High levels of bias can exist for those that work in the office. The assumption being if you are in person, you are a higher performer. Simultaneously, more and more women are continuing to work remotely compared to men, furthering the wage gap and opportunities for career progression.

“Communication plays a critical role as we need to ensure all employees and clients understand the importance of attracting diverse talent for scarce, business-critical roles,” added Tony Vickers-Byrne, Chief Adviser to the board Armstrong Craven.

However, there is a need for an established inclusive culture to deliver on diversity as it goes beyond recruiting employees from diverse backgrounds – it’s about giving them the opportunity and space to bring out their authentic selves.

4. Building a people-focused culture

For Heather Grisedale, Group Employee Experience Manager at Cumbria Waste Group, a critical priority is to create a set of values and behaviors that can be truly ‘lived and breathed. This includes getting senior leaders further developed to understand the importance of people and engagement; growth and profits (results) don’t happen sustainably without putting people first.

Growing the business to maximize opportunities by optimizing the team’s well-being and engagement is also a priority for Veronica Hannon, Founder of Transform Communications. 

“What matters is what people carry around in their heads, hearts, and their deeper ‘I’; the deeper part of the self where my most powerful motivations are found,” says Nicholas Brice, CEO of Soul Corporations. Dr. Alan Beggs, a former Olympic Sports Psychologist for Team GB, also highlighted the emergence of transformational leadership, which, compared to transactional leadership, encourages others, provides support and recognition and emphasizes authenticity, cooperation, and open communication. He gave some powerful examples of athletes who got to the top and excelled when driven by a deep, inner conviction.

“I think there is a big responsibility on leadership to model soulful behavior. If you want engaged employees, leaders have to engage with employees. If you want a trusting culture, leaders need to demonstrate trust,” added Marcus Thornley, CEO of Totem.

5. Flexibility

Ilaria Galfredi, Customer Experience Leader at Air France, highlighted the importance of supporting teams and becoming more flexible. The pandemic has given leaders increased visibility into the personal lives of their employees and made it clear that supporting employees in their personal lives more effectively enables employees to not only have better lives but also to perform at a higher level, which in return drives productivity and engagement.

We are ready to see organizations implementing a flexible approach to work. For example, Microsoft’s “hybrid workplace” environment will allow most roles to remain remote less than half of the time with manager approval, while 62 percent of Google employees plan to return to their offices, but not every day.

We all compete. And we do it much more frequently than we believe or admit to.

We’ve all witnessed the chaos that breaks loose when a plane lands and reaches the gate. The pilot signals with a bell that we can rise, and everyone leaps to their feet to access the overhead luggage. This occurs even though the plane door won’t open for another five or more minutes. Many people will have to wait at baggage claim anyway, or that no one in the back is getting out before the people in the front unless they pry open the emergency exits.

I’ve giddily watched people maneuver in line to get close to an escalator on a crowded train platform or elbow their way to an opening elevator in a hotel lobby. We surreptitiously but obviously hand maître d’s cash to jump ahead in line or secure the best table. When we approach a toll booth on a highway, we race between lanes to beat other vehicles only to save 10 seconds.

Our competition has reached cringe-worthy levels. But not all of it is bad.

When competition is overt, unabashed, unashamed, and focused, it can be good for your health, good for your soul, and good for the legacy you create daily. In effect, the competition gives our lives meaning in six distinct ways:

1. We’re forced to be more innovative. To “win” requires that we either do things better than others or, preferably, create new standards of success which others can’t meet. Thus, we’re no longer merely problem solvers who restore performance to old levels when something goes wrong.

2. Our values change. When we compete, we see ourselves in a better light, generate more confidence, improve our self-esteem, and use more positive self-talk. We become accustomed to competing well and winning often, and that becomes self-reinforcing.

3. Our resilience grows. I’ve found resilience—rebounding from setbacks, defeats, and disappointments better than ever—to improve substantially when we fail to win in a competitive event rather than never engage in it at all. We learn how to win by watching others and examining our own performance.

4. It clears our heads. We have clear goals—the result of the competition—and we’re focused on where we’re going. We aren’t so easily distracted, and we stop procrastinating.

5. Our perspective improves. The more we attempt success, the more we understand how to be gracious losers and gracious winners. We don’t irritate others in our arrogance, and we don’t wallow in despair in our losses.

6. We’re perceived as “players.” We’re seen as people in the hunt, in the major leagues, and serious about our pursuits. We’re bold enough, skilled enough, and talented enough to be in the fray.

Our competitive nature is just fine, as long as it’s controlled and directed toward our success and not a zero-sum game in which you must lose for me to win. Covert competing—including boasting, passive-aggressiveness, false interest, sabotage, and celebrating others’ losses—is dysfunctional and creates a perpetual feeling of incompletion and non-success. Yet overt competing, with clear metrics, rules, and a healthy attitude, builds character, success, and, ultimately, a positive and memorable legacy.

Alan Weiss’s new book is Your Legacy Is Now: Life Is Not a Search for Meaning from Others—It’s the Creation of Meaning for Yourself. Learn more at alanweiss.com.

Some CEOs think that change management is the softer side of restructuring an organization. but, managing people can be the most challenging and critical part of any transformation. here’s how to effectively address the people side of change.

The world is changing fast, and the global pandemic has accelerated the need for companies to adapt or die. A business strategy that has been relatively sidelined until now — change management — has emerged as a main focus for C-level executives. Businesses are now concerned with having the right organizational structure, human talent, and sense of purpose that can tackle the new world order. CEOs are looking to solve this challenge by building a brand that embraces creativity, adaptability, authenticity and relevance. Change management has become a critical skill in an age of disruption, and agility and adaptability have become the new buzz words.  

 But when we discuss change management and CEO success, do we keep asking the wrong questions? Life is about change and business is life. Each business is a human drama at its core, as each organization is really about its people. Each day, companies face change on a grand scale — Fortune 500s, mid-caps, or family businesses — because they are all living organisms, and they will thrive (or die) a little each day based on how they manage change. “But I’m changing every day,” you might say. That may be true, but the real questions are: how and why?

 My experience as a CEO has taught me that there are two types of change, and although similar in outcome, they differ greatly in how people perceive them. Self-change or self-transformation projects a very positive idea in people’s minds. Think of the titles of some self-help books such as, Awaken the Giant Within, Practicing the Power of Now, or Start Living an Awesome Life. There is usually a sense of excitement around personal transformation, conjuring up images of optimism, dedication, and positive action. But when we talk about organizational change, the opposite feelings emerge. We fear organizational change, we confront it with resistance and then retract and ponder what will befall us. We enter a negative, fear-driven mindset. Yet, instead of viewing this process as exhausting and overwhelming, organizational change can instead be empowering and energizing. 

While running my company and helping other CEOs, some interesting challenges arose. How do we make organizational change as exciting as personal change? How do we ensure teams approach far-reaching change with open minds, innovation, and creative thinking?

One of the most challenging change management projects I’ve ever been involved in was the restructuring of former French ferry company SNCM. The state-owned company was highly inefficient, had conflictual relationships between employees and management, and was highly unionized and financially unsustainable. The French government had sold it to a large private group that endeavored to turn it  around. I started by trying to break the unhealthy relationship with the unions by integrating their members into a process that  was holistic, inclusive, and transparent; the exact opposite to what I was seeing.

The environment was toxic. Just a few months before, union leaders had hijacked one of the company’s vessels, and French special forces were called in to take it back violently. I was told by union leaders that their main objective was to prevent me from introducing any change management strategies, by any means necessary. 

I agreed with them. Nobody likes change, and I explained that change for the sake of change was not my goal. Instead, I told them I wanted to work with them to save the company and their jobs. “I’m not your boss or a consultant,” I explained. “Rather, see me as your advisor.” 

In the subsequent years that it took to turn the company around, we agreed to disagree on many issues but always kept a mutual respect for our opposing views. At the end of a successful transition, the lead union negotiator called me a partner, someone they could talk to and respect. 

The SNCM transition was the most stressful time of  my life, but had taught me valuable lessons. It taught me that change happens at an individual level, not at corporate level. Change is human, and requires human values such as empathy, passion, commitment, respect, creativity, and risk-taking.

In smaller companies, change is often a maelstrom of emotions and can be compared to a small organism morphing into an adult form — similar to a caterpillar growing into a butterfly. The process is painful, full of doubt and risks. Approach change as if you are caring for a living organism, with a holistic outlook that includes the emotional and irrational. It will help foster a sustainable, progressive, and caring process. Regard employees as individual cells of a body, but treat them as vital parts of the entire organism.

  In small to midsize organizations, resistance to change usually comes from seeing the process as too large or too daunting, and needing resources you may not have. However, this is a problem of perception. You may be surprised to learn that smaller organizations are actually at an advantage compared with larger corporations when it comes to change. They can adapt faster, are more flexible, and can be more proactive (instead of reactive) when fostering creative solutions. It’s all about self-confidence. 

A lion is not the biggest animal in the jungle, yet it is unquestionably the king of the jungle. Why? Because of an attitude and belief in itself. The power of leading change within an organization therefore lies within harnessing these same characteristics.

CEOs are good at talking to people. The truth is, they need to be — communication comes part and parcel with being an effective corporate leader. For all that popular culture tends to depict corporate bosses as unreasonable tyrants, likeability and connectivity matters. 

I’ll borrow a quote from management researchers Herminia Ibarra and Mark Lee Hunter. “What differentiates a leader from a manager, research tells us, is the ability to figure out where to go and to enlist the people and groups necessary to get there. Recruiting stakeholders, lining up allies and sympathizers, diagnosing the political landscape, and brokering conversations among unconnected parties are all part of a leader’s job.”

Data backs the pair’s conclusions. Generally speaking, organizations with better-connected CEOs and board members tend to snag cheaper financing and see better performance, respectively. Networking skills empower leaders to build the relationships they need to extend their reach, tap into talent pools, and achieve more than they ever would have if they had gone it alone. 

But I believe that a CEO’s networking skillset does more than smooth the way in business — that it can empower corporate leaders to help their communities. 

To be honest, I’ve been on this train of thought for a while. I realized that my work as a corporate leader in luxury real estate gave me the networking opportunities I needed to connect with high-profile philanthropists in New York City and inspire real change in my home city. 

It was a game-changing realization for me. I might work in Manhattan now, but I’ll always be a kid from the Bronx — even as I grew up, I realized how much work could be done to improve the lives of the people in my neighborhood. 

Shortly after that, I started applying the networking and collaboration skills I’d honed as a CEO to the nonprofit sector. I found one of my first causes, Literacy Partners, through a friend who used to be a board member for the organization. Since 2015, I’ve also been involved with the Room to Grow program, which provides coaching services, community connections, and goods to support parents and children in the Bronx. Just last year, I virtually co-hosted the organization’s annual benefit with Bruce Willis and Uma Thurman. 

To be clear — I’m not saying that all CEOs should step away from their desks and connect with celebrities. Instead, I’m saying that their communication skills make them uniquely positioned to connect with and activate potential donors and collaborators. 

Past research tells us that high net worth individuals give when they feel they’re responding to an organizational need, believe they can make a difference, believe in a nonprofit’s values, and are concerned about the cause at hand. Now, a philanthropically-motivated CEO might not telegraph shared values or concerns, but they can certainly communicate a need and sell the donor on a cause’s importance. Donor activation requires negotiation, sales, pitching — all skills that are well-taught in the boardroom. 

That said, if a CEO isn’t necessarily comfortable focusing on donors, they may also want to consider lending their counsel, support, and mentorship to nonprofit leaders. 

This kind of assistance is more wanted than you might think at first listen. The nonprofit sector’s problems with personnel development and succession planning are well-documented. According to a report published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), only 30 percent of C-Suite roles in nonprofits are filled via internal promotion; this is about half the rate reported in the for-profit sector. 

“Our new study surfaced what we call a leadership development deficit. The sector’s C-suite leaders, frustrated at the lack of opportunities and mentoring, are not staying around long enough to move up,” SSIR researchers wrote. 

“Even CEOs are exiting because their boards aren’t supporting them and helping them to grow. This syndrome is coming at a high financial and productivity cost to organizations, undermining their effectiveness and hampering their ability to address social and economic inequities.”

As you might imagine, the turnover can be expensive. By some reports, the cost of locating a capable high-level leader can be as much as half of the person’s annual salary. This monetary expense doesn’t encompass the “softer” turnover costs — i.e., productivity lapses, fundraising, and the general distraction posed by recruiting. 

Taking some time to provide mentorship or advice to upcoming nonprofit leaders could be an easy way for CEOs to use their networking skills and business savvy to cultivate positive change. In offering their time, these corporate executives help facilitate effective leadership, reduce nonprofit turnover, and further their community efforts. 

All CEOs take a slightly different approach to leadership. Some are more direct in their oversight; others prefer to delegate. But by and large, all successful executives are stellar communicators. Those skills don’t need to be — or perhaps shouldn’t be — confined to boardrooms and C-suite offices. As corporate leaders, we can do more to support the causes we love than only contributing funds. 

Growing up on a small farm in rural Australia, my dad – who left school at 16 and milked dairy cows for 50 years – would tell me that he saw great things for me… like one day becoming a nun, ‘Sister Margaret Mary’ in charge of a convent. By the time I was in my teens, he’d raised his expectations.

As the big sister of seven, perhaps it was due to how well I ‘managed’ my younger siblings. Whatever the reason, I still recall the day he said, “Actually I think you could do even bigger things. You might even be Mother Margaret Mary, in charge of a whole order of convents.”

Alas, I never felt the calling.

I share this story, amusing as it is, because my parent’s vision for me was confined by the horizons of their own lives. Similarly, the vision we hold for ourselves is often also confined by what we think possible. We simply don’t know what we don’t know.  

We are all shaped by our environments, unconsciously taking on the expectations, norms, beliefs, and biases of those around us. When it comes to gender, there are many. For instance, women are more likely to be labeled bossy for acting with equal assertiveness as the men around them, yet showing compassion and sensitivity to the feelings of others makes them perceived as “less leaderlike.”

Even well-meaning parents can unconsciously hem in their daughters. For instance, parents of boys are more likely to see their sons being successful tech entrepreneurs than their daughters. They’re also more likely to praise their sons for being strong and daughters for being sweet. Gender bias starts early and runs deep, permeating into our psyche in profound yet invisible ways.

And so on this International Women’s Day, I want to share a few thoughts about how we can embrace the ‘Choose To Challenge’ theme. So if you are a female leader (or aspire to be one), here are three ways you can embrace the #ChooseToChallenge theme of this year’s International Women’s Day. And if you’re a male champion for women, consider how you can encourage the women in your orbit to back themselves more, and doubt themselves less. After all, this is not a zero-sum game. As research by McKinsey has found, when more women are seated at decision-making tables, better decisions are made for the benefit of all stakeholders. When women rise, we all rise!

1. Challenge the doubts that fuel a sense of inadequacy

While not all women lack confidence, many do. Women’s tendency to underestimate their abilities and not internalize their strengths has led to what’s been coined the ‘gender confidence gap.’ 

Hewlett-Packard found that where their male employees were comfortable applying for a job with only six or the 10 ‘ideal candidate’ attributes, their female employees wanted to put a big tick in all ten boxes. This contrast shows just how more harshly women can judge their abilities which, in turn, makes them more reticent to put themselves out there.’ 

Many factors contribute to why women tend to doubt themselves more and back themselves less. Fewer strong female role models and sponsors are but two. Yet, as I wrote in You’ve Got This!, we cannot wait for confidence before putting our hat in the ring or putting ourselves out there toward our boldest ambitions. Only by daring to challenge the negative noises in our head, those critical voices urging us to think small and play safe, can we ever discover how little reason we had to believe them.

2. Challenge other people’s limiting labels and beliefs 

Students at Columbia Business School were presented with a case study of a successful Silicon Valley venture capitalist. The students were given the same data except for one difference – gender. Half of the class was told the ambitious entrepreneur’s name was Howard, and the other half was told it was Heidi. They then asked the students of their opinions on either Heidi or Howard. 

While there was consensus that both were equally competent, Heidi was seen as selfish and not “the type of person you would want to hire or work for.” The study found that “the more assertive a student found the female venture capitalist to be, the more they rejected her.” Women must content with a negative correlation between power and success that men do not. This isn’t an impossible obstacle. But it makes the going harder and the climb steeper for women and the going harder as women have to deal with more complexity in juggling pressures, expectations, and perceptions. 

Over the years, I’ve been asked countless times, “How do you manage a career and four kids?’ Yet my husband Andrew has never been asked. Not once. 

The only way to reconstruct the gendered mental maps that constrict what we see as possible for ourselves – or other women – is by challenging them and defying the doubts they fuel. As Vice President Harris after being elected the first-ever Madam Vice President’ of the United States:

“Dream with ambition. Lead with conviction. And see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they’ve never seen it before.”

3. Challenge more women to back themselves, more often

It’s easy to underestimate the power of a few words of encouragement. They take little to give yet can make all the difference in critical moments. It’s why it is so important to proactively go out of your way to lift other women – to challenge how they see themselves, how they speak about themselves, and what they see as possible for themselves. 

After negatively comparing my own media platform with Oprah’s after following a podcast interview I did with Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson, she looked me square in the eye and said something that’s stuck: 

 There is nothing holy in diminishing yourself.

It’s true. There is nothing helpful in talking ourselves down. As I wrote in, You’ve Got This! “Words hold power. What we say about ourselves and others is generative as well as descriptive.”

So next time you hear a woman talking herself down, focusing on what she hasn’t done, minimizing all that she has, or merely deflecting a compliment, even sarcastically, draw her attention to it. (This probably won’t take long since most women I know struggle to accept a compliment.) 

Power has no gender, yet our mental template for power is intrinsically masculine. So challenge other women when they disempower themselves. 

As I stated above, helping women advance is not a zero-sum game whereby the rise of one is a fall of another. Instead, it’s about creating an equal partnership that harnesses the full value of diversity in all its forms, embracing feminine leadership strengths – empathy, compassion, and the affiliative use of power – as every bit as valuable as traditional male strengths.  

After all, our greatest strength doesn’t flow from everyone thinking and acting alike but from what sets us apart.  

How will you choose to challenge?

Be brave!