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Flexible Leaders Will Rule the Employee-Centered Workplace

By gothamCulture

Published at July 6, 2017June 12, 2024 In Category Blog Tags: Leadership, Talent Management

flexible leaders employee centered workplace

Elon Musk acts like space is the next frontier, but business pioneers know true innovation is happening on terra firma. Instead of exploring the cosmos, business leaders are experimenting with office dynamics. The 21st-century workplace is characterized by perpetual changes and increasingly unconventional setups.

Our ancestors would have trouble recognizing our employee-centered office spaces and working arrangements. Telecommuting has become commonplace for many small and large organizations, and most companies have a global focus — internationally-based employees, vendors, and clients are par for the course. Thankfully, communication is instantaneous with technology such as email, real-time messaging, virtual meetings, and synchronous conference calls.

How accustomed are we to this brave new work world? When children photo-bombed their father’s international interview on the BBC, society laughed it off because of how commonplace that scenario has become. Workers adore this ever-changing environment, but it can be problematic for business leaders.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: It’s More Than a Training

By gothamCulture

Published at June 29, 2017June 12, 2024 In Category Blog Tags: Diversity and Inclusion, Learning and Development, Org Culture

diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace

The numbers are out.

It’s been over fifty years since Title VII, the section of The Civil Rights Act that prohibits workplace discrimination. But how far have we really come?

Fortune’s data team recently released their findings on the diversity and inclusion practices of the companies on this year’s Fortune 500 list. The big reveal?

Only 3% of this year’s companies are transparent about the demographics of their workforce. And of those sixteen transparent companies, 72% of senior executives are white males.

Now, more than ever, companies and organizations are feeling pressure to not only be more representative but also more inclusive of people from traditionally marginalized groups. Reports on gender and racial diversity in tech have forced the industry to make public commitments to increase diversity in their workplaces and inspired other companies to do the same.

Millennials are demanding more inclusive work cultures. Our sociopolitical environment has made conversations about the inclusion of marginalized people in every area of life absolutely critical. And according to Deloitte’s 2017 Human Capital Report, 78% of respondents now believe diversity and inclusion is a competitive advantage.

But if major companies can’t even talk publicly about diversity, what do conversations inside of these organizations look like?

Three Benefits of Emotional Intelligence for Today’s Business Leaders

By gothamCulture

Published at June 26, 2017June 26, 2017 In Category Blog Tags: Leadership

benefits of emotional intelligence for business leaders

Not long ago, promotions went to employees with the most technical expertise. Companies bent over backward to gain specialized industry knowledge, so it made sense to promote based on its merit. But the times, as they say, are a-changin’. At a certain point in history, technical ingenuity began to take a back seat to interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. In fact, a recent study by Harris Poll found that 77 percent of employers believe these “soft skills” are as important as talents directly related to specific job functions.

I witnessed this shift while working with one female executive who rose through the ranks to a senior position based on her technical prowess. Those skills opened numerous doors on her path to leadership, but she suddenly experienced a bit of a disconnect.

This new role put her in charge of a team, and her instincts took over when team members presented solutions to problems. She would fall back on her years of experience to provide better answers. This gradually caused employees to rely on her whenever they had problems instead of trying to solve them on their own. She continued to “show them the way” but soon faced resistance and plummeting morale — to the point that human resources received negative comments about her leadership style.

She had built her career on technical smarts, but her performance measure no longer relied on those abilities. Success was now achieved by her ability to build relationships, develop employees, and motivate a high-performing team.

In other words, she lacked what most modern companies crave: emotional intelligence.

The Brilliant Basics of Culture Transformation

By gothamCulture

Published at June 22, 2017June 20, 2017 In Category Blog Tags: Change Management, Leadership, Org Culture

By Mark Tomaszewicz

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu

Transforming your culture is about changing individuals first and the organization next. Change is a result. That’s right, organizational change is a result of an individual change.

There are many definitions of culture. The one that I like the best is “what a group of people choose to believe and consistently do”. Changing your company culture means you are:

a) Changing what you believe,

b) Changing what you do, or

c) Finding a way to do more consistently

Embrace a Culture of Self-Leadership to Stay Agile as You Scale

By gothamCulture

Published at June 20, 2017June 12, 2024 In Category Blog Tags: Employee Engagement, Growth, Leadership, Org Culture, Process Improvement

nurse next door culture of self leadership

One of the greatest challenges for rapidly growing organizations is how to remain nimble in the midst of growth.

As companies scale, more processes are required to coordinate the growing workforce. And the additional management layers that come with them can slow an organization down.

It’s often the reason why large organizations become weighed down with bureaucracy while small companies remain quick and agile.

Consider this recent story from Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes:

“Earlier this year, an employee wanted to send a customer a T-shirt with our logo as a gift. There was nothing special about this particular shirt. It was an ordinary, 100% cotton crew neck. But by the time this employee got approval—factoring in his own time and everyone else’s up the org chart who had to weigh in before signing off on the request—the cost of this t-shirt had ballooned to at least $200.”

Many organizations today are trying to hedge against inflated processes like these by changing their organizational structures. Hootsuite, for example, appointed a “Czar of Bad Systems” to help improve internal processes.

In today’s rapidly-evolving business environment, growing organizations need to remain fast and efficient. And some large, geographically dispersed and complex organizations seem to be able to maintain a level of agility despite their size.

How do they do it?

The Key to Making an Agile Working Policy Fly

By gothamCulture

Published at June 15, 2017June 12, 2024 In Category Blog Tags: Change Management, Process Improvement

By Chris Baréz-Brown

Agile Working has become the buzzword for how to turn your business into a thriving, creative and productive hub while attracting and retaining the best talent. It’s moving from flexible working to smarter working. And it does what it says if you follow the recipe.

Agile Working was originally created by Toyota to get production lines moving faster. It gives people the ability to work in various locations to complete the tasks necessary to do their jobs. Specific desks do not exist – you can work from a collaborative space, a breakout area, home, a café, or wherever benefits the task at hand. And employees are supported with practices and processes that allow them to be agile. Agile Working makes work seem less gray and more technicolor. It’s enticing, exciting and human. And it works.

How to Win a Leadership Turf Battle Before it Ever Begins

By gothamCulture

Published at June 13, 2017June 12, 2024 In Category Blog Tags: Leadership

While power transitions can be volatile, a new leader can succeed by using strategies to keep everyone on the same page.

President Donald Trump’s transition to the White House has been a fascinating study in leadership turf battles. The businessman-turned-politician has kept several advisors close rather than embrace a traditional hierarchy.

The result – internal conflict among prominent figures vying for influence – isn’t exclusive to politics. When an agency we were advising was seeking a new leader, it tapped an internal executive for the interim but ultimately chose an external candidate. Unfortunately, he immediately faced overwhelming distrust and hostility.

Navigating the Murky Waters of Workplace Expectations

By gothamCulture

Published at June 8, 2017June 9, 2017 In Category Blog Tags: Change Management, Employee Engagement, Leadership, Talent Management

We spend most of our work lives managing other peoples’ expectations. Yet, half of employees say they don’t know what’s expected of them at work, according to Gallup research.

Sadly, we don’t have to look far to find stories of how this unfolds in the workplace.

How to Master the Art and Science of Effective Team Management

By gothamCulture

Published at June 1, 2017March 7, 2024 In Category Blog Tags: Employee Engagement, Leadership, Talent Management

master the art and science of effective team management

A single perfect brush stroke does not make a painting. Nor does a single note make a song. Every work of art is a result of many individual pieces all working together in harmony to make the whole. Artists spend their entire lives learning how to improve these individual elements and learning how they fit together to create the final composition.

We don’t often think about this kind of dedication in business. No one spends their entire life devoted to the mastery of middle management. Yet, to excel as a manager, you will need to spend a considerable amount of time learning about the individual people that make up your team.

Can We Use Parallel Processes to Solve Organizational Problems?

By gothamCulture

Published at May 25, 2017May 25, 2017 In Category Blog Tags: Change Management, Org Culture

parallel processes solve organizational problems

In 1989, Kenwyn Smith published a study entitled “Fix the Women”, describing a consulting situation characterized by fighting between two women in a troubled unit of a state hospital. After assessing the behaviors, the researchers determined the women’s hostility was actually fueled by feelings of competitiveness among the three senior men in the unit.

This is a phenomenon called parallel process thinking: when dynamics of one system are picked up and enacted by another system. In this case, the competitive dynamics of the men in the hospital unit fueled the conflict between these two women.

Consultants don’t always think of the theories associated with the work we do. They become part of us and our work. We talk to people and through years of experience, theories in behavioral science organically drive what we do, how we speak to people, how we solve problems, how we help, and how we advise.

When focusing on results with clients, especially within a limited timeframe, energy is usually spent toward practical application. But this theory is important because it affects everybody. If you can understand parallel process thinking, then it has potential to serve as a guide for better problem-solving.

So let’s examine this idea of parallel processes.