Category Archives: Leadership

Leadership, News, Tech Thought Leadership

Leading for All U Can Do: We Speak to Christa Quarles, CEO at Creative Tech Leader Alludo

What Christa Quarles, CEO at Alludo, told us about her approach to running the business behind Parallels®️, CorelDRAW®️, MindManager®️, and WinZip®️.

Can you tell us about your role and responsibilities?

My main role as Alludo’s CEO is to lead the company on its journey to deliver transformative products that enable people to work better and live better. We’re reimagining the future of work by giving people more space and time to create, ideate, and share—whether that’s through stunning graphics and art, brainstorming, or providing secure environments that enable people to be productive anywhere. Being a leader doesn’t just mean hitting ambitious KPIs: I prioritize creating a work culture that lets each of our teammates to bring the full force of their talents and perspectives to Alludo every day. I want our business to be synonymous with celebrating people and enabling them to achieve their best work.

The world has changed since the pandemic and for many of us, our priorities have shifted. While pandemic life has been difficult, it has also embraced workers’ freedom and flexibility like never before. The genie is out of the bottle and many of us are not particularly interested in getting back to a ‘normal’ working life. The 9-5 grind has lost its appeal. In fact, at Alludo, we’re consciously dismantling generations of notions about what work ‘should’ look and feel like. We have this incredible opportunity to redefine the work experience for both our employees and our customers. This mission is a fundamental to me as CEO.

What is your point of difference as a business?

I think Alludo stands out in two big ways. First, we put a huge emphasis on user experience.  Across our product lines, we aim to unlock everyone’s potential to collaborate, connect, and innovate. This focus is an uncompromising tenet of our product design philosophy.

Our second point of difference is how we empower knowledge workers to work how, where, and when they want. Long gone are the days of waking up at the break of dawn to get stuck in traffic on the way into the office. We already know that workers don’t need to physically go into the workplace to do great work, and our products give people and organizations even greater freedom and flexibility to do what they do best, how they do it best. When you work better, you live better – everything we do at Alludo is based on this philosophy.

What is your leadership style?

To build a successful company, it’s important to foster a culture of psychological safety where risk taking is encouraged and rewarded. Good ideas come from corner of the company, so it’s crucial that we maintain open channels of communication where our employees feel secure in speaking up. As a leader, I sometimes think of it in terms of an orchestra. Everyone owns their own part, and as the conductor, it’s my job to bring us together in harmony.

On a personal level, it’s important to me to lead in a way that encourages transparency and constructive feedback. The book Radical Candor by Kim Scott has hugely influenced the way I communicate. Scott argues that the best leaders are those that sincerely care about their employees on an individual level. Within this environment of trust, being radically candid allows you to deliver meaningful, honest feedback that drives growth instead of fostering negativity.

Most importantly, when leaders commit themselves to transparency, employees will be inspired to do the same. Creative ideas are readily shared. Problems are solved faster. And deadlines are met quicker.

What has been your career highlight prior to your current role?

I’m energized by possibility and the opportunity to reimagine things, and I’m fortunate that I’ve had this opportunity multiple times in my career. I started my career working at Thomas Weisel, a west coast boutique investment bank, as a financial analyst covering the tech space. In this role, I was brushing shoulders with CEOs from a variety of organizations, constantly trying to understand their strategy and business models to figure out if they were going to be the next big IPO (initial public offering). I realised that during these conversations, I had never felt more energized. I would think about their organization and where it could go. I had all these ideas, and I had this incredible landscape of what I thought was needed to optimize success.

Eventually, I looked at myself in the mirror and thought, “why am I standing on the side lines?” So, in 2009, I left to go to a tech start-up. That start-up was bought by The Walt Disney Company less than a year into my tenure. My time at Disney is to this day one of my career highlights. I was promoted three times in three years and transitioned from being a straight-up financial professional to an overall GM operator. I was able to really show my value when I had my own P&L inside of Disney. It was here that I came into my own, because I could explore and reimagine what’s possible. I thrive at the intersection of data and vision.

What has been your highlight in your current role?

I have been at Alludo now for just over two years and find it truly amazing to reflect on my time so far. When taking on a new role and starting to make it my own, I like to take the time to lay out all the groundwork and build up from there. My first year at the company was all about putting the pieces on the chessboard. In 2022, we were ready to play.

As CEO, I’ve been focused on a path of transformation – bringing in fresh talent, a new style of leadership, and breaking down silos. For me, the highlight has been experiencing all these ideas being realized. Seeing how far we’ve already come has been incredibly rewarding.

What exciting plans do you have coming up as an organisation?

As an organization, we’re always looking at the world around us to see how we can better respond. We’re honoured our solutions play a major role in solving our customers’ day-to-day challenges, freeing them up to work and live better. We’re not just creating and elevating products, but truly innovating work itself. This mission informs all our plans.

It’s clear that the world is ready – in fact, we think it’s demanding – a new way of working. Our team is driven by a few key questions. What does a working world based on freedom and flexibility look like? Who do we want to be now? What does it mean to lead in this new world?

The possibilities are endless. We have the opportunity to create a new way of working where each of us has the freedom and flexibility to choose when, how, and where to do our best work. At Alludo, we’re calling this new reality Work3, and we’re thrilled to be not just embracing it, but building it – for our employees and our customers.

What technology are you most looking forward to using more of?

Across the industry, I think organizations everywhere should be adopting Zero-Trust models and pushing for the demise of VPNs.

VPNs may have had their time, but in simple terms, they are outdated for secure work in today’s world. With widespread workforces, VPN can’t keep up with the security needs of a flexible working environment. Zero-Trust is a far more secure and scalable. Evolving from an identity-centric approach and the adoption of mobile and cloud technologies, Zero-Trust environments have become particularly popular in the move into remote and hybrid work. As a business mindset with strategic assessments of all applications and systems, Zero-Trust is transforming the security landscape.

Employee Engagement, HR, HR News, Leadership, News

Employees who feel well-supported by their line manager are 3.4 times more engaged at work

  • Two most important line manager skills identified in data collected from c50,000 employees across UK-based organisations
  • Employees who feel trusted by their line managers are far more engaged compared to those who don’t (81% vs 28%)
  • 80% of employees feel supported in their role by their line manager
  • 83% of employees feel respected by their line manager

Employees who feel supported by their line managers are 3.4 times more engaged at work compared to those who don’t, according to the latest research from Inpulse, experts in employee engagement.

Data collected from approximately 50,000 employees across various UK-based organisations emphasises how multifaceted the line manager role is, and the broad range of skills required to facilitate high levels of engagement.

The survey results showed that out of nine different elements of the line manager role, trusting employees to do their jobs and providing support have the greatest impact on how engaged people are at work.

For instance, employees who feel their line manager trusts them to get on the job have an Engagement Index Score of 81% whereas employees who do not feel trusted have an Engagement Index Score of just 28%. Coming in very close behind, employees who feel supported by their line managers achieve an Engagement Index Score of 74% versus just 22% for those who do not feel supported.

Jodie Harrison, Insights Consultant at Inpulse, explains:

“Line managers are unquestionably influential in shaping our experience at work and how we feel about our jobs. We have all heard the saying that ‘people leave managers not companies’ and the importance of finding, retaining and developing the right talent to carry out this pivotal role is only increasing.

“Staggeringly, the survey shows that lack of any given skill can cause engagement scores to plummet by up to 53% points. As the way we work continues to evolve, the ‘line manager’ role follows suit and now requires more time and attention if we wish to support people to be their best and thrive.’

“The juxtaposition of trust and support, the two factors with the greatest impact on engagement, indicates that there is a delicate balance to strike between being available to offer help and support and taking a step back to empower people to get on with their work. Ultimately, this enables higher productivity, engagement and wellbeing at work.”

Listening to employees’ ideas and caring about employee wellbeing were also two top skills highlighted by the survey that scored over 80% on the Engagement Index.

“Line managers’ true purpose is to inspire and to enable others to grow and develop, and the outcomes are to increase productivity, innovation and engagement in the workplace culture. To achieve the latter, it is not enough to focus solely on line manager skills and behaviours. We need aligned input from the organisation and senior leaders to have the greatest impact and bring about change,” concludes Harrison.

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About Inpulse

Inpulse provides real-time emotion-driven employee insights that improve engagement to help increase the performance of a company. The Inpulse team provides support including analysis of data to bring unbiased perspectives to decision-makers.

App News, L&D, Leadership, News

New app set to revolutionise leadership learning

The Consciously app from The Conscious Leadership Company helps leaders improve their wellbeing and performance through increased consciousness.

Leadership development experts The Conscious Leadership Company have launched a new app that will help leaders develop themselves in an easy and continuous way, improving how they lead themselves and their teams.

The launch of the Consciously app comes at a critical juncture as the business world changes. Following the 2020 pandemic, it’s never been more important for senior leaders to put wellbeing and self-care at the fore of their relationships with employees.

A recent Deloitte Canada and Lifeworks study underlined the need to support and prepare leaders through ongoing challenging times. The research found that “82% of senior leaders reported experiencing exhaustion <and> a full 50% of leaders with seniority also contemplated exiting their roles, resigning, retiring, taking a leave of absence, or moving to part-time work.” [1] Amid the Great Resignation, these startling stats cannot be ignored. What must the C-suite do to place wellbeing and conscious leadership at the heart of business planning and future-proofing?

The Consciously app uses content, deep reflection questions, and experiments drawn from TCLC’s proprietary Conscious Leadership model to help leaders build awareness of themselves and others. Allowing them to learn how to lead in a modern context, identify thinking and behaviour that is holding them back and monitor stress and trigger points, the app functions as an on-demand, instantly accessible ‘coach in my pocket.’

With 57% of leaders saying they struggle to provide support to their team [2], and businesses worldwide struggling to retain staff at all levels, companies need to adopt a new approach to both how they lead and how they support managers and other senior executives. This is particularly important when Gallup estimates that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units [3].

Natasha Wallace, founder, and CEO at The Conscious Leadership Company, said, “Leaders need to be supported as much as employees, yet often their development is, relegated to occasional workshop events, which rarely lead to real behavioural change. In reality, being a leader is a constant learning process. That’s why we’ve launched Consciously, to embed the behaviours leaders need to evolve as individuals and support their teams in a more conscious, ultimately more effective, way. When organisations are led consciously, thriving cultures are created, and performance can flow. With such a great focus on culture change and the rebuilding of connection over the next couple of years, organisations that place consciousness at the heart of change will yield positive results.”

Validated by academics from the University College London (UCL), Conscious Leader Psychometric helps leaders to pinpoint which areas of wellbeing and performance need to be improved, helping them develop as individuals and as a team, which works as a diagnostic precursor to using the Consciously app.

The app is on android and iOS as well as available on desktops.

 

Diversity, Diversity & Inclusion, HR, Leadership, News

Succession planning is susceptible to bias say 86% of HR leaders

  • Over 33% of organisations are struggling to build a diverse leadership bench through succession planning
  • 36% of HR leaders say their organisational boards are increasing pressure to diversify leadership
  • Gut instinct over data: just 38% of HR leaders use data in hiring processes to reduce bias in succession planning
  • Less than a third of HR leaders plan to actively attract candidates from disabled or lower socio-economic backgrounds

 

Nearly nine out of 10 talent leaders think their succession planning is biased, according to the latest research from talent insight experts Armstrong Craven.

The survey of 213 HR and talent professionals revealed that more than one in three say their organisation is struggling to build a diverse leadership bench through succession planning, with only 36% of respondents saying their organisational boards are increasing pressure to diversify leadership.

 

Rachel Davis, Co-Managing Director at Armstrong Craven, said:

“We believe bias is driven by a more traditional approach, often taken by senior executives who turn first to their existing networks. Even if they move beyond these networks, they tend to fish in traditional, often non-diverse, talent pools. HR leaders need to work with current and  next generation leaders to help them take a broader view, supporting strategic thinking by bringing in different perspectives. Building inclusivity is amongst the biggest business priorities, so it’s essential for organisations to get it right at the very top. Encouragingly, 85% of HR leaders have plans to actively attract or support leaders from underrepresented groups, so gaining a wider view and using external talent data will help them reduce bias in their succession planning.

“There are a number of ways to do this. Having an external succession plan opens up a new field of potential talent. Another potential is to set up a shadow board. This enables a business to better understand their internal talent as the group of (likely younger) non-executive employees work with senior execs. The business gains from their insights, not least on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I), yet it also provides the opportunity to learn about and develop potential internal talent faster.”

 

The Armstrong Craven research also highlighted an imbalanced approach to hiring from diverse talent pools – whilst nearly half (49%) of HR leaders have plans to actively attract ethnically diverse candidates for leadership positions, only 30% are doing the same for disabled candidates, and just 32% are planning to attract candidates from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

 

Peter Howarth, Co-Managing Director at Armstrong Craven, explained:

“That there are such differences in diversity hiring is not surprising, considering only 38% of HR leaders use data to reduce bias in succession planning. Succession planning can’t be based on a gut feeling or somebody’s opinion of who could be a good replacement; it needs to be based on data which requires an assessment of business needs to ensure relevant candidates are sought to fill the roles.

“When it comes to diversity in senior leadership*, since pre-COVID (2019) female representation amongst top senior managers has increased by nearly 5%, and ethnic minority representation has increased by 3%, but we are still talking about small numbers compared to the huge proportion of white males. We are not even skimming the surface of the neurodiverse and gender diverse talent pools.”

 

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*Green Park 2021 https://www.green-park.co.uk/insights/?gppc_category=Ethnic+Minority%7CWhite&gppc_level=Top+20&gppc_year_1=2021&gppc_year_2=2019

 

About Armstrong Craven

Armstrong Craven is a global leader in research-driven talent solutions.

Working with the world’s most influential and respected businesses undergoing transformational change, its industry-focused experts provide talent mapping, pipelining, executive search and talent insight services to help businesses ensure they attract, hire and retain the scarce and senior talent they need on a global basis.

Leadership, News

Surround yourself with dissenters as well as allies for success, say top businessmen

Business leaders have warned that having a senior leadership team which acts “as an echo chamber” could spell trouble for your organisation, as new PM Liz Truss announces her senior Cabinet.

With many commentators highlighting the “friends and allies” composition of the new Cabinet – and the BBC saying a government in Liz Truss’s “own image” could “provoke rebellion down the track” – specialist recruiter David Hunt said “only weak leaders have senior leadership teams which are an echo chamber”.

Hunt, CEO of Hyperion Executive Search, said:

“Surrounding yourself exclusively with ‘yes’ people and allies is a sign of an extremely fragile and weak ego – and of a weak leader – as well as of a lack of self-esteem and self-confidence.”

He warned that was important to involve “dissenting voices” at the top of any company as they were not necessarily seeking to disrupt but just to present “a different way of doing things”.

Meanwhile Martin Hartley, Managing Director of emagine, a management consulting firm for the financial services and technology sector, said he would recommend having at least “half the room” in any senior team thinking differently to you.

Hartley, whose consultancy operates in 24 locations across Europe including London, said:

“Ultimately, you want people in your senior team who have grown up with different experiences, who have different professional experiences, and in Liz Truss’s case political experiences, and issues that they can lead on, to help guide, challenge and enforce new and better policies, processes and systems in the business. This will ultimately be for the good of any organisation.”

And as the BBC also said it was “striking” that there has been a near total purge of those who backed Rishi Sunak from the Cabinet, Hunt, who recruits C-suite and senior executives and teams for the cleantech (clean technology) industry globally stressed dissenters should be a powerful force in any successful senior team.

“Any healthy leadership team of any description needs to have conflicting voices – you don’t want people who are disruptive or disagree just for the sake of it but equally you don’t want people who just agree which is worse,” he said.

“I like the saying and the phrase – and I’ve always relied on it in business – if there’s three of you in the room and you all agree on everything – at least two of you aren’t needed.”

He added: “Voices with different opinions and voices are vital to a healthy organisation and a healthy leadership team – it’s not even about keeping your enemies close, as they say in politics, but about having voices with different ideas and thought processes.

“The inability to consider other options while making decisions is a weak trait and a poor skill in any leader. You have to be able to hear, think, consider and take into account other thoughts, opinions and ideas before you come to your conclusions.”

“They may conflict from time to time – and you don’t want people who are disagreeing on everything – but you certainly don’t want people who are agreeing on everything because that’s a fast track to a disastrous way of thinking and making decisions and the worst of echo chambers really – going entirely on your own thoughts and principles, often chasing down the wrong avenues.

“If your only outside opinions are those that are echoes of your own voice – it’s a very dangerous and a very weak position to be in.”

Martin Hartley, whose management consultancy supports clients with business challenges by providing digital, tech, and financial consulting services and solutions, said he understood why Liz Truss or any senior leader might want some allies around them but striking a balance was key:

“I understand any leader – Liz Truss in this case – wants some allies around them/her and wants some people that they can feel confident with and to help ease themselves into the job with, and, of course, somebody who will be on board with their policies.

“It’s the same in the business world when you are bringing in new processes and ways of working – then you want people that are in agreement with that but equally I would say that you need half the room at least to think differently to you and challenge you – in a respectful manner.”

Martin, who is fresh from implementing a new senior leadership team in the UK and from a group-level country merger, also warned a top heavy team of allies could damage the mid-long term growth of any organisation:

He explained: “As you try and navigate change in an organisation and growth, if you surround  yourself with ‘yes’ men and women and you have your vision and only your vision and everyone agrees with that vision– then how long can that last unless you are a super visionary and you are unbelievable at revolutionising your way of thinking continuously then it can’t be relying on one person – Steve Jobs or someone like that?”

And he agreed it was key to have challenging minds in key teams not just to keep them close but also “to have people who think differently around you which causes you to have more awareness”.

He said: “Ultimately, as consultants, we are there to disrupt the status quo: clients pay us a lot of money for our services for us to go in and provide solutions but would we be providing solutions if we just went in and agreed with anything? It would be detrimental to the customer and to their product offering!

“The definition of disruptors is really someone who thinks differently to you – and you need new ideas and new perspective. Listening to different voices means we are thinking about a holistic approach to the service we offer and means we are able to change and move with the times too.”

And Hunt, whose company works across the UK, Europe and the US and has worked with Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy ventures, said:

“Having a senior team of people who are ‘yes’ people or all think the same is unusual for any business – it is certainly unusual in companies that are successful! Being able to listen to a variety of voices and their opinions is a sign of strong leadership.

“Having – or thinking you need – a team entirely in your own image reflects immaturity and a lack of confidence and someone who bases their own thought processes on their own thinking and ideology rather than on facts and opinions and experience which is always a danger in any leadership organisation – not least in Government!”

Healthcare, Leadership, News

Developing exceptional leaders is key to creating a compassionate workplace culture and excellent patient care

Sue Forsey, Director of IT at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust (MTW), is on a journey to becoming an exceptional leader, after recently joining the Trust’s innovative leadership programme. Sue has recently taken part in the ‘Exceptional Leaders’ programme and says the course is transformational – developing first-class leaders and helping staff to progress in their careers.

Sue said, “The programme is all about shared learning. We’re learning to speak the same language and talk about our values in the same way. Our goal is to be an outstanding team supporting a Trust that is an outstanding organisation, which is only possible with consistent leadership across all teams.”

Another key benefit for Sue is that MTW has set aside structured time for participants to focus on the training outside of their day jobs.  She said, “We’re all so busy we can find it hard to dedicate time to learning. MTW understands that learning and improving is as important as the day job. They are investing in us as leaders so that we can drive the organisation forward. The course is relevant, engaging and supports our development – it’s helping us be better at our jobs.

“No matter how good you think you are, there is always something to learn. Having the opportunity to learn with different colleagues we don’t normally get the chance to speak to is extremely useful – it helps us to understand their challenges and discuss ideas and how to support each other better.

“Our CEO and executive team have completed the programme, and senior staff from across the organisation are going through it, so we’re all receiving the same messages and information. There is something very powerful knowing you are working for an organisation that wants to give everyone the opportunity to become outstanding leaders.”

Sue has worked at MTW for six years and was promoted to her current role in January 2021, after completing an MBA through an apprenticeship, which was also fully supported by the Trust.

MTW recognises that leaders have the most powerful influence on the culture of any organisation. The Exceptional Leaders programme aims to build a culture of compassion and inclusivity – and an environment where innovations and improvements can thrive.

Unlike other leadership training, the course was designed from the bottom up, with relevant content based on feedback from staff and leaders on what it takes to be outstanding. Topics covered include leadership, compassion; coaching, engagement; learning and how to make a positive impact. People reflect on their own leadership skills, any changes they’d like to make; and they collaborate and learn from colleagues and develop tools and techniques to help them lead teams more effectively.

Miles Scott, Chief Executive at MTW said, “The Exceptional Leaders programme is helping staff develop new skills, mind-sets and explore different ways of leading. It encourages people to step out of their comfort zone, even if it might feel uncomfortable and identifies opportunities for improvement that will positively impact patient care and the performance of the Trust.

“Building a collaborative and inclusive leadership culture will improve the experiences of our entire workforce and enable us to deliver our ambition of providing outstanding care to patients and making MTW a great place to work.”

MTW recently launched a major recruitment drive focused on clinical roles. This comes at an exciting time as the trust has invested in new facilities, service developments, training centres and digital transformations. To find out more about career opportunities, go to: Home – Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (mtwcareers.com)

HR, Leadership, News

Two in five workers have quit jobs due to bad management as remote working takes its toll on employee-manager relationships

Just over two in five (43%) UK employees have quit a job because of a bad manager and more than half of those actively seeking a new job (53%) are looking to switch roles due to their current manager, according to new research from people analytics company, Visier.

As employers struggle to fill vacant roles and hold on to key talent in the face of the Great Resignation, the impact of good management on staff retention is laid bare. The study of 2,100 UK employees revealed that 85% believe having a good manager is important to their happiness at work, whilst almost four in ten (38%) say they have stayed in jobs longer than they intended to due to a good relationship with a manager.

The changing employee-manager relationship

Though a clear majority of employees agree flexible working is a good thing for both workers (74%) and businesses (69%), it is acknowledged that some aspects of remote working during the pandemic have had a detrimental effect on the relationship with their managers. Employees cite a lack of face-to-face meetings (51%), increased working from home (44%), and an over-reliance on emails (44%) as the main contributors to this.

The data suggests that leaders have struggled to develop strong relationships with staff with less than half of workers (48%) feeling comfortable enough to talk to their manager about their personal life.

“The old cliché – people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers – rings true, and the pandemic has made it harder for leaders to develop personal relationships with employees,” said Daniel Mason, VP EMEA of Visier. “This isn’t a case of leaders becoming bad managers overnight, but instead they are making difficult decisions with less information available to them.”

“The move to remote and hybrid working has starved managers of the opportunity to observe and meet with team members. Face-to-face interactions and other natural moments to develop a rapport are fewer, so managers should look to enhance their toolkit with data and insights to better understand and anticipate employee needs.”

The good manager

The study also asked employees to identify the most important traits of a good manager, with treating people well, listening to workers, and showing respect to all members of staff being the most popular responses, each chosen by 47% of respondents. When asked about the attributes of a bad manager, failure to listen was the top response from 49% of those surveyed, while being unapproachable (47%), treating other members of staff differently (43%) and shouting at the team (42%) were some of the other red flags cited by employees.

When asked about happiness in the workplace, enjoying their work (45%), good pay (39%) and good colleagues (35%) were identified as the most important factors. Plus, 62% believed they currently had a good manager, whilst only 45% thought they could do the job better themselves. When this group were asked how they could improve,53% said they understood the concerns of other employees, 46% would treat all members of staff with equal respect and 36% would make the effort to get to know the people they manage better.

“Businesses have spent the past few decades using data and other innovations to improve customer relationships and increase revenues,” added Mason. “Many organisations are yet to harness these methods to better understand their most important asset – employees.”

“Every organisation already has a wealth of people data scattered throughout. Modern tools and analytics can find and organise this data to generate people insights to help you better understand and manage talent. When these insights are combined with other types of data from across the organisation, the result can drive more impactful business outcomes and unlock the next wave of growth and success.”

To help managers make more informed decisions about their teams, Visier is helping customers combine people data with business data as part of its people cloud. You can find out more here

COVID-19, Leadership, News

Leaders and managers rose to the challenges of COVID-19, according to LRN

66% of U.K. respondents reported that senior leaders integrated E&C considerations into their decision-making during the pandemic.

As we enter another year of the pandemic, more business leaders had to upgrade their ethics and compliance initiatives. Leaders say that their ethical culture is more potent as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest annual Ethics and Compliance Program Effectiveness Report from LRN.

But, while values and ethics helped sustain companies during the pandemic, new areas of concern have emerged. And, there is a significant gap between companies with high-impact ethics and compliance (E&C) programs and those with low-impact ones. The top-ranked programs were proactive, utilised available resources, and made their programmes more accessible to employees.

The report, titled “The 2022 Ethics & Compliance Program Effectiveness Report: Rising to the challenges of the new normal” comes from a survey of nearly 1,200 ethics, compliance, and legal executives and other professionals at companies from around the world. Most of the participants are from organisations with more than 1,000 employees. The annual report provides a benchmark to evaluate E&C programs.

Here are some of the key takeaways specifically from the U.K. market:

  • 91% of UK E&C programs reported that their organisations’ ethical culture emerged stronger as a result of coping with the COVID-19 crisis. This is  11%-points higher than US  programs and 9%-points higher than the global average. This is a striking and significant finding demonstrating the strength of  UK programs.
  • 83% reported making significant changes to meet the needs of employees working remotely.  This is 10%-points more than US programs and 8%-points  more than the global average.
  • 71% reported that their middle managers increased engagement with employees to help them meet the challenges of remote work— 10%-points more than US  programs and 12%-points more than the global average.

The research revealed that the top three areas of E&C programmes that improved in 2021 were: training delivery (45%), employee surveys (45%) and training content (33%). However, training delivery (32%), training content (30%) were also in the top three in need of further improvement as well as code of conduct (26%).

Although there were significant improvements in UK E&C programmes as noted above, the UK is behind the curve when it comes to assessing ethical culture. Global regulators increasingly highlight the importance of measuring a company’s “culture of compliance” and the example set by leadership, yet the majority of UK E&C programmes (58%) are still relying on employee engagement surveys with only a few E&C-related questions as their primary measurement of culture.

UK respondents reported significantly less frequent use of key metrics in evaluating their programmes’ effectiveness in comparison to global data and US data. Specifically, UK programmes were less likely to use or measure the following indicators to gauge programme impact and identify areas for improvement: employee engagement with ethics and compliance resources; root cause analysis for compliance lapses; misconduct trends and patterns; speaking out data and hotline complaints.

LRN’s research shows that an organisation dedicated to sustainable human values will exhibit superior performance across operations and be significantly more successful at integrating ethics and compliance into its day-to-day operations. Values-based governance is also a foundational part of ESG (environmental, social, and governance objectives), an area of increasing importance for organisations.

This key insight has been validated again and again during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and racial and political unrest of the past two years. The pandemic, in particular, has challenged organisations to respond, adapt, and pivot to meet unprecedented challenges to their operations, the health and safety of their employees, and financial viability in a manner consistent with their values and culture.

In sum, UK E&C programmes weathered the COVID-19 crisis effectively, continued to strengthen their programmes, and helped employees cope with the consequences. Now that the dust has settled somewhat, UK programmes would benefit even further by bringing a greater focus on using data, drawn from a wide variety of sources, to guide continued programme attention and enhancement

 

Ty Francis MBE, Chief Advisory Officer, LRN Corporation said, “I think what’s important to note here is that out of all of the countries we’ve surveyed, the UK led the pack in taking an employee-centric approach in key elements of E&C programme design, delivery, and implementation.”

 

The 2022 Performance Effectiveness  Report leverages LRN’s Performance  Effectiveness Index. PEI is a proprietary framework for analysing the impact of  E&C programmes to gain insight into ethical culture and how the programme works “in practice.” The report methodology differs from most surveys of E&C programs, as the majority focus on measuring activities rather than impact and ethical culture.

 

 

About LRN

LRN’s mission and purpose is to inspire principled performance and help people around the world do the right thing. Since 1994, LRN has worked to propel organizations forward with the partnership, knowledge, and tools to build an ethical culture. More than 1,000 companies and 30 million learners worldwide utilize LRN services and take LRN e-learning courses to help navigate complex regulatory environments and foster ethical, responsible, and inclusive cultures. In partnership with LRN, companies translate their values into concrete corporate practices and leadership behaviors that create a sustainable competitive advantage. By acting upon shared values, companies and their people find the means to outbehave and outperform. Learn more at https://lrn.com and follow on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. For more insights from LRN on ethics, compliance, corporate culture, and reputation subscribe to our newsletter and look for the Principled Podcast by LRN wherever you get your podcasts.

 

Leadership, News

3 key factors of an effective leader

The purpose and strategic direction of an organisation lies at the heart of impactful leadership, says Saara Bange, Associate Director at Aalto University Executive Education. 

Based on the leadership framework at Aalto University Executive Education, Bange says that the knowledge, skills and competencies of an effective leader come down to three key factors; sensemaking and interpreting, adapting and aligning, renewing and growing. 

A key skill of a leader is to break down information and use it as an aid for decision making – sensemaking and interpretation is key for this as it describes the way we make sense of the world around us.  

The leader’s task is to ask; What is happening? What will happen? Which beliefs will influence the events? It is necessary to understand and accept that the answers will never be perfect, says Bange.  

She adds that this imperfection cannot paralyze decision-making and execution which brings us to the second factor; adapting and aligning.  

This refers to a leader’s ability to adapt activities to the surrounding reality as it is interpreted – the company strategy, context, and events on both a micro and macro level. 

On an individual level, it means that leaders who are aware of their behavioural styles and ways of making sense of the world can use that knowledge to adapt to the situation. 

 The third skill is renewing and growing – this is both the leader’s personal renewal and the impact on organizational renewal and growth. Bange says that this may require challenging both the leader’s own and the organization’s mindsets.  

 She adds that adapting and aligning involves continual development, whereas renewing and growing refer to a leader’s ability to respond to sporadic, surprising changes in the operating environment. 

“It is important to remember that leadership never takes place in a vacuum; the organizational and wider context exist along the perimeters of leadership. “Even the most skilled leader is unable to leave a positive imprint without structures and frameworks that support leadership. The collective capabilities, knowledge, and skills of the organization set the conditions for a leader’s activities,” says Bange.  

By strengthening these knowledge, skills and individual competences, Bange believes leaders can become more effective and leave their mark – on the team, organization, and surrounding society. 

Leadership, Mental Health, News

The Soke launches Founders Development Programme to provide knowledge & skills to company founders

Mental health and wellness clinic The Soke today announces the launch of its Founders Development Programme, a first-of-its-kind course which has been designed to provide vital knowledge, understanding and skills to founders at the helms of fast growth businesses.

Partnering with founders and investors, the programme will be delivered by a multidisciplinary team of psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, senior leadership coaches and media experts, to support founders in developing successful, sustainable leadership.

The Programme has been designed in response to research from Harvard Business School which listed the most important skills for founders of fast growth businesses. These included: choosing co-founders, appointing key talent, splitting equity, recruiting advisors, and managing a board (88 per cent), as well as setting and communicating vision, managing culture, ethical dilemmas, and cross-functional conflict (82 per cent).

The Founders Development Programme will include the following core modules, as well as others designed to teach and embed good leadership practices:

  • Psychological assessment
  • Leadership vs Management
  • Practicing emotional and social intelligence
  • Communication
  • Conflict management
  • Creating and sustaining corporate culture
  • Exerting influence
  • Training and delegation
  • The pro-active model for decision making
  • Key relationship mapping
  • Skills needed for the board and investors
  • Financial knowledge for non-financial people
  • Media training
  • Systemic psychotherapy

Maryam Meddin, founder & CEO of The Soke, comments:

“Whilst many founders may believe that they naturally possess the necessary characteristics for successful leadership, the reality is that few come to
the fundraising table with the array of skills needed to successfully lead an organisation from inception to growth and beyond. This is particularly the case when founders are required to run a company not purely to satisfy their own ambition but to meet the expectations of investors and other stakeholders.

“The conflict between a founder’s passions and creativity and their obligation to deliver on stakeholders expectations can be the cause of destabilising dilemmas and must be addressed through early training and support. We are therefore excited to launch The Founders Development Programme, a first-of-its-kind, multi-disciplinary course to provide knowledge, understanding and skills to founders, equipping them with the tools to lead their companies to successful and sustainable growth.”