Ensuring Success When Succession Planning

With the new financial year about to begin, businesses will be confirming their budgets and determining where to spend and where to save. As we predicted at the start of the calendar year, talent is a top priority for businesses as they aim to ensure they have the right skills in the right roles and the right leaders at the helm. However, ongoing disruption in the market will continue to make this a challenging feat.

CEO turnover is at its highest levels in 20 years, with an average tenure of around 5 years. Coupled with the mass exodus of over 50s from the workforce, businesses are having to fill gaps more frequently and reassess what qualities they need at the senior level. Succession planning is a smart move for preventing productivity losses, negative impacts on the bottom line, and a never-ending cycle of turnover. Yet, only 35% of organisations have a formalised succession planning process for critical roles and the majority of leaders will fail shortly after ascending to a new position.

If you want to be seen as a successor or are appointed as the successor to a key role, what must you consider and how can you succeed? From a business perspective, what should you factor in when considering which individuals to appoint to ensure a smooth transition? Our Rialto Executive Career Coaches have compiled their top areas for consideration to help deliver an effective succession plan.

Effective Succession Planning: Business Considerations

Succession planning looks at the business through a long-term lens with the understanding that certain senior executives in business-critical positions may leave or retire at any point. You may know when that will be, or you may not. However, recognising the potential of individual talent who might take on the challenges of these roles, investing in their development in advance, and having a plan for the role they subsequently leave behind can ensure a smoother transition of power and minimise business disruption.

Appointing a successor from within the organisation holds several advantages including demonstrating to your staff that the business values its employees. There is also a smaller learning curve and shorter onboarding time when a ‘candidate’ is already familiar with the business, and therefore these moves can be made much quicker without having to advertise, extensively interview, and screen for the position. In succession planning, you will likely already have an eye on specific candidates who will have already proven themselves, making it much easier to act with agility when the organisation needs to pivot. An internal candidate will also already have relationships with the team and the business’s partners, making it easier to generate support and buy-in.

It is therefore understandable why this is a common practice at the senior level. Many CEOs will have been appointed to the top chair from the CFO/FD or COO role. Other C-Suite executives may have previously held VP, Director, or other senior-level titles in their department or a specific geography the business operates in. Others will have worked their way to the top after climbing the level from the junior level. There is no one clear path to any specific senior role, and a business would limit itself by only considering specific positions as ‘feeders’ for other higher-level roles. What is more valuable for ensuring success is that whoever you appoint will have the proper support from the business throughout the transition.

For those looking to grow and identify a succession pipeline, we would advise you to not only have a view of the long-term vision of the organisation but also an understanding of your wider market and competitors. Openness to diversity and links to any wider talent management practices in the organisation will also provide an advantage. Our experts advise you to consider the following:

• What Worked Previously May Not Work Now: It is an easy trap to fall into when succession planning to appoint the most similar person to the executive who previously held the role. While keeping the status quo may be comfortable for the team during a transition of power, it may not be the most beneficial for the business. Succeeding a leader is an opportunity to bring in fresh perspectives, ways of working, or leadership styles. When considering who the right internal candidate for a leadership role might be, do not overlook those who do not resemble others who held the position historically. Instead, assess the current and future needs of the business, the challenges it faces, and priorities moving forward before assessing who may be well placed to navigate these factors.
• Expect Push Back: As any HRD can attest, it is impossible to please every employee all the time and every decision will have its naysayers. When you promote an internal candidate to a key role, there will always be others who felt they deserved it more and who are vocal about that opinion. Others will be apprehensive about change or may doubt the appointed executive’s suitability, and these individuals may resist or challenge the authority of the new leader as a result. It would be unwise to expect that every transition will be smooth, and everyone will be excited and onboard. By anticipating these biases within the organisational politics, you will be much better placed for overcoming them. Ensure you are clearly and effectively communicating why a specific individual was chosen for the role, what characteristics they possess, and how this appointment serves the bigger picture for the business. Shut down any negative talk with clear points on why the decision was made and stand firm in your choice.
• Communicate Carefully: Of course, how you communicate the succession of a senior role matters to more than just the naysayers. You need to consider how you position this appointment both internally and externally. How you communicate your points will change by audience. Internally, you will need to consider framing the announcement in a way that generates buy in and trust within the team and makes resistance of authority less likely. You will also need to consider that you are not just speaking directly to that new leader’s team, department, or direct reports. When communicating internally, consider how your message will be perceived by the rest of the leadership team and those in other teams or departments that will have to interact with or collaborate with this new leader. What would they want to know? What would get them excited to have this person in this role even though it has no direct impact on their own role? Externally, your mission is less about generating buy in than it is about inspiring confidence that the organisation is being led in the right direction. How you communicate this and what you might choose to focus on will vary. Your shareholders or other various stakeholders will be primarily focused on the safety of their investments or partnerships, while your customers will want to know what this means for your products or services. Ensure you are framing all messages in third party media, social media, the company website, emails, and beyond to hit the points your external audiences will be most concerned about.
• Factor in Skills: Succession planning is about so much more than filling open seats or promoting your talent. It’s about ensuring you have the right skills in the right positions to pilot the business into the future. When succession planning, be sure to factor in what capabilities you will need on hand. Is there someone you can appoint who already has those skills? Should you consider ‘training up’ an otherwise ideal candidate to make sure they have a well-rounded skillset when they ascend to the role? These are all important considerations for ensuring agility and viability in the future of work.

Succession Planning- Preparing for your next step up

While companies look to build their talent pipeline of candidates who could step into the shoes of key roles, individual senior executives need to consider what this might mean for their own career trajectory and adequately prepare. In fact, this preparation can make or break one’s success in their new position. Research estimates that 50% to 70% of executives fail within 18 months of taking on a role, with about 3% of those executives “failing spectacularly” while nearly 50% “quietly struggle.”

Preparing for the next role you’d like to have while still in your current position can help you succeed once you ascend. In an ideal scenario, you would be notified well in advance that you are next in line to take over, train under the sitting executive, and have all the necessary support you need to move into the role. In the current business climate of ongoing disruption, the ideal scenario may not be the reality. You may not have the necessary onboarding you desire, and therefore need to take the reins of your career into your own hands.

Our Rialto Executive Career Coaches advise senior executives preparing to ascend to the next level to consider the following:

• Know Yourself: Many of the executives who fail shortly after taking on a role do so because they are not adequately prepared for leadership. We can at times become so busy that we neglect to think about who we are, what type of leader we want to be, what legacy we want to leave. This can lead to misalignment in a role, imposter syndrome, and mistrust from key stakeholders among other issues. Who are you professionally? What do you stand for? What will you do, and what will you not do? What approach do you prefer to take? What do you want out of your career, and what is the best way of achieving that? Knowing who you are as a leader and carrying yourself appropriately will help position you as a potential candidate for succession and help others visualise what you would bring to the role.
• Know Your Stakeholders: When considering how you want others to perceive you, you must also consider who it is you need to influence. Who are the key stakeholders both above you and below you that you need to gain the support of? Who are the key decision makers for all succession-related activity? What is your relationship to the individual you aspire to replace someday? Forging strong relationships now can prove beneficial later as you will ascend to the new role with an existing network of support and trust among your peers. Knowing how these various stakeholder groups are influenced will enable you to build that support by meeting people where they are. Learn all you can from these individuals and bring it into your new role to maximise the impact you are able to deliver.
• Comparison Kills Confidence: Just as HRDs and the business need to avoid appointing carbon copies of past leaders, you need to be your own person in your new role. It can at times be easy to compare yourself to the executive before you or to your peers who might have also been considered for the role. Sometimes, it may not even be your internal voice making the comparison. If you are replacing someone who was much beloved, others may be very vocal about how you measure up. If you are replacing someone others were not as fond of, the bar for comparison may be set so low that it becomes easy to get away with giving less. At the end of the day, there was a reason why you were the person chosen for the job and you need to trust in that decision regardless of what your thoughts or your peers have to say about it. The only person you should be benchmarking against is yourself. Are you delivering on your promises? Are you living out your values? Are you making as big of an impact as you could be? No two leaders are the same. Focus on carving your own path and creating your own legacy instead of stepping into the shoes of your predecessor.
• Be Prepared to Navigate Organisational Politics: The challenges of organisational politics will not just impact HRDs or the other decision makers involved with succession choices. Navigating hurt feelings, dissent, and doubt is an unspoken responsibility of taking on a senior role. There will likely be someone who thinks they could do the job better than you, and they may choose to be vocal about that belief. You may also have others who lack respect for your new authority, let your existing relationship impact what they believe they can get away with, or doubt your ability to deliver on objectives. These may seem like such small incidents, but they can make it difficult to adjust to the new role or cause unnecessary distraction. Do your best to keep your head above the noise and focus on the work at hand. Proving yourself in the role is the best way to shut down any naysayers and demonstrate that you were the right person for the job.
• It’s More Than a Promotion: Succession is not simply a promotion and will require a fair amount of career development activity on your part. Most succession planning is focussed at a senior level where executives will be succeeding into C-suite or Board-level positions, which come with other various reputational and strategic considerations. Appointing new members of top leadership enables the organisation to pilot itself into the future with the right people at the helm. What might that future look like, and what role do you intend to play in it? Do you have the right skills? It may be that taking over a role through succession requires reskilling or upskilling on your part to satisfy the organisation’s needs. Are you prepared for the internal and external pressures of the role? Your new role may require you to be more visible in your industry or the wider market. Is your personal brand reflective of who you are professionally and how you would like to be perceived? Understanding that this is more than just taking the next step in your career and preparing adequately will help position you as a stronger candidate for a desirable role and help you succeed once you get there.

If you are a senior executive seeking to grow your career, reach the next level and make a game changing career move, our Executive Career Coaches can help. Get in touch with our team to discuss our bespoke executive transition and career coaching services.

On average, an adult makes approximately 35,000 conscious decisions every day. Some of these choices are as simple as ‘tea or coffee,’ while others have much higher stakes. For business leaders, that number is likely much higher and many of those decisions hold much greater weight. Day-to-day, senior executives are tasked with making choices that impact their business, their people, their customers and – in certain cases – wider society.

Each individual leader will have their own approach to decision making, with some preferring to seek the advice of trusted peers while others rely on their own intuition. In fact, research has found that more than 40% of CEOs make decisions based on gut feelings. But in our increasingly digital age, businesses and their leadership have a powerful weapon in their arsenal that hold incredible value for making smarter, more effective decisions.

Understanding Data-Driven Decision Making

‘Data’ is not unique to the digital age. Before the somewhat recent wave of digitisation and the subsequent migrations to cloud storage, businesses kept physical records locked in filing cabinets or stored in boxes. These methods were not necessarily the most convenient or secure but served their purpose of telling the story of the business via facts and figures.

Data looks rather different in the digital age. With our shift towards smart devices, social media, and e-commerce, businesses today have access to more data than they realise or utilise. The volume of online activity makes it difficult to pinpoint exact figures, but estimates suggest that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created each day. Every interaction, every web search, every sale, and every activity between the organisations and its audiences creates a data trail that helps the business to gain a better grip on its standing in the marketplace and among its customers and competition.

The process of using this information to guide the business strategy and validate courses of action is commonly known as Data-Driven Decision Making (DDDM). Organisations may do this by analysing macro trends and research from credible third parties, conducting their own surveys and focus groups, or running tests to generate original insights on specific products or business challenges. These and other DDDM practices have been used for centuries. However, an innately modern phenomenon is occurring wherein an increasing number of companies have begun using advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse the wealth of digital data produced by the everyday digital activities of the business.

Combined, these methods provide deeper insights into the activities of the business, its people, and the markets in which it operates.

Why Use DDDM?

According to a PwC survey of more than 1,000 senior executives, highly data-driven organisations are three times more likely to report significant improvements in decision-making. It is easy to understand why.

In the wake of the pandemic and its aftereffects, it has become more important than ever for businesses to develop the right strategy and prioritise actions that drive impact. The challenges in the marketplace have made it imperative for leaders to make wise choices regarding their products, customer experiences, operations, personnel, suppliers, and more. However, the stresses of navigating the tumult amid pressures to deliver business impact can often cloud judgement and create space for irrationality.

Becoming data-driven can help to keep the business on track by creating a stable model for decision-making that can withstand both troubling times and ideal operating conditions. Much of its value can be attributed to the fact that data is inherently objective. At some point or other, all of us will have heard the phrase, “Numbers don’t lie.” Data offers a similar infallibility. While it is possible for biases to creep into data collection methods and taint the outcomes, overall, data lacks the subjectivity and ‘blind spot’ thinking that intuition-based and other decision-making methods possess. When collected properly, data paints a picture of the way things are rather than presenting individuals or the business through the lens of how you perceive or wish them to be. It may not always be what we want to hear, but data will tell us everything we need to know to grow and evolve.

Because of its ability to benchmark the current position of the business, data makes it possible to better understand the potential impacts of any subsequent decisions and track progress along the way. Data can lend credibility to gut instinct or help steer leaders away from paths that may not deliver the desired impact. This is crucial in times of turmoil when every decision carries extra pressure, and resources may be increasingly valuable. Data analytics and insight generation can often highlight issues that may require immediate attention, areas for improvement, develop risk metrics or potential cost savings. On their own, these insights may seem small, but can help inform a wider strategy that pilots the business towards a more favourable position.

Since data is both logical and objective, it is much easier for business leaders to become more confident in their decision making over time. This confidence will be key for generating buy-in for any strategic initiatives and earning trust for the leadership team. Staff, customers, and other stakeholders want the business to be led by leaders who have proven their competence and their ability to make good judgements. Prioritising data in decision making increases the likelihood of achieving the best possible outcomes much more often, thus increasing the credibility of the leadership team in the eyes of their audiences, as well as the leaders’ own sense of conviction.

Top DDDM Challenges

This is not always as easy as it may seem. In the most recent NewVantage Partners annual survey, which tracks the progress of corporate data initiatives, just 26.5% of organisations reported having become data driven. The biggest challenge seems to be a people issue. 91.9% of executives in the survey cited cultural obstacles as the greatest barrier to becoming data driven. Crafting a successful data culture requires shaping collective beliefs and behaviours to unite all levels and areas of the business over a shared mission to lead with insight.

As with any major organisational change, there needs to be effort invested into communicating objectives, creating alignment, and ensuring the right values and priorities are embedded into the organisation’s practices. Leaders may experience pushback or resistance and will have to work through these changes collaboratively with their people. Data is a fluid asset that flows throughout the business and transcends organisational boundaries. Therefore, it can at times become difficult to assign clear ownership to it, which increases the complexity of managing the business’s valuable information. Communication is critical for assigning responsibility and creating the necessary alignment across teams.

The nature and sheer volume of the data itself presents obstacles as well. The majority of this information is unorganised with experts predicting that by 2025, 80% of global data will be unstructured. This form of data is more difficult to analyse, quantify, and search through. Common examples include email communications, photos and videos, social media posts, websites, and open-ended survey questions. When you consider how many of these items are generated each day, the burden of data analysis becomes much heavier. That is why many businesses looking to become more data driven have begun rapidly adopting advanced technological tools that are capable of assigning meaning and gleaning insights from this mess of information.

How data is collected, managed, and shared creates a major challenge both internally and externally. Customers are not naïve to the fact that the organisations they do business with collect and use their data. Over time, consumers and businesses reached an unspoken social contract in which customers agree to surrender their data in exchange for better products, services, and experiences. But as part of this agreement, it is also expected that the business will use and store this data in a way that safeguards their customers. In recent years, we have seen companies including British Airways, Yahoo, Marriott Hotels, and various social media platforms experience major backlash when this trust is breached. We have also seen the introduction of specific laws, such as GDPR, designed to provide additional protections to consumers in the data age. Navigating the ethical and regulatory considerations of fair data use is a challenge every business needs to take very seriously.

Becoming Data-Driven

But how can leaders overcome these obstacles and put DDDM into practice successfully? At Rialto, we consult with C-suite executives, Non-Executive Directors, HR Directors, Board members, and other senior leaders on strategies to enhance their capabilities and keep pace with the evolving marketplace. Our experts are advising senior leaders to develop a greater focus on the following:

• Maintain an Open Mind: The first step to becoming more data-driven is to be willing to take it on board. Data will not always tell you what you want to hear or confirm the beliefs you may have, which can be uncomfortable. This discomfort may be especially strong for leaders who have historically relied on gut instinct in their decision making. To reap the benefits of data, you need to think of it as an ally. Leaning into your organisation’s data can make you and your business more efficient, more effective, more strategic, and more targeted than ever before.
• Take a Proactive Approach: DDDM is most often reactive in nature. An insight is presented by the data which in turns triggers a decision to either remedy it or follow in the direction it leads. While this is often fine, sometimes the insight is gleaned too late for the subsequent action to make a real impact. Therefore, leaders should aim to use data proactively to become more strategic. Data does a great job of presenting what is, but it is also very useful for assessing what could It is possible to leverage insights in a way that enable the business to test potential courses of action, predict trends, or identify budding problems before they worsen. Learning to use your data in this way will help you navigate the present while setting your organisation up for the future.
• Keep Data at Your Core: Of course, for DDDM to be effective, it needs to be consistent. Your organisation’s data needs to be at the core of all decisions, not just the larger or more strategic ones. When deciding anything, leaders should reflect on the data rather than reverting to gut instinct or previous behaviours. Make it standard practice to tie all decisions back to the data to support your thinking. Use all any data sources available whether it is your digital data, research your organisation conducts itself, or simply the latest macro trends and stats. Over time, referring to the data and applying relevance to your decision making will become a habit that can support more analytical ways of thinking.
• Understand Where DDDM is Headed: While AI and other technologies are not the only way to assess or collect data, these tools are unrivalled for the depth and efficiency they can produce. Therefore, DDDM is relying more heavily on the insights created and presented by advanced technologies. AI is capable of analysing all the organisation’s digital data constantly in real time, a feat no human worker could replicate. This technology can also process and make sense of millions of data points in a matter of seconds. It would take a human worker months of nonstop work to get through this volume of information, and by the time they finish, it is likely that the trends and market conditions will have changed. To keep abreast of ever-changing consumer habits and economic fluxes, businesses will increasingly rely on digital DDDM tactics moving forward. Understanding this now will help to prepare for this inevitable shift.
• Upskill as Needed: That said, it is critical for leaders to have the right digital capabilities for navigating the future of DDDM. Given where DDDM practices are headed, a baseline understanding of AI will be of value to any leader possessing decision-making responsibilities. To support data-driven mindsets, leaders should also look to increase their analytical thinking capabilities. Being able to make sense of patterns, spot anomalies, and derive meaning from charts and figures is a crucial aspect of becoming data forward. The ability to translate raw figures into business relevance and commercial thinking will also serve you well. Additionally, honing softer skills like communication and collaboration are crucial for creating data driven cultures. The most effective data-driven leaders are those who empower their teams to become active contributors the business’s growth. Focus on improving these areas to get the most of your DDDM activity.

If you would like support with strengthening your capabilities through Leadership Development executive coaching or creating a data-driven culture within your organisation via our Business Transformation services, please get in touch with our team.

There is no question that 2022 was yet another challenging year for businesses. Interest rates reached record-breaking levels, war broke out on European soil for the first time in decades, inflation hit a near 40 year high, and the disruptions that began in 2020 continued their ripple effects.

With a New Year ahead, the blank slate of the next 12 months presents fresh opportunity, but also holds unknown challenges. The challenges of last year did not cease to exist once the clock struck midnight, but what will they mean for us this year?

To help you prepare, we have compiled an overview of some of the latest key executive outplacement market statistics and issues to be aware of when navigating the market in Q1 2023.

Market Snapshot

Before making predictions about what lies ahead, it is important to get a sense of where the executive outplacement market currently stands. There are both positives and negatives to be found, as indicated by the latest ONS Labour Market Overview report. The estimate of employees on payroll for November 2022 showed a monthly increase of 107,000 on the previous month’s figures to a record 29.9 million, meaning employers continue to seek out full time employees with the right skills. This coincides with a decrease in the economic inactivity rate, which decreased by 0.2 to 21.5% in the latest report. The decrease was driven by those aged 50 to 64, mostly due to them leaving retirement and returning to the workforce amid economic turmoil.

At the same time, both vacancy and pay figures remain stagnant. In the latest ONS report, the estimated number of vacancies fell by 65,000 on the quarter to 1,187,000. Growth in average total pay (including bonuses) and regular pay (excluding bonuses) among employees for August to October 2022 held steady at 6.1%. Zooming in by sector, average regular pay growth for the private sector was 6.9% and 2.7% for the public sector. The ONS states that this is the largest growth rate seen for the private sector and is among the largest differences between the private sector and public sector growth rates we have seen outside of the pandemic period.

After adjusting for inflation, total and regular pay both fell by 2.7%. While this is slightly smaller than the record fall in real regular pay (3.0%) which we saw earlier in 2022, this end-of-year figure is among the largest decreases in growth since comparable records began.

2023 Predictions

It is not just pay that will be affected by the economic difficulties we continue to face. The fall in vacancies reflects a general caution across industries about the market and financial conditions, and the challenges will not stop there. Here are our predictions for what lies ahead between January and March 2023:

• Recession fears to become a reality: For months now, the possibility of a recession and making preparations for one have been a key topic of discussion, however this has yet to be officially declared in the UK or across most of Europe. The UK experienced unexpected growth in November 2022 bolstered by the World Cup, leading some experts to question if the situation is really as dire as it seems. The German economy, Europe’s largest, stagnated in Q4 2022 but grew by 1.9% across the year, indicating the country may narrowly escape a recession.

Despite this optimistic blip, we are not quite out of the woods yet and recession is still a very real possibility. The latest forecast from World Bank forecasts that recession is a seemingly likely outcome for us, with their latest Global Economic Prospects report predicting that the global economy will grow by only 1.7% this year. This is a sharp fall from the 3% growth they predicted in their previous report published in mid-2022. The world’s three most prosperous economic regions—the US, the Eurozone, and China—are expected to experience a ‘period of pronounced weakness,’ with their downturns more significant than those experienced by poorer nations. After surging by 5.3% in 2021, growth in the world’s richest economies is likely to slow to just 0.5% in 2023. Therefore, despite the optimistic outlooks possessed by some, it is likely not a matter of if we will declare a recession, but a question of when.

As the conflict in Ukraine surges on, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues to create ripples, and inflation rests at record heights.  We seem to get closer to an official declaration of recession every day. Therefore, it is certainly not out of the question that this announcement could be made in Q1. Should this happen, this would be the first time in over 80 years that two global recessions have occurred within the same decade. With the 2008-09 recession a recent memory, many businesses and executives will be proceeding with caution. Everything that happens now will be a result of recession wariness.

• Hiring will slow and freezes will continue: Higher interest rates and inflation have hit businesses hard, while higher costs of living have reduced customer spend. This has led many businesses to restructure and tighten up their budgets to preserve their financial health as much as possible. Typically, staff is the first area impacted.

We have already seen cautionary shrinkage in the jobs market reflected in the previously mentioned ONS data, and that contraction will most likely continue throughout Q1. In fact—within the first two weeks of 2023 alone—Amazon, Salesforce, Goldman Sachs, Barratt Developments, JLL, and Liberty Steel have all announced redundancies and hiring freezes that will impact their UK workforces. Others have announced that they are considering making cuts in the near future. That said, expect a pause rather than mass redundancies. Data from Iwoca found that nearly four in five companies plan to keep staffing levels unchanged in 2023.

While this is certainly concerning, opportunities remain available, especially at the senior level as the need for strong relevant leadership increases.

• Battling slowdown versus innovation: Businesses will face the uncertainty of the current slowdown whilst also having to navigate the challenge of needing to remain at the forefront of innovation disrupting every industry. Of course, the challenges in the market will impact each industry and sector in their own way. As one might expect, some will find balancing harder than others.

In the final quarter of last year, we saw a downturn in VC activity as investors opted to sit out the turbulence in the market. In the technology sector, which is central to the venture capital landscape, the last year has brought the steepest and widest drawdown for a generation. However, VC funds remain very well stocked to make rounds of new investments at much healthier valuations compared to one year ago. Predictions from London and Partners indicate the UK tech sector is showing resilience despite the challenges seen in many other major European cities, with sectors such as Fintech, Edtech and Gaming thriving.

In addition to this, for the first time, we saw every single subsector in Financial Services heading downward, with the biggest falls seen in Banking and Markets and Investment Management. Here at Rialto, our team also observed US employers made far more aggressive job cuts than their UK, European or Asian counterparts – almost without exception.  The focus on improving services for people remains high, as does the focus on aligning banking practices and technology to global/social problems. However, for the past decade—and maybe even longer than that—sustainability issues have remained as the key agenda item despite the cost-of-living crisis presently causing major threats to progress.

Retail is another sector we expect to have a particularly tough quarter ahead. Decreased customer spend, disrupted supply chains, and higher costs resulted in a December 2022 sales gain that was lower than the rate of inflation, meaning people likely bought less due to having to pay more. With no end to these challenges in sight, retail faces a tough Q1. We expect to see hiring freezes and redundancies here, but equally acquisitions and changes in leadership will be on radar to keep businesses afloat. Innovation will show itself in different ways, as retailers continue to go more ‘hybrid’ with their offerings beyond their normal inventory.

Manufacturing will also continue to struggle. The latest S&P Global/CIPS UK Composite PMI recorded falls in new manufacturing business for a fifth successive month, and as a result jobs were also lost for the third month running. In addition to this lack of new business and ongoing supply chain difficulties, the industry has been hit hard by the energy crisis. Costs have become a major concern. According to an industry survey conducted by Make UK and PwC, 70% of companies expect their energy costs to increase this year, with two-thirds saying they expect to cut production or jobs as a result. Rather than hiring new talent, manufacturing will likely turn to upskilling and retraining existing staff. 52% of respondents in the survey reported that they are engaging in this activity. Those looking to advance or enter manufacturing in Q1 or beyond will need to ensure that their skills are on par with those which firms will be instilling in their existing workforce.

Planning ahead

While we continue to teeter on the precipice of a recession, it is important to remain both optimistic and realistic. Yes, the coming months will be challenging, but will this really feel out of the ordinary given how much disruption has occurred in recent years? Just as we persevered through the pandemic and all of its ripple effects, we will adapt once again. We may escape recession, or we may not. Either way, opportunities in the executive outplacement market will remain, and executives should continue to be at the forefront of market changes to reposition themselves, upskill, and retain visibility as a leader of the future.

If you are considering undergoing an executive job search or career change during this period, you may face new barriers but not total roadblocks. It is important to keep visible online and active among your networks. Your personal digital brand remains one of the most valuable weapons in your arsenal for attracting and obtaining new opportunities. Instead of shying away from the challenges in your industry, use them to develop your thought leadership. Showcase your expertise and apply your insight to real issues impacting your business, industry, or job function.

Double down on skills and work on developing capabilities that will benefit your current or potential employer when navigating current and future market conditions. Upskilling will likely be the go-to strategy for businesses this year when it comes to their talent and recruitment, so it is essential that your abilities are on par with what your target organisations are expecting from their current staff. To gain a real competitive advantage, develop skills that exceed these expectations.

As always, if you would like personalised, one-to-one support with navigating your career transition or would like to explore our specialised capability of securing c-suite decision maker meetings for you in any industry globally, our team can help. Get in touch with us to discuss our bespoke programmes for personal digital branding and executive job searches.

Today’s C-suite executives certainly have their work cut out for them. These leaders are responsible for piloting the business through turbulent times, inflation and economic downturn, supply chain security, fluctuating demand, global disruptions, and shifts in customer expectations. It’s a tall order, and a major challenge for many businesses looking to recover from these setbacks and step into the future with the right foot forward.

As a result, we are seeing many businesses make major changes within the C-suite to build leadership teams that are better equipped to deliver the necessary impact to help the business succeed long term. This has involved reshaping roles, introducing new voices at the top table, and shifting focus towards more strategic objectives.

Here are the 3 major changes organisations are making:

1. Titles Aligned with Strategic Goals

Historically, C-suite titles have been limited to departmental designations such as Finance, Marketing, or Operations. It made sense that the key functions of the business had representation at the top of the organisation, with the Chief Executive at the helm overseeing everything. While those titles still hold valuable places in the C-suite, many organisations have begun to understand that stronger leadership and ownership is needed for their strategic priorities.

That’s why when you look at many of today’s boards, you see newer titles such as Chief Diversity Officer, Chief Sustainability Officer, Chief People Officer, Chief Data Officer, and so on. Research from LinkedIn found that a search for titles incorporating the word ‘Chief’ returned 51 different variations, most of which reflect the changing priorities of top-level leadership.

These titles may appear gimmicky, but their value is anything but. The creation of these roles indicates an understanding from organisations that both the business landscape and the world at large are changing, and that the business needs to adapt accordingly.

Can the appointment of these C-suite executives fix the shortcomings in these priority areas overnight? No. However, having leaders with remits dedicated specifically to these issues creates accountability for the organisation and helps ensure that these issues have an ever-present voice in all decision-making processes. The act of appointing a Chief Sustainability Officer itself will not reduce the organisation’s carbon footprint, but it will help to ensure that sustainability is represented in all leadership conversations and has the internal support required to make change happen over time.

In addition to these strategic titles, we are also seeing businesses adapt, expand, and adopt certain roles to improve the organisation’s ecosystem orchestration and cohesion. For example, the Chief Growth Officer, Chief Alliance and Partnership Officer, and Chief Customer Officer may be tasked with connecting traditionally siloed departmental roles like marketing and sales and infusing external customer-facing objectives into internal strategy. The Chief Data Officer will likely be tasked with bridging technology with other areas of the business, an increasingly important task as businesses accelerate their digital transformation projects.

We mentioned in a previous blog that having a niche related to one of these highly important business priorities is a major asset for any top executive to bring to the leadership team. As the C-suite is evolving, there is potential for executives to combine their leadership capabilities and subject matter expertise to create real impact in these newer board positions. The expansion of the C-suite allows for more voices in the conversation and can help to shape the leadership team into one that adequately reflects the evolving needs of the business and its people. You may be able to bring something unique to the table, and your insight may be exactly what the business needs moving forward.

2. Purpose-Driven Activity

Beyond strategic priorities, these titles and appointments are also driven by organisational purpose. ESG has become a major focus for businesses, with Harvard Law School’s ESG Global Study 2022 finding that the European market boasts the highest percentage of ESG users at 93%, which is more than both North America (79%) and Asia-Pacific (88%). Research from Deloitte backs this up, as 79% of respondents in their survey of 212 C-suite leaders across various industries reported that their company has a clear and defined purpose strategy that is integrated with core business strategy.

But it isn’t just the leadership team that cares about environmental, social, and governmental issues. According to a study by PwC, 76% of consumers say they will stop buying from companies that treat the environment, their employees, or the community in which they operate poorly, while 86% of employees prefer to support or work for companies that care about the same issues they do. As more Gen Z enter the workforce and become a bigger part of the customer population, it is expected that more attention will be paid to ESG-related issues in the years to come.

Issues like climate change and D&I are at the top of every board’s strategic wish list, and it falls on the C-suite to deliver the desired results. Appointments of C-suite executives with ESG-related remits is on the rise, but it is also becoming increasingly important for C-suite members in all areas to integrate these issues into their own agendas. The C-suite needs to work together to create an aligned strategy that creates accountability throughout the organisation and provides a basis for each individual member to draw from with their own teams and activity. Executives can no longer afford to overlook ESG, nor should they try.

3. Increased Scrutiny

The ways in which the C-suite delivers on ESG goals, enacts the organisation’s purpose, and behaves in times of turbulence will not go unnoticed. These roles carry a lot of responsibility and accountability both internally and externally. C-suite executives must answer to various stakeholder audiences including their fellow C-suite and board members, their teams and direct reports, the rest of the organisation’s staff, as well as investors and customers. These roles require a high level of relationship management skills to meet the varying needs of these different groups. It is a juggling act, and there are often trade-offs to be made.

Sometimes, the leadership team gets it wrong. Other times, serving the best interests of one group negatively impacts another. These situations are undesirable but an inevitable reality for C-suite executives. Unfortunately, our increasingly digital activities heighten this scrutiny. Thanks to social media and the ever-active digital news cycle, word travels fast. The C-suite are no longer mysterious, faceless entities that sit at the top of an organisation and are relatively unknown outside their specific industries. Social media has made it possible for many executives to position themselves as thought leaders and share content with a wide-reaching audience, while a 24-hour news cycle is able to pay more attention to things that might have otherwise been missed or selectively passed over. We are even seeing a rise in some C-suite executives becoming micro-celebrities outside of the business world—think Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Sheryl Sandberg.

This increased attention can be both positive and negative. On one hand, a positive public perception of a leadership team can reap various benefits for customer loyalty, investments, and market performance. On the other hand, it puts additional pressure on C-suite executives to toe the line and deliver impact. In the wake of a scandal or organisational shortcomings, it is often the C-suite that bears the blame both internally and externally in the court of public opinion. C-suite executives need to be poised to perform under pressure and immense scrutiny despite challenging circumstances.

Our Advice

Navigating these changes may provide challenges for seasoned and long-serving members, or prove intimidating for new executives. Our executive career advice for overcoming these hurdles and driving impact is to:

• Be flexible. The only way for the C-suite to overcome change is to anticipate and adapt to it. Keep an open mind and remain agile. As the C-suite expands to give voice to more diverse perspectives, don’t write these new appointments off as a box ticking gimmick. Be open to these new perspectives and be willing to collaborate and learn. The C-suite is the sum of its parts but is at its best when those parts work in harmony. Be willing to take feedback on board, adopt new ideas and practices, and change direction as needed.
• Look ahead. Yes, we are seeing a rise in titles related to timely issues such as remote work experience, well-being, and AI, but what comes next? Executives should take time to study trends in the market to improve their understanding of what is to come and begin preparing for it. Make decisions using data, evidence, and intuition so you’re not surprised to see a rise in titles like Chief Metaverse Officer, Chief Automation Officer, or Chief Cohesion Officer.
• Create purpose and demonstrate responsibility. ESG is here to stay, and every member of the leadership team should have a solid grasp on the organsiation’s stance on various issues. Which causes matter most to your customers and stakeholders, and what is the C-suite doing about it? How do the organisation’s activities align with the values and visions it claims to represent? C-suite executives are in the spotlight and therefore need to walk the talk.
• Be self-aware. Of course, this scrutiny extends beyond just ESG issues. How you carry yourself day to day will impact how the rest of the C-suite perceive you, whether your team will be willing to buy into your vision, and the level of trust the board, shareholders, and investors are willing to put into you as a leader. There is a lot of value to be found in taking the time to reflect on your own individual impact in the grand scheme of things. Where are you delivering the most value, and which areas require work? No one is 100% perfect all of the time. Seek out feedback from your team and peers and be willing to reflect and adapt. Enlist the help of a career coach who can provide specialised executive career advice as needed. The organisation will improve when you perform at your best.

Rialto is at the forefront of providing insights on both individual and organisation transformational change. Our focus includes supporting senior executives to make game changing career moves. Over 6,000 professionals globally have successfully made senior level moves globally over the last 11 years.

Our careers can often feel very personal to us, and for good reason. We invest our time and energy into achieving success, and work hard to build, nurture and maintain this over time. This leads to an inherent sense of control and ownership. As a result, a career change can be a scary prospect, but it can also be an opportunity for growth and new experiences. Whether by choice or necessity, a career change can give us a chance to reassess our values, passions and goals, and find a new path that aligns better with them.

While it can be daunting to leave behind the familiar and venture into the unknown, a successful career change can be incredibly rewarding, leading to renewed motivation, job satisfaction, and a greater sense of personal fulfillment. If you are considering a career change, take the time to reflect on what you truly want out of your professional life, and don’t be afraid to take the first step towards a new and exciting future.

Sometimes, however, that ownership can feel threatened or slip away from us. We may hit a plateau after climbing the career ladder for so long, or we find that we are in a vulnerable position during a period of restructuring or cutbacks. In both situations, it is common to feel as though decisions about your career and its direction are no longer within your control.

Losing career ownership is not a position any professional wants to be in, but it is not an impossible one to bounce back from or avoid. Here’s our advice on how to do just that.

Understand Your Options

First, you need to reflect and assess what caused you to lose that feeling of ownership. You might feel as though you’ve run out of road after racing full speed ahead or have nowhere left to go after reaching a certain level or the top of your organisation. You may also experience feelings of unease, burn out, or complacency as thoughts of ‘what now?’ occupy the space which ambition once filled. Alternatively, you may be content in your existing role or company but find that you face redundancy as the business heads in a new direction or scales back expenditure. Your career seems to be out of your control.

In either case, you have two options. The first is to invest your time and energy into improving your impact, value, and security within your current role and organisation. We recently shared a blog about how to take control during difficult periods, and the advice there may be of use here. In challenging economic times, when the focus shifts towards the business and you find yourself standing on less stable ground, you might feel like a pawn in a game. Your stability and security are at the mercy of someone else’s decision making, which puts you in a vulnerable position.

While you cannot control what the rest of the organisation will do, it is possible to shift how you are perceived within it. This is where strategic thinking and self-motivated action become crucial for demonstrating value and providing stability. Vulnerable executives—and even those feeling a bit stuck—may be able to chart the course of their careers in an entirely new direction within their existing role and organisation. This can be achieved by demonstrating their ability to make a meaningful impact in the face of new or emerging business challenges and to continue making valuable contributions regardless of what comes next.

For both executives in vulnerable positions and those who feel stagnant, the option of changing role or company is an attractive option. It can accelerate your career trajectory if a move is made strategically.  While this option may seem daunting, it is not as drastic as you might think. The average professional will have five careers throughout their lifetime, and most often their path will not follow a linear trajectory. Gone are the days of finishing school, getting a job, and climbing the ranks of one organisation until it’s time for retirement. The modern executive will instead make a series of motivated moves driven by a multitude of potential factors such as financial gain, changes in personal circumstances, the pursuit of passion or ambition, or self-preservation. Just because you are currently on one path does not mean you have to stay there. Not every career move needs to be upwards to be fulfilling. Linear moves can prove just as invigorating and reintroduce that sense of control that has been lacking.

Taking Control

Regardless of which option you choose, the best way to regain ownership over your career is to invest in yourself to make your career feel personal so you understand your value to in demand external market trends. Here are some steps you can take:

• Know Yourself: Over time, life and business circumstances can get in the way and make it easy to lose sight of your values, objectives, and aspirations. We find it is often valuable for executives in these positions to take stock internally and reassess what matters most to them, what they are looking to achieve in their careers, what level of risk they’re comfortable with, and what they bring to the table. This self-knowledge not only makes your career feel personal again, but it is also a critical first step in being able to demonstrate your own potential value and long-term contribution to an existing or prospective employer.
• Know the Market: This is critical to your success given the faster pace of change. It can also become easy to lose your grasp on the market due to ever-changing conditions and ongoing disruption. Whether you’ve been in one place for too long or been absorbed in the challenges of your current role or organisation, you may find that you are out of touch with the current market conditions, in-demand skills, the latest trends, and potential opportunities outside your immediate sphere. The best course of action here is to maintain a sense of curiosity and an eagerness to expand your horizons. Be open to learning all you can from different peers, reading books, articles, blogs or interacting in discussions that enable you to share and shape your ideas and observations.
• Know Your Value: As you begin to understand which factors are impacting the wider market, you must also consider what that might mean for your current or potential organisation and the role you may play as a result. As shifts and mega trends like AI and emerging technology, ESG and EDI become top priorities for businesses, where do you fit in? What can you bring to the table in the areas that matter most to your industry and employer? If you do not have existing knowledge and experience in these areas, this is where your willingness to learn can be incredibly valuable. Keeping an open mind and being flexible to change is an essential element for success in today’s competitive and ever-changing marketplace. Understanding what is needed and how you can deliver it will be crucial.
• Know Your Peers: One of the best ways to gauge the needs of the market and assess your place within it is by actively engaging. Social media platforms such as LinkedIn have become powerful tools for industry research and competitive analysis. Engaging in conversation with others in your industry can highlight some of those trends and insights you may be overlooking. Talking to trusted colleagues can help to shed some light on what others perceive your strengths and value to be. You will also be able to benchmark your skills and capabilities against others in positions like yours, which will prove beneficial if you have chosen to make a career move.

But don’t forget to make some connections along the ways. Data from McKinsey shows that only 14% of professionals have grown their networks since 2020, while less than 50% reported making any effort to do so. If you fall into this camp, you could be missing out on some major opportunities to advance or enhance your career. Many job opportunities—especially at the senior level—are secured by word of mouth and peer referrals. If you aren’t engaging with your peer network and keeping them in the loop about your goals, you may be missing out on potential opportunities to expand your horizons and enrich your career.

Don’t be afraid to connect with those outside of your immediate sphere. Real growth happens when you venture outside of your comfort zone. In fact, research from MIT, Harvard and Stanford backs this up, finding that weaker social connections on LinkedIn have a greater effect on job mobility than stronger connections. Reaching out to your lesser known or secondary contacts on the platform is more likely to yield opportunities than mining your close personal relationships would be. An investment in your network is an investment in your overall career and should not be undervalued.

• Know It’s All Going to be Okay: Change can be inherently unsettling, especially when you feel as though you’ve lost some of your control. However, if you are being proactive about bettering yourself and improving your contribution, you are on the right track. Be confident in yourself and your ability to navigate through this. If you had what it takes to get this far, then you have what it takes to keep going. Don’t be afraid to be bold, as experimentation is often the predecessor to advancement. Your previous thinking is what got you to where you are, so you may have to think outside the box to move ahead. The key to regaining or retaining ownership over your career is realising that that control never left you in the first place. You have always been in the driver’s seat but may have just needed to shift gears.

Rialto is at the forefront in providing insights on both individual and organisation transformational change.  Our focus includes supporting senior executives to make game changing career moves with over 6,000 professionals having received support over the last 11 years globally. For more information on our executive career transition programmes call +44 (0) 20 3746 2960 or make an enquiry.

At any time, but especially during times of market turbulence and volatility, organisations need capable leaders at the helm, driving decision-making, determining the strategy, and delivering results. There is a greater need than ever before for diverse thinking and ideas, with the role of the board increasingly focused on practical and strategic planning requiring complex levels of problem solving. There is no set number of how many individuals can sit on the board, most organisations appoint 8 to 12 directors to lead the business forward. While competition for these roles can be fierce, there is a constant need for those equipped with the right skills, capabilities, and demeanour to add new perspectives and challenge the status quo to drive new ideas and better decision making.

It’s a challenging position to be in. Beyond steering the organisation into the future, members of the board are also responsible for answering to the organisation’s various stakeholders and are often the first to come under fire when something goes wrong. While many executives aspire to these positions at the top, the truth is that not everyone is cut out for it. So how can you tell if you are? How do you know when it’s time to take that next step and put yourself forward for a seat on the board?

While there is no singular pathway or clear recipe for success in a board position, there are key traits and mindsets in particular that successful board members usually possess. To help you determine if you are on the right path, our expert executive career coaches have identified 5 key attributes that may indicate you are ready to occupy a seat at the boardroom table.

1. You’ve got a good grasp of the general, but are also a subject matter master

Some might say that Board members need to be a jack of all trades, possessing business acumen, a solid grasp of the big picture as well as some baseline financial, operational, key market, and people knowledge. Specific C-suite roles will have their own specific niches and responsibilities inherently, but in today’s fast-moving and ever-evolving business environment, specialised experience and knowledge are becoming increasingly valuable.

Your ability to advise effectively on in-demand subjects such as digital/emerging technology, customer engagement and retention, sustainability or ESG, diversity and inclusion, corporate governance, cyber security and so on will make you an unbelievably valuable asset to the board and enable you to bring in a unique, expert perspective on specific issues that may be plaguing the business. The board becomes much more well-rounded, nuanced, and effective when these differing perspectives are on hand. Therefore, it makes sense why organisations will be looking to internally promote or bring in board members who can add something to the conversation.

2. You keep a finger on the pulse of the marketplace and an eye on the future

However, what we would have considered ‘general business acumen’ three years ago certainly differs from what is needed today.  Shifts in our ways of working, volatile market conditions, new operating models, supply chain issues, and talent shortages have created a hefty set of challenges for the board to work through. What was once considered ‘best practice’ may no longer be, and some leaders may be uncomfortable or unwilling to adapt to these changes.

Odds are, if the organisation is bringing new people onto the board in either an executive or non-executive capacity, it’s because the business needs to try something different or head in another direction. No board has ever benefitted from bringing in a ‘yes person’ who simply nods in agreement and reinforces the status quo. Many of today’s businesses need to adapt to survive and require leaders who can drive them forward.

If you are the type of person who is always thinking ahead, thinking differently, constantly learning, and adapts well to change, then you could be positioned for board success. You understand that situations change swiftly and often, and you embrace this tumult rather than allowing it to overcome you.

3. You’re a people person

When our executive career coaches say you should be a ‘people person,’ we don’t mean this in the sense that you’re outgoing and personable, though those are beneficial characteristics for any board member to have. The primary objective of the board is to further the interests of the business. However, the best way to accomplish this is by tending to the interests of your various stakeholders. Each of these groups will have their own specific needs and getting to the heart of these interests and objectives will require you to have a deep level of emotional intelligence and human understanding.

You need to be customer centric in all board-level decision making activities to meet the needs of those who the business exists to serve. You need to be a team player to ensure your people feel empowered to contribute their ideas and everything runs smoothly internally. You also need to focus on creating an organisational culture that supports the business’s efforts to acquire, develop, and retain valuable talent. But in addition to all of this, you need to be impact-driven to help reassure your investors and any shareholders that their financial interests are being served. It’s a bit of a juggling act but being able to keep your stakeholders front of mind and allowing that to drive your decision-making is imperative for any board member.

4. You aren’t afraid of the difficult conversations, and know how to conduct them tactfully

A major part of successful stakeholder management is being able to communicate effectively. The board sits atop the chain of communication, and information is fed both upwards and downwards. You need to be skilled at getting your point across and holding your own in very strategic conversations, which can at times be challenging when you’re among a group of board peers who all possess strong opinions.

In nearly all board positions, you will also need to be skilled at successfully relaying any actions or insights back down through the organisation. You need to be able to judge what information needs to be shared and how to best present it. You also should be a skilled listener who is able to make their people feel heard. Your team have the most interactions with and therefore the best grasp of the needs of your customers, so you need to be willing to hear what they have to say. Taking feedback on board without getting defensive, being able to relay it back to those who need to understand or act on it, and representing your teams and customers’ perspectives in top-level conversations goes a long way.

5. You are both self-aware, self-improving and have recognisable value

Beyond advocating for others, you need to be able to advocate for yourself. Those who are promoted to the board or who are hired onto it from outside all tend to possess a high level of self-assurance. They have worked their way up to the top and gathered valuable skills and experience along the way. Apart from the occasional bout of imposter syndrome, no senior executive has ever joined the board without believing to some extent that they belong there. If you have been thinking about this for a while, then odds are that you do, too.

Successful executive and non-executive board members know exactly what they bring to the table, whether it’s their networks, experience, specific hard skills, or reputation within the industry. They know the value of these assets and how to leverage them successfully. This most often happens through a combination of their online presence, how they carry themselves in the workplace day-to-day, their contributions to discussions, and any other professional activity. In today’s digitally driven age, there is significant value in maintaining a strong presence that demonstrates the impact, results and outcomes you can achieve. The board are often the most public-facing and scrutinised members of the organisation, so an ability to well represent both yourself and your organisation is essential.

Being a successful board member requires more than just making a strong outward impression. You should also be comfortable looking inward. If you are the type of person who is constantly learning and evolving, you are on the right track. As we touched on earlier, the business world does not stay stagnant and therefore neither should you. Know the value of what you bring to the table but keep putting in the work to continue building your value long term. Consider executive career coaching to enable you to continue growing and evolving with third-party help.

If all the factors above apply to you, then congratulations—you are likely ready to take the next step and pursue a board position. If you find that you relate to some but not all, then you can now consider areas to work on improving to better your chances of earning a voice at the boardroom table. The key word there is “earning,” as these positions aren’t just given. Those on the board work hard for their place, whether they’re hired from outside the organisation or by internal promotion. Honing your skills and doing more than just talking the talk will get you that much further up the ladder.

As the business landscape continues to shift and evolve, many executives may be feeling uncertain about their futures. In the face of widespread insolvencies, profit warnings, and restructuring plans, it’s more important than ever to seek out strong executive career advice to ensure that you’re prepared for any potential disruptions in your career path. With so many factors at play, from global supply chain disruptions to changing consumer behaviors, it’s critical to have a solid strategy in place to navigate these uncertain times and come out on top.

In moments like these, the focus often shifts to the business, with leaders needing to make careful and difficult decisions on whether to adjust structures that might be undermining growth or change strategic direction towards some form of transformation. This may require reworking practices, introducing new technology and new operating models, rethinking customer segmentation, geography, making challenging staffing decisions, re-evaluating and redirecting investments, or a combination of these. Clearly, the primary objective is to safeguard the future of the business.

But when these moments strike, how do executives demonstrate value and the impact they can make? How can you become an integral part of a solution driving growth and setting the organisation up for continued success? Read on for our experts’ top executive career advice for navigating a restructuring.

Stepping Up

When the business takes centre stage during times of turmoil, the focus is usually on the collective rather than the individual. No one is going to automatically push you up the ladder or carve out routes to progression for you. Promotions and pay rises are not guaranteed. The responsibility of managing your career has to be completely your own.

This can feel equally daunting and liberating. It also presents a choice. You can choose to become complacent and let the future happen, or you can seize control of your own destiny. Only by having a clear plan that puts your career into your own hands carving out the right opportunities for yourself do you give yourself the best opportunity to progress.

Being able to take initiative and inspired action whilst adding value and driving results will become critical. Restructuring challenges senior leaders to either step up or step aside. Rather than bowing out and accepting the latter option, most will look to take their career and their skills to that next level, whatever it might be.

Mindsets and Skills for Success

In the evolving environment, our experts’ executive career advice is to consider setting yourself standards to make game changing, transformational career moves. It is important to think both internally and externally about your value and impact.

What can be done from within to make an impact? What external factors may be holding the business back, or influencing the conditions in which it operates? You must understand which challenges lie on both sides and how you should be equipped to help overcome them.

• Confidence, Communication, and Conviction: If you have ideas about how you can help the business progress where it’s clear a restructure is needed, now is the time to speak up. Do not be afraid to put your ideas forward and become part of a solution. Do not assume that others have noticed the same things you have. You need to be willing to be the person who points out flaws in the ‘as is’ status quo and who does not let complacency and comfort overrule progress. Some executives may feel they lack internal support during a change when the focus is solely on keeping the business on course, so they must therefore be willing to back themselves and become their own greatest advocate. That said, volatile times often create high stress and pressured environments where miscommunication may occur. The clarity and delivery of your ideas is just as important as the confidence with which you present them. Because of the pressures involved, you may need to navigate a wide range of emotions with the leadership team and stakeholders.
• Relationship Management: It is crucial to have a united front on the inside of the organisation. Alignment amongst team members is key to delivering transformation. Global research continues to demonstrate that most transformations fail because stakeholders are not aligned. Understandably, it may feel like ‘every man for themself’ as economic and operational uncertainties lead to stress and reflection. For leaders, it is important to gain an understanding of what your team’s personal priorities are in order to effectively influence them to buy into your organisation’s change and growth objectives. You need to get comfortable with wearing various hats simultaneously playing different roles with different people. With the board and C Suite, you may need to become an advocate for your team or an advisor. For your team, you should provide a stabilising force. With clients/customers, you offer a much-needed resource. As situations evolve, you will need to navigate these various relationships with tact, empathy, and sensitivity.
• Agility and Future Focus: We can expect some of the current volatility in market dynamics to stay for a while, which will require a willingness to adapt accordingly. Once today’s challenges subside, new ones will spring up in their place. It is likely that we will see an endless cycle of disruption that ebbs and flows, and senior executives must be ready to evolve and lead. That means developing the ability to adapt in real time while also looking ahead. We know current threats such as climate change and digitisation will remain for the long term, so it’s best to embrace them now. But it is not just our challenges that will change. We have already seen shifts with hybrid working, and our working models will continue to evolve. Expect to see rigidity and hierarchical structures challenged by these dynamics for more fluid ways of working that favour project-based and people centred leadership styles for maximum adaptability. Restructuring offers an ideal opportunity to adopt new practices that improve the business’s efficiency and profitability, so it is better to embrace agility now to set the organisation up for future flexibility.
• Customer Centricity: If you are not also considering how these changes will impact your customers, then the battle is lost before it has even begun. Every challenge your business faces trickles down to your customer through the products and services you are able—or unable—to offer successfully. Your customers must be at the very core of all the efforts that spring up from a restructure. Their needs should underlie every idea you propose. They should be at the core of all strategic conversations and inform any changes you make to your practices. The aim of a restructure is to make the business as efficient as possible and increase its profitability. It is ultimately your customers who will be impacted by these changes, and whose activities will make or break your efforts. Keeping their needs front of mind is non-negotiable.
• Digital Capabilities: Digital will underscore all of this. Digital transformation has accelerated and is increasingly critical for survival. Understanding the new tools in the market and having the capabilities to use them will be highly valuable. You may be tasked with adopting these tools in your role, introducing them to your team, or implementing them into your new, restructure-driven strategy. Fundamentally, digital capabilities are becoming much more imperative for current and future business success as most Boards will invest more in this area in the future.

With so many moving parts in the wider external market and within your own internal business landscape, making time to step up, take control of your career, and drive impact may feel a bit daunting. But if you don’t, then who will? Having command over your next move and honing the right skills will enable you to become an asset for business transformation and success and will demonstrate your continued value as business dynamics evolve and organisations transition from one phase to the next. Be willing to back yourself and put your ideas forward, because you just might have exactly the solution that a business needs to charge ahead.

Many of us take time during the summer to have some much needed downtime, to regroup, recharge, and come back healthier, happier, and more focused on what we’d like to achieve both personally and professionally during the last leg of 2022.

With increased talks of an impending recession, profit warnings up by 66% as compared to the same period last year and supply chain and cost stresses continuing to bite, naturally there may be more questions than normal about what lies ahead. Leaders will likely need to continuously adapt their thinking in order to navigate a future successful path for both themselves, their teams and their businesses.

Resilience will be a key attribute which differentiates those teams that will thrive in an increasingly  difficult environment. It will come down to their ability to flex and adapt, to make the most of opportunity, and to mitigate risk. Successful teams and their leaders will be able read changes in the market, take prompt action, and make informed decisions to adapt business models. Being able to spot problems quickly, being able to absorb the hit, and still being able to get up and go again will be essential for future success.

If you haven’t had time for reflection, here are some useful questions to dwell on to help you build that resilience and prepare for what may lie ahead.

What are we doing well? What needs improvement?

Typically, leadership teams begin brainstorming their goals for the following year during Q3 and Q4, so now is the perfect time to take stock of your business’s, your team’s, and your own strengths and weaknesses. Be honest and critical so that you can strive for actual measurable improvement and spend the final portion of the year ironing out any flaws. That way, when the time comes to move into the new year, you will be better placed to proceed with agility instead of getting caught up with troubleshooting.

What will a recession mean for businesses?  Are we ready for it? What can we control?

A recession has been looming for a while now, and it’s only a matter of time before it hits. If our friends across the Atlantic offer any indication, this will happen sooner rather than later. According to a recent Goldman Sachs prediction the UK will go into recession by the end of 2022 and will keep contracting in 2023.  It also predicts that the UK economy will contract by 0.6% in 2023.  We have all become well acquainted with disruption—especially over the past two and a half years—so this recession will be the latest in a long string of challenges businesses and executives have faced. But if being blindsided by the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that there is value in scenario planning ahead of time.

Businesses still have time to adapt their strategy to soften the blows a recession might bring. Difficult decisions will be made, and tough conversations will undoubtedly be had. Preparing for the latter in advance can help to ensure they go as smoothly as possible. This blog can offer some advice for navigating these discussions successfully.

What skills will be most valuable for senior executives while finishing out this year?

For executives looking to make things happen for both themselves and their teams, it is important to appreciate a different approach to the prevailing market will be needed. Knowing how to present your leadership value and focusing on strengthening your personal digital brand is increasingly critical in a digital world.  Hopefully as part of your summer reset you were able to assess your goals and set a few actions towards achieving both your teams but also your own personal career development. Our coaches recommend taking a holistic approach to deliver a game changing career move and not just a quick change for the sake of something different.

Keeping a focus on skills is crucial for staying relevant in the marketplace and navigating any difficulties that lie ahead. Based on what we’re seeing now, it’s safe to assume that understanding the technological landscape across your market will continue to be valuable, as will what have traditionally been known as ‘soft skills.’ This includes capabilities such as communication, creativity, and empathy. All of these will likely come into play as we continue to navigate ongoing challenges with talent, face difficult decisions, and rethink our approaches to upcoming disruption.

Developing resilience doesn’t happen overnight. Leaders need to be willing to take time out to reassess and flex as needed. The next few months may be understandably rocky, but taking the time now to plan ahead and evolve your thinking will prove beneficial in the long run. You had a nice reset this summer, but now it’s time to channel that energy into finishing the year on a strong note.

If you’d like our team’s help in building a game changing team, enhancing your leadership capabilities and driving greater impact within your organisation, get in touch with us about our Leadership Development services.

In recent years, many of our personal and professional practices have become technologically aided, from the way we shop, socialise, and learn, to the ways in which we conduct our workday. Customers have developed new sets of digitally driven standards and higher expectations, making it much more difficult and implausible for businesses to continue to progress without the assistance of more advanced tools. As we face challenges from an increasingly disrupted global economy, the adoption of new technologies will be more imperative than ever to help organisations continue to adapt and deliver results for their customers and stakeholders.

Digital transformation is an all-hands-on-deck process, with everyone in the organisation having a role to play. The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) will most often be the one leading the project, and will face many challenges along the way. Here are some of the top skills required to be successful in this executive career, and some areas today’s CTOs should focus their attention for the foreseeable future.

CTO Snapshot

The Chief Technology Officer is the most senior executive in an organisation’s technological function, occupying a seat on its board. They oversee research and development and determine ways in which the organisation might use technology to enhance its products, services, or practices to benefit its customers. This is a highly visible role requiring a combination of both deep technological savvy and strong leadership and communication capabilities.

Historically, the role of the CTO was the most loosely defined board position. With time, organisations have begun to distinguish the responsibilities more between the technology chief and those of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). The main difference between these two executive careers is their focus, with the CIO focusing inwardly on the organisation itself while the CTO looks outward. Therefore, successful CTOs must have a finger firmly on the pulse of their market and the needs of their customers, being both commercially minded and CX focused.

Much like the broader technology industry itself, the UK’s CTO population lacks in gender diversity. Previous reports found that only 15% of FTSE 100 CTOs are female. However, CTOs can expect to be well compensated in the UK, earning a median base salary of £92,179. Total packages including base, bonus, and profit share can range up to £175,000. Those based in London can expect higher earnings with an average salary of £106,963, and those with 10 or more years of experience can expect to earn up to 23% higher than average.

Top CTO Skills

The executive role of the CTO has become increasingly important in recent years given greater Board investments in technology and the rise in digital transformation as well as societal trends towards e-commerce, hybrid and remote working, digital media consumption and more. It is the role of the CTO to understand how these trends will impact the business’s customers, and how to leverage technology to meet these evolving needs. Because of the commercial nature of this position, CTOs require a unique combination of skills to be successful. These include:

• Technological Savvy:  It goes without saying that the head of the technology function should possess a strong understanding of tech from both a technical and practical standpoint. Typically, CTOs possess a strong technical background to begin with, but must also be willing to branch out beyond what they know. In addition to overseeing the company’s current technological setup, the CTO needs to be looking a step—or multiple steps, when possible—ahead at trends to understand where technology is heading and how it may impact the business and its customers.
• Business Development: Innovation is a crucial element for driving an organisation forward. The CTO is tasked with helping to achieve high-level business objectives with the use of technology. This may involve advising on any technical bets, but also may require the CTO to come up with and oversee the development of new products, features, or services that fill gaps in the marketplace and satisfy evolving customer needs. CTOs will be involved in various aspects of the process, which will require close collaboration with other members of the C-suite and throughout the business. They will work closely with product heads or the head of engineering to ensure that all strategy is aligned with the company’s technology goals, and they may also collaborate with the marketing team to ensure all products have the proper technological support.
• Tactful Communication: Oftentimes, it falls on the CTO to get the rest of the C-suite on board with technological initiatives. Generating this buy in requires a tactful and strategic communication style wherein the CTO can provide clear cost benefit analysis and demonstrate business need, usually while having to explain highly technical ideas in a way that non-technical minds can comprehend. But never is it solely the board’s trust that needs to be earned. The CTO must also be able to win over the organisation’s key stakeholders such as its investors or shareholders, its partners, and its people. In terms of the lattermost group, the CTO will not just need to influence those in their own team or department. It will fall on the CTO to get staff in all functions on board with any new initiatives and ensure that these team members understand the role of technology in the business, its implications for their role, and the impacts on the customer. These conversations with staff will be most valuable, as those closest to the customer will have the best insight into what their needs are and what processes could be improved. Ensuring positive and open communication and encouraging innovation and ideas from others will be important in this role to ensure that the best solutions can be reached.
• Customer Centricity: Keeping the customer front of mind during those conversations and when making decisions is critically important for the CTO. Today, so much of the customer journey occurs digitally that the tools and processes involved must be up to a certain standard to meet expectations. But in an increasingly competitive marketplace, meeting those standards is no longer enough. CTOs need to combine their technical knowledge with their understanding of their customers to find solutions that will help further the business’s objectives, create loyalty in a saturated market, and obtain the competitive advantage. That said, CTOs cannot afford to be purely technical or purely commercial. Their ability to leverage both sides of themselves will be crucial for their success.

Top Market Challenges Impacting CTOs

The skills above will be critically important as CTOs attempt to navigate the challenges of the current technological and economic and employment landscape. Some of the top factors that technology chiefs should be aware of are:

• High Stakes Digital Transformation: Digital transformation has been high up on the strategic agenda, but the pandemic and its resulting challenges pushed up the timeline and added additional pressure for businesses to adapt. It often falls on the CTO to spearhead digital transformation within the organisation, and today’s CTOs face higher stakes and tighter timelines than ever before. There is no room for vanity projects or adopting new technologies for the sake of it, so CTOs will need to help to ensure that the intended projects create value for the customer and revenue for the business. CTOs will likely be tasked with selecting the software and hardware that will be implemented in the organisation, managing the phasing out of legacy systems, and drafting new procedures and policies. These choices will need to be made strategically with the best interest of the business and its customers in mind. Businesses will be looking to invest, but budgets may be tighter than expected due to economic difficulties. CTOs may be challenged to make the most of the resources they are allotted and create major impact with minimal cost.
• Talent and Skills Shortages: As the head of the technological function, the CTO needs a strong team behind them and will likely be involved in hiring and training. However, a record number of businesses are doubling down on digital transformation, which has created an exponential demand for tech talent and has made securing and retaining qualified staff more difficult than ever before. Not having the necessary skills on hand limits what a business is able to accomplish and influences how it prioritises, and therefore the high rate of attrition poses major threats to the progress and results the CTO is tasked with delivering. Since the talent crisis does not look to be ending any time soon, CTOs will need to start being strategic about how to do without. This may require adapting their transformation plans or exploring training options to upskill current staff.
• Cybersecurity and Data Privacy: New threats in cybersecurity emerge every day. With individuals more dependent on technology than ever and businesses’ IT systems spread out across locations following the adoption of hybrid work models, CTOs and their teams are now having to be vigilant about cyberattacks that are more frequent and more complex. Staying on top of these threats will require continuous monitoring and improvement of systems, which can be both costly and time consuming. CTOs will need to consider a reasonable approach to tackling any breaches without it having to become their team’s full-time occupation. Alongside that, the shift to digital has endowed businesses with more customer data than they often know what to do with. Not only is it the responsibility of the CTO to find was to use technology to leverage and derive value from that data, but also to keep it safe. Customers have become much more sensitive about the personal information that is gleaned from their activities, and all it takes is one breach to lose all trust. The CTO needs to be customer focused at all times, and therefore it is now a vital part of the job to protect customers’ confidence while shaping their experiences.

Top Priorities

Given these challenges, current and aspiring Chief Technology Officers should focus their attention on these 3 key areas:

• Crafting Customer Experiences in a Crowded Market: Digital has expanded the playing field, meaning businesses are no longer just competing with those in their local area anymore. Customers are spoilt for choice in products, services, applications, platforms, and so on, all thanks to the digital landscape. CTOs will soon be assessed by their ability to deliver engaging experiences that differentiate and build loyalty. Doing so will require you to know your customer as well as you know your technology. Prioritise building solutions that are reliable, efficient, and experience driven.
• Optimising and Prioritising: Strong business acumen is a requisite for the success of a CTO. This skill will be especially crucial as businesses navigate recession, talent shortages, and a disrupted global supply chain. Over the next few years, CTOs will need to find ways to create results for the business despite any issues with resource allocation. This may involve finding ways to optimise technology investments, prioritising projects that will deliver the most value, and making the most of the talent that is available. The ability to adapt and adjust will be what sets great CTOs apart from the rest during this tough economic period.
• Maintaining Future Readiness: No CTO wants to invest in solutions that may be fit for purpose today but cannot flex to serve the business tomorrow. Innovation should be a major focus for all CTOs. This will involve understanding and embracing the emerging technologies such as IoT, AI, and big data that are disrupting our current landscape while keeping an eye on those beginning to boil in the background, like the metaverse and cryptocurrencies. CTOs will need to be able to separate hype and business value to determine which technologies will be right for the business and which are better kept as buzz words. Continuous learning is essential. The rest of the board will be looking to the CTO for guidance, and it is essential to be ready and informed.

The executive career of the CTO is an incredibly important one and will only become more so over the next few years. Success will take innovative thinking, flexibility, continuous learning, technological savvy, and strong customer centricity. It is certainly a challenging time to be in this position, but an incredibly exciting one as well given the impact these senior executives will have in shaping the future.

If you are a current CTO looking to enhance your executive career, or an executive looking to transition into a CTO role, we can help. The Rialto Consultancy offers a range of career strategy services including Executive Outplacement, Executive Career Coaching, and Personal Branding. Get in touch with our team to discuss your options.

It is easy to understand why so many professionals choose LinkedIn as their preferred medium for building their personal brand and navigating an executive job search. When used correctly and strategically, this platform can be an incredibly powerful and valuable tool for senior executives looking to build their profile, enhance their career prospects and expand their networks. One study found that 122 million people received an interview through LinkedIn with 35.5 million having been hired by a person they connected with on the site, highlighting the potential to create real opportunities from this platform.

With approximately 830 million LinkedIn users in more than 200 countries worldwide, the site has become a staple of professional activity. Because of its popularity, many executives are drawn to building their presence on LinkedIn as opposed to pursuing other thought leadership avenues such as registering as a speaker, creating their own website, or starting a podcast. LinkedIn boasts built-in audiences and some great features to allow you to reach them.

We know that crafting a personal digital brand is not like creating your CV, so bringing it to life online takes more than simply having a flat profile on multiple platforms. Creating a successful personal digital brand involves taking the time to be present and comfortable in a nonstop online discussion environment and to effectively live out the brand you have established.

If LinkedIn has been your chosen medium thus far, it is likely that you have the basics completed but are looking to take your LinkedIn use to the next level or have some questions about how to use the site to your maximum advantage. We have compiled a list of five frequently asked questions from our clients about using the site in an executive job search and beyond that may help you enhance your presence and derive real benefit from your LinkedIn activity:

1. Should I use the ‘Repost’ or the ‘Share with your own thoughts’ option?

The ‘Repost’ feature on LinkedIn is one of its newest additions as of summer 2022. Similar to Twitter’s ‘Retweet’ function, choosing ‘Repost’ will share that post with your followers. It will appear the same as it does on your feed, with a small bar above it that indicates you have reposted it.

While this may help a post from your peer or company page get more views or engagement, it does very little for you in terms of thought leadership. We usually recommend our Personal Digital Branding clients use the ‘Share with your own thoughts’ option and take the time to add a bit of commentary with your thoughts on the posts’ content. The only drawback of this option is how LinkedIn’s algorithm treats Shared posts. If you have used this feature before, you may have noticed that your Views or interactions were lower on these posts compared to any original posts you may have sent. There is no real explanation for why LinkedIn does this, but it is something to consider when debating what option to use.

A great alternative is to leave a salient and thoughtful comment on the original post, as posts you’ve commented on will still appear in your followers’ feeds. This option will also put you in front of the original poster’s audience and potentially lead to more eyes on your profile, new connections, or opportunities.

2. Can others see the things I like and comment on?

Yes. Anyone who visits your profile can see what you have shared, what posts you have liked, and what comments you have left on others’ posts in the ‘Activity’ section. Those you are connected to will see this content on their feeds, and above the post in question will be a bar with your name and an indication of how you interacted with that post (i.e. “commented on this” or “finds this insightful”).

Therefore, it is important to be mindful of what you say and do on the platform both inside and outside your own profile. You never know what recruiter, potential employer, or other potentially beneficial connection may see your activity and what impressions of you they may draw from it. It is critical to ensure that all aspects of your professional profile, including your activity, are aligned to what your current or future employer might expect from you. It is also crucial to consider what audiences you might want to reach, networks you may want to be a part of, or thought leadership perceptions you may want to create and tailor your activity to those specific audiences. If you want to be associated with a specific thought leadership subject, try to interact with content related to those subjects so that anyone who checks your Activity will see that you are truly engaged with the topics you are championing. Ensure that the trail you are leaving online is a good reflection of how you would like to be perceived professionally.

3. Is there a limit on how many connections I can have?

Yes and no. To push the value of quality connections over quantity, LinkedIn caps the number of ‘Connections’ you can have at 30,000. The thinking behind this is that no one could possibly know or communicate with more than 30,000 people on a professional level, and even that many is overly generous. When you are Connected to another LinkedIn user, you gain access to each other’s networks, you can send direct messages to one another, and you will see each other’s content on your feed. But what happens once you exceed 30,000?

Anyone who tries to Connect with you after you hit this threshold will instead become a ‘Follower.’ What this means is that they will see your content in their feed, but not vice versa, and they will also lack all of the other benefits of a Connection. The same will apply if you try to Connect with anyone else.

LinkedIn does offer the option for you to trigger this earlier than 30,000 Connections with what it calls ‘Creator Mode.’ If you enable this setting, no one will be allowed to Connect with you, even if you have less than 30,000 Connections. Instead, the only option is to Follow. They will see your content, but you will not see theirs.

While enabling this setting may sound appealing from a thought leadership standpoint, we typically advise our Personal Digital Branding clients against it. Most senior executives will be looking to expand their networks and engage in meaningful interactions with industry peers. If your aim is to make a career change or to attract new opportunities, Creator Mode makes it much more difficult to get in contact with you. Creator Mode is best reserved for those purely focused on thought leadership who are not interested in building out their network. Think of business leaders like Richard Branson and Bill Gates, whose LinkedIn profiles are set to Creator mode and only enable you to Follow rather than send a Connection request.

4. Should I ‘cold connect’ with someone on LinkedIn?

If you are looking to build a stronger network and actually derive value from it, then you need to be thoughtful and strategic about the people you connect with. Networking can certainly be a numbers game, but at the senior level you should have a good idea of which Connections might or might not be ones you can share useful insights with. Our experts’ advice is to not just accept any and every Connection request that comes through and instead exert a bit of judgement over the potential shared benefit of being in the same network.

That said, that does not mean you cannot connect with someone you have never met in person. If there is someone you feel could be a good Connection for you to have, there is no harm in sending them a request. However, if you are going to do this, we recommend that you think about what shared value, interest, or connection you have that would persuade this person to want to connect with you. For example, if you have something relevant in common such as your membership in the same LinkedIn Group, attendance at the same industry event, or Connections in common, that could provide the link you need and demonstrate enough mutual benefit for that person to accept your invitation.

If a link is present, customise the text of your Connection invite to reflect this. After saying hello, make brief mention of why you are sending an invite or how you came across their profile, and mention that it would be great to connect before signing off the message. While technically a ‘cold connection’, you have warmed up the connection with relevancy and are more likely to be successful at adding this person to your network.

If there is not a common link, you will need to be a bit more strategic with your approach. Connections should be mutually beneficial. You will have identified your reasoning for wanting to connect with this person, but what benefit could the connection bring to them? Since you will not have common ground to work from in this case, you will need to approach your connection invitation from those benefits you have identified. Since this is a true cold contact, you need to clearly express why it is you have reached out and what benefits you feel the connection could produce. If you are unable to determine what those benefits are, or if they skew in your favour with little to no benefit for the other person, it is probably best not to pursue that cold Connection.

Remember, your Connection request messages can be a maximum of 300 characters, so use them wisely. Consider this invitation to be the short elevator pitch, opening the doors to a longer conversation once the request has been accepted.

5. What are some Settings I should enable or disable?

LinkedIn offers a whole host of privacy and visibility settings to enable you to share as much or as little as you’d like. However, there are a few that we recommend either enabling or disabling completely, most of which fall under the Visibility category.

Your Visibility settings control what visitors to your profile can or cannot see before they are a Connection. The first on this list is Profile Viewing, which offers three options for visibility. We strongly recommend you use the first option, which shows your profile photo, full name, and headline to everyone. The other two settings make your profile much more vague and makes you harder to find, which can be detrimental for attracting opportunities or recruiters.

Also under Visibility, you will find ‘Connections.’ This setting allows your Connections to see your full Connections list. You might be okay with this, in which case you can leave it On. However, you may want to be a bit protective of your Connections for various reasons. For example, if you are in a highly competitive and contacts-driven industry, you may not want competitors to be able to use your Connections list to identify who your clients are. If you feel it best to keep your Connections private, turn this setting to Off.

Another key Visibility setting is ‘Profile discovery and visibility off LinkedIn,’ which controls whether or not your profile can be found via search engines such as Google. We strongly recommend leaving this enabled so that your LinkedIn appears as one of the top results when anyone Googles your name. The more places you are visible, the better. It is up to you whether or not you would like potential contacts to find you on LinkedIn using your email or phone number. These settings are more of a personal preference.

A final setting you may want to consider whether to disable is ‘Share profile updates with your network’ under Visibility. If you have this setting enabled, your Connections will receive a notification any time you update your profile with a new role, education, awards, and so on. If you are someone who updates your profile frequently or are in the process of making some major changes, you may want to switch this setting to Off to avoid overwhelming your network with notifications. Alternatively, if you are not someone who regularly updates their profile or have not amended your information in a while, having this setting enabled may be a good way to prompt your contacts to touch base with you about the new changes in your career. If you are on the fence about whether or not to use this setting, an alternative is to disable it and instead share your milestones and good news in a post.

LinkedIn may seem tricky to master but be patient with it. Over time, you may find that what works for others is not the same as what works for you. Do not be afraid to experiment until you find the settings, habits, and content that serve you best.

We hope this Q&A helps give you a jumping off point with some best practice, and if you would like some personalised help with your LinkedIn presence and personal digital brand, you can reach out our team on +44 (0) 20 3746 2960.