Executive Outplacement: Handling Difficult Conversations through a Downturn

With ongoing disruption in the marketplace, many businesses and their leadership are facing pressures to continue delivering results amid financial challenges whilst likely having to make hard executive outplacement decisions and handling difficult conversations with their people.

If the businesses that we have widely viewed as recession-proof or too promising to fail are struggling, you would be naïve to think that your own organisation will not face some tough decisions moving forward. The pandemic was the first domino tipped in what is likely to be a series of economic peaks and valleys over the coming years. With that in mind, it is no longer a matter of if tough financial periods will come to pass, but rather a matter of how to properly navigate these situations with your people as they arise. It is likely that leaders will be having difficult conversations more often, and there is real value in learning how to master this type of communication. So, how do you do it? What do you need to consider?

Types of Difficult Conversations

In the current climate, the top challenging conversations that our clients are finding their leaders need most support with are:

• Informing an employee that their performance is not at the right level: Turbulent times are the most inopportune moments for performance to slip, though this may happen as the personal impacts of financial strain and the stress to deliver weigh on your employees. Other times, an employee’s performance might be good, but has the potential to be great. In a time of disruption, you need all team members performing at their very best and as a result, you may have to have some difficult conversations about performance. These conversations may not just involve your junior or mid-level staff. Often, peers or individuals in senior roles may also not be performing at the necessary level as businesses aim to evolve and grow, which requires them to change their style or upskill to keep up. The pressure will certainly be on for senior roles in a position of responsibility in an economic crisis, and there is no room for complacency.
• Informing an employee their role is at risk: Letting an employee know that their role is at risk can induce anxiety for both the person receiving the message and the one delivering it. Honesty is always the best policy when communicating with your people, but you need to decide what level of information to share to avoid causing more harm than good. On one hand, the news may instill necessary pressure to perform at a higher level. On the other, the employee may shut down under the stress. These conversations can go either way and vary by employee, so it’s important to anticipate and plan in advance.
• Confirming to an employee that their role has been made redundant: This is the conversation that no employee or manager wants to have. Letting someone go is one of the most difficult people decisions a leader will have to make, and the situation becomes much more heightened when there are financial stressors at play. Your reasons may be business performance based or financially focused, yet neither will come as much consolation to whoever you must let go. Executive outplacement conversations are the most challenging to master and require the highest levels of empathy and consideration.
• Informing an employee that they aren’t getting a salary increase, bonus or a promotion: Being made redundant is a tough blow to bear but having one’s career progression halted can be just as upsetting. In most organisational structures, hard work and loyalty tend to yield reward in the form of financial compensation, a new role, or both. Not receiving these expected incentives as a form of recognition might feel like a bit of a slight to the employee and can negatively impact morale and individual contributions.

A Checklist for Handling Difficult Conversations

Businesses appoint individuals to positions of leadership to provide their people with trustworthy figures to lean on in times of trouble and to embody organisational purpose. Effective leadership is increasingly difficult to deliver and comes with a lot of responsibility.  A number of leaders don’t receive adequate support to deal with change during turbulent times, and therefore may not feel practically or emotionally ready to deal with these challenges when the moment comes.

So how can leaders prepare themselves for these challenging conversations, and successfully deliver sensitive news?

• Don’t close the gates of communication: It can be tempting to shy away and communicate less frequently and less openly in situations where the leadership team lacks clarity, as the feeling is often to wait until there’s more certainty to share. Avoiding the situation often makes it worse, builds resentment, and can damage the credibility of the leadership team. If anything, your people need to hear from their leaders more frequently during these times, even if it’s just to say that that situation is being addressed and more information will be shared as it is gained. Clear, regular, and transparent team communication are more important than ever, no matter how ambiguous the situation.
• Plan out the conversation in advance: Oftentimes, the hardest part of having a difficult conversation is knowing where to start. Therefore, it is usually helpful to decide on your objectives for the meeting in advance, list the main topics you wish to cover, and indicate how you want to connect them all together. You do not need to script the entire conversation beforehand, but it might be helpful to keep a mental list of a few specific messages that you want to convey. Determine how you are going to open the conversation and rehearse to build your comfort levels.
• Understand the three levels of processing: When planning your discussion, understand that there are potentially three levels of processing all taking place within this singular conversation. The first is the Factual Level, or the basic facts of what’s happening. The next is the Emotional Level, which is how the employee feels about the news being delivered. The final level is the Identity Level. This is often the most complex and tricky level to navigate as it involves what the employee feels the topics of this conversation say about them as a person. Being let go or told that one’s performance is not meeting an expected level can feel very personal. By understanding that these three levels of processing will be happening simultaneously and working to anticipate what points you may need to make at each level will enable you to be much better prepared.
• Be empathetic but remain emotionally steady: While you do need to maintain your professionalism to keep on track during these conversations, it’s normal to have some uneasy or sad feelings about having to deliver tough messages. At the end of the day, we’re all human. You need to acknowledge what you are feeling within yourself, but do not allow these emotions to lead to stress responses, frustration, rumours, or other non-productive behaviour. Team members are always watching and taking their cues from their leaders. While it’s okay to let that vulnerability shine through in the form of empathy and understanding, how you show up in times of crisis matters to your people. As a leader, you’re not required to be unapproachable or unfeeling, but you do need to keep collected. Your people need leaders who seem calm in the face of chaos to provide reassurance and stability. Let the recipient of your bad news know that what they feel is okay and that while you empathise with them, as a leader you have a commitment to remain emotionally steady for the rest of your team. Your ability to remain collected in these tough moments will be of benefit to those who will be looking at you for cues.
• Anticipate the hardest parts: If starting the conversation is the hardest part, then finishing it is a close second place. What will you say to bring the meeting to a close? How will you manage if the person is still upset? You may choose to open the discussion up for questions to give the employee a chance to share their perspective or gain closure. If holding a conversation about performance or a role being at risk, it might be beneficial to end by agreeing some actions. What can the employee do to improve their standing? What outcomes will you be looking for post-meeting, and by when? If letting an employee go, you may choose to acknowledge their hard work and contribution whilst recognising the emotions they’ve expressed. Where internal or external support such as career transition or outplacement services are available, discuss the benefits of this support and next steps. The objective is to end on as positive a note as possible, even if spirits are low. In the best-case scenario, your message will be accepted and the conversation will close with a level of understanding. But it’s also important to prepare for the worst. Emotions may run high, and the employee may react poorly. Anticipate any feelings of anger, shame, anxiety, or sadness and determine how you might react to those emotions. By preparing for the best- and worst-case scenarios, you’ll be ready for anything in between.

Success in a leadership role involves being calm, open, and steady, all while painting a clear vision for the future. The expectation is that you will treat everyone fairly and equitably and hold individuals accountable when they cross a line or aren’t delivering what’s needed for the team to come out on top. This can be difficult to do when economic stressors are weighing on you, the business, and your people.

Difficult decisions and challenging conversations come with the territory of modern leadership, and our current economic conditions will mean having to do so more often. Remember that you are the steady rock for your people in these times, but you are also still human. Check in with yourself, be clear on your objectives and outcomes, and prepare for every possible scenario to approach these situations as successfully as possible.

As we enter the halfway mark of 2022, we reflect on executive job market dynamics that are intensifying the strategic efforts needed for those anticipating or undergoing an executive job search.

At the beginning of the quarter, we saw the end of COVID-19 restrictions and hybrid models starting to become the norm. However, we are now seeing many organisation wavering on their pledges to make hybrid work the norm and calling staff back to the office full time, causing a greater level of uncertainty and misalignment between staff and business priorities and a continuation of the ‘Great Resignation.’

The war in Ukraine, which initially led to unprecedent fuel shortages worldwide, has continued to cause disruption to supply chains. We’ve seen new highs in global inflation, interest rates, and costs of living around the world, leading to economic disruption for both businesses and consumers.

As we enter the summer of 2022, here are factors you need to consider across the executive job market if you are considering a career change or job move.

Job Market Snapshot

The post pandemic economic recovery many had hoped for at the start of the new year hasn’t quite materialised. This is evidenced in the latest edition of the Office for National Statistics (ONS)’s Labour Force Survey (LFS) released on 14 June.

The UK employment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 75.6%, while unemployment fell 0.2 points to 3.8%. The number of full-time employees increased to a record high, with the timeliest estimate of payrolled employees reflecting an unprecedented 29.6 million. Data from Bullhorn shows that contractor jobs increased by 34% between May 2021 and May 2022, while permanent roles increased 25% year-on-year. Looking at month-on-month comparisons, permanent roles increased by 16% between April and May 2022 while contract roles were up by 19% during the same period. The simultaneous rise of the employment rate and fall of the unemployment rate is good news, but another record-breaking figure indicates that the UK’s growth prospects will sustain continued damage.

In March to May 2022, the number of UK job vacancies rose to a new record of 1,300,000. For the first time in our recorded history, we have more jobs available than we have people available to fill them, which paints an interesting picture of the current market. The LFS data from May shows that total job-to-job moves increased to a record high of 994,000 during this reporting period, driven by resignations rather than dismissals. In the June LFS, reports of redundancies in the period decreased to a record low of 2.0 per thousand employees. This indicates that we are in a workers’ market, meaning that those who choose to leave their roles will have a decent chance of finding another.

Most of the movement from the Great Resignation is occurring at entry and mid level in most organisations, but that’s not to say that senior executives are not impacted. Every few years, the ONS releases data from their population surveys that give a rough idea of how many UK adults possess specific roles at the time of survey. In 2021, the number of adults aged 16+ acting as Managers, Directors and Senior Officials stood at a total of 3,365,100, accounting for 10.5% of the total UK workforce. In 2020, this figure was 3,657,400 (11.3%), and 3,684,500 pre-pandemic in 2019. It is clear that COVID-19’s challenges had a major impact on the executive market, reducing the roles available as many businesses downsized their teams or collapsed.

Because so many of senior roles are never advertised, it is difficult to pinpoint just how many of these opportunities there are available in the market at any given time. Browsing LinkedIn or an executive job search site might provide insight into what roles are publicly listed but may not be a full representation of what opportunities are out there. When looking to transition career, it would therefore be remiss to underestimate how many roles are secured through word-of-mouth, making it an imperative to ensure you are maintaining a strong network and making yourself visible to the right people.

So, with job vacancies at an all-time high, an unemployment rate below 4%, and fierce competition for workers in the executive job market, where do we go from here? What factors should those looking to expand their teams or undergo an executive job search be most aware of?

Key Trends

The Skills Imperative

Now more than ever, businesses need strong leaders of the future with the right capabilities to navigate them through these more challenging times. In PwC’s Pulse Survey, 77% of executives said hiring and retaining talent is their most critical growth driver in 2022. However, businesses are struggling to recruit the right talent for these critical roles. In West Monroe’s Quarterly Executive Poll for Q2 2022, 74% of respondents reported that executive leadership roles are harder to fill than they were last year. Therefore, executives possessing in-demand skillsets will be at a major competitive advantage in the job market.

Tech skills remain top of the list as organisations double down on digital transformation in order to drive growth in current economic conditions. Many companies will turn to automation, AI and other advanced technologies to navigate this environment with greater agility, mitigate the impacts of talent shortages, and build smarter and more resilient supply chains. Executives who are well equipped to lead or contribute to transformation projects will be of high value to potential employers.

‘Growth’ will be a major keyword throughout the second half of 2022 as economic stagnation takes hold. Executives with experience in new business development, planning, operations, sales management, financial capabilities and new business model creation possess some of the most sought-after specialisations today. When in the process of seeking or interviewing for a new role, be sure you can demonstrate concrete examples of delivering results and driving business forward.

On top of these business-focused capabilities, soft skills remain a major focus in the hybrid working world. High emotional intelligence and effective communication are critical skills needed to work with staff spread out across locations, as are elements such as motivation and accountability. But beyond that, businesses need leaders with strong people skills to help with overall talent retention and attraction. Talent has become business’s most valuable resources, and organisations need senior executives who can effectively empathise, communicate, and inspire. Demonstrating one’s ability to effectively lead, motivate, and deliver results will be of major benefit to any executive looking to take on a leadership role.

Priority-Driven Moves

Businesses cannot afford to lose valuable staff, but the prediction of an incoming recession has reprioritised salary expectations and requirements to new levels. The most recent LFS reflects the largest fall in UK staff’s real wages in nearly two decades, with growth in total pay at just 0.4% and regular pay at negative 2.2% after adjusting for inflation. This is likely to have a major influence on the jobs market, as a recession will impact the moves employers are willing to make and potentially push more executives into transition.

It is clear that employees of all levels will be looking for higher wages in order to offset rising costs of living, but that does not appear to be the only benefit driving moves in the career market. According to Korn Ferry, flexibility, career prospects, belonging, social issues, and purpose are all amongst the priorities driving professionals when exploring a new role. If unwilling to provide these elements, employers will continue to struggle with attracting and retaining their top talent and senior executives may have difficulties finding and securing a new role that satisfies their priorities.

Industry Snapshots

CIPD’s Labour Market Outlook Spring 2022 helps provide insight from employers into where the biggest gaps and opportunities can be found in the marketplace. While there are a record number of vacancies available in the UK market overall, some industries continue to thrive in their recruitment of talent. Net employment intentions are particularly high in areas such as construction (+54), information and communication (+53), hospitality/arts and entertainment (+47) and business services (+47), where employers intend to onboard rather than downsize.

Manufacturing is lower down on CIPD’s list with a net of only +24. However, Make UK’s Manufacturing Outlooks report for Q1 2022 was optimistic for the industry, predicting a 30% growth in employment and investment in the three months of Q2. Vacancies are high in this industry, but talent is hard to come by. While the all-UK vacancy rate grew 65%

between March 2020 and 2022, the manufacturing vacancy rate grew by a staggering 91% in that same period despite the manufacturing industry offering 12% higher wages on average than the wider economy. There are a multitude of factors at play that are making it far more challenging for manufacturers to access labour, such as difficulty sourcing labour from the EU following Brexit, an expensive labour market, changing workforce attitudes towards flexible working, and reduced hours or early retirement. Executives looking to make moves in this sector will likely have a fair share of challenges to overcome to innovate, deliver to customer expectations and realise growth potential.

Our monthly City Financial Services Job Market Indexes (found here) help to shed some light on the situation in the UK’s financial services sector. In Q2 thus far, we have seen increases in overall hiring demand across financial services, rising 3% between March and April and 1% between April and May. The biggest gains have been found in Banking & Markets, Investment Management, and Information Services. Wealth & Private Banking and Fintech both decreased in demand between March and May, with the latter’s decline potentially linked to a wider malaise in tech stocks and the start-Up market though it is too early to tell. Overall, this sector has had less movement than experienced to date, with our overall index up a healthy 70% year on year when compared to May 2021.

That said, even though some sectors are growing, employers across practically all industries have roles available that they are struggling to fill. According to CIPD’s report, 45% employers overall reporting hard-to-fill vacancies. These types of vacancies are most common in healthcare (54%), the voluntary sector (49%), and education (49%). But even those who are looking to grow have hard roles to fill, with 46.9% of employers in construction, 45% in hospitality/arts and entertainment, 45% in business services, and 37% in finance and insurance reporting having hard-to-fill vacancies.

As we learned from the LFS this month, there are simply more jobs in the marketplace than there are workers to fill them. The vacancies deemed ‘hard-to-fill’ are a bit deeper-rooted than a general lack of available staff, caused more by lack of skills, fierce competition for necessary talent, or an unwillingness to provide the types of benefits and work-life elements todays professionals have come to prioritise. Executives seeking to obtain one of these more difficult vacancies should consider what skills and experience they can bring to the table, and whether or not they are willing to be flexible with their ‘must-haves’ at all.

Conclusion

The height of the pandemic was an interesting and challenging period for the jobs market, but the first half of this year has proven that the era immediately post-pandemic will be no less tumultuous. With how unpredictable these initial 6 months of 2022 have been, it is impossible to forecast what shape the rest of the year may take. However, there is no need to put career plans on hold. Executives in transition should continue to take the time to assess their capabilities, strengths, and skills to best position themselves as aligned and relevant to market needs and as sought after leaders of the future.

If you are looking for personalised help to make a successful executive career change, Rialto can help. Alternatively, to gain further insights on areas to focus on to secure your next move, complete our career growth index here.

What makes a great leader? What is it about them that inspires others to follow their directives? Why is it that when they speak, others seem to listen? There is no blueprint, no set path to follow. Successful leaders don’t all come from the same school, town, or walks of life.  Leaders take all different forms, as do their styles of leadership. It’s reassuring, as this signals that all of us have the potential for greatness within us. So then why is it that some rise to the top while others don’t?

Are great leaders born, or are they made? That’s up for debate, but there are certainly leadership lessons to be learned from those who have reached the very top. Whether you agree or disagree with their styles or approach, their impact is undeniable. Therefore, this blog aims to examine some of the most successful, inspirational, and influential leaders of both today and yesterday to provide insight into what it is that sets certain leaders apart from others.

Here are some valuable leadership lessons you can apply to your own approach and consider working into your leadership development efforts:

Winston Churchill – Be direct in your communications

The first leader on our list needs no introduction, having lead Britain through one of its most challenging periods and setting a lasting example for leadership that still persists today. Many of the Prime Ministers who came after him, as well as several American presidents and global political leaders, have cited Churchill as inspiration or directly quoted him in their own speeches.

It makes sense then why one of Churchill’s greatest legacies is his skills as a communicator. He was not one to mince words, and was a firm believer in sharing the truth with the public during Britain’s darkest hours. He regularly communicated exactly what he thought and felt in a clear and open manner, directly with his intended audience instead of relaying it through those lower down. At just about every point of his tenure at Prime Minister, his fellow Members of Parliament, other world leaders, and the people of Britain knew exactly what his stances were. He is also known to have preferred to deliver bad news personally, providing yet another opportunity for openness and clarity.

While most of us will never have to lead a nation through a troubled time, many leaders today are facing their own darkest hours due to challenges from the pandemic, the worsening global economy and impending recession, staffing challenges from The Great Recession, threats from technology, and more. As we navigate these issues and adjust to new ways of working, there are notes that can be taken from Churchill’s style of communication. Be open, honest, and transparent with your people. Keep them in the loop, even when the news is bad. You shouldn’t scaremonger, but sugar-coating the issues can potentially damage trust and buy-in over time. Treat your people as peers and respect them enough to share your true thoughts and opinions with them. As a leader, there should be no questions about where you stand on the issues and what you are working to do about them.

Mary Barra – Don’t be afraid to evolve with the times

General Motors (GM) is one of the most recognisable names in automotive manufacturing, and for several decades of the 20^th century, it was also the most successful. That winning streak came to an end in 2009 when the company filed for bankruptcy when saddled with more than $100 billion of debt. The company was still recovering from financial woes as well as several safety-related controversies when Mary Barra was appointed CEO in 2015, becoming the first female Chief Executive of a “Big Three” car manufacturer.

The tradition of GM runs deep in Barra. Her father spent his whole career working for the company and so far so has she, starting as a line inspector at just 18 years old. With that level of investment in the company’s heritage, it would likely have been tempting to stick to the status quo and get wrapped up in the old way. Instead, Barra took note of the changes happening the world around her and pushed for innovation. She eliminated outmoded operations and shifted the company’s focus towards areas that today’s consumers are becoming more interested in. For example, in recent years, GM has invested millions in electric vehicles and self-driving cars and is projected to overtake Tesla as the top US-based seller of electric vehicles by 2025.

The lesson here is that while it can be tempting to stick to what’s comfortable, innovation is usually the best option. Today’s leaders are facing an increasingly disrupted business landscape with strong global competition and ever-evolving technology. Rather than fighting to keep their heads above water, the best leaders are those who embrace change early and double down on innovation.

Nelson Mandela —Lead from the back

There are many things that former South African president and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nelson Mandela should be celebrated for, such as his determined activism and courage in the face of fear. His work landed him a 27-year prison sentence, during which time he continued exerting his influence to further the anti-apartheid movement. He played a critical role in its success, and will go down in history as one of the greatest activists and democratic leaders of all time. But despite all of the great work he did and the impact he personally made, Mandela’s greatest lesson is that leadership isn’t about the leader at all.

In his autobiography, Mandela wrote: “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” Leadership is often misunderstood as a hierarchy, with those at the top diffusing down directives to those below them. While some leadership initiatives will take place this way, in general, the leader needs to guide from the back of the pack. When you march out in front, you do so with the hopes that everyone will follow, which isn’t always the case. From the front, you miss out on all that happens behind, and by the time you turn around to check in it may be too late.

Instead, if you lead from the back and keep your people and purpose at the front, things begin to go unmissed. You can see if anyone is struggling or strays, and course correct if needed. This metaphor might conjure mental images of a shepherd flocking sheep, but what might it look like in a business setting? Leading from behind means empowering your people to share their thoughts and ideas, and ensuring everyone buys into the vision. It means being able to set aside your ego, the esteem of your position, or your own self-importance if it means that your organisation and your people benefit. Mandela put the bigger picture first, even at personal cost. Great leaders should be willing to do the same when the situation calls for it.

Marilyn Adams Hewson—Establish your priorities and set clear goals to achieve them

From fighter jets to spacecraft, Lockheed Martin has strongly cemented itself as the world’s largest aerospace and defense company. Much of its success in recent years fell under the leadership of Marilyn Adams Hewson, who served as Chairman and CEO between 2013-2020 and now serves as the strategic advisor to the company’s sitting Chief Executive. During her time in the top spot, Hewson helped to turn around a company threatened by defence budgets cuts and with a reputation for poor customer service.

Hewson has been applauded for her operational style of leadership characterised by strategic monitoring. During her tenure as CEO, she consistently sought feedback from customers and staff in order to form clear objectives and establish targets for achieving them. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Hewson was quick to establish priorities that ensured the safety of employees and maintained operations, many of which are critical to national security.

For leaders, it can be tempting to try to be everything to everyone all at once. It’s just not feasible. Instead, you should be determining what the priorities and focus need to be and building your strategy around those points. Determine what the expectations will be and clearly communicate them so that everyone knows exactly what needs to be done and how it will be assessed. That way, you can handle the most pressing issues first instead of spinning multiple plates that may not even be delivering the necessary value or ROI for your efforts.

Sir Alex Ferguson—Your success lies with your people

This next leader needs no introduction for football fans, but for those unfamiliar, Sir Alex Ferguson is the former manager of Manchester United. During his 26 seasons with the club, they won 13 English league titles along with 25 other domestic and international trophies, earning their spot as one of the most successful sports franchises of all time. There are many great leadership lessons to be gleaned from sport itself, but Ferguson was more than just a great coach. He understood that the key to leading a successful team was to build the right one.

Part of Ferguson’s strategy was to consistently rebuild better. He wasn’t afraid to trade his most famous players, some still at their peak, to experiment with new talent. Ferguson kept his focus on the long-term success of the club and was willing to invest in whatever he felt was best for achieving growth. Now, that’s not to say you should go sack your staff for a bunch of graduates, but you should be thinking about futureproofing. Sometimes, bringing in fresh talent is a great way to breathe fresh air into the business and get some new perspectives. But you cannot expect to win if the rest of your team is ill equipped to deliver impact in an evolving business landscape. Be a champion of continuous learning. Encourage and support upskilling amongst your people in order to better prepare them for what lies ahead. That way, you have the right skills and people on your side supporting your vision, and you are demonstrating that you are just as invested in their success as they are in yours.

Kathrin Jansen—Filter through the noise and let the work be your legacy

It’s safe to say that we would not be enjoying many of the post-pandemic freedoms we’re enjoying today and that many more lives would have been lost if not for the work of Kathrin Jansen and her team. Jansen, who recently announced her retirement, is a Senior Vice President and Head of Vaccine Research at Pfizer who is responsible for helping to create both the first vaccine for cervical cancer as well as the COVID-19 vaccine, the latter of which was done in record time.

The development of a COVID-19 vaccine came with various pressures from government bodies, the scientific community, and a global population that was eager to return ‘normal.’ Despite these pressures, Jansen and her team refused to sacrifice quality in exchange for speed. The result was the development of a vaccine that achieved 95% efficacy in under a year.

As a leader, you will regularly face pressure from all sides. You’ll have the C-suite and stakeholders in one ear, and your people and external audiences in another. Great leaders are able to filter through the noise and determine what feedback is worth heeding, and what isn’t right for the business at that moment in time. Listening is critical, but good judgement is essential.

Jansen will be retiring from the company as one of the best in her field, which is likely a goal for any leader. But rather than reaching that point by prioritising her own personal acclaim, Jansen will be leaving behind a remarkable legacy via the work she did throughout her career. Years from now, we may not remember that Kathrin Jansen was behind the Pfizer vaccine, but what we will remember is how the quick development of that vaccine helped change the course of the pandemic and save numerous lives. Some leaders, such as some of the others mentioned here, will have their names remembered beyond their industries and will be included in articles like this one for many years to come. But for most, the work itself is the legacy. As a leader, you have a chance to leave a positive and lasting mark on your organisation, teams, or industry. Your name may not go down in history, but you may create processes, practices, or standards that far outlive you.

The best leaders don’t do what they do for the personal acclaim. Any notoriety should be a side effect of leadership, not the objective. Be great at what you do, and the legacy will follow.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs— Learn from your setbacks

That said, very few leaders’ names are so entwined with their industry as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are to information technology and no list of leadership lessons would be complete without their inclusion. Both are considered to be two of the most influential entrepreneurs, innovators, and business leaders of all time, but Microsoft and Apple were both far from overnight successes. There were various iterations of their software and devices before they took off, yet both men remained determined to keep going.

We could create a whole article of lessons from just these two men alone, but their leadership has already been extensively covered in articles, books, case studies, documentaries, and more. Instead, we have chosen just one lesson we think will resonate with our executive audience most: it’s okay to fail.

Failure and setbacks are inevitable. You can set a path for yourself, but things will rarely ever go exactly the way you plan they will. It is how you react to these challenges that define you as a leader. Do not allow these bumps in the road to throw you off your course. Learn all you can from them, and keep going. As Gates wrote in his book Business @ the Speed of Thought: “Once you embrace unpleasant news not as negative but as evidence of a need for change, you aren’t defeated by it. You’re learning from it. It’s all in how you approach failures.” Great leaders keep going.

Queen Elizabeth II – Leaders provide stability

Finally, we would be remiss to omit Her Majesty, the late Queen Elizabeth II, who served as Britain’s monarch for 70 years. She reigned through various wars, de-colonisation, 15 Prime Ministers’ and US Presidents’ tenures, the rise of the internet, the entering and exiting of the EU, several recessions and economic crises, numerous scandals, and so much more. It’s very easy to forget she was never meant to be the reigning monarch at all.

While Queen Elizabeth II’s powers skewed more symbolic than actual governing, her 70-year service to the people was longer than any CEO, head of state, or senior executive will ever put in. We, our parents, and even some of our grandparents had all lived under her leadership and many had not really experienced a Britain without her prior to her death. Again, many leaders will never have that long to leave their own impacts, but most will likely weather troubled times during their tenure. If there’s anything to be learned from Queen Elizabeth II, it’s that leaders should provide stability during both times of turmoil and prosperity. Understand that your people will be looking to you as the steading hand, but shouldn’t only see you when there is trouble. Good or bad, win or lose, your people need you. Make sure they aren’t just seeing your face or hearing from you in specific situations.

Final Takeaways

Being a great leader does not mean having your name go down in history. The best that most can hope for is that they set an example that lives on through the organisation for many years to come. What matters most is what you do during the time you spend as a leader. Set clear goals for yourself and others, communicate them clearly, hold yourself and others accountable, lean on your team, and focus on the work. If you do that, you’ll be well on the path to leaving a lasting impact on those you lead.

If you are interested in honing your own skills as a leader, check out our upcoming leadership-focused webinars and our Leadership Development services.

The challenges of the past two years have certainly highlighted the importance of purpose from a social standpoint as businesses have become more vocal and cause-driven than before. We have seen businesses take a stand on the issues their customers care about and that impact us all societally. Those who get it wrong or do so inauthentically have often fallen under the scrutiny of the court of public opinion, but those who get it right can reap major reputational and business reward. Research has found that 52% of purpose-driven companies experienced over 10% higher growth versus of non-purpose-driven companies (42%), benefitted from greater global expansion (66% versus 48%), launched more products (56% versus 33%) and had higher success in major transformation efforts (52% versus 16%).

With all that in mind, what role does business purpose play in 2022? As we begin the new fiscal year, how should leaders be thinking about and enacting purpose within their organisations in order to overcome these challenges, build stronger teams, and earn trust in the marketplace? Most importantly, how do you get it right?

Purpose Today

As a recap, your purpose is your ‘Why’ when following Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle Model. It is that highest level of fulfilment on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs after the basic requirements of sustenance, security, and socialisation are addressed. It is the principle at the heart of all of your business activities and the core reason for the organisation’s existence. On a more individualised level, purpose is the reason why you get out of bed every day. It is why you are in the role that you are in, doing the work that you have chosen to do. Purpose does and should underly every business activity, which is why it is essential that you have one.

Of course, every organisation exists with some money driven objective. It is the aim of organisations in the private sector to turn a profit, and even not-for-profit organisations typically have some sort of fundraising objective tied to whatever cause they support. While these financial goals are fundamental to the operations of the business, they cannot be the sole reason the organisation exists in 2022. Today’s customers will no longer accept it, and staff will no longer support it.

That’s because the past two year have accelerated a change that was slowly boiling under the surface. Being dealt so many societal and personal challenges all at once left us all a bit more empathetic of one another and more pensive about the bigger picture. We have experienced major shifts in the ways we live our lives and do business. Today’s customers want to do business with organisations they feel stand for something or share their values. In the wake of the ongoing ‘Great Resignation,’ staff want to feel like more than just a cog in a machine and want to know that they matter more than the bottom line. Identifying and living out a purpose is how the business and its leadership are able to make that happen. One of our previous blogs goes into more detail on how to identify purpose, how to enact it, and why it matters, all of which are still relevant today.

Our Advice

But as the new fiscal year begins, there are extra considerations that need to be made given our current social, economic, and geopolitical climate. Here are a few things we recommend leaders think about moving forward:

• Be clear about your purpose: If your business does not already have a clearly defined purpose, it’s time to get one. If you do have a purpose statement but it’s tied to profits in any way, it’s time to rethink it. Your purpose needs to be achievable, honest, and in line with what you do as an organisation. You aren’t trying to pull a rabbit out of your hat or make a purpose appear out of thin air. Odds are, you already have one hiding in plain sight. Why do you offer the services you offer or sell the products that you do? How does it benefit your customers or the world around you? The answers to those questions will likely highlight your core purpose, but once that is solidified it is okay to add on. You may choose to align your purpose with some of the macro issues in society. For example, you may decide that your business needs to play a role in helping combat climate change and work that into your purpose via changes in your supply chain or daily practices. You may be disturbed by any talent inequalities in your industry and decide to strive towards fairness, working equality into your purpose via your hiring practices or the makeup of your board. So long as you understand that your business stands for something bigger and you operate from that place, you are on the right track.
• Authenticity matters: That said, whatever you choose to champion needs to be something you are willing to and capable of enacting. Today’s customers are savvy, and they are willing to do their research. If you are publicly championing diversity and equality yet your HR figures don’t reflect that, your customers will see right through you and the reputational blowback will be damaging. Once you define what your purpose is, you then need to live it out. Do not say your organisation is dedicated to making the world a greener place if you aren’t doing anything to improve its environmental impact. You cannot call yourself a people-centric organisation if your staff are unhappy and feel mistreated. It all goes back to the idea of ‘walking the talk’ from our previous blog, which now feels more relevant than ever. Say what you mean and mean what you say. In the digital age, businesses and their leadership are under constant scrutiny. Information spreads like wildfire and all it takes is one viral post to tank your customers’ trust and support. You need to ensure that whatever it is you claim to stand for is what you are living out day to day.
• Purpose and your people: But it isn’t just your customers who are invested in your organisation’s purpose. Your team are critically important for bringing it to life, all while having their own personal investment in the mission. The challenges of the past two years have made many professionals reprioritise what matters to them in their career, and the ways that businesses treated their people during this time had major impacts on their organisational success during this challenging period. Those who were more focused on their own profits while their staff contended will the damaging effects of the pandemic and struggled under the weight of higher costs of living are the businesses who were most likely to be hit hard by the Great Resignation. After living through so much loss and hardship, your people want to be treated like people instead of numbers. Your staff are not a means to an end; they are the heart and nervous system of your business and should be treated as such. Your people want to feel as though they are contributing to something bigger and that their work has meaning beyond just making money for those at the top. Purpose can provide that, especially once it becomes an integral part of the business and its operations. By providing that deeper sense of fulfilment and keeping your people front of mind, you may be able to more easily retain staff who are on the outs or attract new talent as the business grows and evolves. But you need to understand that the modern career is now about more than simply going to work, doing your due diligence for eight hours five days a week, and collecting a paycheque. Our careers are a major part of our lives and should provide some sense of fulfilment on both the micro and macro level.
• Tune in: As a leader, you need to think about purpose from both an organisational and a personal standpoint. You are responsible for helping the organisation define what it stands for, but also for diffusing that message throughout every level of the business. Part of that role is tuning in to what’s happening around you both inside and outside of the organisation. Is your messaging in line with what is happening in the world today? Are you addressing the types of issues that your people care about? What do your team’s individual purposes look like? What ties them to the organisation or motivates them to show up every day? Keeping your finger on the pulse and adapting accordingly can help you more easily transition your business through periods of challenge or change. Taking a stand is only half the battle. How you choose to behave every day after the fact is what will have the most impact.
• Take a human approach: To quote one of our consultants Lesley Lindberg, “Being human needs to come back into fashion.” Purpose is what humanises business and needs to be dealt with in a human way. If you are thinking about purpose as a means to an end or telling yourself that “I have to care about this thing so that the business can turn a profit,” then you are doomed before you even begin. The next chapter of business asks us to step outside of purely commercial thinking and embrace what it is that unites us as human beings. Every single one of us has needs, wants, desires, motivations, and challenges. Once we examine those more closely, it’s likely that we will find more similarities amongst ourselves than differences. The past two years have dealt all of us challenges to overcome, and while differences in opinion caused some societal divisions, we saw a rise in empathy and understanding. The pandemic levelled the playing field, and now that it is near its end we need to remember its lessons and continue to live them out. At the end of the day, we’re all just people. That understanding and mindset will be valuable as we continue to navigate the ongoing geopolitical, social, economic, technological and business challenges that continue to oppose us.

As we enter the 2022-23 financial year, purpose continues to be increasingly important to our business lives. However, given the ongoing and new challenges we face, purpose needs to be more than just pretty words shared on your company website or regurgitated in your comms. Know what you stand for and then actually work to live it out. If you do so authentically, you will have a much easier time navigating change, building trust and credibility, and keeping your people on your side.

Each March, organisations populate social feeds with praise for their female colleagues in celebration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day. While a nice gesture and a much-deserved celebration of women’s success, in many cases it can highlight the ongoing challenges that female professionals experience all year long.

Our Rialto Executive Career Coaches work closely with some of the world’s most accomplished, successful, motivated, and qualified female executives to advance their careers. Despite their acclaim, achievements, education, accolades, and positions, many of these women express feelings of an ever-present glass ceiling above them and limiting how far they can climb and what they can accomplish. But where do these feelings stem from, what limitations construct that ‘ceiling,’ and how can women break through?

A Seat at the Table?

It’s no secret that diversity is one of the biggest issues businesses face. In February 2022, the UK Government published data that revealed that the FTSE 100, 250 and 350 all improved the number of women in leadership roles in 2021. 39.1% of UK FTSE 100 board positions are now held by women, a massive increase from 12.5% just 10 years ago. This increase has allowed the UK to leapfrog over countries such as Norway, which has mandatory representation quotas, to become second in the international rankings for board representation. There are over 700 more women in leadership roles in the FTSE 350, and the number of women in Chair roles rose to 48, up from 39 in 2020.

While these statistics show that we are moving in the right direction, when examined closer it becomes clear that we still have a long way to go. While 39.1% of FTSE 100 board positions are now held by women, there are only eight female chief executives in that group and no women of colour. When you expand the field to the FTSE 250 where many more board roles are available, you might expect representation to be higher as well. Yet, women in boardroom roles for the top 250 companies is lower that the FTSE 100 at just 36.8%. In the FTSE 350, a reported 72 companies are still below the previously set 33% target for women on boards. Overall, only 1 in 3 leadership roles and around 25% of all executive committee roles are held by women.

How Much Are Women Earning?

When examining compensation, the chasm between genders deepens. According to the latest ONS report at the time of publication, in 2021, the gender pay gap among full-time employees was 7.9%, up from 7.0% in 2020 but still lower than it was pre-pandemic at 9% in 2019. The largest closing of gender pay gap between now and before the pandemic was found among managers, directors, and senior officials, showing that female executives are beginning to become more fairly compensated but are still not paid as equals. It would appear that there is a long way to go in order to close this gap, as the ONS data indicates that the largest gender disparity is among the highest earners with the 90th percentile of full-time men’s earnings sitting at an astounding 16.1% higher than those of females in the 90th percentile.

The gender pay gap often varies wildly at the individual company level, as was evidenced on International Women’s Day 2022 when a Twitter account called ‘Gender Pay Gap Bot’ (@PayGapApp) spent the day retweeting UK companies’ #IWD22 messages with their median hourly pay gaps.

Over 100 companies were retweeted on the day across sectors such as government, higher education, sport, healthcare, professional services, retail, and more. Some of the figures were pleasantly surprising. Both IT company Infosys and the UK House of Commons were revealed to have gaps of less than 1%, with several other organisations paying their female staff equally or higher than their male counterparts. Among the highest paid are the women of Barnet Council who are paid an impressive 25.5% higher median hourly wage than their male colleagues and broadband company Hyperoptic whose female staff earn more than double at 55.8%. However, the bot revealed more bad than good, highlighting huge gaps for organisations such as McKinsey (22.3%), Sheffield Wednesday Football Club (41%), Refuge Charity (32%), the Daily Express newspaper (22.5%), Loughborough University (23.2%), the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (30%), and most hypocritically, women’s lingerie brand Boux Avenue (31.4%).

The hourly wage gap is only part of the challenge that female professionals face with compensation. Having to choose between family and professional success is an unfortunate decision that many women end up facing at some point in their careers. As men move up the pay ladder, women fall behind by either staying in lower paid positions, reducing their hours, or both to take on the responsibilities of raising their families while others will choose to drop out of work entirely.

According to recent market research, nearly six out of 10 women (58%) say caring responsibilities have stopped them applying for promotion or a new job and one in five (19%) have left a job because it was too hard to balance work and care. Over time, this imbalance of familial obligations has led to more men in senior roles and some very damaging mindsets. At the core of the issue is a longstanding assumption that senior roles inherently require long hours and constant availability, and thus cannot be done flexibly or part-time. Academic research into the matter has found that long working hours have been proven to be inherently gendered and to exacerbate the gender pay gap. Over time, these mindsets have led some women to believe that they need to sacrifice one in favour of the other and have created biases in employers that female executives may not be ‘up for the job.’ Both of these beliefs are untrue.

Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling

Representation and imbalanced compensation are two of the most apparent and most widely addressed issues surrounding women in the workplace, but any female professional can attest that it is so much more than that. We asked our Rialto Executive Career Coaches which challenges they often see expressed by their female coaching clients, and for their career advice for overcoming these hurdles. Here is what they had to share:

• Speak Up: Due to the aforementioned lack in representation, female executives often find themselves in the company of people who are not like them. Often, this can lead to feelings of imposter syndrome, and may discourage some female executives from speaking their minds. Historical ideas of ‘femininity’ have conditioned us to believe that women who take charge, freely speak their opinions, and essentially behave in the same way as their male counterparts are viewed as off putting, bossy, cold, calculated, or worse. These are damaging societal ideas that we are progressing away from but have yet to fully overcome. For male executives, before you judge your female counterparts for speaking up, our advice is to consider whether you would ever think twice about doing the same. For female executives, our advice is to remember that you were hired for your role because of what you have to offer. By keeping your ideas to yourself or not speaking up when something is off, you are doing yourself, your position, your organisation, and your stakeholders a disservice. We know that telling you to ‘speak up’ is sometimes easier said than done, but just remember that that is what you are there to do. Standing in your power does not make you aggressive, pushy, loud, or rude. It just makes you good at your job!
• Build Alliances Carefully: Getting your voice heard is much easier when you have the right support in your corner. But again, women are often surrounded by people who don’t look, think, or act like them. Much has been said about the idea of ‘women supporting women,’ but men need to do the same. Unfortunately, there are some people whose biases run too deep and too stubborn to be swayed, but you’ll find that not everyone is working against you. Instead of wasting time trying to change minds that are unwilling to budge, choose your allies wisely and try to find strength in numbers instead. It’s a sad truth, but some people may be more open to hearing the same idea in a different voice. At the end of the day, the best interest of the organisation needs to come first and biases should not get in the way with that. You’ll find peers who agree and who will back you, helping to get your voice heard all the way through the top of the organisation. You are better off spending your time building and strengthening relationships with these individuals than you are trying to get through to someone who seems unwilling to really listen.
• Don’t Undersell Yourself: If you are putting in the same amount of work at the same level as your male counterparts, then there is absolutely no reason why you should be paid any less. Historically, asking your peers about their salaries has been considered ‘impolite’ or taboo, but there is really nothing wrong with doing so. Having these conversations is the best way to benchmark and to create transparency about whether or not the team is being fairly compensated. Ask the question. You’ll often find that your colleagues are happy to share their figures with you, and those who aren’t will decline and that’s that. Knowing what you could be earning within your same organisation, level, or department compared to what you actually are earning helps provide you with leverage for negotiation. Do not be afraid to ask for what you deserve. If others at your level are being paid higher, it’s often not because they were more qualified or were offered that. It’s often the case that they were simply more willing to ask for it or negotiated after receiving an initial offer. Our advice is to research the market. Use sites like Glassdoor to benchmark what others in your role earn in your city. Take all of these figures with you into salary or raise discussions. Know your number, and don’t back down. If you present these figures to your employer and they are unwilling to close the gap, do not be afraid to move on to a company that will value your work and compensate you appropriately. Women are often told that our contributions, skills, knowledge, and experience are ‘invaluable,’ but that praise isn’t quite enough. All of those factors combine to create a monetary value for the organisation, so why shouldn’t they create monetary value for you? Put a price on your skills and contributions, and do not sell yourself short.
• Set Boundaries: Women have often been the ones to sacrifice for the sake of family, but that doesn’t have to be the case. If the pandemic taught us anything, it is how to achieve better balance. The pandemic’s enforced remote work helped to challenge the misconception that senior executive roles cannot be done flexibly, and hopefully hybrid working becoming the norm will help to support this even further. Hybrid and flexible working models have made it much easier for working parents to be present for their children. This applies to both male and female caregivers, which in turn has helped the responsibilities of childminding become more balanced. However, women are finding it easier now to be both parents and professionals in these models as they do not require a choice between the two. Hybrid is also helping professionals draw clearer lines between their working and home lives and better manage both. This new era of work will likely see professionals regardless of gender setting higher standards and demanding more from their working life. It is essential that female executives determine what their non-negotiables are and stick to them. If flexible working models mean not having to sacrifice, then push for that. Now that we know most of our jobs can be done from anywhere, there is no reason to sideline oneself for the sake of having a family. If your current employer is not willing to work with you on that, perhaps it is time to find one who will. You are not asking for ‘too much’ by having boundaries and not settling. You’re simply commanding the respect you deserve as both a professional and a person with a life outside of their career.

For any real change to happen it’s not just women who need to speak up, demand more, set boundaries, or work together. Male executives, especially those with influence on personnel decisions, need to look inwards to challenge their own biases and assess how those beliefs and opinions might be impacting their decision making. Employers need to actively promote diversity and equality in their organisations rather than just talking about it. We can all do better to be more empathetic, to challenge what we see happening around us, and to speak in support of those we feel are being treated unfairly. The longer we continue to let the ‘status quo’ continue simply because it might not be effecting us directly, the thicker and thicker that glass ceiling gets and the harder it is to break through. Change starts and ends with us all.

It is hard to believe that we are only entering the third month of 2022 given how much has transpired in the executive job market since the start of the new year. We went from battling a dangerous new variant that set us back in our hard-earned progress to a total elimination of all remaining COVID-19 restrictions in the UK. Just as we were seeing a light at the end of the economic darkness caused by the pandemic, an unnecessary war in eastern Europe broke out, causing economic tremors that are likely to be felt worldwide.

As we exit winter, here are factors you need to consider about the executive job market as it stands as of Q1 March 2022.

Executive Job Market Snapshot

Our previous executive job market update was conducted right at the height of the Great Resignation, an employment movement which has seemingly continued into the new year. After a two month fall in the total number of vacancies during a period when businesses froze their hiring plans due to uncertainty from omicron, the total number of vacancies in the UK rose to a new record high of 1.3 million in January 2022. According to recent research from Benefex, 17% of UK workers are actively looking for a new job, 53% are open to new opportunities, and just 30% are committed to staying put for at least the next 12 months.

Even so, there appears to be recovery in the marketplace. According to the most recent Office of National Statistics (ONS) ‘Employment in the UK’ report, the UK employment rate was estimated at 75.5%, a slight increase from the previous three-month period but still lower than before the pandemic.  The unemployment rate also continues to fall, currently at around 4.1%. Many of the employment and economic figures we have been seeing month on month indicate that the market is rebounding, but we are still not where we were before the pandemic. One might assume that should we continue on the path we are on, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect a return to ‘normal’ levels by the end of 2022. While that may still be a possibility, certain trends in the market indicate that that recovery may not come as quickly as we had hoped it might.

Key Market Trends

Changing Roles for Compensation

People may feel that they are earning more on paper, but when considered alongside inflation and cost of living, wages are not growing at the rate they should be. Data from the ONS found the annual growth rate for average total pay, including bonuses, increased to 4.3%. The strongest growth was experienced by those in the finance, insurance, and property industries. In January of 2022, median monthly wages for payrolled workers increased by 6.3% compared to January 2021, and they were 10.3% higher than before the pandemic in February 2020. However, once inflation and cost of living are factored in, real pay fell on the year by 0.1% and wages excluding bonuses fell by 0.8%. We are likely to see this worsen as severity of the energy crisis deepens, the rise in National Insurance contributions takes effect, and the cost of living in the UK continues to increase. Prior to the events in Ukraine, inflation was expected to rise above 7% this year, but there is no telling what this figure could be come in the wake of this conflict.

If you are looking to alleviate some of the pressure from this financial squeeze, moving on to an external role may be your best option. Early in Q1, the Resolution Foundation think tank and the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance published a report that found that workers looking to achieve a pay rise this decade will need to change company in order to do so. If a pay rise is a priority of yours or a need to secure an improved financial trajectory, you will need to keep an open mind to making a change. That’s not to say that your existing organisation will be totally unwilling to promote you or compensate you further. You just might find that the grass is greener further afield.

Fierce Competition for Executive Roles

However, finding that new role might be a bit of a challenge. The Great Resignation has created a record number of vacancies in the market, but primarily in more junior roles. Executive roles are still rather hard to come by, with an increasing global pool of qualified candidates vying for the same spot. Executives are likely to find that the majority of jobs in the market do not match their skills or qualification and that when suitable roles that do become available, they go fast.

Executives should leverage and further extend into their networks to get a leg up on these openings, as many executive job market vacancies are never posted publicly.

Recent HBR research indicates that the leading indicator of career success is investing in and growing future relevant and aligned networks.

If your career transition goals involve entering a new territory, changing role, or switching industries, building your personal digital brand is crucial because more talent is sourced and found digitally.

So much of the modern executive job search is digital and having a notable online presence can be a great way to differentiate in a marketplace full of qualified executives with similar skillsets and experience. Not only that, establishing strong thought leadership can also help you get in front of the right people and expand your network to meet your objectives. This blog outlines how to accomplish this effectively. Navigating an executive job search is likely to continue to be a major challenge for executives, so setting yourself up to attract opportunities will be incredibly valuable during your transition period.

Shifting Priorities

But just because roles are scare, that does not mean you should settle for any opportunity that comes your way. If the Great Resignation and this pandemic period as a whole have taught us anything, it’s that the workforce is ready to command more from their working lives. 70% of respondents in the previously mentioned Benefex survey reported that their expectations have changed since the coronavirus, and three quarters said their experience at work is more important than it was a year ago. Nearly half admitted to raising their expectations when it comes to wellbeing, provision of high-quality digital tools, and the ‘where’ aspects of their workday. Benefits packages and adequate recognition for their work was also important for around 40% of UK workers.

With only 25% of workers rating their employee experience as excellent and only 36% of respondents reporting that they felt well looked after by their companies during the pandemic, it is likely that many will feel motivated to move on in pursuit of ‘more’ from their employers. Senior executives might especially experience this shift, feeling that they have reached a point in their career where they have earned the right to have more flexibility in their working lives.

Now that the remaining UK COVID-19 restrictions have ended, the time has come to put proposed new ways of working into practice permanently. Most organisations seem to be changing with the times and listening to their staff’s expressed desires by adopting hybrid or flexible ways of working, but a select few businesses are sticking to their guns and requiring staff to return to the office full time. In our previous market update, we advised anyone considering an executive job search to determine their stance on flexibility ahead of time. That advice is worth reiterating here, with some additional considerations. Businesses have had enough time to decide on a model and test it out, so by now many should know what the road ahead looks like for their teams and are unlikely to change their minds. Therefore, if flexibility is important to you in your next role, ensure you are looking at companies who are already demonstrating a willingness to offer that. The time for trial and error and toying with new models has come and gone, and businesses should know where they stand by now.

If their values don’t align with what you’re looking for, you might be better off holding out for an opportunity that meets your needs. As an executive, you have put in the hard work and the hours to reach the level you are at. But at the same time continue to develop and promote your value and your indispensability to your future employer to continue to succeed in your career.

The goal of an executive job search should always be to enrich your career in some way, whether it comes through higher compensation, increased stimulation, or better work life balance etc .

The marketplace has definitely shifted during the pandemic period to enable the UK workforce to become more comfortable with demanding more, and this is unlikely to revert any time soon. Know what your ‘must haves’ are and get a clear idea of what types of things would allow you to feel like you are progressing rather than remaining stagnant, and don’t settle.

Sought-After Skills

Given these trends, there are several skills that anyone undergoing an executive job search should focus on in order to successfully navigate the evolving world of work, differentiate themselves, and make maximum impact in their new role. Here are the capabilities our experts recommend you champion in the executive job market at this point in time:

• Adaptability: The ability to pivot remains a top skill for executives in the future of work. Things are changing swiftly and often. Demonstrating that you can change alongside of them, or even get ahead of them, will be immensely valuable to any organisation. Disruption has become a regular facet of working life, and the most competent and successful executives are those who do not get bogged down by change. An open mind, a willingness to listen, and a focus on continuous learning will be a major asset.
• Technological Savvy: As always, technological capabilities are of immense importance in an increasingly digital world. That’s not to say that everyone needs to learn to code or become an AI expert. For the executive, the focus should be on understanding the key technologies that are causing disruption and the role that they might play on one’s specific industry, organisation, and job function. We recently published a blog on what this might look like in various different senior roles.
• Soft Skills: This point has been made many times, but is worth reiterating once again in the context of the previous point. Part of developing a future-focused relationship with technology, especially AI, is understanding that the role of the human worker will inevitably change. The fact of the matter is that certain technologies can get the job done better and faster than we can, and therefore the attention will need shift towards filling the gaps these tools cannot reach. Many of these are what have been traditionally considered to be ‘soft skills’ such as creativity, communication, leadership, strategy, and so on. Your hard skills and experience are likely to get you into the running for the types of jobs you may be after, but being able to provide those extra capabilities will help better your chances at becoming the successful candidate.

The end of pandemic restrictions signals the official start of a new chapter in our professional lives, but many of the challenges we have seen in the executive job market these past two years are far from over and new ones are beginning to take shape. It is impossible to predict what shape the rest of the year may take, but there is no need to put career plans on hold. Executives in transition should continue to take the time to assess their capabilities, strengths, and skills to best position themselves in the marketplace and prepare for future success.

At Rialto, we often stress the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) for the future of business. We published a white paper on the digital imperative, discussed how to navigate your career through technological change, outlined strategic priorities for leadership, made predictions for AI’s role post-pandemic, and highlighted some of the ways that AI can help with leader’s people management challenges. This technology has impossibly vast potential that is finally coming into mainstream acceptance, meaning that innovation is happening at a rapid pace with changes happening frequently.

There are a number of forward-thinking leaders who got on board early and are now exploring more advanced applications of AI, but the majority of global business leaders are just beginning on their journeys. In this article, we aim to bring leaders up to date with the state of AI as of Q1 2022, and put this into context in terms of what may be expected of their role during the adoption journey of AI in transforming business models.

The Current State of AI

AI adoption has only continued to grow in the past year, with more businesses and their decision makers coming to grips with this technology. In McKinsey’s latest State of AI survey, 56% of all respondents reported AI adoption in at least one function of their business, which is an increase of 6% from the 2020 survey. Gartner’s Second Annual Emerging Technology Product Leader Survey found that the majority of respondents (87%) predict industry-wide funding for AI will increase at a “moderate to fast pace” throughout 2022. Their survey also found that a third of global organisations with plans to adopt AI intend to invest $1 million or more into the technology over the next two years.

Zooming in on the UK, it seems as though businesses of all sizes are betting on tech for their recovery and growth efforts. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) recently published a report on the current and future use of artificial intelligence by UK businesses, which found that around 15% (432,000) of all UK businesses have adopted at least one AI technology, while around 2% (62,000) are currently piloting AI and a further 10% (292,000) plan to adopt at least one AI technology in the future. 68% of large companies, 34% of medium sized companies, and 15% of small companies have adopted at least one AI technology.

IT and telecommunications (29.5%) and legal (29.2%) currently have the highest rate of adoption, while hospitality (11.9%), health (11.5%), and retail (11.5%) represent the lowest adoption rates in the UK. In terms of actual use cases, the DCMS report found that AI solutions for data management and analysis are the most commonly adopted with 9% of UK firms having adopted them. This is followed by natural language processing and generation (8%), machine learning (7%), AI hardware (5%), computer vision and image processing and generation (5%) tools. Looking ahead, the DCMS report predicts that expenditure on AI technologies could increase to between £27.2 billion and £35.6 billion by 2025. By 2040, that figure could increase to between £50.4 billion and £127 billion.

This reaffirms what we already know: AI is inevitably the future of business and the majority of leaders will need to become more confident in utilising AI. The increase in adoption rates indicate that the resistance to transformation is dwindling as many of the hold outs enter the exploration phase and the more forward-thinking businesses transition to application or explore further AI projects. For transformation projects to be successful, there needs to be buy in and involvement at every level and department. Whether your organisation is just embarking on its AI journey or looking ahead at what other problems this technology can solve, there will certainly be impacts on your specific role and function.

The Role of Senior Leadership

CEOs

The role of the CEO or top executive of the organisation is that of both decision-maker and champion. These executives are tasked with delivering results to various stakeholder groups, while also serving as the public face of the business. The two entities are so deeply intertwined that the failures of the organisation are often considered to be the failures of the CEO in the court of public opinion. Plotting, strategising, and delivering a change project is a massive undertaking and a huge responsibility for the CEO. Getting it right will ensure happy stakeholders and customers, but getting it wrong could have major career consequences.

Of course, any transformation plans should come from the board as a whole, but it is often the CEO who has the final say. Typically, they are also the ones responsible for selecting which tools to adopt, sometimes with input from the CTO or other knowledgeable parties. However, not every organisation has a tech expert on hand to advise, and CEO or top exec might have to go it alone. Therefore, it is essential that these leaders have a strong understanding of AI and its capabilities so that they may make informed decisions about the future of their organisation. Continuous learning and upskilling will be valuable to professionals in all functions, but for top leaders especially. Seeking out training, keeping up to date with the news, or pursuing a proper course on AI can make a massive difference. The most successful leaders are those who realise the world is changing around them and work to change with it.

But arguably more important is the CEO’s role as a champion of change. Wherein staff in the organisation will need to adapt to working alongside these tools, the CEO is not likely to see their role massively reshaped by AI. Instead, top leaders will need to focus on getting the rest of the team on board and encouraging a willingness to give this technology a try. Change is uncomfortable, and there will likely be staff who resist the introduction of new tools. The team will be looking to their leadership for guidance and reassurance, and the CEO is about as senior as it gets. Your people will be looking to the top in order to assess the legitimacy of these new mandates. Does it seem like you truly believe in what you are saying? Are your words telling one story, but your actions telling another? Top executives need to lead by example. If you want your people to buy into new initiatives, then you yourself need to practice what you preach and truly understand what you are asking for.

The Rest of the C-Suite

The rest of the C-Suite serve as the top representatives for each of the business’s various functions, including Marketing, Finance, Operations, Technology, Sales, Growth, and so on. Individually, these executives are responsible for their individual departments and all the staff and activities that fall under their domain. Collectively, these leaders must unite these individual pieces to work towards the best interests of the business. If the sum of its parts is successful, then the senior leadership team could be considered successful as a result.

At this level, you may find yourself less concerned with the day-to-day use of automation tools in your role and more focused on the ‘why’ of it all. It will be your responsibility to determine what role technology will play in your function, give input into the tools that will be introduced, and help to form a business case for adoption and transformation. But more important than that, your role will be to champion and to help shift the rest of the organisation towards an AI mindset. While the CEO may serve as the main spokesperson for your company’s transformation efforts, it will fall on you as a top-level executive to reinforce that message within your division of the company. It is crucial for the senior leadership team to present a united front when it comes to change management. That way, the message is clear and reinforced. Communicate clear expectations with your team so that there is an unimpeachable understanding of roles and responsibilities. Depending on the structure of your organisation, you may choose to funnel this message down via your managers, but your stance as the head of your department should never be in question. Help form the plans and stick by them once they are introduced. Otherwise, you risk losing all confidence from your team and your project may be doomed before it even has a chance to begin.

HR Director

When undergoing a transformation project, ‘people costs’ need to be factored in alongside the costs of the technology itself. According to the DCMS report mentioned previously, the 432,000 UK companies who had already adopted AI in 2020 spent a total of £46.0 billion on labour associated with the development, operation, or maintenance of those technologies. The average labour spend was £24,400 per small business, £1.7 million per medium business and £3.1 million per large business. This overall expenditure is predicted to increase to between £80.2 billion and £103.2 billion by 2025, and between £185.2 billion and £456.0 billion by 2040.

HR Directors (HRDs) will likely be the ones tasked with managing this expenditure, whether it be via onboarding new talent or upskilling existing staff. When adding talent to the team, it will be essential to look for baseline technological skills, but attention should also be paid to the types of capabilities that technology cannot match in order to create a well-rounded team. These are what we typically consider to be ‘soft skills’ such as communication, creativity, strategy, and so on. If adding new talent to the team is too costly, investing in the people you have is a strong option. Upskilling initiatives will likely fall under HR’s domain

Beyond ensuring the right talent and skills are on hand to cope with new technologies, AI tools can also be used to help facilitate a lot of these processes. AI can help to automate some tedious activities that eat up time for HRDs. For example, AI can help with document verification and data entry, scheduling staff, managing leave, setting up meetings and appointments and automating communication with prospects and current staff. Automation can be introduced to various stages of the recruitment process to streamline the experience for the candidate and save time for the HR team. But further than that, AI can help with a major challenge HRDs currently face: retaining their staff in the wake of the Great Resignation.

AI can be leveraged here to gain insight into the mindsets of current staff. How satisfied are your people? What has motivated them to stay, or what is driving them to leave? AI can help provide answers to these tough questions, and also provide insight into the needs and desires of the market. Often, these tools can signal HRDs to potential problems before it’s too late, allowing them to potentially intervene and retain. Investing in existing talent is a draw for people to stay, and HR will likely be tasked with leading any upskilling or retraining initiatives for current staff. E-learning platforms can help support these training efforts by tailoring the materials to suit individual needs, helping to ensure that staff are grasping the information and that HR’s training budget has been used effectively. While the directive for upskilling may come from higher up in the organisation, HRDs should expect to be the ones the board turns to in order to help figure out the logistics and oversee the process. It is recommended that anyone in this position take the time to learn about some of the tools available in preparation.

Artificial Intelligence is one of the greatest technological advancements of our lifetime, and its impacts will be felt across industries and job functions. However, AI is here to assist and augment, not replace and make redundant. This technology can achieve remarkable things, but not without the assistance of human intelligence. These projects will only be as successful as the teams driving them.

After coming to grips with the idea that AI is something you need to explore, we recommend focusing on building your skills and understanding. Knowing that AI is important and actually believing in its potential and the benefits it can bring to your business are two very different things. Your mindset can make or break you when it comes to delivering change, regardless of your role in the organisation. As a senior executive, you need to ensure you buy into what you are looking to achieve before you can ever expect your team to buy in. You need to walk the talk if you want your people to follow.

Who of us hasn’t looked around a meeting room, a networking event, a classroom, or a conference and felt out of place at some point in our lives? It’s an easy trap to fall into, especially in a professional setting.

Perhaps you’ve recently been promoted, switched to a different function or sector, or have just moved company to a more ‘prestigious’ or well-known organisation. Perhaps your meteoric rise to the top happened so quickly that you never had time to pause and assess along the way. Maybe you’re sat at a table with people who are older than you and have been doing their jobs for way longer than you have, or alternatively you find yourself surrounded by people who are younger and sharper.

If situations like these make you feel like a fish out of water or cause you to question your place at the table, it is likely that you are one of the millions of professionals who experience imposter syndrome. But what is it really, how can you be sure you have it, and what can you do about it?

Identifying & Understanding Imposter Syndrome

In the dictionary[1], the imposter syndrome is described as “a psychological condition that is characterised by persistent doubt concerning one’s abilities or accomplishments accompanied by the fear of being exposed as a fraud despite evidence of one’s ongoing success.” Essentially, it’s a feeling that occurs when we benchmark ourselves against our peers and believe that we somehow do not measure up, even if that isn’t the case. Some symptoms include increased anxiety, stress over potentially being ‘caught,’ and in severe cases, depression. This fear and panic often leads to stagnation and performance losses, which can severely impact one’s career.

How can you tell if you have it? It might not be immediately apparent. However, if your internal script includes thoughts along the lines of “Oh my God everyone here is brilliant…. and I’m not,” and instead of shutting them down you agree with them, that is a pretty good indication.

All of us experience some form of imposter syndrome at various points in our lives, but may not have had the right words to identify the feeling. In a survey of 1,000 UK professionals, 85% expressed they suffer from imposter syndrome[2]. 25% reported feeling as though their success was pure luck, while 15% felt they were only in their role because their organisation was understaffed.

The sensation affects people of all genders, ages, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds and statuses, but is known to hit some groups harder than others. Various studies have shown that women are more likely to be impacted, as are those from non-white ethnicities and younger generations. Of the 85% of UK workers who reported suffering from imposter syndrome, 90% were women. In that same survey, millennials were nearly twice more likely to attribute their success to luck or understaffing than their baby boomer counterparts. When you think of the current diversity issues facing the FTSE 100 and the corporate world in general, it makes sense why these individuals. These are still very white and male dominated spaces, with older and more experienced people at the top. Members of these groups may find themselves amongst these peers and fixate on their differences, rather than on what they bring to the table.

That said, this is not just a female, BAME, or young person problem as it is often perceived to be. Absolutely anyone can be affected, not just these groups. Even some of the world’s top business leaders, athletes, government leaders, and other public figures widely considered to be one of the ‘best’ at their craft face these feelings of inadequacy, with the likes of Sheryl Sandberg, Howard Schultz, Serena Williams, Albert Einstein, Michelle Obama, David Bowie and more all having spoken out about their struggles with this mindset. At the end of the day, we are all just human and battling our own insecurities.

Our Advice

In our experience, imposter syndrome is more common the more successful you become regardless of age, demographics, or background. This has become more prevalent in recent years thanks to COVID-19’s restrictions on personal networking and an increasing number of individuals reaching senior positions at an earlier stage in their career. But how do you prevent those insecurities from stunting your growth? Here are the top 3 tips we share with our clients struggling to overcome their own mental hurdles:

• Understand that Benchmarking is Subjective: No one has ever criticised someone who climbed Mt. Everest for not earning it. There’s a silent, universal understanding that this is a major accomplishment that involves lots of training, preparation, hard work, and determination. Our careers are a much more subjective experience, but is it not the same thing? Didn’t you also have to train, prepare, and work hard to get where you are today? While there are 17 known routes to the top of Everest, almost everyone climbs it via one of two routes and likely will have faced either similar or the same set of conditions, obstacles, and challenges as those who made the trek before and after them. Careers are not like that, and so that makes it harder to compare ourselves to one another. Think of all the different places you could be from, schools you could attend, courses you could take, people you could have in your network, and work experience you could possibly obtain. The possibilities are endless, and therefore no one will ever have the exact same combination of all these factors as you do. There are a limited number of ways to get to the top of Everest, but a million different ways to build your career. Understand that your journey is uniquely yours and is valid, even if it doesn’t quite look like the journeys of those in similar roles.
• Challenge and Change Your Self Talk: Very rarely is outside criticism the source of these feelings, and imposter syndrome is most often the result of the things we tell ourselves. We think ourselves into downward spirals and enable these negative thoughts to continue to persist without challenge. When you catch yourself thinking these things, try to flip the thought. Ask yourself why you feel that way, what evidence you have to support it, and if that thought is really true. We are often our toughest critics and lack the same patience and compassion that we might grant to someone else in our same position. Become consciously aware of the conversation going on in your head when you’re in a situation that triggers your impostor feelings in order to stop them in their tracks. For example, instead of thinking, “Wait until they find out I have no idea what I’m doing,” tell yourself “Everyone who starts something new feels off-base in the beginning. I may not know all the answers but I’m smart enough to find them out.” Show yourself the same grace you would show to a loved one if they voiced similar doubts in themselves.
• Fake It to Make It: And if taking control of your thoughts doesn’t have the desired effect, take control of the situation. Now and then, we all have to fly by the seat of our pants, and usually this improvisation is one of the best ways to figure things out. Instead of considering “winging it” proof of your ineptness, learn to do what many high achievers do and view it as a skill. ‘Fake it until you make it’ is a worn-out phrase, but its message still rings true: Don’t wait until you feel confident to start putting yourself out there. Courage comes from taking risks. You just might find that you know more or are more capable than you think.

There is no cure-all for imposter syndrome, and it is likely to come and go throughout your career. The best thing you can do for yourself is to work on building your own confidence and periodically stepping back to appreciate how far you have come. Take time to track and recognise your success, which will help you to more confidently say ‘yes’ to opportunities. For some, this confidence might come from being around fellow colleagues in networks. Sometimes those around us are able to see us more clearly than we can see ourselves during our moments of doubt. When these feelings set in, ask for feedback from those you trust and whose opinions you value. If this is helpful to you, it is worth remembering that you are not the only one who may be feeling this way. As a leader, there are likely other members of your team battling their own insecurities, in which case you should strive to be the type of leader who ‘pays it forward.’ Be that mirror for your people, just as your peers help you see yourself.

For others, validation from your network might not be the key, in which case it might be helpful to take on a mentor or coach to help build your confidence and adequately benchmark your success. If you fall into this camp and would like some help navigating your career progression, get in touch with our team.

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/impostor%20syndrome

[2] http://hrnews.co.uk/85-british-workers-suffer-from-imposter-syndrome/

Organisations are beginning to put their plans and objectives into action.

From our conversations with our clients, it seems that Covid 19, inflation, talent scarcity, government funding support and policy uncertainties are creating increased challenges to boards.

As a result customer centricity is high up on the strategic agenda for many businesses in 2022.

And it makes sense.

After two challenging years of working to stay afloat, the time has come to build back better and enter the next era of business. Customers are central to the success of these efforts, but their habits and demands have changed along with the market these past few years. They are savvier, choosier, and more digitally-driven than ever before. In order to become truly customer centric, leaders need to tap into what it is that drives customers and influences them to return time and time again.

We asked our experts to share the top challenges they find our clients experiencing when aiming to become more customer centric, and to share their advice for overcoming these hurdles. Here’s what they had to say:

Top Challenges to Customer Centricity

• Learning to Unlearn: Many top executives got to where they are today through a long and successful career journey. The downside of that is that many reached their post years ago and settled in, sticking to what works. The practices may have historically helped to drive the business forward in challenging periods, but today’s market and customer is like nothing we have ever experienced before. We have never been this digital, this globalised, this actively communicative across various platforms and mediums, or this spoilt for choice with who we do business with. As a result, leaders may find that the practices they previously relied on to evolve their offering may no longer suffice and that they have to unlearn everything they thought they knew about the market, their role in it, and the customers they aim to serve. This can feel uncomfortable and unsettling for some, especially those who have adopted a sort of ‘If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’ mentality throughout their tenure. There is no room for stubbornness or ego here. To change the organisation and its practices, its leadership team will need to go within and address the attitudes and actions that are holding them back.

• Listening In: The best way to learn what your customer wants is to listen to them, but the acts of ‘listening’ and gathering business intelligence have evolved alongside the rest of the market. There are so many different ways to do this and to do it constantly. Your customers are communicating with your sales and service teams, browsing your website, talking about you on social media, reviewing you online, having conversations with their peers, and so on. That generates a lot of potential insight, but also a lot of noise. The challenge then becomes sorting through that intelligence, finding trends, and prioritising. It can be hard to delineate between what you are hearing and what is actually important to your customers. There may be a temptation to want to fix everything all at once, but that is not always possible or practical. The challenge for leaders is to take a moment to assess what they are hearing,
• Making Sense of Customer Data: All these customer conversations and activities create vast amounts of valuable data for the organisation that helps to paint the picture of what the journey looks like and where it could be improved. Businesses have access to an immense amount of data, but often fail to use it properly. The challenge leaders face is ensuring they have access to the right information and are using it to their advantage. Advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence will be a big help here, but leaders need to get on board with these tools and develop an understanding of them. The pandemic helped push many laggards towards new tech, but most businesses are still in the exploratory phases of their digital transformation journey. Executives need to push past any remaining hesitations towards technology and get to grips with it and soon, otherwise a lot of potential and valuable insights will continue to be missed out on.
• Generating Buy-In: The previous challenges were concentrated primarily on the leadership team, but true customer centricity flows evenly throughout every area of the business. Yes, leaders may have to unlearn, tune in, and make sense of the market demands, but their staff are the ones putting these lessons into practice. If your own people don’t buy into your vision and what you are trying to accomplish, how do you expect your customers to buy in? Not only do leaders need to be able to access all this data and make sense of it, but they also need to be able to present it to their people in a way that tells a story and brings the customer journey to life in a narrative way. Every member of the team from the board to the interns need to be aligned with the vision. The story told to an organisation’s people is the story that will ultimately be told to its customers. There can be no crossed wires. The sales team shouldn’t be saying one thing while IT says another, marketing says something different, and customer service is on a different page entirely. Every department, whether it is directly customer-facing or not, should know what the customer story is and the role they each play in delivering it. Creating that level of alignment at scale can be a major challenge for leaders, especially if the business has historically been insular across departments.

Top Tips for Overcoming Challenges to Customer Centricity

Thankfully, all of these problems are possible to overcome.

At The Rialto Consultancy, we have worked with leadership teams over the last decade in order to help them unlearn what they know and get their people on board. Here are our experts’ top tips for achieving greater customer centricity moving forward:

• Embrace Radical Empathy: It’s time for being human to come back into fashion. The pandemic bonded us all through mutual struggle, and as a result we all became a bit more understanding of one another. The pandemic and its challenges may not be over, but even when it eventually does come to an end, we need to remember that we are all just people. We have feelings. We have challenges. Take the time to be a bit more forgiving and understanding, not just of your customer but of your people. Practice patience and work to see things from their perspectives. That way, you can avoid friction and work more collaboratively to tackle problems.
• Expect Imperfection: Part of being human is making mistakes, learning from them, and continuing to try. The most successful customer centric leaders are those who understand that things won’t always be perfect, and who are accepting of this. What’s important is becoming more fluid and adapting to what comes. With so many different touchpoints and conversations happening all at once, things will inevitably get overlooked or you might feel tempted to try to fix absolutely every complaint brought to your attention. That is not feasible, and leaders need to come to terms with the fact that they might not always have the answers. Instead, be more curious and more tactful about how you address problems and prioritise.
• Understand the Journey: Do you know what it is like to be your own customer? What does the journey look like? What steps and processes do your customers go through when doing business with you? What is it like to complete a purchase on your website, or file a complaint with your customer service team? Every member of your team, not just leadership, needs to know what the journey looks like firsthand. Recently in the US, news broke that food delivery service DoorDash would be requiring every single one of their employees across all departments, including their CEO, to deliver one order each month. The reactions to this were mixed, with some staff outraged that they would be made to do the ‘lowliest’ job of the organisation, while others praised the initiative’s empathetic benefits. Your organisation may not go to these lengths to create an understanding of the journey, but at the very least your entire team should know what your process looks like from the perspective of your customers. That way, you can identify problems from the inside in order to fix them, and ensure that the people interacting the closest to your customers understand exactly what they are experiencing.
• Engage More: In order to listen to and understand your customer, you need to interact with them. Often, executive leadership has very little direct contact with the customer and instead are fed by intel from those ‘on the ground’. Their understanding of their customer comes from reports and second-hand news. By increasing their own direct interaction with the customer, leaders can build that all-important empathy and understanding.
• Trust and Empower Your People: Even if you are more actively engaged with your customers, the majority of the interaction will still fall on your team. Leaders need to trust their staff and find a way to empower those closest to the customer to best advocate for them. This is much easier to achieve if there is alignment across the organisation and a consistent story being told.
• Advocate on behalf of Your Customer: Advocating for the customer shouldn’t only take place during direct interactions. The customer’s perspective needs to be represented in every conversation, always. Someone should be playing ‘devil’s advocate’ on behalf of your customer in every meeting, strategic conversation, presentation, and so on. Instead of focusing on what’s in it for the business, someone always needs to be asking what’s in it for the customer. The more people you have asking this question, the better. Not only that, but everyone should be able to answer it by the time the conversation is done. Weaving this practice and mindset into absolutely everything helps ensure that the customer is always put first. When the customer is properly catered to, everything else will fall into place.

Becoming customer centric cannot happen overnight. It will take time, patience, experimentation and innovation to get it right. However, the organisations that dedicate the effort to get it right will have an easier time navigating what comes next with greater agility the support of their customers.

If 2020 was the year of change, then 2021 was the year of adaptation. Last year threw disruption at us from every angle, and this year was all about adjusting to those new market conditions, customer behaviours, regulations, disruptive technologies and expectations. The disruption continued, but we were better placed to cope with it. At times, it felt like taking two steps forward and one step backwards, making progress but slowly. Gradually, we managed to rebuild and recover rather than focusing our energy on fighting fire after fire as it became apparent that the world would not revert back to how it was pre COVID-19.

As 2021 draws to a close, it’s become apparent over these final weeks of the year that our need for adaptation and learning hasn’t ended. We need to continue on the journey to ensure we’re not set back.  So, before we all switch off to recharge over the festive period, let’s take a moment to reflect on the lessons of 2021 so that we may come back even stronger in 2022!

Where We Started

In December 2020, we published our annual predictions for the new year. At this point in time, the UK had not yet locked down for a third time, the Government had not introduced its roadmap out of lockdown, and only the eldest and most vulnerable of us had received the vaccine. Our predictions were born out of uncertainty and caution, but with the optimism that we would finally begin to move forward.

There is a lot that our and other commentators end-of-year predictions got right, but none of us could have predicted that it would all play out exactly the way that it did. For example, we predicted that the customer journey would become increasingly digital and experiential, but we could not have guessed that the global supply chain to provide them with products would become so unstable. Based on the public stances that many of the world’s biggest companies took in regard to their business models last year and with the third UK lockdown looming overhead as we made our 2021 predictions, we knew remote work would continue in some form but could not have forecasted that it would contribute to one of the biggest employment shifts in our lifetime. And though many statistics and surveys of the UK’s professionals indicated a majority preference for flexibility, many businesses learned the hard way just how serious their employees were about continuing on this way.

The Great Resignation is arguably one of the biggest disruptions we saw this year, though it was not the employment shakeup any of us would have guessed would happen. At the start of this year, it seemed most possible that the end of the furlough scheme would rock the job market and lead to mass redundancy. Instead, we saw people willingly leave their roles in search of something ‘better,’ whether that be in terms of pay, flexibility, or culture. Staff and executives alike don’t want to be ‘managed’ or ‘told what is, ’ but instead want to play a role in co-creation and are willing to move on to an organisation that will allow them to do so. As a result, we are seeing record-breaking employment figures and an increasingly complex job market.

Where We Stand

In the latest ONS Employment in the UK update, it was estimated that the unemployment rate is at 4.2%, which is 0.2 percentage points higher than before the pandemic but 0.4 points lower than the previous quarter. The employment rate grew as well, rising 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter to 75.5%. A net increase of 304,000 people moved from unemployment into work in Q3, the biggest jump on modern records dating back to 2001. The data also shows that the number of vacancies in the market reached a record high in the three months to November, climbing to more than 1.2 million. The UK job market is rebounding as anticipated, with plenty of opportunity available.

But if things seem to be improving, what does that say about the Great Resignation? The latest ONS figures primarily reflect the months leading up to October and November, meaning we won’t know until early 2022 what happened in the final three months of 2021. If the impacts of the Great Resignation aren’t already being felt, they likely will be soon. In a poll from Randstad published in November, 24% of employees in the UK reported plans to move jobs within the next three to six months.

In the new year, this will all have major implications for both leaders and executives undergoing their own career transitions. For these executives, this may mean even fiercer competition in an already challenging executive job market. The desirable roles will be highly sought after by a pool of qualified candidates from around the world, making it more imperative than ever to differentiate oneself.  For leaders, it means a reset in what ‘leadership’ really looks like.

What Comes Next

The situation cannot change unless organisations and their leadership lead the charge. One thing is clear: If businesses have any hope of bouncing back strong in 2022, they need to shift focus from recovering profits to retaining their people. Here are our top predictions for the year to come:

The Great Recruitment Challenge: The Great Resignation has created market conditions that will be difficult for both executives and organisations to navigate. While the resignations mean that fresh talent is entering the market, the competition between employers to secure this talent will be fierce. On the other side of the coin, with so much qualified talent in the market, executives will have a harder time securing the desirable roles. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword for the executives undergoing career transitions. The Great Resignation is opening up more opportunities in the market, but there’s a reason for that. In the wake of this wave of resignations, it’s easy for an executive to be a bit wary about why a seemingly fantastic role has suddenly opened up. If an executive is undergoing a career transition in search of specific criteria, they may have a hard time finding that.

For employers, an ageing population, disrupted immigration post-Brexit, and the strong recovery in customer demand have put additional strains on the labour markets that will remain throughout 2022. The pandemic shifted our priorities in so many ways, and while many organisations were quick to adapt their practices to keep things ticking over, culture shifts have been much slower. Employers are going to have a difficult time drawing in the talent that they want if they are not willing or able to provide the types of things today’s executives are looking for, which will be a real detriment to businesses looking to recruit next year.

The Great Retention Challenge: The culture issues will also make it much harder to hold on to the organisation’s existing talent. In November, Rialto conducted a poll asking executives who were considering a career transition or who had recently resigned from their position what they were looking for most in their next role. The resounding majority (61%) reported wanting a better culture or leadership. Flexibility and salary took a back seat here in terms of priority, earning only 17% and 16% of the vote, respectively. This indicates that if organisations want to avoid having to battle a tight labour market, they need to fix the internal problems that may lead their existing talent to leave and may make it difficult to attract new talent.

Leaders need to spend the start of 2022 identifying where these issues may be in order to address them. We are already seeing a trend of many leaders conducting ‘stay interviews’ with staff to unearth the grievances that may lead them to leave. Expect to spend much of your energy in Q1 2022 on rebuilding internally rather than branching out externally.

The Upskilling Imperative: The record-breaking number of vacancies in the market and high unemployment rates tell us that the problems in the market aren’t due to the number of roles or candidates available in the marketplace. Rather, it’s a skills issue. The jobs available simply don’t match the people. That of course makes it more difficult for executives in transition to find the types of roles they want or are suited for. Differentiation is more imperative than ever for executives. Adding desirable, future-focused skills to your arsenal can help to set you apart from other similar candidates and provide you with an edge in an increasingly competitive global job market. Tech skills as well as more human-centric capabilities such as strategic thinking, communication, empathy, and creativity will all be increasingly valuable in 2022.

But just as much as executives want desirable roles, employers want the best possible talent on their team. If battling the recruitment landscape is not a feasible option, consider investing internally into programmes that will equip your current workforce with the types of capabilities that will further the organisation’s strategic objectives and provide value to the organisation in the future. Not only that, but it shows your staff that you are invested in their success and may help your retention efforts. Leaders should also invest in their own skills to enhance their own capabilities and ensure they have what it takes to lead the workforce of the future.

The Leadership Reset: For leaders, it will take more than upskilling to become future ready. In 2022, there needs to be an overhaul of what leadership means and looks like. The role of a leader is becoming increasingly challenging. In addition to the challenges of the labour force, leaders are tasked with tackling changing market conditions, catering to customer expectations, answering to stakeholders, and generating value for the organisation during one of the most transitional periods of business in history. Not only that, but every major decision today’s leaders make plays out in the social media arena. Juggling one’s individual and organisational reputation while making the right moves for the business is a fine line to walk.

A dramatically-changed business landscape calls for an overhaul in mindset. The idea of what it means to be a leader needs to change in order to accommodate the shifts in employee and consumer priorities, technological innovation, and ways of working. If you throwing all of your energy into firefighting or profit building and aren’t thinking holistically about how all of these different come together to impact the success of your business, then you will struggle in 2022 and beyond. The shift in leadership needs to begin with the leaders themselves. In the new year, take time to reassess your approach. Be honest and critical, and accept that what has traditionally worked may no longer suit.

Dealing with Disruption: At this point, ongoing disruption has become less of a spanner in the works and more of an inevitability of our professional lives. The challenge for leaders in 2022 will be to come to terms with that reality and progress from there. The surging threat from the Omicron variant demonstrates that this pandemic is far from over, and COVID is something we will have to continue living with. With that in mind, how do you as a leader intend to deal with it? Moreover, our reliance on technology is deepening, with Statista forecasting an estimated $1.5 trillion USD will have been spent globally on digital transformation by the time the year ends. This number is predicted to rise to $1.8 trillion USD by the end of 2022 and more than double to $2.8 trillion by 2025. Technology is quickly advancing and at this rate, it is outpacing the rate at which humans can adapt. Leaders need to ensure they have the right skills to adjust, and the right mindset to generate buy-in. Additionally, sustainability is becoming a global priority, and can no longer be pushed aside for later. In 2022, leaders need to take decisive action to tackle these critical business issues and embrace disruption rather than constantly battling against it.

If the past two years have taught us anything at all, it is to expect the unexpected. There is no telling what 2022 will bring, but if we take the time to reflect and learn from our shortcomings, we can only improve. While 2021 called us to adapt, 2022 will require us to embrace and evolve so that we can not only drive business forward but also better what our working lives look like.