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.

Executive Outlooks: Securing a 2022 Promotion or Increased Reward

It’s that time of year again. Businesses will be wrapping up their actions for this year and planning for the next, making decisions about strategy, objectives, and skill requirements. Many organisations choose the end of year as an opportunity to reward the year’s high performers with increased compensation, promotions, new responsibilities, or projects for individuals to take on as they enter the new year. When managed astutely, it’s a win for both parties, really. The executive gets to go into the festive break with a bit of good news to celebrate, and the organisation can ensure they have the right people in the right roles for a fresh start in Quarter 1.

But how can you secure a new position or title, or increased reward package? If you are looking to do this at the executive level, here is what you need to know.

Advancement at the Executive Level

For executives, promotions and raises don’t happen quite as often or as easily as they would at other levels. Once you reach a certain point in an organisation, there are often fewer opportunities and a limited amount of career moves you can make without leaving the organisation. For many, the only way ‘up’ is to accept a partnership, secure a directorship, or aim for a seat on the board.  If the latter is of interest, you can read our previous Executive Outlook blog which discusses the process at length here. Board seats are highly coveted, highly selective, and are not the right move for every executive, but at the top of the organisation these are often the only positions one could be ‘promoted’ to.

That said, that does not mean there are no moves for an accomplished and established executive to make. Rather, it means that you may have to rethink what you might have in mind for your ‘promotion’ or enhancing your remuneration package.  In both cases, it is worth taking time to outline a strategy for negotiations. You might want to enter discussions by thinking about your approach from both a professional and wider holistic perspective rather than just focusing on position or salary.

Executive ‘Promotions’

When we typically think of a promotion, we think of climbing the next rung of the organisational ladder, moving a step higher than we previously were. Progression is very straightforward in this model. But like we said, once you reach the top of the ladder, there’s no next rung to climb. Instead, you can choose to step off the ladder and onto the ledge, moving laterally. You’ll stay just as high as you were while on the top rung of the ladder, but in a different spot. From this spot, you might have more solid footing, or perhaps a different vantage point. It’s different, yet does not compromise the hard work you put in to climb this high in the first place.

Essentially, you should be thinking in terms of ‘enhancement’ rather than ‘advancement.’ There are many ways for executives to enrich their career without having to move up or down, or change their career, industry, or organisation altogether.

Career fulfilment can come from a wide range of sources, and some moves you may be able to make within your current organisation include going after that aforementioned board position, taking on more leadership responsibilities, or spearheading a big project or new initiative, perhaps related to the company’s ESG, CSR, or transformation goals. You might choose to enrich your career outside of your organisation by pursing an NED role, establishing yourself as an industry voice or thought leader, offering your time in a mentorship programme, looking into opportunities within academia as a guest lecturer, and so on. Every professional activity you participate in contributes to your bigger career picture and helps to build your reputation as an executive. While more executive responsibilities may not be available at this time or you may not be a clear choice for them now, taking on additional responsibilities at work or establishing your value in the industry outside of your own company may help build your case for consideration when the opportunity arises down the line. Even if that is not your long-term goal, adding variety and enrichment to your current role may help you get more out of your career and enable you to feel more fulfilled.

Executive Remuneration

In the current economic climate, organisations are competing globally for the best talent. The departure of an executive can be a serious setback for business continuity and performance, and more so if he or she joins a competitor. Organisations are therefore increasingly prepared to invest in keeping executives “on board” or rewarding those who have proven valuable to the organisation using financial incentives.

These incentives may come in various different forms. The most obvious option is a salary increase. However, most executive roles are compensated at a rate that is on par with the market, and therefore, salary rises at the executive level are less common than they are at other levels of the business.  Instead, the organisation may offer stock options or some sort of equity stake. Alternatively, you may receive a one-off bonus if the organisation is in a position to offer one.

In some cases, it’s likely you won’t have a say in which form your renumeration takes. The offer will most likely be determined by the organisation’s current financial position and their ability to pay. It is also worth remembering that remuneration at the executive level is often carefully balanced against shareholders’ interests. Executive pay has been at the heart of some recent cases of corporate mismanagement, with escalating pay levels and high-profile pay issues prompting unprecedented shareholder attention. As a result, the organisation may be overly cautious, or executive renumerations may be dictated by structural organisational policy. This is important to be aware of, as it may have an impact on what your organisation is willing or able to offer you financially.

That said, many organisations are open to offering financial incentives if they are in a position to do so. In which case, it is important to ask yourself how prepared you are to present your achievements and articulate the role you played in helping the organisation meet its aims.

Advice for Advancement

If you are ambitious for more responsibility or renumeration in the new year, you want to ensure that you are creating a win-win situation in your negotiations. It’s not only what you did the past year to prove that you deserve recognition, but what you’re eager to contribute in the future.  Progressing at executive level requires a combination of personal traits, positive outward behaviors, leadership competence and trustworthiness.

If you are looking to take on more leadership opportunities, what examples can you provide to demonstrate that you are capable? When trying to secure a new opportunity, it is essential to be able to show that you can work at the level you are aiming for. Are you handling your current responsibilities well enough to add more on top? Are you fulfilling your current operational or leadership duties well enough to take on more, and are your team successful enough under your leadership to warrant you leading others? Prepare some solid examples ahead of time, whether you plan to make your case in an annual review, an end-of-year wrap up meeting, or an informal discussion with a key stakeholder who holds influence. Being able to demonstrate conclusively how you are contributing to the growth and development of your team or the organisation’s future will go a long way.

Beyond proving that you already provide value to the organisation, it is beneficial to demonstrate how you might continue to contribute to the organisation’s success moving forward. Instead of thinking in terms of the organisation rewarding you for the sweat equity you’ve already put in, approach it from a position of why they should invest in you as part of the business’s future. What can you provide that might add value long term? What sets you apart and increases your worth compared to your peers? What new industry insights can you bring to the table?

This is where upskilling can be particularly valuable. If you can bring future-focused skills to the table, that will help to increase your professional value. Perhaps you have already been working on your personal digital brand, and are becoming more visible in your industry as a thought leader. The strength of your personal brand reflects well on the organisation and may provide a bit of leverage when attempting to make your case.

Determining the best next step for your next career requires thoughtful planning, realistic self-reflection, and the right approach. Maybe you know exactly what you’re after and are prepared to go for it straight away, or maybe you don’t have a plan beyond feeling like you want more and need to do something. Don’t rush to ‘just get something done’. This is your career and for you to find the enrichment you’re looking for, you’ll need to be completely clear on what opportunities or activities might provide it. That way, you’ll be more successful not just in the new year, but well beyond.

If you need neutral yet experienced insight to help determine your next move in taking your career to the new level, get in touch with  one our team for a complimentary career discussion throughout January.

Last week, the United Nations closed their annual conference on climate change, known widely as COP26. By the end of the two-week summit, diplomats from nearly 200 countries had reached an agreement known as ‘The Glasgow Climate Pact’ to work together towards global sustainability goals. There was a great feeling of optimism as government bodies and major organisations announced their pledges, targets and commitments throughout the summit, with 60 of the UK’s FTSE 100 companies joining the UN’s Race to Zero campaign. One in three of the largest public companies in G20 countries now has a net zero target, up from one in five last year. After the summit, one thing is clear: climate change needs to be at the top of the strategic agenda for businesses moving forward.

So what does this mean for leaders? Now that pledges have been made and some regulatory standards have been outlined, what is the next step? How can you ensure that your organisation is helping to make the world a greener place rather than just ‘greenwashing’?

Following Through on Promises

While it provides a good basis for setting targets, many critics of The Glasgow Climate Pact feel that it lacks the regulatory muscle to ensure change. As a result, some feel it falls on the businesses who made pledges to make good on those promises, and for the rest of the private sector to play along.

As many leaders know, making a pledge or setting a goal is just the beginning. The challenge is in the follow-through.  With net zero targets becoming a prominent part of the conversation, expect to see businesses incorporating climate goals into their strategic plans for next year. Many may choose to use the guidelines outlined by government pledges, and others may choose to go further or reach for achievable ‘quick wins’ that can easily be accomplished. But given the new focus on climate change on a global scale, businesses can no longer get away with having no sustainability targets whatsoever.

Getting Beyond ‘Greenwashing’

Not only is acting on climate change important from a regulatory standpoint, but it also matters to your customers. A survey[1] conducted by Deloitte in May 2021 found that 65% of respondents expect CEOs to do more to make progress on societal issues, including reducing carbon emissions, tackling air pollution, and making business supply chains more sustainable. Rather than leaving it to businesses to be the change, customers are willing to act on their beliefs. 23% of consumers surveyed by Deloitte say they will switch to buying products from an organisation that shares their values on environmental issues, 42% have changed their own consumption habits to match their stance on the environment, and 21% have encouraged others to switch to a company whose values align with their own.

It is clear that customers want to do business with organisations that stand for something, but there is a difference between taking a stance and actually acting on it. In this case, being all talk and no walk could be classified as ‘greenwashing.’ This term is used to criticise businesses who go to great lengths to market themselves as being ‘eco-friendly’ and use PR initiatives to seem as though they are taking tough action on climate change, when in reality they are doing very little. In recent years, corporations such as Volkswagen, H&M, BP, Nestle, ExxonMobil, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and even IKEA have all come under fire for this. Customers are quick to see through the smoke and mirrors to the true story, and leaders need to not underestimate their audiences.

Actions for Leaders

With all this in mind, what do leaders need to know and prioritise moving forward? The first step is to take this issue seriously and understand that this is not just the latest buzzy trend in the marketplace. This is an issue that affects us all and requires swift and decisive action. As a business leader, you play an important role in driving change. Your people, your stakeholders, and your customers are all looking to you to lead the charge and set the course for how to proceed. Here are our tips for doing this effectively:

• Get Up to Speed with Expectations: Big businesses weren’t the only ones who made pledges and set targets at COP26. It is worth reading up on the targets that were agreed in The Glasgow Climate Pact and the targets set by the countries your organisation operates in. What are they aiming to achieve, and when? Even if there are currently no set, mandatory regulations that require your organisation to meet specific targets or behave a certain way, it is always best to understand what the bigger picture looks like. You and your team can use the government’s goals as guidance when plotting out your own climate strategy, and work towards the targets they have set out on a macro level. This is a means of playing it safe as well. Just because no mandatory regulations may have been set, they could be at any minute. If you aren’t already working towards these targets, regulations may make it so that you have to adjust very quickly to catch up. Instead, it is better to operate as if the targets outlined are already law so that if and when they actually do become enforced, you will already be on the right track for compliance.
• Be Realistic: As we have discussed, making a public pledge is a good start for signalling your stance, but you need to ensure your words aren’t empty. Do not overpromise and underdeliver. When creating a climate strategy, take a look at where you can actually deliver results. This might be a series of quick wins to get you started as well as some longer-term initiatives that will be rolled out over time, but everything you are proposing needs to be achievable. No business is going to reach net zero overnight, but every organisation has small actions they can take to start working towards that goal. Take an honest look at your business and where you can improve and start there.
• Don’t Shout About It: While you should be transparent with your audiences about your stance on climate change and what your organisation is doing about it, there is no need to shout it from the rooftops. It is always better to practice rather than preach, as your customers are more interested in your actions than your words. Communicate that you are taking action and be clear on how, but do not make that the central component of your marketing or media unless what you are doing can match up to the hype. Otherwise, you may be accused of greenwashing and lose a lot of credibility and trust in the market.
• Champion Change: As a leader, your people are looking to you to take charge and set the tone for change. They aren’t going to buy into the vision if it seems like you don’t. If you are going to set forth initiatives and make sustainability a key component of your organisational identity, then that change needs to start with you. Be clear on what the stance is and what expectations the team needs to meet. Provide clear actions to follow so that everyone knows what role they play. Ensure everyone is aligned on the vision and why it matters. Adjust your own personal habits if you find that they contradict what you are looking to achieve. It can be little things to start, such as carrying a reusable water bottle or becoming more conscious of how your actions contribute to your own carbon footprint. When you lead by example, you become much more credible for your people to follow.
• Keep Up to Date: The UN’s climate summit only happens once a year, but sustainability is an ongoing conversation. There are new developments constantly, and if you are going to truly become a champion of climate change it is important you stay up to date. Incorporate checking for new updates or research into your regular newsgathering activities. Just as you should be keeping tabs on your industry, you should be keeping a finger on the pulse of climate change. By building an understanding of what’s happening, you may come to find that you need to make some adjustments in your own knowledge or capabilities. Do you need to educate yourself on any specific topics to help better inform your strategy? Do you need to better understand a topic in order to effectively communicate to your team why they should care about it? Do the regulations require you to adapt your approach or capabilities as a leader?

Sustainability is a top-of-mind business issue, but one that requires firm action. It matters not whether you feel the responsibility for leading the charge falls onto the government or the private sector; we all have a role to play. Leaders need to act as champions for change to ensure that their organisation is doing their part and not making promises they aren’t delivering on. The world will be a better place for it.

[1] https://deloitte.wsj.com/articles/consumers-expect-brands-to-address-climate-change-01618945334

In the blink of an eye, we’ve arrived at Q4 of 2021. As we begin looking forward to the festive season and all it brings, now is also the time for reflection and planning for the New Year.

If you have your sights set on a career move in 2022, here are factors you need to consider about the Executive market as it stands as of November 2021.

Executive Job Market Snapshot

A fair amount has changed since our previous market update in early Q2. The government’s popular furlough scheme has come to its official end, and back in April, only a quarter of UK adults had been vaccinated against coronavirus. Today[1], that number is much higher, with 87% of the UK population aged 12 or over having received a first dose and nearly 80% fully vaccinated with both doses. A new development is that over 8 million people have had a third ‘booster’ dose. While this is excellent news for the state of public health in the UK, it also comes as great news for the recovery of the professional market.

The statistics reflect this as well. Currently, the UK unemployment rate stands at around 4.5%, which is a decrease from the 4.9% rate we saw at our last update but still higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 4%. However, these figures are met with vast opportunity with the number of vacancies available in the market hitting an all-time high of 1.1 million between July and September of this year. The number of employees on payroll has also broken records, rising 207,000 to 29.2 million in September 2021.[2]  However, at senior levels within the professional and executive market place, the numbers employed are 600,000 less today than pre Covid-19.

But with the unemployment rate higher than it was pre-COVID, why so many unfilled roles? We’re experiencing what has been dubbed ‘The Great Resignation,’ wherein professionals are leaving their roles or considering leaving their roles without having another opportunity lined up. This is creating even more vacancies in the marketplace rather than creating one-for-one swaps. What is driving these executives to take the leap? If you are one of them, what do you need to consider? The following trends may shed some light and help you better plan for your own executive career transition.

Key Market Trends

The Future is Flexible

One of the biggest changes to the professional world over the past 18 months has been our idea of what ‘work’ and the workday need to look like. Now that staff know they can work from anywhere, many are disinterested in returning to the office full time. Remote work provided greater autonomy and freed up more time for family, exploring interests and hobbies, focussing on wellbeing, and pursing more continuous learning and upskilling opportunities. Whilst some employers are calling their staff back into more traditional 9-5 workdays in the office, many executives are unwilling to sacrifice their improved work-life balance now that they have it. Hybrid and flexible working models seem to be the solution many organisations have turned to. Currently, an average of 44% of staff are back in the workplace at least some of the time and that number is predicted to rise to 56% by the end of the year.[3]

If you are considering an executive transition in the new year, your stance on flexibility will be important to determine ahead of time. If you are looking to work remote or hybrid, prioritise this as part of your search. Filter your search with this criterion and understand opportunities and potential barriers of compromises. Be up front with potential employers or any contacts who may be putting feelers out for you. Let it be known that this is what you are looking for in your next role. That way, you end up in an organisation that shares your views and will be much happier in the long run.

The Skills Divide

The number of vacancies and the unemployment figures demonstrate that the issue is not with 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. At the executive level, this looks a bit different. Rather than having an overabundance of skilled staff and too many roles that they are overqualified for (or in some cases, that individuals no longer have the relevant skills for), the problem is that there are very few opportunities available at this level and a highly competitive market of executives to fill them.

At this level, the skills focus needs to be about differentiation. The candidates who stand out will be those who possess the in-demand, future-focused skills that will help the organisation progress and futureproof. Executives who show a clear understanding of the direction their industry is heading and who demonstrate the ability to meet the evolving needs of the organisation are those who will stand out from the pack. Let’s look at what those skills might be.

Sought-After Skills

In our previous update, we listed four skills that will be crucial for anyone looking to make an executive career transition. These are still the main areas to focus on, but it is worth reiterating and expanding on these given the current trends.

• Technological capabilities: We have undoubtedly become much more digitally-oriented during the pandemic, and that will continue and expand to include more advanced tools. A PwC survey found that 52% of companies accelerated their AI adoption plans because of the Covid crisis, close to the results of a similar survey conducted by Harris Poll and Appen at 55%. Executives are beginning to invest in upskilling to respond to this change rather than resisting it. A survey by The AI Journal found that most executives (74%) anticipate that AI will deliver more efficient business processes, help to create new business models (55%), and enable the creation of new products and services (54%).[4] The task at hand for executives is to get up to speed with the tools available, understand their potential impacts and benefits, and begin thinking critically about how these capabilities can be leveraged in their desired role, industry, or organisation. Understanding these impacts may highlight other areas for improvement that can help the executive get ahead of the curve. For example, most professional roles will be done in partnership with AI, wherein the technology will do the more mundane, time consuming, or routinised tasks and the human will take on the more strategic and creative roles. With that in mind, the executive may choose to focus their attention on improving in these areas or other human-specific capabilities that technology cannot fulfil.
• Communication: Now that hybrid working is taking off and becoming more widely practiced, it is essential to develop the right skills for staying connected with colleagues across locations. You might be really excellent at delivering your thoughts in person, but not as great at presenting virtually. Or maybe you are a strong verbal communicator, but not as skilled at putting your thoughts into written word. Hybrid models combine all forms of communication, and therefore you should strive to strengthen your capabilities in the formats that may not be your current strong suit. The success of these working models hinges on teams’ ability to stay aligned and leaders’ ability to keep everyone on track and on the same page. Focusing your attention on this specific soft skill will prove incredibly valuable in any role you are looking to pursue.
• Collaboration: Our changed relationship to the office has carried over into how we conduct our workday, with much more emphasis on project-based work. It is essential for executives to have strong collaborative capabilities to help lead and execute projects. It is more likely that the executive will be managing and overseeing, so the focus needs to be on delegation. In a hybrid model, it can be challenging to fairly distribute work and monitor individual contribution and impact. It falls on leadership to keep their finger on the pulse of the project to ensure things are running smoothly and each member of the team is successful. Assessing your own management style and making changes as needed is crucial for navigating the next chapter of the working world.

The climate for a New Year career move is looking much more promising than it did this time last year, but still requires focus and determination from the candidate. If you are serious about advancing your career in 2022, it’s best to begin now. Set your objectives, determine your goals, begin plotting your strategy, and do the necessary legwork that you have to do to fill gaps in your knowledge or capabilities. That way, once the holiday break is over, you’ll be able to hit the ground running and be seen as a leader of the future that organisations want to invest in.

[1] https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58881124

[3] https://www.ft.com/content/e0c6e4f7-4d5d-477d-9ac7-fc74e8391075

[4] https://hbr.org/2021/09/ai-adoption-skyrocketed-over-the-last-18-months

If you were to say that the pandemic changed the whole course of technology in business, you would only be partially correct. In truth, what the pandemic did was push us further and faster along a path we were already heading down. Digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI) adoption have been on the annual strategic agenda for many businesses for the past several years, mainly as an exploratory item. At the start of 2020, the average global share of products and/or services that were partially or fully digitised was at 35%. By the midway point to the year, that figure had jumped to 55%, indicating that the onset of the pandemic led to approximately seven years’ worth of progress in around six months[1].

Now that we are well on the path to some version of recovery, no one is going to drop their tools, say “Well, that was fun while it lasted,” and go back to the way things were before we realised we could do it all differently. Nor should we go back. The pandemic not only changed the market conditions that leaders must navigate in order to keep driving their business forward, but also changed the way they need to lead within new target operating models.

Much has been said about AI’s potential benefits for different business functions, but can this technology help leaders bridge some of their key people management challenges? We explore the question in 5 key areas:

1. Can it support business decision-making?

Just as businesses have begun using more technology in their day-to-day practices, so have their customers. Every website visit, virtual appointment, online communication, and social media interaction creates a data story that can tell business leaders more about their consumers needs, habits, wants, lifestyles, and feelings. But the problem usually is that most businesses have no idea what to do with any of this data or no way to make sense of it.

That’s where AI comes in. These tools can continuously collect, process, and analyse large volumes of data quicker and in more detail than any human could possibly replicate. This data is translated into more digestible formats for easier analysis, detailed forecasts, and insightful recommendations that bring focus to leaders and their teams more quickly. This analysis might reveal trends to expect, issues that have been overlooked, or areas for improvement.

Collecting and making sense of this data will fall on technology, but it is up to leaders to decide what they want to do with it. AI gives leaders the clearest picture possible of what they are up against and where the opportunities are. Because these tools work continuously and provide insights in real time, leaders can act fast to course correct and keep their finger on the pulse of an ever-changing consumer market. This capability will become increasingly valuable as global competition rises and the customer journey continues to evolve.

2. Can it support diversity and inclusion?

Issues of diversity, inclusion, and equality have been thrust squarely into the spotlight as several societal conflicts have arisen this past year. As a result, many decision-makers are taking more purpose-led approaches to leadership (we have a blog on that here) and prioritising these issues in their company’s strategy. For these efforts to be genuine, they need to be reflected in the makeup of the organisation.

AI helps to build more diverse teams through hiring by eliminating some of the inherent biases that human decision-makers may unknowingly bring with them into the process. By automating everything from scanning CVs to conducting early rounds of interviews, AI is able to keep the process as impartial as possible. Of course, this does not always work as intended. AI follows the algorithms that it is trained on, so if it is fed biased information its outputs will reflect that. For example, perhaps the algorithm is trained to hire candidates that sound like a good fit for the organisation and was trained to determine this ‘fit’ based on the organisation’s current team. If the existing staff is predominantly male, all went to a certain set of schools, or are a certain racial background, then the algorithm will most likely select candidates that also possess these attributes. Some have tried to counteract this by programming the algorithm to seek out clearly diverse candidates, but this practice of ‘token’ hiring has raised questions of whether this is a truly fair practice.

It is important for leaders to remain conscious of the suggestibility of algorithms if using AI tools with this purpose, but when programmed correctly these tools can facilitate more equal hiring and help to minimise some of the bias that presents itself in the process.

3. What benefits can it bring for recruitment and onboarding?

Beyond promoting more diversity, AI can make it easier to build the right team and support their growth long term. As mentioned, automation can be used to streamline some of the process, such as scanning CVs for keywords in order to narrow down your candidate pool. While this initial screening will likely be handled below the management level, the increased accuracy of this process helps to ensure that the candidates presented to decision-makers are the best talent available for the role.

Additionally, these tools can help ensure you match the right talent to the right roles, every time. This is typically accomplished through the use of augmented and autonomous AI to personalise the experience and guide the candidate to the role that best matches their capabilities. This makes it easier for the leader to ensure that they have the right skills on their team and the support they will need for long-term success.

Integrating new talent to your team is another area where AI thrives. Technology can help to improve the onboarding process by getting new hires up to speed efficiently and via a more tailored experience. For example, there are tools available that can match a new employee’s preferences with recommendations about which benefits package best suits their needs. Starting employees off on the right foot helps to improve long-term retention, meaning leaders can focus their attention on achieving objectives rather than worrying about their team.

4. How does it support upskilling and training?

While many organisations may be actively recruiting and some leaders are having to build and onboard new teams, others have focused their attention on their existing staff. The adoption of new technology impacts all parts of the organisation, not just those at the top. If new tools are being introduced, then training and upskilling activities may need to be undertaken in order to ensure the team has the right capabilities to use them effectively. But your people don’t know what they don’t know, and as a leader, you should never assume that all members of your team are on the same level of capability and comfort with using technology.

AI learning tools can not only assess your team’s current level of knowledge but also meet them where they are. The use of personalised learning tools in L&D functions is on the rise due to their ability to tailor training to suit individual skill levels and learning styles. For example, these tools might offer staff a series of questions or activities. On the back end, AI and machine learning algorithms are analysing the responses to pinpoint the individual’s level of understanding of the topic at hand. Based on this assessment, the platform may offer the information in a new format that is more suited to the individual’s learning style and repeat the lesson until the information is absorbed, or may deem it suitable to move on to the next lesson.

For leaders, this helps to ensure that staff are getting the necessary training in the most effective way possible. Training can be a costly expense for businesses and approaching this in a one-size-fits-all way cannot ensure effectiveness. Tailoring training to your team helps to engage them in their learning and provide the best chance at absorbing these new skills.

5. How can it impact culture, progression, and engagement?

In an ideal world, every team member would be perfectly satisfied in their role and your best team members would stick around forever. But that is not our world, and therefore leaders need to pay attention to their team’s needs, levels of engagement and team atmosphere.

Sentiment analysis tools are able to assess employee communications to identify potential dissatisfaction, while intelligent employee surveying can be used to gather insights directly from staff about their feelings. If an employee is showing signs of displeasure, AI algorithms can be trained to identify patterns that suggest when they may be ready to turn over. The system would then send an alert to the HR team, allowing them to intervene before it’s too late. In some cases, this desire to leave is tied to compensation. AI tools can analyse market factors, the employee’s performance, and their job achievement to help suggest compensation.

Beyond holding onto staff that is on the verge of turning over, AI can help your team progress within the organisation. Some talent intelligence platforms are able to provide personalised career guidance to employees based on their innate capabilities, potential, and future positions of interest to encourage long-term planning. Some companies use this intelligence to match employees with mentors in the organisation who can provide relevant advice related to that individual’s identified pathway. Additionally, these tools can help to identify higher performers who may be ready for the next level or may be well suited to a leadership opportunity.

The mark of a successful leader is a successful team. By partnering with AI, leaders can conduct more regular temperature checks with their people and intervene before issues can have negative consequences.

It’s clear that AI can take on some of the heavy lifting of leaders’ people management responsibilities, but it should be noted that this technology should be treated as a tool rather than a replacement. Leaders should not become complacent and expect that AI will solve all their problems. There still needs to be a ‘human touch’ involved, especially in matters of people management. When considering AI, leaders should simultaneously work to adapt their own styles and skillsets in order to incorporate these tools into their style of leadership, but should not lose sight of all the attributes that make them a strong leader in the first place.

[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-covid-19-has-pushed-companies-over-the-technology-tipping-point-and-transformed-business-forever

Your career can feel very personal at times. You chose your path. You pursed it via your studies and work experience. You have built and nurtured your network of connections, contacts, and colleagues through the years. You have experienced the highs of success and lows of setbacks, the pride of a promotion, the stress of a deadline, and the other range of emotions in between. Your career is a part of your legacy and the impact you make on this world. With all that in mind, it makes sense to want to be in full command of any career moves you might make. But sometimes, to keep moving forward, you may need to seek specialist external support to improve your career valuation and change trajectory.

Executive career coaching can help professionals gain a valuable new perspective on their goals and objectives, their position in the competitive marketplace, the skills needed for the future, and the steps to take in order to reach that next level. But, what benefits can a professional career coaching programme really provide?

Why Career Coaching & When to Seek It

Today’s marketplace is more competitive than ever, moving at a faster pace and with greater ambiguity. Desirable positions that are a step up are not as readily available, so when these opportunities do arise, there will be many of your peers, both internally and externally vying for the role. With the rise of remote work, qualified candidates can be sourced both nationally and globally, adding to this competition and making it more difficult to stand out.

Executive career coaching can help you as a candidate put your best foot forward whether you are looking to pursue an entirely new role, rise in the ranks of your own organisation, secure an outside opportunity such as an NED position, or take your career to the next level. Coaches are here to help you strategise your options and prioritise your next move, determine what it will take to get there, and execute the right approach.

Because our careers are so personal, it’s easy at times to get stuck in old habits or wear blinkers or put blinders on. An executive career coach is able to look at your skills, experience, values, and capabilities through an objective lens and help you to become clear on what you have to offer and how to optimally position yourself. This strong self-concept is incredibly important for executives to have as they navigate the shifting world of work and an increasingly competitive landscape.

The most common time to seek a coach is typically during a career transition, between roles, or while angling for a new opportunity or promotion. But you don’t have to be in the job market to benefit from the expertise of an executive coach. In fact, this third-party perspective can be invaluable when making any major career decisions, building and expanding your network, or establishing yourself as a thought leader.

The Role of a Career Coach

At Rialto, the executive coach can wear a lot of different hats depending on the needs of the client. The coach can take on an information-focused role if the executive needs insights, advice, ideas, expertise, inspiration, guidance, or consumer intelligence in order to achieve their goals. If the executive needs access to the right people or resources, the coach can help to unlock those doors, make those introductions, offer endorsement or credibility, or lend thought leadership or influence. Other times, the executive just needs support and encouragement. The coach then takes on the role of cheerleader, challenger, motivator, stabiliser, and sounding board.

An executive might choose to seek out a specific individual that has a special niche in one of these areas or seek out a programme or coach that fulfils all these roles. For example, in a Rialto executive coaching programme, clients work closely with our team of specialist accredited executive coaches and mentors, all of whom possess extensive business and leadership experience. These coaches help clients understand their capabilities and where they can deliver impact, where they stand amongst their competition, realise their goals and ambitions, and remain competitive in the future of work. These coaches can play whatever role the client needs them to fulfil, whether it be the role of an advisor, connector, or supporter.

Choosing an Executive Career Coach

You have worked hard to make it this far in your career and should not entrust the future of it to just anyone. If you are investing time and money into an executive coach or programme, it needs to be a worthwhile fit with clear targets.

As with any successful relationship, there needs to be a good rapport between you and the coach or coaching team. Trust is a crucial component for success. Career coaching is a vulnerable process. You need to feel comfortable enough sharing both your strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures with your coach or coaches. You also need to be open to accepting their insight, advice, and criticism. If you do not trust and respect the person you are working with, then all of this effort goes to waste and you will not get the results you desire from your programme.

Credibility is also essential in these relationships. As an executive, surely you would not want to accept career advice from just anyone. If you are looking to move up, you’ll want to work with someone who has been in the shoes you are looking to fill, or someone who can lend relevant insight and experience that is applicable to what you are trying to achieve.

You might often see loads of people on social media promoting themselves as career coaches with flashy advertising or attention-grabbing posts. But is it all smoke and mirrors? A read through their LinkedIn profile or even a quick Google search should be able to tell you if that person has the background and skills you need in your corner. A credible coach’s experience should speak for itself, and you should feel comfortable enough to enter that relationship without any doubts that he or she will be able to walk the talk.

A safe method is to go through an accredited provider such as Rialto, where the expertise of our team and their proven track records in industry have been vetted to back up their promises. At Rialto, we have worked with thousands of executives through the years to take their careers to the next level, with much success.

Entrusting your career to an initially unknown individual can be intimidating, but it can make all the difference when looking for a new role, building your network, securing a board position, earning a promotion, or preparing for the future of work. If you are interested in taking the first step to improve your career trajectory, earnings potential or work-life balance in the coaching process or would like to learn more about our executive career coaching programmes, get in touch with our team.

It has often felt as though we have been reminded at every turn that the world of work is changing more rapidly and more fundamentally than ever. It is a truth that we are well aware of because we are living through it and have heard it talked about regularly over the past 18 months. The pandemic gave us no choice but to adapt quickly to sudden changes, overcome aversions to technology, rethink more deeply what the working day looks like, and step out of our comfort zones.

Now that we have reached September 2021 and are approaching Q4, we have come too far to turn back now. Now that we know we can do our jobs from just about anywhere, many of us will never work a full week in the office again. Now that technology has become more integrated into our working lives, it is likely that we will only continue to add tools to our arsenals rather than retiring them post-pandemic. Therefore, you should not expect that the job that you were hired for will be the exact same job you will be doing two, five, or even 10 years from now.

What does this mean for you? It means that you will need to refocus, reprioritise, and reskill or upskill sooner rather than later and more often than before. As your industry, organisation, and job function change, you will likely be forced to change with them. With the final quarter of the fiscal year drawing near, the time has come to begin your preparation. Here is a summary of what you need to know about the state of skills in September 2021.

Where We Stand

In a PwC survey of 32,500 workers, more than one third of respondents (39%) think their job will be obsolete within 5 years. It makes sense then why only 50% of respondents reported feeling excited or confident about the future. These fears are not unfounded either. The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Future of Jobs Report posits that by 2025, automation and technology will disrupt 85 million jobs globally. While these figures may be shocking, it is important to remember that 97 million new roles will be created. In both these disrupted and new roles, there will likely be partnership and collaboration between humans and technology with tech automating specialised tasks and humans having the advantage in activities involving management, decision-making, strategy, communication, and the like. As a result, the WEF report predicts that 50% of professionals set to stay in their current roles in the next five years will need reskilling.

BCG and Faethm recently released a report exploring the potential impact of various technologies on jobs in three countries over the next decade. Their findings revealed that the US, Germany, and Australia will all experience labour shortfalls in certain industries and sectors. The recommendations presented suggest that the solution to preventing widespread labour crises includes strategic workforce planning,  the creation of cultures of lifelong learning, and investment into upskilling and reskilling by both organisations and individuals. But where should you focus your attention?

Skills to focus on

Based on our research and our day-to-day work with executives of all backgrounds, we recommend focusing your attention on developing or strengthening the following skills and capabilities in order to remain relevant and competitive in the future world of work.

Adapt to Overcome

In the most recent findings uncovered by Rialto Accelerated Leadership Index (RALI) released at the start of this year, we highlighted the need for agility in order to overcome many of the challenges presented by the pandemic. It is not just us who think this is an incredibly important capability for executives to have. Earlier this year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) conducted a global survey of learning and development professionals. Of the top ten skills these professionals cited as being the most important this year, ‘resilience and adaptability’ ranked first.

Even with the lockdowns (hopefully) behind us and though we have surpassed the height of the pandemic, we are not yet out of the woods. Leaders have spent the past several months planning their next moves and as the time comes to bring them into practice, they may find that the plans they came up with were not as effective as anticipated or were not the best move for the business. It is important to remain flexible and agile during this period of trial and error. Do not become discouraged when a plan does not pan out, and quickly change course instead. That way, you can continue to help drive the business forward via the best possible course. That might require changing working models, or adopting new tools.

Digital and Technological Capabilities

According to the previously cited PwC survey, 40% of workers successfully improved their digital skills during the pandemic while an amazing 80% report feeling confident that they can adapt to new technologies entering their workplace. Given the way that our relationship with technology changed this past year and the speed at which many organisations have accelerated their transformation plans, it is understandable why tech skills are some of the most important to have. New technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA), Internet of Things (IoT), and more are reshaping how we perform tasks and achieve our business objectives.

Not only is it crucial to develop the necessary skills to properly use these tools, but also to develop the right capabilities to work alongside them. Many of these technologies are specialist tools designed to perform specific tasks and will require human oversight and partnership to run effectively. But just as important is a change mindset. Having both the capability to use these tools and the open-mindedness to adopt them into your professional practice will be incredibly valuable in the future of work. Those who resist technological change stand to be the ones left behind by it. The best thing you can do now is embrace this change, work to understand what is to come, and fill any gaps in your own capabilities.

Embrace your own humanity

But as important as technological skills are, it is human capabilities that will be most valuable in the future. In a recent survey we conducted, ‘People Skills’ were ranked as the most in-demand skills in the future of work, earning 35% of the vote. In the WEF’s ranking, human skills such as emotional intelligence, communication, creativity, collaboration, and mindfulness made up the rest of the top 10. While these ‘soft skills’ might seem less important than some of harder more technical capabilities, these skills can make those tech capabilities more effective and valuable.

That is because in the tech-driven workplace, humans will need to fill the gaps that technology cannot satisfy. While technology may be really good at performing the tasks it is designed for, it has its limits. Machines currently cannot replicate skills such as empathy, strategic thinking, and creativity. These areas will be where human workers will be able to add the most value.

The Challenge for Leaders

For individuals, the task is to seek out learning opportunities and invest in their own skills. For leaders, the challenge is building diverse teams that offer capabilities spanning a diverse range of skillsets. You will always have your experts in specific areas, but those experts should also bring value in soft skills. Similarly, your excellent communicators or creative thinkers should also be able to operate and oversee the technological tools used for their job function. It’s all about creating a balance and ensuring strength in all areas throughout the organisation.

This can be done via the hiring process but can also be accomplished via your existing workforce. Consider investing in reskilling or upskilling initiatives to help your people develop the right capabilities and to ensure you have the necessary skills on your side. But at the same time, this investment should not just fall on your people. As a leader, it is essential that you continuously invest in your own skills as well. Lead by example and demonstrate the same skills and mindsets you would like to see reflected in your people. If you want your team to embrace new technology, then you need to champion it yourself. If you want to create a culture that values collaboration and communication, then you yourself need to work with other and communicate effectively.

As we move forward out of this challenging business period, the skills of the team will become one of the most valuable assets the organisation has available. If you are interested in developing your own skills or those of your team, get in touch with us about our leadership development and change, digital and business transformation programmes.