Constant change and unpredictability in the business world means that the only certainty for leaders currently is yet more uncertainty. It isn’t just services, products and organisations that are having to be reinvented but leadership skillsets, too. As well as analysis of the factors affecting organisations like multi generational workforces, digital transformation, constant disruption and the shift towards automated and remote working workforces, redefining leadership requires imagination and creative thought on the part of today’s leaders. To help equip leaders to face these future challenges, Rialto is continuing to research the future capabilities and skillsets that are important based on the experiences of Leaders across multiple organisations on current and predicted market trends. The research feeds into the Rialto Accelerated Leadership Index (RALI), which enables leaders to benchmark their capabilities and skillsets. Our latest findings have highlighted the following leadership requirements

Be a visionary strategist

Leaders must never lose sight of the importance of being able to devise a strategy and vision and effectively communicating it to the workforce so everyone is aligned behind it. In todays’ remote working setting, the language and frequency of communications used to achieve this is extremely important. Leaders must ensure that what they say and the tone of voice is both inclusive and engaging for every segment of the workforce. In an era of multi-generational workforces, this is all important. Much has been made of the importance of the authentic leader in recent years and this continues to gain traction. To believe in a strategy and vision, employees need to have trust in the leader putting it forward. Leaders must be who they claim to be and this means upholding the corporate values and behavioral standards both in person but now more than ever from afar. In the current operating environment, it is highly likely that the vision and strategy will be underpinned by transformational change and communicating this brings additional challenges. Employees can be fearful of change, especially if it feels enforced.

Employees want their leaders to be visionary and charismatic but there must also be substance and pragmatism behind both the strategy and the vision. In the complex and unpredictable operating conditions that exist, there is no room for leadership rhetoric and vision and actions really must speak louder than words.

Become a digital Navigator

Digital navigators don’t have to be technological whizzkids but do need to understand where the organisation fits into the digital revolution and how to make sense of new and emerging technologies to ensure they hold credibility and can stay a step ahead of the competition. They will have closely observed what has happened in the era of digital transformation to date and gleaned what works and what doesn’t. They will have an enthusiasm for technology but are not blindsided by it. Digital navigators do not have all the answers and understand the importance of keeping an open mind because when new technology emerges, it isn’t always apparent how it can be best deployed. Digital navigators are also important because they can help embed a digital mindset into the leadership team. Some boards have failed to connect with digital transformation programs and absolved responsibility for them. In the current climate, that simply isn’t an option.

Delivering the ‘X’ factor

The past 12 months has continued to see heightened importance placed on both customer (CX) and employee experience (EX) and the two are increasingly seen as intrinsically linked.

What is really building momentum in this area though is the recognition that delivering a great employee experience is critical to business success. Ensure that your people want to work and love doing their jobs and it will translate into a great customer experience.  With the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s time now to reset the employee experience to create a more meaningful and lasting emotional connection between the employee and employer.  Despite this being a technological age, with increasing levels of automation within many organisations, people will continue to be the real differentiator and their actions will have a direct impact on the bottom line. An employer which understands the correlation between an exceptional employee experience and the customer’s experience of the organisation, its products and its service will be the winner.

Develop the three A’s of agility, adaptability and acumen

Future leaders must be able to think on their feet to react and adapt to the constantly changing business conditions that have become the norm. It’s no surprise then that agility and adaptability feature on nearly every leadership hot skills list. Agility enables a leader to adapt, flex and respond to new business opportunities or, conversely, change course if they see danger/problems ahead. The speed of technological change has shortened product lifecycles and business lead times, increasing pressures for any organisation that is trying to compete in the digital economy. Agile and adaptable leaders create agile and adaptable organisations that can respond and reinvent themselves to keep pace with the competition. There is another ‘A’ that needs to be added to the list though: acumen. Needless to say that leaders need business acumen but not only is it required for boardroom decisions and business deals but to manage the increasingly complex set of multi stakeholder relationships that organisations find themselves forging.

Adopt a game-changing mindset

It’s imperative for organisations to constantly innovate and reinvent themselves to stay ahead of the curve. Leaders must be able to spot the talent in their organisation who can change the game and in some cases the course and fortunes of the company.  While not everyone has the personality traits of true game-changers, everyone can be encouraged to adopt a game-changing mindset and it is paramount that leaders recognise its importance. Game-changers can disrupt entire industries and create news ones. In a world impacted by both the global pandemics and economic downturns, they are even more vital to have in an organisation.  With the right people and blend of skills and characteristics to support them, their full potential can be harnessed with minimal downsides for the organisation or those around them. Business leaders must therefore make certain that senior colleagues and board members understand the role of the game-changer and their purpose as those who are resistant to change or risk averse may struggle to tolerate them. Indeed, game-changers can be risky individuals who enjoy living outside of comfort zones and breaking the rules. But at a time when many organisations are seeking daring new ways to set themselves apart from the crowd and win new customers as well as retain existing ones, game-changers hold the key. And it is only those leaders with an understanding of game-changing mindsets that will be able to translate ideas into workable new products, services or solutions for the organisation to elevate itself above the competition

Doubtless we will see the future leadership capabilities & skillsets continually added to as Rialto progresses through its 10-year project. Certainly, some of those skills highlighted today like agility and adaptability will continue to be highly significant for several years to come.    Equally, softer qualities which we haven’t highlighted today, for instance, a high level of collaboration and emotional intelligence will also be required so leaders can empathise with how the workforce is feeling as we embark on transformational change.

COVID-19 continues to impact the world of business in ways we never imagined and so too must our approach to leadership development.

Senior leaders have a twofold challenge: ensuring their own skillset is up-to-date and relevant and ensuring that the organisation’s future leaders are equipped with the skills and capabilities that will be required  to transform, grow and prosper in the future.

Rialto Consultancy has been reviewing the key trends emerging as a result of Covid-19 including the greater need for even more digital business change, the continuation of remote working, changes in customer mindset and behaviour, changes in employee expectations, including greater wellbeing focus  as well as specific industry issues. More than ever, our teams are advocating that people and commercial strategies must be aligned if companies are to stimulate innovation, increase efficiencies and agility  to respond to further and ongoing changes.

Nurturing and encouraging the best contributions and impact from all talent is a priority, including further investments in upskilling digital skills.

Identifying and developing a deep pool of next-generation leaders is essential in order to compete. Successfully delivering effective leadership development programmes, increasingly requires organisations to scan market trends to see the bigger picture on  how future developments in the world of business and work will impact on their organisation and sector.

So as we move into the third quarter of 2020, how can you ensure leadership development has maximum impact? Rialto has identified key areas of focus.

 1. The upskilling/reskilling imperative

The pace and scale of change means leaders and their teams must be at the top of their game and ensure they have the knowledge and capabilities to manage it. But this will be the bare minimum requirement if UK firms are to tackle the biggest skills challenges they’ve ever faced.

Leaders must elevate their focus on the impact disruption and remote working is having on workforces and ensure the right learning programmes are in place. These must go beyond traditional development programmes. They must recognise the importance of brokering learning experiences as well as connecting employees to learning experiences across the organisation.  Technologies like AI and machine learning are continuing to displace, change and create new ways of working and jobs at all levels with a new premium being put on soft skills to ensure the human-digital workforce works to optimum effect.

Rialto will be partnering with business leaders over the coming months to help them maintain the right balance of emerging, existing and legacy skills to help drive transformation and respond to disruption. We believe it is important for organisations to develop these skills in-house as competition will remain fierce for critical talent segments. 

2. The art of managing change

The requirement for leaders to be agents of change and ensure their teams can effectively implement transformation programmes (operational, digital or otherwise), will continue to be a priority throughout 2020 and beyond.

Rialto has observed that many leaders are ill-equipped to deal with such change while others simply aren’t prepared for the shorter timeframes in which it must be effected. They also lack clarity on how to ensure organisational design supports the faster and more agile work practices that are required in the current climate. Employee experience is also a key factor in successful change management and this is still being overlooked.

In our experience, many of these problems stem from change management not being accurately reflected/represented in leadership development programmes. The need for change will be ongoing in the next decade so organisations must identify what skills and capabilities will be needed for future transformation programmes and find ways to impart them. 

3. Authentic leaders who create space and time for meaningful conversations

Employees have even higher expectations of their leaders and are keen to see accountability and transparency in both actions and behaviours. In short, they want authentic leaders who they can trust and who set the standards bar high for others to follow.

In the connected, always-on world in which we are bombarded with information and messages, it will be the leaders who are able to create time and space for meaningful and honest conversations about real issues that are impacting their team and the organisation. Rialto has also encountered more organisations building this type of approach into their leadership development programmes. They want to empower leaders to be able to have consequential conversations to those above and below them to help drive decision-making. 

4. Building resilience and agility across organisations

Many of the problems that leaders face today and in future cannot be solved with traditional approaches so they must be able to quickly adapt their thinking and actions.

Resilience, agility and adaptability have been a pre-requisite part of a leader’s make-up since the global recession more than 10 years ago. Current changes and development will continue to place a premium on these traits. Leaders must be able to challenge their own thinking as well as that of others. They need to be able to adapt to work in ecosystems as these will be a source of new thinking that could lead to solutions.

The future will not only be about leaders building their own resilience and agility though but ensuring it is embedded across their workforces. The ongoing transformation organisations face can take its toll and lead to employees hitting a point of diminishing performance which prevents them from delivering on goals.

Leaders must help teams to become more resilient  but also ensure the environment created is supportive to create and implement transformational strategies and initiatives.

As the world continues to change following the lockdown in Q2 2020, the global economy has seen a staged rebound. Most businesses have now reopened and output has slowly been picking up however there is still significant uncertainty about the medium-term outlook, as well as concerns of how the pandemic will permanently change the world we once knew.

With the furlough scheme having entered a more flexible phase in July and the self-employed income scheme ending in August, we expect to see a continued slimming down of businesses. See business trends in our latest Covid-19 snapshot

  • According to the latest jobs market report from employment website CV-Library, the number of job vacancies in the UK fell by 62.7% in Q2 2020
  • The Treasury’s Office for Budget Responsibility have predicted that about 15% of furloughed workers will lose their jobs when the scheme ends
  • The Labour Force Survey is showing only a small fall in employment, but shows 649,000 people who report working no hours and getting no pay

Restructuring and future proofing the workforce will be more essential than ever with individuals and organisations starting to use the opportunity to identify the skills and jobs that will transform workforces and businesses to be future ready. Rialto have found that those who are ahead are already identifying skills gaps and also assessing what and how they need to change in order to survive & grow. Entire workforces are having to demonstrate a totally new level of resilience with leaders expressing this as being one of the greatest leadership tests of their lives.

Where there was resistance amongst some organisations pre pandemic to bring digitisation to the forefront of operating, within a matter of days, this was seen to fall away for most and digitisation has become entwined in formal leadership and the day to day of life. As businesses continue to evolve many staff are unlikely to return to the office in 2020 (see our returning to work trends snapshot) with leaders facing the challenge of leading hybrid and remote workforces and enhancing collaboration, agility and productivity along with greater levels of wellbeing.

Developing a collaborative and systems style of leadership has been a key strand of leadership development programmes delivered by Rialto in recent years and is becoming more of a priority than ever. Equally, human leadership is essential to truly engage workforces behind initiatives and ideas. Future workplaces require enhanced collaborative decision making at all levels as well as cross-functionally through a whole systems approach. The role of leadership is to catalyse, enable and support widespread co-ordinated action, not only internally but also to manage external stakeholders in order to solve and deliver against the most difficult problems.

As we all know, no leader or organisation can afford to be an island in the current climate. It is more essential than ever that businesses develop the skills, capabilities and thinking to lead more democratically and collaboratively to deliver future results.

In the space of a few months COVID-19 has transformed our world and our futures.

Undoubtedly, we will have to live with COVID-19 for some time and continuously address the concerns of leaders and the workforce in an enhanced people focused manner in the future. The general consensus is that we will not get back to how we worked in the past and that the new normal is still evolving

A hybrid workforce, working from home and telecommunicating will be a default setting requiring a combination of a new leadership mindset and employee relationships to deliver future results, enhance innovation and secure sustainable performance.

Recent research indicates that the majority of employees (85%) are keen to continue to work from home for at least half the time. 1 in 3 employees are afraid of returning to work – and 75% want to see social distancing observed for at least 6 months – 21% think it should be for 12 months whilst 9% want permanent measures in place.

However, collaborating at a distance to manage a team or a project is creating its own unique set of challenges. Many organisations need a better way to more quickly and effectively align their people to make their best impact to changing customer, market and business demands.

Over the past three months, Rialto have continued to hold our leadership roundtables virtually to understand the top challenges that business leaders have been experiencing in this area which include:

  • Supporting team members to remain focused and energised particularly whilst grappling with a heightened state of anxiety and uncertainty
  • Developing more impactful collaborations and higher trust to enable individuals and teams to deliver innovative ways of working and greater value to internal and external stakeholders
  • Driving more entrepreneurial behaviours, bolder decision making and greater transformation

One of the ways of achieving this is to focus on creating diversity of impact. In this context, we describe  diversity as having an aligned team of people with the right skills in place to make sure everyone can make a contribution and deliver optimum impact as a team

In a virtual working environment, this relies more than ever on both leaders and individuals having a better understanding of not only team members’ individual skills and proclivities but also their impact and expertise.

Organisations also need to have greater clarity on what type of leadership and team contribution they require to deliver future focussed business impact be this operating as;

  • The transformational team
  • The innovative team
  • The entrepreneurial team
  • The business-as-usual team
  • The pragmatic team.

There is a need to review objectives and assess what skills are needed to achieve future goals and review the team, their dynamics and the impact they can collectively make. This could, for instance, mean identifying who are the game-changers, the strategists or the implementers and who and how they need to be supported by the other team members to bring about transformation. If individuals fully understand how and where they can make the greatest impact, a top team can realise their goals and objectives far more rapidly. Equally, honest and strong leadership is crucial to create more team cohesion’s and innovation in the face of the continued unknown.

Rialto are finding that harnessing the power of team collaboration and diversity of impact can be a key differentiator in business today.

One of the business world’s favourite cliches is that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. While recognition of the former’s importance has grown in recent years, no company can exist, much less compete, without a strategy.

Research clearly demonstrates though that many organisations struggle to successfully implement their strategy. A study carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) finds that only one in 10 organisations can deliver on all their strategic goals. Similarly, only eight per cent of business leaders quizzed by Rialto Consultancy agree that their previous collaborations achieved three key performance metrics: on-time, on-budget and on-benefit.

So what typically stands in the way of achieving them?

Reasons for failure

Rialto has unearthed several factors that lie at the root cause of failed business strategies. Our work has shown that when organisations develop strategies, they typically fail to gather the most exhaustive and complete intelligence to inform the strategy at the outset.

This means the process is flawed before it gets underway and mistakes and wrong assumptions inherent at the start are compounded the further the organisation progresses the strategy.

All too often businesses will focus on the outcome they want the strategy to achieve and work towards that. Discussion around this may have been confined to a small group of stakeholders who each have their own set opinions, objectives, motivations and even biases. As informed as these people may be in their respective areas, this approach is too limited to arrive at an appropriate strategy.

Our work has shown that when organisations develop strategies, they typically fail to gather the most exhaustive and complete intelligence to inform the strategy at the outset

Another mistake is to assume leaders and senior managers know what the customer wants. Our work and research found that there is often a disconnect between what senior leaders think and what end-users expect and want.

A disconnect or gap can also exist between the strategy itself and implementation. The reality is that organisations can have what sounds like a great strategy but there are a variety of obstacles that stand in the way of putting it in place such as a lack of alignment or agreement on the detail.

In other cases, strategies fail because they are not actually a strategy in the first place. Leaders may have taken decisions and arrived at a set of actions they believe is required to bring about an outcome. Closer inspection, however, reveals it is, indeed, just a set of choices, organisational priorities or goals rather than a well thought through strategy.

A process in itself

Precisely how a strategy is created is crucial to its subsequent implementation and success and devising it is a process in itself. And remember that success must also be defined at the start. For instance, if the strategy aims to deliver cost, productivity and customer benefits, it can only be judged successful if it does all three on-time and on-budget.

It is vital to gather all relevant information required to inform the strategy, such as anonymised customer data, market information, competitor intelligence and more. The information must be accurate, up-to-date and comprehensive and this will reduce the risk of errors, misconceptions, wrong assumptions creeping in and later being compounded.

Overall, organisations need to take a far more collaborative and outward-looking approach to strategy

As well as intelligence, it is also important to garner a broad set of opinions and views from both internal and external stakeholders. Overall, organisations need to take a far more collaborative and outward-looking approach to strategy. As well as fostering a spirit of collaboration they must also ensure diversity of thought. All opinions and views must be heard and taken into account – even the controversial ones that may initially delay decision-making and progress. But ultimately, if these are not dealt with early on, they may be a factor in derailing the strategy further down the line.

Having done everything possible to accurately inform the strategy and collaborate with all relevant parties, it is then time to move into what Rialto calls the “alignment cycle”. This is where the group of individuals charged with developing the strategy ensure they are aligned with it. It can be a challenging stage. Our work with clients has demonstrated that one individual will typically share 20 opinions on just one topic and reconciling a broad set of views can be difficult.

Work carried out with leadership teams by Rialto Consultancy has focused on surfacing non-alignment within the group so it can be reconciled. Much of this is done using our Augmented Intelligence Consulting (AI-C) methodology, which helps teams solve business issues and agree a course of action using decision-making models developed from Harvard academics Professor Thomas Schelling (Game Theory) and Professor Chris Argyris (Action Science) and SchellingPoint’s applied research into collaboration dynamics. It can be an invaluable tool to help the team progress through the alignment cycle.

As stated, a successful strategy depends on a wide range of factors and there is no doubt that investing time and effort at the development stage reduces the risk of failure.

The disruption that the coronavirus is bringing to the business world and global economy is only just beginning. Emergency lockdowns, travel bans, squeezed supply chains as well as falling markets are already starting to hamper operations.

This week, Laura Ashley went into administration after talks with lenders over a possible rescue were reportedly derailed because of the virus. A statement from the retailer in the press said the coronavirus had “an immediate and significant impact on trading, and ongoing developments indicate that this will be a sustained national situation”.

Many UK organisations can, as yet, only estimate the impact it might have on their workforces. Government and industry bodies are pledging support but leaders themselves must act immediately to protect their organisations.

While virtual working is not a panacea, there is no doubt that it is a powerful weapon in a company’s armoury to help minimise the effects of the virus on daily operations. As a result, remote working has leapt to the top of the corporate agenda and major organisations are working hard to put their strategies in place.

One of the popular models emerging is a form of rotation working where teams are split and take it in turns to come into the office. A report in the Telegraph explained how Goldman Sachs is making such an approach work. It has banned gatherings of more than 20 people and its 38,000-strong workforce worldwide will be split into ‘blue’ and ‘white’ teams.

The report outlines that in a memo seen by the newspaper, the bank will “operate across separate teams and locations, with the goal of reducing the density of people in our offices at any one time”. Staff will work as an assigned member of a blue or white team, alternating weekly between working from a main office or from home.

The virus will test the resilience and robustness of every organisation’s virtual working strategy and how effectively it will enable them to continue with their daily operations and practices. But the switch to virtual working will mean that many meetings, workshops and other face-to-face programmes will simply not be possible and leaders must also be mindful what the impact of this will be.

The biggest challenge will be ensuring that teams are able to collaborate to the same level as they would if they were working face-to-face and that they workforces remain engaged and aligned with the company’s goals and mission.

Our best chance is to use the tools and technologies at our disposal to try to work as close to “business as usual” as possible

Against this backdrop, clients are utilising Rialto Consultancy’s AI-C methodologies, which have been researched with Harvard Business School, to create viable and endorsed strategies and plans virtually, without the need for in person workshops or meetings.

More than 500 projects have been delivered successfully globally using the methodology and we believe it could become an invaluable resource to facilitate collaboration during the difficult period UK organisations are now entering.

Click here for key case studies

AI-C gives stakeholders a voice and optimises alignment to secure coordinated actions to deliver critical business outcomes, including, for example, short-term plans, corporate strategies, transformations, growth goals and more.

Among the benefits clients are finding is that AI-C delivers clear stakeholder endorsed priorities, action plans, rich score card with KPIs and a roadmap which to collaborate on from virtual locations.

Recent projects have included:

  • A US company, 51 people across the US and Canada, assembled a technology R&D alliance
  • 156 staff in seven countries, redesigned how major projects are conducted
  • 172 staff across 19 countries, assembling a three-year departmental strategy

None of us know how long we will find ourselves in this difficult period nor what ‘normal’ will look like when we come out the other side. In the meantime, our best chance is to use the tools and technologies at our disposal to try to work as close to “business as usual” as possible.

Please contact Rialto on 020 3043 8640 or rchiumento@rialtoconsultancy.com for more details.

Alternatively click here to make an enquiry.

 

Having the right culture in place is key to creating a well-aligned organisation able to execute its strategy and deliver on goals. Business leaders attending Rialto leadership event series have also revealed how important they believe culture is to ensure they can continue to meet customer requirements in what are complex and changing market conditions for many firms.

Today’s organisations are better equipped than ever to find out what customers want. Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and the plethora of social media and other channels take them far closer to their customers, enabling them to better understand their likes, preferences and requirements.

Using such insight and data analytics to inform strategies has become the norm in recent years. But it’s one thing devising customer strategies and quite another delivering them successfully. All the data in the world won’t help satisfy the customer’s expectations and demands if frontline or back office staff aren’t aligned with the strategy.

People have always been the differentiator when it comes to delivering customer strategies and in the era of automation, they are even more important. Much of the same technology may be used in modern call centres but the company running them will still be judged on the individual at the end of the phone. If they don’t exhibit the right behaviours, a company’s reputation could be at risk and customers lost.

Leaders need to take a hard look at what is happening inside their organisations and assess whether the culture is conducive to achieving corporate aims, and, if it isn’t, commit to changing it

When delivering a great customer experience, seen as the new battleground for retaining and winning new customers, the right culture can ensure employees demonstrate the appropriate behaviours and reflect the values and beliefs of the organisation in their daily actions.

A healthy corporate culture rather than a toxic one, also means employees will take pride in their performance and go the extra mile for customers.

While CX (referred to as the new brand by Forbes magazine) is important, organisations must also ensure they are still innovating so that they can deliver the future products and services that customers will demand. Culture is once again instrumental in helping to achieve this.

A culture in which employees feel free to experiment – and even fail – and one in which they know their ideas and voices will be listening will help innovation to flourish. And an inclusive culture will help to ensure that ideas and creativity come from all areas of the organisation.

Culture and values also feed into the external brand, which is extremely important to customers who generally have far less loyalty than previously. Customers expect companies to be interested in far more than shareholder value and they want to see them look after their people, suppliers and the environment. An ethical, altruistic corporate culture rather than an inward looking, profits-driven one will dictate the behaviours of leaders at all levels and, in turn, help to build an extremely positive external brand.

Going forward, the importance of the right corporate culture is only going to intensify. It has shifted from something viewed as rather nebulous to a tangible metric that has the power to positively impact the bottom line. If the right culture is embedded in an organisation’s DNA, it will be far easier to execute future strategies and achieve organisational objectives.

Leaders need to take a hard look at what is happening inside their organisations and assess whether the culture is conducive to achieving corporate aims, and, if it isn’t, commit to changing it.

 

The shift towards a more collaborative style of organisational leadership continues. The complexity that exists in the world of business today, alongside the sheer pace of change and technological advancement means that leaders know they can no longer go it alone. No single person has all the answers to progress their strategies and deliver growth.  The best leaders recognise the need to consult and work with others at all levels, listening and facilitating discussions to create a roadmap of action to deliver results.

Developing a collaborative style of leadership has been a key strand of leadership development programmes delivered by Rialto Consultancy in recent years and it will continue to be a priority. And we are always keen to point out that the collaboration must work at all levels with those above, below and sideways as well as cross-functionally through a whole systems approach.  Future collaborative leaders see their role as catalysing, enabling and supporting widespread action – rather than being in the spotlight themselves.

Our approach aligns with thinking and research in the wider world of business, which highlights how hierarchies are being displaced by collaborative, team-centric approaches, which pays off in terms of performance and growth.

According to a study carried out by Deloitte, more than half of organisations (53 per cent) see a significant improvement in performance after the transition to a team/network-based organisation. In our experience, the team and collaborative mindset still needs to permeate to the C-suite and senior leadership teams though and this represents a major challenge going forward for many leaders.

First off, developing a collaborative mindset will be expected by the Millennial generation many of whom are already in leadership positions. Research published by American Express found that a focus on teamwork and democratic leadership styles by Millennials suggests the C-suite of the future will promote a flatter structure in the organisations they lead.

Moreover, the report, Redefining the C-Suite: Business the Millennial Way, goes as far as saying that in less than 10 years the CEO role will no longer be relevant in its current format. Unsurprisingly, it quickly dismisses the 20th century command-and-control leaders/hero-CEO as likely to be counter-productive or unsuitable in the current business climate.

Rialto research has found that where leaders do collaborate, more than three-quarters of them only seek consensus with peers or senior stakeholders rather than collaborating more widely

It isn’t only about collaboration internally but collaborative styles and systems leadership thinking that are also required to interact with and manage external stakeholders and companies. The digital age has seen the emergence of the ecosystem, where organisations work with partners and sometimes competitors to achieve an objective.  For example, complex technologies such as artificial intelligence require considerable discussion in terms of how they will be implemented, and this relies on industry- and sector-wide collaboration.

Many leaders have grown up with a silo-based mindset when it comes to dealing with challenges that can be hard to break free from. Rialto has found that functional boundaries often get in the way of building more collaborative organisations. This is backed by 2019 research from Deloitte that revealed only 17 per cent of C-suite executives “regularly collaborate on long-term interdependent work”, down from 34 per cent in 2018 while 44 per cent of respondents reported their C-suite executives either operate totally independently or only occasionally partner on ad hoc initiatives. Rialto research has found that where leaders do collaborate, more than three-quarters of them only seek consensus with peers or senior stakeholders rather than collaborating more widely.

No leader or organisation can afford to be an island in the current business climate, and it is presumed that Millennial leaders of the future will have to turn to all levels of their organisation for ideas and support. Rialto is already working with companies and individual leaders to help them develop the skills, capabilities and thinking to work and lead more democratically and collaboratively and, in our view, it is becoming a business imperative.

To learn more about how these collaborative and experiential learning experiences can support you to be a better leader for the coming industry 4.0 era, contact a member of our team.

How do I imagine you reading this post?  Feet up on your desk with a mug of coffee and two clear hours to absorb and ponder every word?

Of course not.  You probably have at least three devices on the go right now.  You’re checking your email, calendar and texts in between my sentences.  You’re fighting pop ups, ads and colleagues’ interruptions whilst you get through my words.

There are a whole range of different priorities competing for your attention. My words must work harder than ever to rise above all the noise.

Old tools, new world

Today’s frenetic working environment means that effective communication has never been more challenging – or more important.  And yet, most of us haven’t changed the way that we communicate in the past ten years.

We tend to fall back on communication techniques learnt at school, university or early on in our careers – well before our current toxic environment of ‘information overload’ set in.

This means that most of the tools we have at our disposal simply aren’t relevant or effective anymore. They don’t take into account how our audiences consume and react to information in today’s busy business world.

Evolving attention spans

Most experts have debunked the theory that attention spans have shrivelled to goldfish level (just 8 seconds).  After all, most people are more than able to focus on things that they’re interested in (The New Yorker’s 10,000 word articles, for example, still attract a huge readership).  But, whilst attention spans may not have shrunk, they have changed considerably in recent times.

According to Prezi’s 2018 State Of Attention Report, nearly half of respondents said they’re more selective about the content they consume now compared to the previous year.  And it’s no surprise that they’re so choosy, given the avalanche of information that hurtles towards each one of us every day.

Because of our more discerning audience, we must now urgently adapt our communication style to better connect with our stakeholders and have more successful conversations.

The new rules of communication

We need brand new strategies to persuade, influence and inspire action if we want to succeed in our careers in today’s digital world.

We need to learn how to cut through information overload and communicate with impact.  That means we have to:

  • tailor our communication to a more discriminating audience
  • learn how to overcome groaning inboxes to get our message heard
  • communicate complex messages more clearly and effectively for all stakeholders
  • speak and write in a way that engages and stimulates action in an environment of competing priorities

If you’d like to learn more about ‘The new rules of communication for the hyper-busy 4IR workplace’, call us to speak to one of our communication experts Kim Arnold or book onto our complementary leadership lunch on Friday 6th March.  For more information and to book tickets for this interactive lunchtime leadership session, please click here.

The challenges faced by CEOs across the next year and coming decade will be many and varied. Entire industries and sectors are being disrupted by technology while political and societal changes are also coming into play. Any gathering of CEOs, however, is also likely to generate common discussion in areas such as the war for talent, innovation and reskilling. So what are the most pressing concerns for both CEOs and the C-suite?

Finding the right talent

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution gathers pace, new industries, sectors and roles will be created while others will be displaced and disrupted. Ensuring organisations have the right talent will be difficult but leaders must have robust strategies in place to deliver on this front. For in the age of automation and artificial intelligence, it will be people, not technology, that will be a key differentiator in areas like customer experience and innovation. While there is high demand for digital acumen soft skills must not be overlooked and will prove equally important.

Continual innovation

Securing the right talent will also help CEOs to crack one of the other big challenges they face: the ability to continually innovate. According to research and advisory services firm, Gartner, nearly 90 per cent of organisations have digital initiatives focused on improving current products and services while four-fifths have digital initiatives focused on creating new products and services.

The extent to which an organisation is successful at identifying new opportunities, determining which opportunities to pursue, and adjusting business processes to act on those opportunities, is described as their “innovation effectiveness”. Improving the innovative effectiveness of an organisation can increase annual revenue by as much as $8,800 per employee, Gartner claims.

Reskilling

Alongside recruitment and retention, CEOs face a huge challenge when it comes to reskilling and upskilling their existing employees. A report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) warns that 54 per cent of all employees will require significant reskilling and upskilling in the next three years. It is already something that weighs heavily on the minds of many CEOs with recent PwC research revealing that four-fifths of CEOs are extremely concerned about their workforce’s existing skills.

To meet the challenge, CEOs must work with C-suite directors from across their functions to identify as well as anticipate the skills that will be most required and ensure a culture of continuous learning is in place.

Building trust

The ongoing change that has taken place in the world of business in recent years and the era of digital transformation has proven unsettling for many workforces. Leaders need to ensure their people are aligned with the organisation and its strategies if they are to be successful. Which is why building trust will remain one of the biggest challenges for many CEOs. But they must work hard to achieve trustworthiness with honest and transparent behaviours and actions that make people want to follow them.

A force for good

Alongside these individual – though interlinked – challenges, leaders around the world also face a big picture test which involves rethinking role of business in society. This requires a different approach to leadership than in the past. Employees, customers and other stakeholders increasingly want businesses to embrace societal change. Fortune magazine reports that two-thirds of individuals in the US reckon a company’s “primary purpose” should be making the world better. And it isn’t just politicians that need to have climate action or infrastructure investment on their agendas but business leaders, too. This means leaders must be more philanthropic and altruistic and become involved in initiatives that position their personal and company brand as a force for good.

Win-win situation

This will have internal benefits too though and, ultimately, help leaders tackle all the above challenges. Top and diverse talent will want to work for the organisation and go the extra mile when it comes to performance and in areas such as innovation. It will also be easier to build trust in such a company. In short, it’s a win for business and society.

Rialto Consultancy wants to help CEOs and business leaders confront the challenges of the 21st Century as well as help them ensure they have the right pipeline of leadership talent for the future. Call us today on (0)20 3043 8640.