Break through your career plateau in 2020

The New Year, and in this case, the new decade is the perfect time to assess where you are in your career and this applies to those with a career plan as well as those without. For those with good salaries and benefits and who enjoy their role, it is easy to remain in a comfort zone. And why not? You’ve probably enjoyed several career highs and successes over the past year and, undoubtedly, it’s rewarding to be able to reflect on these. You’ve probably also acquired a great deal of experience and capabilities in this period.

But there is the narrowest of margins between being comfortable in your role and reaching a plateau, which can have serious consequences for a long-term career. For some, the next 12 months may continue with more career highs but for others a role may run out of challenge and no longer stimulate you, leading to dissatisfaction.

The longer the time spent in a position that has ceased to challenge, the more difficult it will be to make your next career move, especially in today’s accelerated business world. Skillsets are unlikely to be aligned with market demands and you risk being left behind by peers who have been far more proactive about progressing their careers over the past few years.

For individuals wishing to break out of their plateau and test the waters as far as their next career move is concerned, begin by carrying out a benchmarking exercise to assemble a clear picture of how your skills, knowledge and experience rate in the market. How relevant are they to both the present and future challenges faced by organisations? Benchmarking yourself against colleagues in similar positions is one of the most effective ways of doing this but can prove time-consuming.

Tools such as Linkedin and the Rialto Accelerated Leadership Index (RALI), which uses real-time data to profile and assess the alignment of a leader’s current capability and experience to future market needs and against those of their competitors, will make this part of the exercise more accessible.

Carrying out a 360-degree assessment of yourself and how you are perceived by others can also add significant value and is an important part of assessing your personal brand. Apply the same strategic thinking to yourself as you would a business. What are your unique selling points? How are you regarded in the market? Who are your chief competitors and what do they offer that you don’t? The increased focus on understanding your personal brand can help to identify where you figure in the market and ensure you stand out from those in similar roles as well as appear on the radar of target organisations.

Investing time into building your networks is another valuable exercise. At Christmas, we devote time to sending well-wishes and thank-you notes so use the same principle to determine who you want to reach out to in the New Year from a career perspective. Are there people with whom you would like to collaborate? Are there projects you would like to work on? Identify who they are and how you can action any project plans. And remember, you can also build valuable contacts and experience outside of the workplace. Maybe there is a project that will benefit members at your local cricket club that you could spearhead?

For anyone taking a more proactive approach to career management in the New Year, it is essential to factor in time for learning and acquiring new skills. Indeed, a lifelong or continuous learning mindset will be increasingly important across the next decade for those who want to remain relevant to the workforce no matter where you are in your career. Consider what learning opportunities might be appropriate. It doesn’t have to be formal career development but could involve something like reverse mentoring where new skills are acquired in areas such as social media or data analytics from more junior colleagues. Explore all learning options open to you.

Whether you are ending the year on a career high or are stagnating and frustrated but still feel there is one or more good career moves left in you, make a resolution to take a proactive approach to career management in 2020.

Leaving the comfort zone behind to do something different can have an energising effect on your career. And don’t forget that Rialto is on hand to act as a sounding board as well as provide executive coaching to help develop and polish your personal brand.

As 2019 draws to a close, Rialto thought it an ideal time to reflect on the end of a decade and look ahead to the next 10 years and what factors may play a role in shaping organisations and the world of business.

The workplace that exists at the end of this decade is already vastly different from the one that prevailed at the start. In 2009, the idea that humans might be sharing a workplace with robots was still viewed in the realms of science fiction while the Daily Telegraph newspaper announced it as the year the world went “app mad”. Twitter and Android became mainstream and GPS was being integrated into mobile phones. Oh, and Windows 7 arrived as the replacement to Microsoft’s Vista operating system.

In the decade that has followed, we have witnessed rapid maturing of a raft of technologies while social media continued its drive to become a fixture in our daily working and personal lives. Now, careering towards 2020 and the ensuing decade, all the talk is of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) or Industry 4.0 and how technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality and quantum computing will bring even more radical change.

According to the World Economic Forum, the latest revolution will be characterised by a range of new technologies that are fusing “the physical, digital and biological worlds” and impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, and “even challenging ideas about what it means to be human”.

This, of course, has major implications for the workplace, and the challenge for leaders will be to manage what will be a growing hybrid human-AI workforce.

Among the biggest of these is the reskilling and upskilling programmes that many organisations will need to put in place if they are to meet future challenges. AI, for instance, is simultaneously destroying and creating jobs. According to research from PwC, almost one third (30 per cent) of jobs in the UK are at risk of disappearing while McKinsey reckons 30 per cent of tasks in three-fifths of all jobs are at risk of being automated.

The challenge for leaders will be to manage what will be a growing hybrid human-AI workforce

It will be easy for leaders to be sidetracked or preoccupied by technology. While how it is implemented is crucial, the real differentiator will be how the human contingent of the workforce is managed. Leaders must focus on identifying the skillsets that will be needed by their people as well as be mindful of their duty of care to employees. Alongside training or re-training, they must allay any fears they have about jobs being lost to AI and automation and ensure employees are part of the discussion about their future role.

Employee engagement is crucial in any digital transformation exercise. So it will be essential to have the right culture in place and one that supports lifelong learning as the pace of technological change means the re-skilling challenge will be ongoing for many in the workforce for several years to come. And while digital skills are crucial, surveys and studies frequently point to a resurgence in importance of softer skills. This is especially true in areas like customer service where a human voice and interaction could mean the difference between retaining or losing customers in the age of automation.

Leaders must also ensure their own skillsets remain relevant. Rialto Consultancy has witnessed through its Rialto Accelerated Leadership Index (RALI), which benchmarks the in-demand leadership capabilities in real-time, a marked shift from hard to soft skills and the importance of characteristics such as agility, curiosity and collaboration.

The move away from command-and-control leadership is complete and skills such as social influence and the ability to consult and align different stakeholders behind a vision are what’s important now.

Leadership itself will continue to be in the spotlight as business progresses through the next decade. UK plc needs to ready itself for change in the Brexit transition period and beyond during which effective leadership will be key for employees, customers and other stakeholders. Leaders must be prepared to play their part in major global issues like climate action, the environment and sustainability. They must ensure future generations engage with their message and products and services and help to restore some of the trust that has been lost in business and major organisations.

The next decade will doubtless bring both opportunities and threats for leaders and their organisations and it will be impossible to anticipate all of them. But all the more reason to be proactive in preparing for those that can be predicted.

A recent Rialto leadership development programme highlighted the difference between Millennial Leaders, Generation X and Baby Boomers. With the focus of the programme on business growth, we found our Millennial leaders offered great ideas, stepped forward to challenge the status quo and wanted their voices to be heard. However, others in the group found their approach to be disruptive at times, with a difference in listening and communication style cited as the main reason.

 Millennials, of which the oldest are now in their mid-30s, are already occupying leadership positions. Future business success relies on the Millennial generation moving into senior management and key leadership positions over the next few years and steering their organisations to further success in an increasingly faster paced and AI-led world.

 There is no escaping that the very different influences they have been exposed to, together with the growth of social media has shaped their attitudes. And this has led to marked differences between the generations that have gone before.

 Moreover, they have grown up in a period of rapid technological development and accelerated transformation. In some cases, this has led to a restlessness and insecurity that in turn has made them eager to make an impact in far shorter timeframes than would normally be expected.

 So how can the current generation of senior leaders manage and motivate those who will become their successors and ensure they see a long-term future at the organisation?

 The Rialto leadership development approach encourages employers to be aware that it is extremely important for Millennials leaders to feel they are making a valuable contribution and developing ideas.

 Bear in mind they have grown up in a world where products and services are constantly reviewed or rated. Whether it is a book they’ve purchased, music they’ve downloaded, a restaurant they have visited or an employer they’ve worked for, they are used to giving their opinions on it.

Future business success relies on the Millennial generation moving into senior management and key leadership positions over the next few years and steering their organisations to further success

 It is therefore important to ensure they have a voice but obviously it needs to be balanced through collaboration with others in the workplace.

 Another Millennial characteristic is a desire to be provided with ample opportunities for training and development and research shows that they believe business is most responsible for reskilling and upskilling workers to meet evolving and future challenges.

In our experience it is vital to provide development opportunities in a variety of ways. As well as formal leadership development programmes, Millennials also respond well to on-the-job and project-based opportunities mixed with personal coaching and mentoring.

 Thanks to the large body of research that exists around the traits and characteristics of Millennials, Rialto has a large amount of insight into their motivations. We know, for instance, that they are also driven by the opportunity to contribute to society as a whole, not just an organisation. Hence, they are more likely to relish leadership positions that are linked to a higher purpose that goes beyond mere shareholder value. Goals could therefore be aligned with initiatives that are linked to corporate social responsibility and environmental issues, for instance.

 Millennials are no different in wanting to work for organisations with a healthy corporate culture but they may be less tolerant to toxic ones and organisations whose culture reinforces company values such as integrity, trust, honesty and transparency are likely to be the preferred longer term employers.

 Ensuring Millennial leaders are engaged does pose a challenge for organisations but by tapping into their mindset and delivering the right development programme, they will turn into extremely effective leaders for tomorrow. 

To find out more about our development programmes and how we can help, call Rialto on 0203 043 8640.

There is clear evidence that artificial intelligence (AI) is moving beyond experimentation to implementation in many cases but in which sectors is it impacting most?

To date, it appears to be the customer-facing industries such as finance and retail where it is making the most difference. According to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) European Vertical Markets survey 2018-2019, AI spending in Europe will reach $13.5bn by 2022 and it cites its use in areas such as virtual assistants, product recommendations and visual searches where it is becoming a game-changer by taking customer experience to the next level.

It reports that many European retailers like Sephora, Asos and Zara as well as banks including NatWest and HSBC are already experiencing the benefits of AI, which include increased store visits, higher revenues, reduced costs and more “pleasant and personalised” customer journeys.

Another area where AI is already providing major benefits is in the automation of industry processes. According to Andrea Minonne, senior analyst at IDC, industry-specific use cases related to the automation of processes are “becoming mainstream” and the focus is set to shift towards next-generation use of AI for personalisation or predictive purposes.

The analyst Gartner also highlights the areas of improved customer experience and task automation as key drivers of the use of AI and machine learning (ML) and forecasts the number of AI projects in place to double within the next year.

Thinking and discussion around AI must evolve to keep pace with technological developments

Gartner’s AI and ML Development Strategies study reveals that today the average number of AI projects in place within organisations is four but respondents said they expected to add six more within the next 12 months and another 15 within the next three years. Gartner reports that organisations expect to have an average of 35 AI or ML projects in place by 2022.

Forty per cent of organisations named customer experience as their top motivator to use AI and added that while chatbots and virtual assistants are used to serve external clients, most organisations (56 per cent) use AI to internally support decision-making and give recommendations to employees. Meanwhile, 20 per cent said automating tasks is the biggest driver of AI in their organisations and examples include invoicing and contract validation in finance or automated screening and robotic interviews in HR.

While this represents the take-up of AI today, the future is likely to see an everchanging landscape as its use starts to mature in other areas. For example, IDC cites healthcare as a “big bet” in the long term in Europe. It reckons that by 2022 healthcare will be the fastest growing industry for AI investments, outlining that European healthcare organisations have acknowledged the benefits of AI but will take their time in their full AI implementation journey.

Rialto is encouraging all leaders to keep a close eye on developments within their own sectors and even if they are largely untouched by AI today, this situation could rapidly change. It only takes one disrupter, for instance, to show an entire sector the game-changing impact AI could have.

There are many discussions to be had on this topic in the future, particularly around AI’s impact on jobs in different sectors which is leading some to feel anxious about their future role.

Rialto Consultancy director, Richard Chiumento, sits on the All-Parliamentary Party Group on Artificial Intelligence, which was set up with the aim of exploring the impact and implications of AI and leaders, and he looks forward to helping to advance the thinking and discussion in this crucial area, which must evolve to keep pace with the speed of the technological change.

Prime minister Boris Johnson has assembled his cabinet with a clear focus on how the UK will exit the European Union. While we aren’t privy to knowing all the strengths and weaknesses in the team, we assume they have been chosen because Johnson believes that collectively they are the group of people with the right mix of skills to make the most impact on the task at hand.

Although nothing is certain in the world of politics, in 12 months’ time the cabinet’s priorities are likely to be very different and the balance of capabilities within the team will need to be addressed. In that respect, Johnson’s challenge is no different from today’s business leaders: to build high-performing cohesive leadership teams that align with the organisation’s overarching mission but which are also able to respond to the changing needs of the business.

One of the ways of achieving this is to focus on creating diversity of impact. While diversity in the workforce is – and should – be about equity in terms of opportunity and having a broad range of views and experience, it is also about having the right people and skills in place to make sure everyone can make a contribution and deliver the optimum impact as a team.

This relies on leaders having a proper understanding of not only team members’ individual skills and proclivities but also their personalities and expertise.

The Rialto future-focused leadership programme provides leaders with the tools and insight to build more inclusive high-performing leadership teams that can make a collective impact and deliver lasting results. It may be that the needs of the business require a team to be focused on transformation but within a year this might switch to innovation or even a more business-as-usual approach.

We can help to identify what type of leadership team is needed while our assessment tools lead to individuals better understanding the contribution they can make. There are five core types of leadership teams we focus on:

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

We review objectives and assess what skills are needed to achieve them and look at the team, their dynamics and the impact they can collectively make. This could, for instance, mean identifying who the game-changers are 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.

Harnessing the power of diversity of impact can be a key differentiator in business today.

Secure the talent you need to succeed. Brought to you in collaboration with The Digital Transformation People 

Rialto are pleased to announce that in collaboration with The Digital Transformation People we are extending our  award winning board and HCM advisory service to introduce People Solutions for Digital Transformation – a specialist executive search and interim recruitment service for our customers embarking upon digital transformation.

Studies indicate that having the right talent for digital transformation is the single most important determinant of success. As others struggle to combat the threat of digital disruption those that are able to secure the right talent are managing to transform themselves to thrive in the new digital environment.

“Digitisation alone will not transform your business” says Richard Chiumento “Success is always about the people and for this reason we are partnering with industry leader The Digital Transformation People so that our clients can benefit from their specialist expertise and network of qualified candidates.”

‘Working with Rialto opens up a wonderful opportunity to introduce some of the very best talent for digital transformation to organisations who will appreciate the difference that their knowledge and expertise can make.” said Tim Ellis, Founder of The Digital Transformation People. “it’s all about the people and with Rialto’s in depth understanding of their customers and our reach and expertise in digital transformation, it’s a match that will give Rialto’s customers the best chance of securing the talent they need to succeed.”

Anyone who has been watching the BBC 1 series Years and Years will know that it’s very hard to predict the future.

The series spans 15 years but the social and political shifts that take place even between episodes is a reminder of how we can assume nothing in the unpredictable, complex and high-tech age in which we are living.

The seismic changes taking place in the world are well summed up by one of the leading characters, when he says: “I don’t know what to worry about first? And what’s it going to be like in 30-, 15-, 10- or even five years’ time?”. It’s a question that probably keeps many members of the C-suite awake, too. Presently, Brexit and the threat of no-deal, a bad deal or even a second referendum means business leaders are toying with the impact these various scenarios will have on short- and long-term growth. But even if Brexit didn’t exist – hard to imagine as it is – there are a raft of other known and unknown challenges (and opportunities) ahead and here is our take on them.

1 How and where to grow?

Identifying where growth will come from may become clearer for some companies when consensus has been reached over Brexit. It is the perennial challenge for CEOs. Professional services firm PwC noted in its 2018 annual CEO survey revealed “record-breaking optimism” but this year, chief executives told a different story. According to the survey findings, trade conflicts, political upset, and a projected slowdown in global economic growth have increased uncertainty and decreased confidence in revenue prospects. “CEOs also reported a noteworthy dip in confidence in their own organisations’ revenue prospects over the short (12-month) and medium (three-year) term,” said PwC.
Organisations that are investing in ecosystems and strategic partnerships today though are likely to increase opportunities for growth in the connected world. It is no longer about exploring new geographies but being alert to new sectors and even industries that are being spawned by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Collaborations and relationship-building done today will hopefully pay off in the medium- and long-term.

2 Top talent, top priority

Leaders must ensure that the recruitment and retention of talent remains a top priority because it will be people not technology that will be the differentiator in the digital age in areas such as customer experience and innovation, and which will be key to gaining and maintaining competitive edge.
There is little doubt that talent management will take on a whole new set of challenges in the years ahead. Predicting the skillsets required in five years’ time is difficult and clearly data-related skills will still be in demand. But analytics tools are already moving into their next phase and becoming increasingly embedded with other enterprise applications such as HR and sales.
Augmented analytics capabilities built into such systems, for instance, will start to automate some of the work done by data scientists, which will shift greater power to employees in functional roles. While there is an almost insatiable need for data science and analytical skills today as a separate discipline, in future organisations will need people in functional roles to become true masters of data.

3 The human/AI workforce

Of course, talent management won’t just be about managing human talent but AI and robotic workers too. The transition to a hybrid “human-AI” workforce will be the biggest strategic challenge facing UK business leaders over the next five years, warns research by Capital People Solutions. The findings predict humans will work in a fully digitised and technologically optimised environment, and increasingly work alongside robots and AI over the next 10 years.
This will demand significant cultural as well as operational change. And the organisations that excel in this area and get the best from both elements of the workforce will be the ones which have taken a holistic and ground-up approach to digitisation in general. Rather than just map old processes and ways of working on to new technologies, they’ve considered the implications from all sides. The human/AI workforce is a huge leap for everyone.

4 More digital disruption or less?

It is difficult to gauge the level of digital disruption that will be taking place in five years’ time. Will it have come to an end? Or will a raft of new technologies emerge that spawn more radical new business models? Leaders must continue their focus on re-evaluating and reinventing their products, service offerings and processes if they are to remain relevant and be in constant communication with their customers through the myriad of channels available.
But they must also ensure that disruptive business models work for employees and supply chains as well as business owners and customers. Take the ride-hailing market, it grew so fast that it left some traditional functions like HR trailing behind, which is now playing catch-up. In this next wave of disruption, leader must ensure that it is only their competitors that are the casualties.

5 Good governance must reign on high

Indeed, leaders must ensure that good governance is applied in all areas of the business not just those where it is audited and monitored. The focus on being an ethical, sustainable and authentic company will only heighten. In the 24/7, always on world where everyone is under scrutiny and countless mechanisms are in place to rate and review organisations, their products and their people, there really is nowhere to hide.
They can expect more rankings, polls and benchmarks but they must behave well not because they want to be seen to but because it is the right thing to do.

So what is keeping the C-suite awake at night? Apparently quite a lot and there perhaps has never been a more complex, unpredictable and challenging time to be a leader. For leadership development courses, contact us.

Online professional networks have made all of us feel like accomplished networkers. While undoubtedly invaluable for making new connections and staying in touch with existing ones, the rather superficial, one-click networking that takes place on these networks isn’t sufficient for the kind of high-level networking that enables leaders to make truly meaningful connections that can make a career- and life difference.

Indeed, because social media makes it very easy to expand online networks and boast large numbers of connections, it is easy to forget there is a great deal more science behind networking than at first glance.

When serial entrepreneur and best-selling author Michael Simmons interviewed one of the world’s leading social network scientists, Ron Burt, he shared an x-y graph which Simmons said “completely flipped” his understanding of career success and clearly showed him the power of the right kind of networking.

The science in this discussion was based around open and closed networks. In short, the further to the right you go on the graph towards a closed network the more you “repeatedly hear the same ideas”, reckons Simmons, which reaffirms what you already believe. And he writes: “The further left you go toward an open network, the more you’re exposed to new ideas. People to the left are significantly more successful than those to the right.”

Indeed, Simmons conclusion is that being part of an open network instead of a closed one is the “number one predictor” of career success. What’s more, he reckons, that the study on which the findings were based, showed that half of the predicted difference in career success (promotion, compensation and industry recognition) is due to “this one variable”.

Rialto Consultancy has many years involvement in helping individuals access high-quality networks that can expose them to new thinking as well as new career and business opportunities. High-level networking also forms a key component of our executive transition, career coaching, and personal branding programmes.

There are times when even the most experienced of leaders will find it difficult to leave their comfort zone and embrace new thinking, ideas as well as potential contacts. But in reality, the vast majority of people spend their career lifecycle in closed networks. This shouldn’t be a surprise since many people remain in the same sectors and industries.

We also tend to mimic the same activity in our personal lives. Consider, for example, when you last did something socially outside of your immediate group of friends? Indeed, many of our peer groups date back to school, college and university days.

This can be extremely limiting though and doesn’t align with the demands of modern leadership. Leaders must be agile, adaptable, curious and constantly keen to learn. These behaviours can be stimulated and enhanced by exposure to, more open and vibrant networks. 

Rialto can help to identify and build new networks and broaden existing ones. Because networking is incorporated into our career transition, coaching and branding programmes, we can also advise on a personal networking strategy, tailored to an individual and their career aspirations.

We have online networks such as Linkedin to thank for raising the profile of networking and making it accessible to everyone. They are extremely valuable tools for making and communicating with global connections and building an online presence and following. And there is no doubt that they are an important accompaniment to face-to-face networking. But by applying some science and seeking expert help, individuals can turbocharge their networking and take it to another level.