By Marcus Timson

There is no shortage of uncertainty these days. In fact, I am pretty certain that uncertainty is the defining theme of our times. The world may be finally navigating its way out of the COVID crisis but many challenges remain, and while there is plenty to be positive about, as the unexpected war in Ukraine informs us, there are a multitude of things that affect the day to day that are far beyond our control. And this is in addition to the rising cost of living, skills shortages, environmental legislation, supply chain bottlenecks to name but a few.

Back in January 2021, when a frenzied mob of rioters were forcing their way into the Capitol building in Washington, I wrote an article that claimed that leadership is in crisis. I think it still is to a large extent particularly in the world of politics in the UK and elsewhere. In Russia, we can see clearly the toxic effect of power, and how one person’s visceral need to exert it to retain control has had a shocking impact. In Ukraine, we see the opposite. How one defiant leader's ability to stand up to a bully, to mobilise a population to resist, then galvanize allies to provide support, demonstrates how differing leadership styles emanate from opposing sources of motivation. It is easy to ask whether Putin’s actions are truly in Russia’s best interests? On the other hand, one does not have to ask the same question of Zelensky!

But how does this play out on a more micro level, in our businesses?

The temptation, when we feel out of control, is to try to exert as much control as possible. This can have a bad effect. It can mostly add negative stress into the business, and more than that it has a stifling impact on creativity.

At the start of a crisis, focusing on what can be controlled means you will optimise efficiency and reduce cost. That is helpful, and while it should retain a good level of importance, it should not turn into a pervasive culture. Because uncertainty requires creativity and adaptability above all else.

There are times when ‘command and control’ is needed. In a recent FutureThink podcast, we interviewed Peter Docker, author of ‘Leading from the Jumpseat’. Peter made the point that in aviation there are well drilled responses to crises designed to avert disaster, that are ‘command and control ‘responses. When an aircraft is in peril, there is no time or need to be creative! This could in fact be fatal. But in business, a leader that exerts too much command and control limits an organisation's ability to adapt significantly. Not only that, it demotivates people.

Consistency & Confidence

People look to leaders for a clear sense of direction. For a level of certainty. While no leader can possibly possess all of the answers, a calm ability to provide direction, and a path forward will give people a sense of safety, and if people feel safe, they perform better. People also want a level of predictability, this gives the necessary confidence for people to step out of their comfort zone to solve problems and create new value.

Great Leaders Serve their Teams, not the other way around

Leadership, in my view, should be less ‘us and them’ and more ‘us’. The effective leader, according to Simon Sinek, should eat last. In his book ‘Leaders Eat Last’ he makes the point that within Elite military units, the leader will always eat last. The leader serves the team, not the other way around. Sure, there is a chain of command, otherwise chaos would reign, but the team always knows leadership has got their back. And as a result, the team would literally walk through walls.

The worst kind of leader is only really in it for themselves. There are plenty of these, and frustratingly they do well as their narcissistic tendencies mean they are often the most confident, the most dominant and the most adept at using people to get what they want. While this leadership style is still sadly prevalent, there is a growing understanding that with books such as ‘From Good to Great’ by Jim Collins and his huge body of evidence showing that top down leadership is a low performance method which is no longer fit for purpose. The best leaders are actually pretty humble people, they value the organisation over themselves, they are prepared to have people around them who are more talented than they are, and as a result they have high performance teams! The COVID pandemic has likely accelerated change in leadership models, along with the toxicity of leadership styles and cultures that prioritise ‘me over we.’

Inclusion, Compassion & Emotional Intelligence

Mental health, and motivation has rightly risen up the agenda and is a topic which we now consider both important and OK to talk about, not least as the pandemic has led to an epidemic of mental health across the western world. FuturePrint Premier partner, Tharstern deployed a campaign prior and throughout the pandemic to enhance employee engagement and emotional wellbeing among their team and we asked MD Keith McMurtrie of Tharstern to explain more about this and the results it has led to.

Keith, how important are people to Tharstern? Because obviously you are a technology business, that technology doesn't exist without people, and what is the Bionic Business?

“A few years ago, we put together a five-year strategy. And when the leadership team were all sitting around, we asked ourselves what is the most important part of our business? We all independently came up with the answer of people. And this spawned an entire strategy around people and employee engagement within our organisation. We introduced more social activities, and we created something called a ‘fast ethos’ where we introduced a language so that people could communicate using phrases like, ‘disagree’ and ‘commit’ - we did this to make debate easier and less conflictual. We said, look, we want you to disagree and commit, but the recipient would know what that meant and it was okay. So you might not agree with me, but I want you to commit to my idea and work with me. Make high-velocity decisions, embrace change, and we even had never stopped learning about your craft and have fun and treat every customer as special.

This has really paid off and has blossomed. We also introduced some software to periodically send a survey out like every day, just a single question to the staff to gauge their level of contentment. We ask them about certain facets of the business and IT, and this highlights areas that we needed to work on. So during the pandemic we worked more on mental well being. We joined various organisations, we introduced mental health champions, we introduced physical activities for well being, and all of these scores relating to happiness and motivation started to go up. What was super interesting was all the different activities and everything we did, we would post them online onto all of the different social media channels. And what we found when we did that was the number of unsolicited CV’s from all over the world. In one month, we had over 100 CV’s sent to us, because this communicated well and people felt that this is the type of company they want to work for, it really hit home. We brought in a lot of change in and increased our communication, made this more inclusive, we made sure we inform them about the strategy going forward, and we've now got a four and a half-day working week. All of this has created a really positive vibe.”

Keith, tell us more about the Bionic Business?

“The problem with technology is that we mentioned earlier about people tend to implement it and forget about it. Well, I think you need to implement technology, and you need to treat technology as it is a person in the same way. It needs to have a champion, a leader, who is making sure that it is performing because it probably costs you a lot of money. And if you'd hired an individual costing you a lot of money, you've made sure that they were measured and they were working and performing effectively. But often with technology, it's bought and put in and people are not consulted properly and then people complain about it. There is a really interesting TED talk on exactly that subject by a lady called Nadia Youssef, who works for BCG, Boston Consulting Group. And that's exactly what she talks about,, you've got to review your technology, give it an owner, find out where it fits within the culture of the organisation. Because getting your people right is one part, getting your technology right is another part. But making sure they work together is all about the third part, which I say in the process and this is where your performance becomes ‘Bionic’ in our view. And you've got to do that by constantly reviewing. You need to make sure that the people that you have in your team play a role in defining it.”

Tharstern, in my view, demonstrate highly effective leadership and a commitment to people and culture. They have a clear understanding of why, and this has also led to a powerful and compelling ROI!!!

Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast

As Peter Drucker stated, ‘Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast’. A great culture will outperform a control culture. A trust based culture can provide the right environment and safety for people in order to thrive. The ‘Why’ and the Purpose have been written about so much I won’t be adding much here. But as Viktor Frankl wrote in his eponymous ‘Man's Search for Meaning’ that people can tolerate the harshest of conditions if they have clarity on why they are doing it. If they do not, then they will simply not survive.

A culture that is supportive, purposeful, caring, compassionate, tolerant of mistakes will provide the best culture for success. This must be laid out by the leadership team, adhered to, and then made a constant. Not a temporary thing, a real thing. The best possible results will ensue.

The world will continue to be uncertain and unpredictable, but your culture can stay constant, and if people have clarity on what this means and they too feel included and involved, this is all the certainty they need, and I think this is the essence of how to lead, and most certainly during a prolonged period of uncertainty.

To see Keith McMurtrie and Amanda Newman from Tharstern speak, and to delve further into trends, leadership and the future, you must attend the FuturePrint Leaders Summit which takes place in Geneva 29-30 June.