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STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN and SAN FRANCISCO, CA – BTS Group AB, a leading global strategy implementation firm, was recently named a Top 20 Assessment and Evaluation Company by Training Industry.

With decades of experience in the assessment and industrial/organizational psychology space, BTS’s assessment team leverages customized business simulations to create the best assessments possible. BTS’s offerings range from individual and group assessment to executive coaching, action planning, enhanced 360-degree feedback and more. BTS assessments are digitally-enabled, highly contextual experiences grounded in scientific research, providing psychological and psychometric rigor in delivery, process, and evaluation, and can be administered onsite or remotely, providing effective assessments from anywhere in the world. 2021 experiments to BTS assessments include gamified simulation with competency scoring, situational judgment tests embedded in gamified delivery, and Ipsative scoring in trait and mindset diagnostic.

Selection to the 2021 Training Industry Top 20™ Assessment and Evaluation Companies List was based on:

• Diversity of assessment capabilities.
• Quality of evaluation techniques.
• Industry visibility, innovation and impact.
• Strength of clients and geographical reach.
• Company size and growth potential.

“It is an honor to be named one of Training Industry’s Top 20 Assessments and Evaluation Companies,”

said David Bernal, Head of BTS Assessments.

“We are excited to continue developing new assessment technologies and advancing these capabilities in the future.”

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN and SAN FRANCISCO, CA — BTS Group AB (publ), a world-leading strategy implementation firm, was Certified™ by Great Place to Work® for the second year in a row.

This prestigious honor is based on validated employee feedback about their experiences working at BTS, which is gathered using Great Place to Work’s rigorous, data-driven For All methodology. This year, 93 percent of employees said BTS is a great place to work – 34 points higher than the average U.S. company. Great Place to Work® is the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience, and leadership behaviors proven to deliver market-leading revenue, employee retention, and increased innovation.

“It is an honor to be Certified™ by Great Place to Work® for the second year in a row,” says Melissa Friedman, Head of People Experience, North America at BTS. “Amidst multiple challenging years, the BTS employee experience has always been a top priority and I think this is represented by our scores. We are proud that employees have reported a consistently positive experience.”

“Great Place to Work Certification™ isn’t something that comes easily – it takes ongoing dedication to the employee experience,” said Sarah Lewis-Kulin, Vice President of Global Recognition at Great Place to Work. “It’s the only official recognition determined by employees’ real-time reports of their company culture. Earning this designation means that BTS is one of the best companies to work for in the country.”

Chances are if you’re like any of the leaders I’ve worked with over the years, you may have a bit of each of these common communication styles show up in you from time to time when it comes to how you interact with the C-suite. Here’s what I’ve learned. These styles are incredibly easy to see in others and less so in ourselves, and they can interfere with leaders being as good as we can be in front some of our most important audiences. I’ve experienced them all and so have my clients, and the good news is that once you see it in yourself, you can address it.Here’s a look at three common styles:

‍1. The Overcompensator

‍The Overcompensator mantra is this: I want you to know how much we’ve been working on.You know you’re with an Overcompensator when: In every meeting or presentation, they seem to have an endless amount of activity to report on, with slide after slide that lists initiatives, projects, or updates.The subtext is this: We have been very busy, we have been putting in tremendous effort, we have been doing lots of things, we are taking [insert important issue in here] very seriously. This tends to show up in board meetings and quarterly business reviews. Overcompensators may be some of your busiest, hardest-working leaders who also overemphasize activity instead of demonstrating results.If you lead a team of Overcompensators, you might say, “Let’s stop talking about what we are working on and start talking about where we are producing results instead.”

‍2. The Expert

‍The Expert’s mantra is this: If I share enough information with you, you’ll see why I’m right.You know you’re with an Expert when: In every meeting or presentation, they present far more information than you want or need.You’ll get plenty of details and data, but it may not necessarily help you make a decision or understand the bigger picture, with lots of ‘what’ but not enough ‘so what.’ Experts can be accused of too much talking (particularly when answering questions), being in the weeds, boring the audience, or overpreparing (after all, you never know when you might get asked a tough question).What Experts can work on: A ‘less is more’ mindset driven by better judgment and discernment, so they include the right information (not all the information) in their messages.

‍3. The Assumer

‍The Assumer’s mantra is this: I already understand what you want and need, so let’s move to next steps.You know you’re with an Assumer when: You feel rushed or sold.As the name suggests, Assumers tend to make assumptions about their audiences. It’s why they will leave a meeting and think there is agreement to a next step only to be met with silence or inaction. The problem for Assumers is that nobody else necessarily thinks there is a problem to the degree to which they do, nor do they have the commitment yet to solve for it. Assumers can be accused of lacking curiosity, not asking enough questions, or believing the audience has bought in prematurely before that is actually the case.What Assumers can work on: Proving to themselves and others that their audiences care as much about solving for an issue and addressing a challenge as they do before moving to action.If you see these styles show up in your team, share this article with them and use it as a jumping off point about what may be interfering with their impact and how to show up differently with high stakes audiences.In a future post, we’ll look at a few more common styles – the Unknown, the Defender, the Needy.

To be successful in today’s environment, it’s critical for organizations to go beyond the six major data technologies – Business Intelligence, Data Analytics, Data Science, Data Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and Big Data – and adopt a Data Culture. Many leaders wonder – what even is a data culture? Why does it matter for my organization?

An insatiable thirst for data

The demand for the technological subsector based on information, along with its storage and processing, is only growing with increasing speed. Searches for terms related to data on Google and other search engines have multiplied by more than 9 times in the last decade. Furthermore, the demand for purely technological job positions, mainly associated with the creation or expansion of “analytics” departments, is only the tip of the iceberg for what the world of data is capable of offering.

This growth has occurred for a reason. In today’s world, a company’s turning point for accelerating growth, if you’re focused on the technological side, is when the entire workforce has adopted a true data culture – they understand both how to leverage data and why it is important.

Raising awareness around Data Culture

This cultural shift, when the entire workforce adopts a data culture, is where the true potential of data lies. Digital services and e-commerce companies monitor all variables related to their business, which allows them, among other things, to anticipate changes, increase adaptability, and improve prediction. More traditional companies, even if highly digitized, generally waste too much of the data they generate. This is often due to a lack of practical knowledge or references of what they can do with it.

Entire organizations don’t need to understand Machine Learning algorithms or how to configure data services in the Cloud to be competitive, but it is important for employees to understand the basics of the world of data. This allows them to consider the possibilities it offers, and to obtain the knowledge that allows them to take advantage of the millions of pieces of data that a company uses daily.

Data-Driven Companies

This type of company – one where most employees understand the world of data and leverage the data to make decisions – is just another way to describe what has been commonly called a data-driven company, or a company that leverages data-driven decision-making. Google, Amazon, Netflix, and King, the creator of the infamous Candy Crush, are all good examples of companies who use data-driven decision-making practices.

What do these practices consist of? The list is long, ranging from the most classic statistics to prediction algorithms with neural networks through text mining. Some examples of data-driven decision-making are:

• Using A/B Testing methodologies in departments such as sales or marketing to add value to the services offered and improve efficiency.
• Dynamically readjusting the online sales catalog based on the time and day of the week to maximize the visibility of certain brands’ most popular products.
• Automatically classifying communication with customers into categories (for example, sales, technical service, sales, etc.) to speed up the flow of information in the appropriate department.
• Analyzing workers’ productivity and performance based on factors such as time or workload to adjust their schedule or distribution of functions in order to increase not only their performance, but also their comfort.

Implementing a Data Culture in your organizations is critical for future success. This type of culture allows everyone in the organization to understand the potential of data and how to leverage it in decision-making. This empowers every employee, from the senior level to the front line, with the tools to be a change agent, driving the business to the future.

How do you more effectively drive learner engagement and concept retention in your digital learning courses? Sound is key. Why? Sound elicits emotional responses which make moments more memorable, and also shapes your unique sense of space, time, and reality. Adding a layer of sound would amplify presentations of any kind.There are three elements to consider when incorporating sound into digital learning courses: sound effects, voice talent, and transitions.

1. Engaging sound effectsPractitioners of mindfulness meditation focus on the present moment in order to reach a particular mental state. The present moment is always changing, of course, depending on the surrounding constellation of smells, sounds, sights, and feelings. Try to isolate the ambient sounds in the air, and you will come to appreciate both the limits of your focus and the omnipresence of sound. Note, too, how memories involving both sight and sound are more vivid than those derived from just one sensory channel.Sound effects can perform numerous functions: emphasize a particular point, underscore a key concept, balance serious content with humor, and more. Try, for instance, to imagine films such as Star Wars, Titanic, or The Godfather without their orchestral scores and soundtracks. Just as sound effects are critical to each story on an emotional level, they can make the digital learning experience more meaningful and memorable.Consider using ambient sounds that are colloquial to your learners, such as the "ding" signaling the arrival of a new text message, or the "whoosh" of sending an email. Using these sounds tactfully throughout your presentations will increase learner engagement by initiating states of excitement, focus, or reflection. However, be sparing in your use of such effects, as space is essential for the appreciation of sonic subtleties.
2. Appropriate voice talentYour choice of voice talent is critical – any recognizably-human voices invoked for digital-learning purposes must align with your organization’s cultural DNA and corporate identity.For the digital learning course in question, be sure to consider its subject matter, audience, and tone. After identifying each, decide whether a stodgy accent, homey lilt, or something else entirely would facilitate the most engaging learning experience. Once you have a few options, be sure to send samples to your client for feedback and approval. Reactions to voices, after all, are highly personal.
3. TransitionsTry now to pinpoint all the recurring noises around you, whether infrequent or ever-present. Depending on where you are, you may hear the low hum of a fridge, the persistent honk of a horn, or even the steady beating of your heart. These periodic sounds, absorbed subconsciously, signify the passage of time and transformation of your surroundings.Transition sounds, like the famous musical motifs in each aforementioned film, aid in memory retention by stimulating an emotion, foreshadowing an event, or accentuating a concept. In digital learning courses, transitions work best at the beginning and end of a module. That said, if placed tastefully throughout a course, transition sounds will add polish, build a brand, and encode content in a memorable way.

These are just a few of the ways that sound can be used in your digital learning courses as a design pillar, making training more engaging and enjoyable. Whether you meditate or passively absorb your surroundings, sound adds texture, depth, and meaning to the fabric of our lives. How will you use sound to build your next creation?

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN and SAN FRANCISCO, CA —BTS GROUP AB (publ), a world-leading strategy implementation firm, was recently named to Selling Power’s Top 20 Virtual Sales Training Companies 2021 list.

“We are honored to be recognized for our virtual training capabilities,” said Rene Groeneveld, Global Head of BTS’s Sales and Marketing Practice. “In 2020, we pivoted to deliver best-in-class solutions to our clients in a fully virtual environment. We continued this work in a hybrid-virtual environment in 2021. We are humbled by our clients’ continued partnership and inspired by the results they have achieved.”

Companies on the list submitted a comprehensive application, which included their offerings for both training and retention, delivery methods, and response to changing market conditions. The main criteria for evaluation included:

• Strategies to keep participants engaged
• Breadth of virtual sales training offerings
• Methodologies for participant retention
• Innovation of offerings and/or delivery in response to customer needs or changes in the marketplace
• Strength of client satisfaction and client feedback

Selling Power also considered feedback from more than 250 clients, which included:

“Usable, to-the-point training delivered effectively and supported well. What more could you want?”

“Close, professional, and absolutely satisfying collaboration — they know what they are doing and perform at the highest level.”

“In just three months since our conclusion, we’ve seen our pipeline grow by 14% in dollars, and, more importantly, by 34% in number of opportunities.”

Selling Power advises CROs, sales VPs, and sales enablement leaders to leverage this list to find the right sales training partner to deliver best-in-class virtual sales training.

C-suite succession is rising to the top of the agenda for many Boards and executive leadership teams, as the tenure for CEOs continues to grow shorter.

Even before the pandemic, the failure rate of new C-suite placements was increasing and costing companies millions of dollars. As we're moving into the latter half of 2021 and 2022, we already see an upward trend in C-level transitions.

The Boards and CEOS we work with know that they need to get these highly visibly changes right. The risks are higher than ever as we continue to navigate Covid and back to office/hybrid work decisions, while looking for leaders who can deliver growth and energize a diverse work force.

The good news is that despite these odds, there are important lessons to be learned about how to avoid missteps. We recently convened a conversation with senior HR and executive leaders to share those insights and advance our understanding of how to help Boards and C-suite leaders get it right. The following highlights should help you start the conversation in your own company.

Sharing an expert perspective

I was delighted to have the opportunity to moderate a panel discussion with Karen S. Carter, Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Inclusion Officer, Dow, and Board Director, Southwire and Lynn Dugle, Board Director, Avantus Federal, Micron, TE Connectivity and KBR, and former Board Director. These leaders shared a view on where C-Suite succession goes wrong, how to do it right, how to work with the board and the CEO to make CEO succession a company’s strength.

Key highlights

Several important themes and priorities emerged from the conversation:

• Change: Disruption will continue to impact markets, workforce planning, health policy and leadership. Change is happening at an increasingly rapid rate, and how we select and prepare C-suite leaders needs to change with it. What worked before won’t work anymore.
• Diversity: The need for diverse C-suites – and for the Boards that work with them – is an imperative that requires a comprehensive strategy to include building a deeper bench of diverse candidates and greater diversity at the board level.
• Partnership: The CHRO is on the front lines of leading succession strategy. A close partnership between the CEO and the CHRO is critical to the succession process, and in intervening to ensure diversity is consistently sought, encouraged, and supported starting with selection and following through to development, stretch assignments and support.
• Leadership behaviors: The cost of poor leadership is felt in the “Great Resignation” of 2021. Talented employees are voting with their feet and leaving even those companies that are performing well. Leader behavior is how culture is felt and should be front and center in the succession conversation.
• Transparency about the role: Not every successful executive is a willing candidate for promotion. C-suite roles are all-consuming and it’s important to have transparent conversations with those in the pipeline to make sure they really understand – and really want – the job to make sure the right people make it into the roles.

Recently, a client who had just been promoted to a CTO role began our advisory conversation saying:

“I want to fully step into my new c-suite role, and I’m concerned I’ll fall back into comfortable habits. This role is going to require me to think and lead differently and I want to hit the ground running. What do you recommend?”

This is a common concern of the senior executives we work with who are stepping into high-profile, high-stakes roles; perhaps this is where you find yourself right now. You’re thinking about how you’ll live up to the high expectations placed on you and how to keep the best of your current leadership style while stretching to embrace what’s possible for you at the next level. You’re concerned about how to show up each day in the way that’s expected and, quite frankly, the way you’ve always wanted.‍

These roles are a lifetime in the making and a lot is at stake.

And yet, so many comfortable habits can get in the way of stepping up, such as:

• Diving too far into the weeds,
• Being uncomfortable with having fewer details,
• Being unwilling or unable to trust your team,
• Letting your calendar be overrun by unnecessary meetings, and
• Focusing too much on your area of the organization at the expense of having an enterprise-wide view.

Now that you’re in a C-Suite role, your allegiance must be elevated to the C-Suite team. This can be hard to embrace because you feel connected to the teams you’ve developed and led for so many years. If you have a technical background, you probably love the details—and of course, the details are probably most comfortable for you.

Yet, embracing the uncomfortable is what you’re being called to do. If you don’t let go and embrace this discomfort, you won’t be the leader you need to be, and things will eventually go south.

As this client continued talking about her concerns and aspirations, it became clear that there were areas of her leadership focus and style that she needed to approach differently. To create a comprehensive list, we conducted a visioning exercise of her future state one year into the future. Through this process, she came up with a somewhat lengthy list of how she wants to be seen. Her list included themes we commonly see leaders moving into C-Suite roles looking to develop and enhance, such as:

• Spending dedicated time strategizing and creating/communicating a vision — Communicating a compelling vision is one of the biggest opportunities for C-suite leaders to create followership and inspire action. Our research shows that out of the 15 qualities of executive presence we measure, this one is often rated lowest.
• Enabling the leaders in the organization to make more decisions — Being intentional with how decisions will be made and clarifying how you expect your team to make and communicate decisions is vital in C-Suite roles to empower others to deliver on the vision. Read more about intentional decision making
• Helping leaders expand their thinking of what the future can look like — The first step is listening to understand what your leaders currently see as possible and then, through demonstrating humility and inclusiveness, engaging them in dialogue to expand the collective thinking. When done well, this takes time, yet has huge payoffs in terms of innovation and engagement in new future states. Read more about leading innovation here.
• Showing up as a creative leader who takes appropriate risk — Our research indicates that those exhibiting this trait are seen as confident and credible leaders. Modeling this behavior as a C-Suite leader creates alignment and energizes the team about what’s possible for the company, and for their roles.
• Building trust and respect with new C-Suite peers across the organization — It takes time to be viewed as a trusted peer. It requires resonating with colleagues from their perspective while sharing a well thought out Vision and demonstrating Practical Wisdom. It also requires demonstrating Composure when engaged in challenging conversation and being comfortable with constructive conflict.

Looking at her list, this new CTO commented that one of the most highly regarded leaders at her organization, who is still remembered 10 years after his retirement, had many of these qualities. And, she reflected that these themes had also been identified by her colleagues through her Bates Executive Presence assessment (ExPI^TM.) It became quite apparent to her that now is the time to embrace these new habits to truly embody an influential presence in her new role.‍

Mapping the gap‍

After identifying her future state, we applied a gap analysis to determine the distance between her current state and this envisioned future state. Once she knew how big the gaps were for each area of focus, she identified a list of actions to bridge each gap. Additionally, we took a look at her ExPI^TM to confirm her analysis of how big the gaps were and with which groups of colleagues.

Of course, this is only a starting point. She’ll need to review and modify this list periodically throughout the year. However, this first step was a big one, one this leader found inspiring and energizing—especially related to areas that seemed daunting at the beginning.

Tips to get started

This is a powerful process, whether you have an advisor or sounding board to walk you through it, or whether you do this on your own. It requires asking yourself the tough questions to see a potential future state; to challenge and expand your thinking about what’s needed and possible; to be honest about the gaps; and to determine how you’ll get there. And you’ll want to dedicate enough time to relax into the thought process to truly expand your point of view.

Set aside an hour, and:

• Grab a few pieces of paper and a pen, maybe one with your favorite color of ink
• Sit a comfortable chair, in a place where you won’t be disturbed—preferably not in your office and potentially outside to help you think more broadly
• Take a few deep breaths to relax your body and your nervous system
• Ask yourself these questions and jot down everything that comes to mind, without editing:

It is now one year from now and I’ve fully assumed my new role; my organization is crushing it and our business is thriving, what am I doing that’s working well? How am I leading differently than I was a year ago?

• Now look at each item on your list and give it a rating to indicate the gap between where you currently are and that new aspiration, using a 3-pt scale
• Jot down three+ ideas for each item on the list regarding how to close the gap
• Hold yourself accountable to the items on your list and review at least quarterly to check on your status

Leveraging feedback and insight from others to help to close the gap

To get even more granular about where to focus your efforts, invest in getting feedback and input from others on their perceptions of the gaps and also the strengths you have to leverage as a C-suite leader. A 360 assessment like the Bates ExPI^TM can shine a light on the areas to focus on first, where you can most readily move the needle to achieve the changes you are looking for. Often, our own perceptions of our behaviors are different from how others view us, making 360 feedback a critical arsenal in closing a leadership gap.

Senior executive roles give you an opportunity to shape the culture of the organization and to act as a role model for leaders throughout the enterprise. Devoting time and energy to this exercise will pay off handsomely when you find yourself realizing your vision a year in the future. And, you’ll be well on your way to leaving a lasting-legacy of outstanding leadership.

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN and SAN FRANCISCO, CA – BTS GROUP AB (publ), a world-leading strategy implementation firm, won 31 Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards in partnership with clients. These represent some of BTS’s best solutions delivered to a variety of clients, including:

• Bank of China
• Bayer
• Bowmans
• China Minsheng Bank
• Chevron Corporation
• Corning Incorporated
• Game
• HDFC Life
• Indra Sistemas
• Johnson Matthey
• Pitney Bowes
• Repsol
• Salesforce
• Schindler Group
• Thermo Fisher Scientific
• Tiger Brands
• Vale

“More than ever, it’s an honor to be recognized for our partnerships with clients,”

said Rick Cheatham, CMO at BTS.

“Especially after the challenges 2020 presented, we are privileged to continue delivering best-in-class solutions, whether virtually, in-person, or in a hybrid environment – always in collaboration with our clients.”

These awards include 21 gold, 6 silver, and 4 bronze, ranging from Best Inclusion and Diversity Strategy to Best Learning Program Supporting a Change Transformation Business Strategy.

“Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards in 2021 provide well-deserved recognition to organizations that went above and beyond to support their stakeholders during the COVID-19 pandemic,”

said Rachel Cooke, Brandon Hall Group COO and HCM Excellence Awards Program Leader.

Brandon Hall Group CEO Mike Cooke mentioned,

“We added several categories to specifically address critical needs, including how organizations addressed the new dynamics of work and embedded the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion in their HCM practices.”

Entries were evaluated by a panel of independent, senior industry experts, BHG analysts and executives, based on fit, design, functionality, innovation and measurable benefits. Find the list of winners here.

Are you in a leadership rut?

It’s a hard question to answer because of the nature of ruts. You often don’t realize you are in one until you’re out of it. This is particularly true for senior leaders, who have demanding schedules and packed calendars, which may further delay the realization of being in a rut: You’re just too busy to notice.

Why is this a problem? For leaders, the risks of being in a rut extend beyond being caught in a boring routine or stuck in an emotional funk. Left unchecked, company innovation and performance suffers, engagement and morale may drop, and good talent leaves when leaders and teams fall into ruts. Leadership ruts are serious business, but what makes them hard to see is that the signs often appear in small ways. How do you know if a rut is sneaking up on you? Here are a few indications.

1. No bright spots on the calendar. Recently, I asked a client, “What are you looking forward to on your calendar?” There was a long pause. He replied, “Not much.”  If this feels like you, it’s an important area to explore, because calendars aren’t just timetables, they mirror how we spend our days. So, take a few minutes to review your calendar on a regular basis. Too many days in a row without bright spots has an impact. Over time, it can hurt our motivation, engagement, creativity, and we may not even realize it is happening to us. Think about it this way. Are you really at your best at meetings you don’t look forward to? Eventually, too many of those impact a leader’s performance in all kinds of ways.
   
   How to address: Recognize that a great calendar won’t just happen by itself. It’s easy to get caught into a trap of thinking that we don’t have control over our calendars or buy into the old story that work shouldn’t be about fun. As good as you are, you’ll be even better if you have days to look forward to and a calendar that energizes you, so commit to making small improvements in your calendar (more bright spots and fewer meetings you dread) and you’ll yield instant results.
   ‍
2. Too much of the same. Being in the same role for a while isn’t necessarily a sign you’re in a leadership rut, so the caveat here is that “it depends.” If you’re in the type of company where most people advance or move into different roles every 18-24 months and you haven’t, it’s an area to explore. While you’re at it, consider other aspects of your work that haven’t changed in a while, whether it’s the people on your team, the work you’re engaged in, or the number of new situations or people you’ve encountered. This can lead to a blind spot buildup and dull our ability to stay fresh, embrace change, or expose ourselves to diverse people and experiences that enable us to think differently.
   
   How to address: Deliberately force yourself to mix it up, and this is particularly true if you’ve worked at the same company for most of your career. Raise your hand to do something new on a regular basis that is a stretch for you. Over the years, I’ve had clients do everything from speaking at a major client event, to living overseas, to attending a Tony Robbins seminar and walking over hot coals. This is also a time when leaders engage a coach or join groups of other like-minded leaders to get exposed to new ideas. Whatever you choose, put it on your calendar so you know it will happen. A few small tweaks can create major change and transformation.
   ‍
3. You’ve stopped dreaming big for yourself. Being in a leadership rut can often start from a place of good intentions. Perhaps you’ve been leading through a challenging time and you’ve been focused on getting through the issues at hand. The question to ask yourself is when are you not in a period like this?  If it’s always code red, all the time, it’s easy to stay in a permanent state of firefighting. This produces the worst kind of leadership rut, where we are never able to get beyond the urgent and tackle the important, and it can lead us to some dark nights of the soul, where we wake up, 10, 20 years later and regret not tending to our longer-term goals, hopes, and visions for our own lives.
   
   How to address: Make daydreaming as important and strategic an activity as any other high priority in your life and treat it seriously. Set aside time to sit in your favorite chair in a quiet corner of the house with your pen and notebook and answer some simple questions for yourself, like, “What do I dream about?” or “What do I want to do that I haven’t done yet?” Daydreaming is about unfiltered, unedited thinking, and it is where some of the best ideas for your life and work can happen. The first few times you do this, you may feel uninspired or cringe at the word ‘daydreaming.’ Forget about all of that and remind yourself it is what the most enlightened, productive leaders do to get even better.
   ‍

Falling into a rut can start off innocently, like always going to the same restaurant and ordering the same thing off the menu. In leadership, it’s risky, because it limits our ability to be everything we can be for our organizations, our teams, and ourselves. Toughest of all is the fact that other people may recognize we’re in a rut long before we do. The good news is that we can address this with a few simple changes, and when we do, leadership becomes vibrant, energizing, and returns to technicolor again.

Throughout the talent acquisition process, candidates form impressions and assumptions about companies and jobs, all before a company even has a chance to interact with them. In fact, from the time that candidates first hear about a company, to when they settle at their new desks, they are continuously learning about the company and its opportunity. What candidates learn and the impressions they form in the early stages of the talent acquisition lifecycle can have a meaningful impact on 1) whether they will accept a job offer if extended, 2) what they will say to others considering roles at the company, 3) whether they will purchase products and services from the company in the future, and 4) their level of commitment to the company, should they become employees.Segmenting the candidate-to-employee journey into six phases – attract, apply, screen, select, onboard, and perform – ensures alignment throughout the process, and sets up both candidates and employers for success.1. Attract: give prospective candidates a reason to take noticeDuring this phase, candidates learn about the company, business unit, and/or job. They do some research and become intrigued, and eventually decide to learn more.What are you doing to build your employment brand? Do prospective candidates regard your company as a great place to work? What do others say about the candidate experience at your company? If candidates research your company on a job site, what will they read? If you find yourself cringing as you read through these questions, take action. Specifically, consider the following:

• Review the careers page on your company's website and evaluate whether its messaging represents your values.
• Look into marketing, advertising, and sponsorships at college recruiting events, industry events, and in trade publications. These activities certainly come at a financial cost, but may be worthwhile if they improve access to qualified candidates.
• Analyze your screening and hiring processes from the candidate’s perspective, and consider soliciting their post-process feedback for more information.
• Evaluate the employee experience. If it's positive, find ways to share that message with candidates. If it's not as positive as you would like, first, fix it; and second, find ways to share the message with candidates after the repair.
• Ensure alignment between your company's sourcing activities and diversity goals.

2. Apply: explain what it takes to be successful on the jobDuring this phase, candidates learn even more about the job, determine whether it aligns with their capabilities and interests, and decide whether to apply, all along refining their impressions for your company.Of course, for this decision to be favorable, the candidate’s information must be valid. To that end, it’s important for companies to ask themselves – do the requirements listed in position descriptions provide accurate reflections of what it takes to succeed? Does the language used in position descriptions appeal to viable job candidates? How easy is it to navigate your company's careers page prior to submitting an application? Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Consider including a realistic job preview, such as a video, on your company's careers page to tell candidates a bit more about what life is like on the job. Remember, though, that “realistic” should be interpreted as “balanced” and the preview should include the positives and
• Review your company's position descriptions for neutral and inclusive wording. Researchers have found that certain words used on position descriptions can dissuade females, people of color, and people with disabilities from applying for jobs. Consider using software that can identify these potentially problematic words to review your position descriptions and ensure that they are as inclusive as possible.
• Review your company's careers page and online application to ensure that they are as straightforward and user-friendly as possible.
• Be careful not to lose sight of your current employees, as they may actually be better aligned with new openings than they are with current roles.

3. Screen: assess and teach candidatesThe screening process further solidifies the candidates’ impressions and assumptions about the company and jobs from the attract and apply phases. Any tool, test, assessment, role play, interview, minimum qualification, etc. that a company uses to make decisions about candidates' applications is a form of screening.What does your screening process teach candidates about the company and job? How engaging is it? Is the time commitment associated with your screening process commensurate with the job level? Do specific steps of the screening process result in adverse impact? How effective are your interviewers? To what extent is your screening process biased against certain groups of candidates?All of these questions speak to the critical nature of this phase. Once again, if you find yourself somewhat concerned by your answers to these questions, don't worry – you’re not alone, and you can take steps to improve:

• Conduct blind resume reviews. Believe it or not, people make (potentially irrelevant) assumptions about candidates based on things like how professional their email address is, what school they attended, where they worked previously, and beyond. Of course, some of these judgments may have relevance, but don't assume that. Instead, consider using software that can facilitate blind resume reviews by blocking out particular pieces of information on candidates' resumes.
• Harness candidates’ attention during the screening process by teaching them about the company and job through an assessment that is modeled after the job.
• Ensure that the capabilities assessed during the screening process align with the most critical capabilities required for successful job performance, and that are difficult to learn in a short amount of time. Spending time assessing inessential or easy-to-learn-later capabilities is inappropriate and possibly illegal.
• Relatedly, consider the method(s) you are using to assess critical capabilities, and ensure that they are appropriate. As a simple example, if you wanted to evaluate candidates' verbal communication skills, you would not ask them to write an essay.
• Leverage structured interview guides, ensuring that interviewers are properly trained on interviewing best practices.
• Regularly monitor assessment data for adverse impact so that no step of your process inadvertently disadvantages, or is biased against, some candidates over others.

Properly constructed and validated talent acquisition assessments help to minimize bias through objective data, so build them, validate them, use them, and trust them.4. Select: make informed decisionsNow that you have all these salient data-points about candidates, it’s time to put them to use. How does your company make hiring decisions about candidates? Is the process consistent? What guidance do hiring managers receive regarding the selection decision? What feedback, if any, is provided to candidates who are not hired?The answers to these questions can have a significant impact on whether your company finds itself in legal hot water (or how it fares if it does find itself in hot water). Consider the following best practices:

• Establish a decision process before it's time to make a hiring decision. If you wait until it’s time to make the decision, whatever process you establish will likely be influenced by your gut reaction to candidates. Your gut, generally speaking, should not make hiring decisions.
• Consider all sources of viable information when making decisions, looking for the preponderance of evidence. No one source of information is ever going to be perfect. By looking at all the relevant details, however, you can begin to paint a picture of what candidates would be like if hired.
• If you are going to provide feedback to rejected candidates, which is a growing trend even in the US, be sure to review your process and the nature of information with your legal team.
• Remember: relying on data rather than your gut will minimize bias and result in better hiring decisions.

5. Onboard – help employees acclimate to new rolesBy this point, your company has invested significant time and energy into hiring employees, and now it’s time for them to acclimate them to the company and job. This is when assumption meets reality. Do candidates’ expectations, set by the hiring process, align with reality? How structured is your onboarding process? Are all new employees, regardless of role, onboarded in the same way? Here are some best practices to help make onboarding as effective as possible:

• Use what was learned about employees during the talent acquisition process to tailor the onboarding journey to be efficient. Suppose that you are hiring sales representatives. You know from a talent acquisition assessment that a new employee is quite adept at handling rejection, but struggles in following up with prospects. It would be best to spend more onboarding time on the company's account-planning process and follow-through, rather than on strategies to overcome rejection. Of course, for this to happen, your company's talent acquisition assessments must be closely aligned to both the job and onboarding.
• Ensure that onboarding covers the right topics. Yes, having engaging content is critical in winning over your new employees, but having the right content and the right amount of content is also important.
• Verify that the onboarding experience reflects the vision, mission, and values of the company, while also showing the personality, soul, and DNA of its people.

6. Perform: enable employees to perform to their fullestOver time, because you have followed a best-practice approach to hiring and onboarding new employees, these new employees become not so new anymore. They perform their roles and make significant contributions to the organization.When you evaluate candidates on the right capabilities, assess them in a way that mirrors the job, trust the data collected during the hiring process, and analyze it in full, you minimize bias and can make the best hiring decisions possible. After that, onboard your new people in a way that aligns to both their individual needs and those of the role, providing the tools and support required to perform. If and only if you do all of these things will you achieve maximum impact. Shortcutting the process at any step is a service to no one, and a disservice to everyone involved.

The conversation around mobile learning has changed in recent years. Once viewed as merely a technical consideration (i.e., making sure training “works” on mobile devices), organizations now recognize mobile learning’s unique potential. The cadence of mobile learning is perfectly aligned with contemporary learners’ needs, and whether the method used is microlearning, spaced learning, learning journeys, continuous learning cultures, or personalized learning, organizations are delivering more value.However, in the new era of mobile learning, many organizations struggle with where to start. Best-in-class organizations use a shift to mobile as a way to rethink their learning strategy, rather than simply update a mode of delivery. Here are a few real-life examples.

1. OnboardingMobile learning proves particularly effective as an onboarding tool in deskless environments such as retail, in-field technical support, and safety. For example, one global coffee retailer, challenged with rapid scalability in emerging markets, uses mobile deployment to streamline competency formation for its newly hired baristas, ensuring a consistent brand experience.Additionally, mobile learning promotes a more journey-driven approach to onboarding, taking the pressure off single-event training. Employees now have a tool in their pocket that provides gradual reinforcement, helping them recall hundreds of espresso drink combinations in the moment.Adaptive retrieval practices also help support the onboarding journey in the initial phases of the baristas’ tenure. Push notifications remind baristas to continue working on their skills, while weekly challenges, mini-games, and leaderboards help sustain engagement. Flashcards (featuring information such as the right syrup ratios for customized drinks), are self-paced reference tools, which they can use in the moment of need.

2. UpskillingA Canadian financial services advisory organization required a radical approach to reach its unique target audience: entrepreneurs. Familiar with entrepreneurs’ resistance to standard training modalities, the organization created a mobile solution with a new learning cadence customized for its ever-distracted, highly-resistant learners, replacing large-format, single-event courseware with quick lessons (of no more than five minutes each), ongoing knowledge checks, personalized learning paths, and a strong resource library for ongoing performance support. The organization can now meet its entrepreneurial customers’ individual learning needs.
3. SalesMobile learning is proving to be a differentiator for delivering content to sales teams. For a major global automotive company, mobile learning enables its salespeople on the floor to keep up with sophisticated customers who walk into showrooms fluent in specific car models, pricing, and competitive offerings. Mobile learning helps the salespeople stay agile, providing product information updates and timely needs-based support through an adaptive learning engine.Even augmented reality plays a role in creating intuitive and quick access to content within a high-context environment: sales reps can point their phone to a new model on the showroom floor and immediately see information on specific aspects of the car. Off the floor, they can refresh their knowledge by completing retrieval practices, reviewing key selling scenarios through immersive interactive challenges, and consulting with mobile-friendly job aids prior to their next customer interaction. For this organization’s salespeople, mobile learning is indispensable when it comes to keeping up with customers.

Mobile learning is an effective training delivery platform in these examples and beyond. Successful organizations see the potential for mobile as a platform, rather than as a technology wrapper, and take a unique approach to its design. If you’re looking to make a bold statement and revolutionize training, leverage mobile learning as the catalyst.

So, you’ve got your eye on your next big technological investment. From afar, it appears to be the silver bullet that’s going to elevate your organization’s learning. What’s your plan for this new tool? In other words, what exactly will people gain, and how?When it comes to creating effective digital learning experiences, technology plays a key role — and so does content. Here are three ways to rethink content strategy and maximize the potential of your learning technology.

1. Organize your content architecture in terms of journeys, not eventsSingle event-based learning, though familiar to employees, opposes the brain’s preferred processes. Because true learning takes time, it’s critical to design learning journeys, not events. After all, in a self-paced, digital learning environment, the “classroom” can be anywhere, and open at any time.Think about how frequently you interact with your smartphone – for how many times per week, and for how long during each session. Digital consumption habits provide the optimal structure for a learning program, marked by brevity and continuity.Leverage technology to consider the context surrounding your content, its timeliness, and the moments when learning becomes performance. Rather than dumping information on a quarterly or yearly basis, transform your content strategy to support ongoing learning journeys, thereby promoting retention and a culture of learning.
2. Focus on the experience, not the functionalityWhen you’re working with technology, it’s easy to become caught up in its features. However, focusing on new functionalities can hinder your content design by leading, rather than enabling, your thinking.Start with a list of “dos” and “don’ts,” and grow from there. For example, make meaningful use of discussion board features, or social media links – don’t include any gamification trivialities not grounded in human motivation, and avoid inessential use of omnipresent leaderboard functions. Do develop a content guide detailing the technology’s different functionalities. Vet functionalities that you want to use against the experience you are trying to create, ensuring people use your platform to reach their goals.
3. Craft digital-first experiencesMost e-learning courses follow the same linear slide structure because they emerged during the era of e-learning “digitalization,” when converting legacy PowerPoint presentations into e-learning courses was all the rage. This approach, the hallmark of digital learning for decades, is hardly an exemplar educational experience. Thankfully, the digital landscape has changed tremendously since then, and the time is now to question and revise those old ways of learning.Reimagine your content in a digital landscape, resisting the temptation to port legacy materials from static learning events (e.g., PowerPoint presentations and reference binders), replicating the same learning experience. Yes, microlearning is the (controversial) mantra these days, but it means more than reducing legacy materials by half -- today’s learner is accustomed to digital experiences akin to those of consumer apps. Harness such technologies to achieve educational experiences you can’t offline, working with a now-requisite, digital-first mentality.

New learning technologies enable you to create modern digital experiences, but make sure your content strategy receives as much thought as your tool of choice. A well-designed content strategy makes all the difference in facilitating and sustaining a culture of digital learning for analog achievement.

In recent years, the coaching market has continued to make major advancements in how to scale coaching for the many. It is commonplace to see small-group coaching, learning circles, peer to peer coaching, bot coaching, self-paced coaching, asynchronized coaching, and even instant coaching, with a live person at your fingertips. It’s easy to believe that innovation in the science of mindset and behavior change knows no borders.

So, what’s the problem here? With such advancement, what could possibly jeopardize the quality and integrity of coaching today? It might be different than what you think. Yes, much comes down to the coach themselves, their experience, and how they are resourced to do their work; but with more qualified and well-equipped coaches out there than ever before, this is less of an issue. The problem lies in the pivot towards selecting your own coach, and the challenge is ensuring you make an unbiased choice.

‍Swipe left to reinforce your bias

‍Today, choosing your coach is as simple as swiping left. Aided by apps modelled after unregulated dating platforms, employees can select their coach by scrolling or swiping through a list of options. These dating apps appeal to some of humanity’s most rudimentary motivators, such as physical attraction and affinity bias (defined below). Instead of matching with the best fit, Coach selection processes are becoming riddled with the same biases towards race, gender, and sexual orientations that most organizations are working hard to eliminate.

There are two main biases emerging in this approach to coach selection:

• Affinity Bias: Affinity bias, also known as similarity bias, is the tendency for people to connect with others who share similar interests, experiences, and backgrounds.
• Confirmation Bias: Confirmation bias is the inclination to draw conclusions about a situation or person based on your personal desires, beliefs, and prejudices, rather than on unbiased merit.

These biases lead to two common coaching traps:

‍Coaching Trap #1: Many scaled coaching organizations today use dating algorithms (think swiping left or right) to assist in coach selection. At first, an employee will only see a coach’s photo and would need to click on their image to see further details. While this is a fun and inventive way of enabling the employee’s speed to coach selection, as exposure to someone’s face only further reinforces basic biases; based on psychology, employees are more likely to choose the person that looks like them.

‍Coaching Trap #2: Across the globe, there is a strong bias towards both a specific set of educational institutions (the Ivy League) and certain levels of academic achievement (graduate degrees, whether in medicine, law, or other fields). Thus, graduates from lesser-known institutions and bachelor’s degree-holders may be considered less valuable. When selecting a coach, this bias frequently plays out with the perception that coaches with rarefied educational backgrounds will deliver better results.

By enabling coach selection in this way, employees are almost encouraged to reinforce their own biases, which include ageism, sexism, racism, name bias, beauty bias, cultural bias, and more. These biases are the ones that companies are working hard to disrupt via policies on rewards, hiring, employee lifecycle, and in society. Despite this, recent studies show alarming trends, even in early careers:

One study of high school students found that females considered to be attractive earned eight percent more than those who were not considered attractive, and men of below-average attractiveness made 13 percent less than other men who were considered attractive.¹

In another study, White-sounding names received 50 percent more call backs for interviews than Black-sounding names. Even with a higher quality resume, there is still a strong bias towards White-sounding names, which elicit 30 percent more call-backs. For Black-sounding names, the increase is much smaller. Applicants living in better neighborhoods also receive more call-backs, but this effect is not impacted by race.²

So, here’s the problem: the coach you think you need could not be the one you actually need. Just because you feel comfortable with a person or “see yourself” in them doesn’t necessarily correspond to effective change. Many people reflect on their coaching experiences and find that the coaches or people in their life that they’ve learned the most from are very different from themselves.

In a time when everyone is working together to eliminate bias and encourage equity, this is one more area where we need to lead change.

What’s the alternative?

‍To ensure quality coach selection, you need to follow a few key principles in your approach:

1. Make sure your coaching approach and initiative are aligned to strategic outcomes, a change agenda, and your organization values. This can be used to simplify and focus your pool of coaches based on experience, industry knowledge, specialties, and organizational or individual need.
2. Ahead of time, ask your employees to reflect on what they believe is important to them in a coach. This will normally result in them naming some of the higher order needs based on past experiences, current needs, and context.
3. Your coaching partner should have a “Coach Talent Director” role or similar. This person should know all there is to know about how to maximize their coaches’ talent and match it to yours. Invest in this relationship, carefully scoping out how this person can you be your guide on the side in getting the fit right for your organization.
4. Allocate a coach to each employee based on their stated needs. Take pulse checks along the way from both parties to check in on how the match is going.
5. If the coaching match isn’t working, or the chemistry isn’t there, make it easy for people to change without judgement or impediment.
6. If choice is a key requirement, introduce the coach selection only after working with the Coach Talent Director to select the information that is critical for employees to know. This information should be designed to help employees make an unbiased choice – qualities such as coaching style, approach, experience, and industry background are appropriate, but photographs and names should be avoided.

So much effort to reduce bias has been implemented into hiring, promotion, succession, and performance management processes that it would be a mistake to ignore biases in coach selection. To continue moving the needle on equity and inclusion – which not only delivers business results, but also makes our society better as a whole – it’s essential to take a critical look at your coach selection process. You just might be accidently helping to reinforce bias by encouraging employees to swipe left on a coach in an app.

‍References

1. Gordon, R. A., & Crosnoe, R. (2013, December 10). In school, good looks help and good looks hurt (but they mostly help). Council on Contemporary Families. https://contemporaryfamilies.org/good-looks-help-report/.
2. Bertrand, M., & Mullainathan, S. (2003, July 28). Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor Market Discrimination. NBER. https://www.nber.org/papers/w9873.

Many organizations invest large sums in assessments and training programs, but too often, employees revert to their previous ways.

This occurs because the initial assessment and resulting intervention targeted the symptom (behavior), rather than the root cause (mindset), of a performance gap.

So, how can an organization create long-lasting, business-improving behavioral change?

Assessments should expose the subliminal thoughts, feelings, assumptions, and beliefs that drive an employee’s current performance, or that may obstruct their full potential. Only then can assessors accurately design interventions that shift mindsets, and therefore behaviors, for the better. Here are three instances of how your organization can use this approach.

From individual insight to customized coaching

Oftentimes, excellent salespeople-turned-sales managers struggle to share their wisdom and drive peak performance from their teammates. Why? Because their individual insights into the art of selling are not universal.

No one skillset nor tried-and-true script makes a great seller. Rather, successful salespeople have a certain belief system that drives their curiosity towards customers, reactions to rejection, and general stamina. A simple shift in any of these mindsets can transform a sales team.

So, how do you implement this within your own team? Start by leveraging a mindset assessment that identifies the beliefs, values, and experiences currently at play. Then, follow up with a behavior-changing tool, such as personalized coaching, to help team members shift to mindsets that cement learning and ensure long-term behavior change.

Mindset shifts in multitudes

Pod coaching, also known as small-group coaching, is another way to leverage mindset assessments. Mindset assessments can be deployed at scale to provide cohort-level data, helping you select the key mindsets that need to change within a larger community.

For example, a leading multinational energy organization leveraged mindset assessments to map out a pod-coaching journey for its teams. The organization assessed 80 employees, identifying and creating customized coaching content to address the group’s most-needed mindset shifts. As a result, the journey was highly relevant to the teams’ most critical needs.

Some organizations have adopted cloud-based, self-paced individual learning journeys, the design of which is informed by mindset assessments. These mindset assessments identify individuals’ most beneficial shifts, which are then incorporated into their individually-personalized learning journeys.

Armed with this data, organizations can prioritize the shifts they see as critical for their people’s development today and save the shifts that will be more impactful in the future for a later date. The result is an ongoing personalized journey that grows with employees.

To ensure that your people’s default behaviors are the right ones for your organization, consider using mindset-evaluation assessments rather than behavior assessments. Mindset assessments allow you to identify and address the root cause of your peoples’ existing beliefs, shift them to ones that are aligned to your organization’s values, and structure a sustainable future for your organization.

Co-authored by Cilsy Harris, Senior Vice President, CIO Insurance & Service Applications, The Hanover Insurance Group

At one time, most of us probably thought that a year into the pandemic we’d be back in the office and the virtual solution we employed as an emergency measure would be a thing of the past. However, it’s become very clear that virtual is here to stay – either as companies adopt fully-remote business models, or as is likely to be the case more often, they move to hybrid models that blend the best of remote and in-person work. Regardless of which model they choose we think smart companies will preserve the best aspects of the virtual experience to continue to create equality in communication and facilitate greater sharing of ideas.

This virtual environment has been a great equalizer. In many ways, our ability to meet and work virtually has helped us eliminate pretenses and share our authenticity to create more human connection. We’ve become less self-conscious and more down to earth in our business interactions. We’ve learned more about our colleagues’ personal lives, enabling us to recognize and truly treat each other as humans, not simply as the means by which work gets accomplished.

Creating big wins for important business goals

This new environment has created six big wins for achieving important business goals:

1.  Driving engagement/connection:

Authentic connection is the secret sauce for senior executives. It’s what drives trust, engagement, and execution. Our research shows authentic leaders build trust and put others at ease by sharing their own emotions and experiences, and by revealing stories and life lessons that resonate with others’ own situations.

A byproduct of the virtual world is that some of the barriers to sharing have been removed. The close-up camera creates eye-to-eye contact and a more personal interaction. Our insight into each other’s daily lives outside the office through the view of the camera has changed the tone and ease of our connection.

Virtual meetings also foster authentic connections across geographically dispersed teams in the organization in more efficient and meaningful ways. Regularly scheduled meetings with teams in Europe, Middle East and Asia/Pacific in the morning and those in the Americas in the afternoon, create cross-pollination of ideas and connections that previously would have required weeks of travel.

2.   Enabling collaboration among large groups, across geographies:

Dick Lavey, executive vice president of Agency Markets at The Hanover, relays how forums are being reinvented. “Picture a traditional sales planning meeting, held in a large, cavernous hotel room with 40+ people spread out in a big square, using microphones,” he says.

“It was intimidating for the presenter and difficult for the audience to track the dialogue. Now, this same meeting is transformed into an intimate and engaging experience for both the presenters and the meeting participants.”

Well-facilitated meetings create forums for dialogue that lead to better outcomes. The outcome of this shift is understanding that for certain events and forums, choosing a virtual model can create greater intimacy and engagement. Choosing the right forum for the purpose is our call to action.

The virtual world has delivered the impetus to rethink and reimagine how we design forums to optimize attendance and participation, and to offset some of the challenges presented by geographic location. “Events that once were considered feasible only when they were held in person, like our annual Innovation Expo, saw big gains in attendance across all geographies,” according to Will Lee, EVP and Chief Information and Innovation Officer at The Hanover.

“It also has enabled all attending Hanover employees to experience the event in the same manner, regardless of location. One of the most significant outcomes of this new approach was creating a live example of how we can design environments to make space for innovative thinking that cut across the entire organization and include all roles and levels.”

We are also able to meet with more people, more quickly. At the Hanover, our agent road shows, no longer limited by time and space, can be held on back-to-back days–in Georgia one day, Upstate NY the next, and Washington State the very next day. This meeting line-up would have been impossible in person. “We ‘cover more ground’ by not covering any ground,” says Lavey.

At BTS, we’re hosting highly collaborative senior executive team meetings and leadership development programs that enable leaders to create greater impact. After only a few half days, global executive teams decide strategic direction, tackle sticky issues, form agreement on how to better work together, make important decisions, and create strategic action plans–launching the organization on a new trajectory.

3.   Attracting talent:

For Lee, finding great talent has gotten a real boost with hybrid operating models, and at The Hanover, we are seeing this have a meaningful impact. As we’ve eliminated geography as a defining factor for those hard-to-find roles in security, innovation, and even executive leadership, we’ve become an attractive employer to a much larger pool of talented candidates. Candidates are now able to choose roles based on company culture and specific opportunities, without being restricted by the proximity of the job to their homes.

4.   Retaining top talent:

A client recently told me that he lost a great employee because this person was assured a role with another company in a work-from-home arrangement. Top employees have demonstrated great commitment to their work, high productivity and skillful leadership while enjoying the greater work/life balance that work-from-home enables. This has become quite important to many people of all ages, especially working parents, employees who care for elderly parents, and those helping family members with physical and mental health issues. Remote work is an increasingly valuable way to attract and retain great talent.

5.   Creating efficiencies:

Even reimagining how products are launched has delivered more tangible benefits than we previously thought possible. At The Hanover, our virtual launch events have attracted much higher attendance and generated strong satisfaction ratings. At BTS, we’re able to help more clients in a single day and our clients appreciate spending less time traveling.

6.   Improving interactions:

Lastly, the equalizing effect has improved many daily interactions as well.

• We’re all the same on video, take up the same space, and our stature at the table is the same. No one is at the head and no one has a second-row seat.
• Rather than having some in the room and some on video, we’re all in the same room, and we’re able to meet with our global teams, on equal footing, at any time.
• Those with differing communication and work styles, such as introverts and extroverts, find the capabilities of collaboration technology suit their ability to participate either by chat, raising their hand, or amplifying the comments of another person. Everyone can contribute and be heard.

As many companies transition to their future work models—whether they are fully-remote or hybrid—the virtual experience and confidence we have gained over the course of the pandemic will help us be even more efficient and effective.Many employees are anxious to get back to the workplaces that are the backbones of our society. We look forward to seeing faces and having meaningful in-person interactions. And, we have the opportunity to make this transition in a thoughtful way, to leverage all we’ve learned about authenticity, efficiencies, and connection through technology.

Tips for maintaining the equalizing benefits of virtual work

Here are a few tips to pull through some of the equalizing benefits as we make our way back to the office:

1.   Be mindful and intentional about continuing to connect with people on a personal level.

Schedule time regularly in your calendar to get together with a small group for lunch, organize a skip-level group for coffee, or host an informal, or one-on-one conversation. Set no real agenda other than to see how people are doing, get their feedback, listen to what they are working on. Be sure to share personal stories and experiences as part of this two-way interaction.

2.   Commit to creating an environment in your meetings where everyone can contribute and be heard.

Assign an individual in your team meetings, on a rotating basis, to play the role of monitor, to encourage the quiet or remote individuals to participate more, and to reign in the overly strong voices. Make a point of sitting in a different place each time to shake up the room. Set up a team chat channel for each of your regular meetings and encourage follow up comments and conversation in between meetings, for those less comfortable sharing in the room. Participate regularly yourself to model the behavior.

3.   Don’t be afraid to keep the new virtual paradigm where it makes sense.

The lessons about productivity and efficiency, whether you are hosting a virtually based product launch, sales meeting, or training program, should inform how to choose the format. And fewer, shorter, more effective meetings will energize people and afford them more time to get more done.Now is the time to preserve the good that has come out of our virtual working environments, even as we migrate back to the traditional office. We will all be more engaged and connected as a result.

This is the year of transformation. No matter your industry, you have likely been forced to reimagine your business. A business transformation, whether your organization describes it as such, is also a culture transformation. Why? Because organizational culture has the power to either accelerate transformation, or to stifle it.

Culture transformation is where many organizations fail. Senior executives spend ample time defining new directions, conducting punchy reveals, and sending everyone off to the races to execute the vision. However, such interventions often fall flat, leaving leaders, sponsors, and transformation officers frustrated at the slow pace or utter lack of progress.

Unfortunately, a change in direction or even organizational structure alone does not bring about a change in culture. Layers of years-long, collective experience underpin an organization’s thinking and operations. These beliefs, norms, and ways of working often outlast the leader, event, or crisis that first created them, and -- if left unaddressed -- will continue to manifest in unproductive, obstructive ways.

For that reason, there are two parts to successful culture change: envisioning the future and letting go of the past. For most organizations, letting go of the past is much harder, and often ignored.

Here are the five key steps to doing both well:

1. Link cultural aspirations to your strategy.
   ‍There’s no sense in creating a new culture in a vacuum. Buzzwords like “agility” and “innovation” fail to ignite change unless they are defined in relation to both your company’s new strategy and the specific behavioral changes needed to achieve your business goals.
2. Be honest about the current state.
   ‍Having an honest assessment of the current culture helps you identify the strengths you can leverage along with what might be holding you back. Keep in mind, for senior leaders who have created or currently uphold a culture, a candid snapshot is akin to constructive feedback. Such data be very disruptive, but also can make the case for change. Therefore…
3. Allow leaders space to honor the past before they let it go.
   ‍It’s important to recognize that there were good reasons that your organization did things a certain way in the past, but also that such methods may no longer serve your company today and in the future.
   
   For example, a founder and CEO of a technology company wanted to be involved in all major customer-impacting decisions. This made sense when the company was comprised of 50 people, but by the time the company scaled to 5,000 people, the CEO’s involvement was a major obstacle to speed not to mention squelching local authority.
   
   Allow leaders to spend time reflecting on the current culture in a structured way. How did these beliefs, norms, and ways of working serve the organization in the past? Are they worth preserving? How might the company pivot to something more productive?
4. Be explicit about what you’ll do differently.
   ‍Take a critical eye to your current ways of working. Seemingly subtle changes can have a big impact on creating the culture you need to succeed.
   
   An oil and gas company launched a new strategy where everyone needed to experiment and learn faster, even if it meant they faltered in the short term. They realized that their quarterly business reviews (QBRs), which primarily judged and dissected the past, sent the wrong cultural signal. So, they reframed their QBRs as question banks that spurred thoughts of the future and eliminated obstacles to its attainment.
5. Engage the organization in the conversation.
   ‍Authorship is ownership. The more you engage people across the organization in these dialogues, the more they identify what to stop and start, the more they will commit to change. You cannot tell people what they need to let go of. They must discover and decide what they will do differently.

Any transformation, with its layers and nuances, takes time and careful consideration. By considering the cultural aspect of a transformation, you’re enabling your organization to more seamlessly make the shifts necessary to take on its future form. Envision the culture you need to be, honor the past, let it go, and shift toward a new paradigm day by day.

Early this year, 35 Fortune 500 companies joined forces to create an initiative called OneTen, which aims to hire, upskill, and promote one million Black Americans over the next 10 years. OneTen comprises leaders across a variety of industries and organizations including Merck, Nike, IBM, and Amgen. If your organization has joined this coalition, or is otherwise committed to recruiting and hiring more diverse talent, what steps are you taking to onboard and consistently engage these individuals?There is an important link between talent-acquisition and employee-onboarding processes. Because candidates form assumptions about working life at an organization very early in the application process, often even before deciding to apply, organizations should ensure that any messaging conveyed during this critical time be on-brand.In the context of attracting, selecting, onboarding, and retaining underrepresented employees during the early days of their tenure, what does this mean? Here are four things to keep in mind.

Be visible

For companies committed to recruiting diverse talent: start with visibility. How can potential applicants apply to opportunities of which they’re not aware? Are your talent acquisition teams cultivating meaningful partnerships with organizations dedicated to diversity? Organizations that excel at recruiting and hiring diverse talent understand that the recruiting process begins long before the manifestation of a vacancy. They collaborate with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), as well as student groups such as the National Black Student Union (NBSU), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Black Business Student Association, and the National Pan-Hellenic Council to reach diverse talent.

Be committed

As you engage prospective underrepresented candidates, ask yourself:

• Does your interview process reflect a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIB)?
• Does the interview panel reflect the communities you serve, or vary in work experience and background? After all, it can be challenging for an organization to tout its commitment to DIB if candidates are interviewed by a uniform panel of managers.
• Are your mid-level managers held accountable for assembling diverse interview panels, or recruiting diverse talent?
• Are you infusing your interview guides with questions that elevate inclusion and diversity?

Some organizations are investing in diversity and inclusion to the point of standing up DIB functions devoted to unearthing the biases, both conscious and not, that influence the interview process. These efforts are attractive to candidates and valuable for employees.

Be engaging

According to a 2019 study conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago entitled Being Black in Corporate America: An Intersectional Exploration, 38% of Black millennials responded that they are considering leaving their jobs to start their own company, and 65% percent of Black professionals responded that it’s harder for Black employees to advance. Companies committed to recruiting diverse candidates must learn to retain such talent. Knowing the many reasons for attrition, what causes for departure are within companies’ control?One strategy for preventing attrition is hosting events to improve employee engagement. For example, one organization holds an annual event called the African American Forum which gives Black employees the chance to hear from and network with senior leaders. This forum provides an opportunity for the company to invest in the development of its underserved communities and for the communities to gain direct access to leaders via workshops and panel discussions. Other ways to engage, develop, and promote underrepresented talent may include involvement in employee resource groups, formal mentoring programs, and more opportunities for senior leaders to hear the voices of their diverse staff.

Be accountable

Working with the facts is the best place to start. It’s impossible to solve a problem without fully understanding or acknowledging the depth of the issue, and this is doubly true for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizations. One approach is full transparency, as exemplified by a group of leaders who decided to courageously share their company’s diversity metrics at a recent senior leadership meeting, acknowledging the lack of diversity and need for change. This approach, just one of many, is especially effective in maintaining accountability.As the fight for social justice continues, many organizations have renewed their commitment to attracting, selecting, onboarding, and retaining more diverse talent, and companies such as those part of the OneTen initiative are leading the way. However, just because your company isn’t part of OneTen doesn’t mean it can’t take steps towards improving diversity. We can do this. We should do this.

“I’ll know it when I see it.”

These are the words that eight years ago launched the Bates ExPI^TM, what was then and still is, the only research-based, validated, scientific way to measure Executive Presence.

Why measure executive presence?

At the time, the leaders we were working with were struggling with the concept. Executive Presence was important and sought after, but ill-defined. When we asked leaders what they meant by executive presence, even those with expertise in executive talent development would offer vague descriptors such as “gravitas,” “inspiring,” and “great communicator.” While these executives would tell us they wanted more executive presence in their leaders, they could not say exactly what they were looking for from them. How do you develop more of something when you can’t describe the specific behaviors you are looking for? “I know it when I see it” is not helpful to guide leaders on what to do differently.

As a result, we set out to find the specific behaviors behind what people mean by executive presence. We conducted the first, science-based research into executive presence, ultimately creating the Executive Presence Index, the ExPI^TM, which defines the behaviors of successful leaders who are able to engage, align, inspire and motivate people to act. The survey that constitutes the basis of the model includes 90 questions about leaders’ behaviors across the 15 facets and three dimensions of Character, Substance and Style.

Changing the way we lead

In the intervening eight years, this leadership model has been instrumental in changing the way leaders at some of the world’s largest companies lead and create impact in their organizations. Along the way, we have partnered with our clients to help them create and deliver the kind of leadership they need to take their companies forward.

Starting a few years ago, some of these companies began to ask for clarification on some of the survey questions, trying to understand how to interpret words like “Appearance,” which was one of the 15 facets that describe high performing leaders, or words like “tolerate” within some of the individual questions. We found ourselves having to explain and reposition some of the descriptions, which told us there was a lack of clarity in intent with some of the content. We started to ask ourselves whether we needed to reexamine the way we were thinking about the items in the model.

Then came 2020, and the George Floyd incident, the #METOO movement, and the rapid rise in awareness of the need to focus on Diversity and Inclusion across the business, arts, and broader community. This galvanized our efforts to systematically think about what we needed to do when we were assessing leaders with an inclusive lens, and how inclusiveness is reflected in the behaviors of today’s leaders.

Shifting and strengthening our lens on inclusive leadership

We started by reexamining every question we ask in the Bates ExPI^TM assessment and asking ourselves the question – how might this be interpreted? How might this make someone feel included or excluded? What are the hidden messages, however unintended, that someone might infer in some of those questions? We realized that in the eight years since we launched the Bates ExPI^TM, our own perspective had shifted, not dramatically, but in important ways that we realized are also important to our clients. As we reexamined the questions, we applied an inclusive lens that included racial and gender perspectives, differing abilities, as well as cultural and international perspectives. Exploring the wording of our survey questions highlighted for us the ambiguity of the English language and how that can be interpreted not only by English speakers but by English as a Second Language speakers. It was important for us to ensure that as was our original intent, this is an assessment that works globally.

This exploration yielded encouraging and inspiring results, in terms of providing insight and guidance to today’s leaders globally.

• The large majority – 80 of the 90 survey items or leadership behaviors – stood up to the scrutiny and analysis, retaining their relevance and insight for a more inclusive view of leadership
• The remaining 10 items were revised, vetted, and updated with language intended to clarify and simplify the behaviors to remove ambiguity and reduce the chance for misinterpretation. The changes involved updates such as replacing words and phrases that suggest exclusion, such as “tolerance” or “tolerate,” and with “supporting” and “promoting.”
• We also renamed one of the 15 facets, Appearance in the Style dimension, to Demeanor to align it with the intent of the facet which was not about how someone looks per se, which is what appearance means to many people, but rather how they carry themselves, do they energize a room, do they get people excited about getting on board.

The result of this effort is a refreshed perspective on the same powerful leadership model that details what behaviors enable leaders to engage, inspire, align and motivate people to act.

A rigorous and thoughtful process

The process we used was thoughtful and thorough. We sought input from some of the biggest companies in the world, who are our clients, and we asked them to share with us what questions they found ambiguous and why. We went out to our own global sphere of influencers and asked them to help us think through what might need to change. We assembled a panel of assessment experts, as well as experts in diversity and inclusion, to analyze and vet the questions and options for changes. We then tested and validated the new questions to ensure that we are able to preserve the validity of the assessment and continue to rely on the data we have been collecting for 7 years as a powerful research base in the continuing work we are doing to understand what really matters for leaders.

Measuring and tapping into the power of executive presence more important than ever

The world is moving faster than ever, and leaders are facing bigger challenges, as they steer their companies beyond the pandemic, into a high growth, and more diverse and inclusive mode. The biggest challenge CEOS are facing right now is the challenge of talent and leadership. Leaders need to be able to perform at their best and pivot and flex in unprecedented ways. They need actionable data to be able to address the areas with the most impact for their own situation.

A 360 assessment like the Bates ExPI^TM is a critical tool to make this happen. The Bates ExPI^TM measures perceptions of a leader’s behaviors, behaviors that sometimes don’t land the way they are intended. Many 360s focus on skills and activities, not on behaviors. While personality assessments like the Hogan or other assessments provide insight, the ability to get hard data to understand how peers, managers, direct reports and key stakeholders perceive a leader is an unparalleled way to uncover blind spots, identify strengths and move the needle rapidly. Now is the time to arm leaders with all the available tools to accelerate their performance and lead their organizations along with them.

In a nutshell

• The Bates ExPI^TM is not a “PC” exercise, but rather it is a strategic revisit and refresh to make sure the survey content aligns with the intent.
• This is an important opportunity to ensure that as a leadership model it reflects an inclusive and representative view of what leaders need now to engage, align, inspire and motivate others to act.
• The Bates ExPI^TM is still the same powerful leadership model, backed by a deep database of leadership data and insights that can be mined to advance the impact of individual leaders and the leadership bench.
• Executive presence – the behaviors that enable a leader to inspire, align and motivate people to act – is not only more relevant than ever, but the path forward for leaders in this new, challenging and changing world.

A CEO client was describing an initiative at his company that encouraged employees to bring their whole selves to work.

I asked him, “What does this look like, in practice?” He was silent and finally said, “I’ll need to think about that.” Shifting gears, I asked, “Well, tell me what you personally would do to demonstrate this.” Again, silence. Finally, I said, “Can we admit we really don’t really know what this means?” His reply: “We can admit that.”

Authenticity is having a moment, and that’s a good thing, right? In the spirit of authenticity, I have mixed feelings. Depending on how you define it, authenticity champions transparency, being genuine, keeping it real. It asks us to be vulnerable, to bring our whole selves to work. It also encourages us to speak up, to challenge authority for a purpose, and to behave and act in ways that support an inclusive, diverse environment – all important ideas that hold real value in order to create the kinds of work environments where we – and our teams – can thrive.

The problem comes down to this. The gap between the concept of authenticity and practicing it is wide and confusing. It’s why so many of my C-level clients ask: How do you actually do this? Ironically, this type of question is usually raised behind closed doors because for some, the idea sounds a little too good to be true. As one leader put it: “It feels like a trap. Show too much authenticity, you’re unprofessional or oversharing. Not enough authenticity, you’re seen as hard to read or lacking transparency. It’s tough to figure this out.” No wonder many leaders feel they are navigating a tricky high wire act when it comes to showing up authentically.

So how do you actually practice authenticity? For senior leaders, here are a few tips.

‍Start with your own authenticity.
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‍Over the past year, I have worked with a number of leaders who have tested positive for COVID. In more than one case, the leader fell ill to the point of hospitalization and missed days of work. Nearly all chose to keep the matter extremely private, only telling one or two close colleagues. To be sure, there are plenty of reasons why a leader may not want to disclose matters related to health, but let’s face it. We often stay quiet because we fear we may be seen as weak or not up for the task of leadership. We wonder if people will question whether we have what it takes. We may worry about the impact on numbers if investors or the board caught wind of what was happening.

The challenge with that approach, fair or not, is that the fewer people you pull under the tent, the more likely it raises questions and causes churn, as colleagues wonder why you’re not acting like your usual self, why you’ve missed the weekly meeting, and so on. It also puts an incredibly tough burden on the leader, who is valiantly trying to work through it all, despite real health issues. And by the way, it goes without saying that good leaders would certainly want to know if a member of their own team had fallen ill or was struggling with a health issue. The point is clear. It always starts at the top. Leaders can’t expect employees to be open and authentic if they aren’t willing to do so themselves.

‍Be authentic, but don’t self-destruct.
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‍It’s not easy to be authentic at work, because the risks that come with it are real. Consider a recent example from one Business President, who was meeting with his CEO. “Why do I even pay you?” was the response he got from the boss after the leader shared his concerns about the unrealistic goals felt he was given to meet. Nobody likes to disappoint, but even the most thick-skinned leaders have little appetite to engage in conversations like these, particularly when nobody holds the big boss accountable.

So, what to do? For starters, don’t confuse being authentic with saying something you’ll regret. Do not self-destruct because you can’t hold your tongue. The key is to become excellent at being discerning and applying good judgment about what to say and share, and when. And herein lies one of the most important ideas about ‘showing up with your full self.’ It isn’t just something most of us intuitively know how to do. It is a skill, it is a habit, it is a behavior. Knowing when to speak up, when to let a situation go, when to take a risk, and when to simply keep quiet are all part of the package. To ask employees to be authentic, without also helping them develop the skills to navigate the risks that come along with it, is doing them a disservice.

‍Translate ‘authentic’ into tangible actions and behaviors.
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‍Advice to ‘speak up more in meetings’ or ‘keep it real’ may be well-intended, but it often leaves leaders wondering how. This is where practice, preparation, and a roll-up-your-sleeves approach works wonders. To do that, get very concrete and specific about where you could apply a new action or behavior. For instance:

• You won’t dance around giving tough feedback to an employee.
• You’ll make a point to tell someone how you really feel this week when asked how you’re doing
• You’ll bring up money in a sales conversation sooner rather than later.
• You’ll tell a personal story about your life to your team.

Organizations and leaders are taking positive action to shift their cultures into something that goes beyond the lip service of ‘authentic leadership,’ to create thriving, inclusive environments for employees. It’s the right thing to do, but messages that only talk the talk without holding leaders accountable aren’t enough and asking leaders to be authentic without a practical roadmap can be tricky to navigate. The good news is, it isn’t that complicated to be more authentic. As author Simon Sinek writes: “Authenticity is when you say and do the things you actually believe.” Now, it’s up to us to do it.

Transformation in troubled times

In a world already defined by constant change, the pandemic acted as an accelerant for the adaptation of technology. In a matter of months, companies advanced their digitization by the equivalent of several years, according to previous plans. Technological advancements aside, people were also forced to work in new ways, incorporating a greater focus on agility, remote work, and the need to find and adopt new business models. Regardless of size and industry, almost all businesses faced these common challenges – but unfortunately, none were easy to overcome.

A leaders’ approach to managing change must evolve to fit the company’s pace and needs. Knowing that the traditional separation between managing day-to-day activity and managing change is non-existent, leaders must learn at forced speeds, and acknowledge that no normal activity is immune to change.

As a result, it’s critical for leaders to rethink how they drive and manage change in organizations. The idea of change as a period of transition amid stability clashes with reality on a daily basis, as traditional investment-based transformation schemes and long-term planning are overcome by the uncertainty and complexity of the current environment. The world is, and will remain, in a state of constant change and adaption.

Rather than managing organizational change, shouldn’t we change organizational management to enable this rapid and continuous adaptation? It’s time to move on to organizational transformation.

Basic rules for a new approach to transformation

When it comes to making the best transformation cocktail, it depends on the specific tastes of each company. Knowing that there’s no single magic recipe, there are some basic rules that can help companies determine the best approach:

1. Replace long-term plans with vision
   ‍What’s the point of drawing up long-term plans when you know that you can’t follow through? Instead, start by agreeing on a vision or image of where you would like to be in a few months, a year, or two years. Use this vision as the compass that points all of your daily efforts towards true North. Reinforce this vision among all people, customers, and suppliers, so they feel like they are a part of it too.
2. Provide certainty in the process
   ‍This communication rule can help provide structure in any uncertain context. When an outcome is uncertain, create a clear structure around the responsibilities and stages of the journey. “Work out loud”: let everyone know what is being worked on, by whom and around which dates. The basic techniques for achieving this are:
   • Timeboxing: specific and short periods of time, during which a task needs to be completed
   • Prioritization: only doing tasks that will make it possible to make effective decisions and learn
3. Include everyone
   ‍There is no single change or transformation; there are as many changes as there are people enduring them.
   
   Each person lives their own version of change, as levels of focus, interest, and motivation vary by each level of the organization. Therefore, a change, which from the point of view of someone at a strategic level is urgent, may be viewed by someone at the team-level as a loss of quality. Much inevitable resistance will arise from these differences in perception.
   
   Therefore, listen. Play an active role for all people in change, ensuring that problems receive solutions. Combine everyone’s view into the best solution, without losing sight of your true North – the vision that you want to achieve – and collaborate so that the solution is adapted to all levels of need. Seek ways to create an environment in which such collaboration and diversity of though is possible; generate a continuous conversation around the vision to keep everyone on the same page.
4. Go from time to market to time to learn
   ‍Time is the most precious resource in periods of accelerated change, and how you spend what little you have on will determine your ability to adapt. Invest in your efforts to maximize learning, and in the process, apply the law of minimum effort to building the best solution, step-by-step.
   ‍
   Experiment with the hypotheses you are proposing, and look for ways to confirm or reject them with minimal impact to the organization.

Finally, dare to change! Organizational change and transformation, for each and every member of the team, begins with you.

Looking to make the most of your teams?

There are a few small steps that any leader can implement to shift the way their team works together. By creating simple tools, putting them into practice, and sustaining the lessons, you can amplify your own, and therefore your team’s, intelligence.

Use simple tools.

Think of simple tools you use to remember things, like tying a string around your finger or writing down a grocery list. This strategy can also be applied in a work context.

Here’s an example of an effective mnemonic device: try using wooden poker chips, coins, or paper to moderate meetings. Give yourself five of these “chips.” Every time you speak, you must “play” one of your limited number of chips. If you play all your chips at the start, you must remain silent for the remainder of the meeting.

Such a simple tool teaches you to literally chip into the conversation with thoughtfulness, rationing your contributions! (Given that many of us now carry out our meetings via video conference, you might wonder: is this tool still effective? Yes, it is, and can even be enhanced by generous use of the mute button.)

This idea of sharing the floor draws from Liz Wiseman’s New York Times best-selling book, Multipliers, which shares her research-backed perspective on how the best leaders can amplify their team’s intelligence by tapping into each individual’s inherent genius.

Put the tools into practice.

What were the effects of implementing the chips? One team experienced considerable change.

A team member known for dominating conversation quickly used up all their chips, became frustrated that they could no longer contribute, and therefore left the meeting. In their absence, the remaining participants had more opportunities to speak, listen, and debate, and collectively improved their decision-making. The impact was immediately felt by the whole team, as the once-domineering individual also recognized the benefits of making space for others.

As demonstrated in this example, practicing new behaviors in a risk-free environment provides an incredible advantage. One way to do this is by leveraging customized business simulations. By modeling behavioral changes in realistic situations, simulations allow people to concretize abstract concepts and reinforce shifts.

Make the commitment to behavior change.

Providing people with right tools brings them a step closer to behavioral change, but only sustained application leads to true transformation. Given that results are not guaranteed, people need to be held accountable. How?

Firstly, ensure execution on the job by requesting that people write down their commitments to change, then follow up on them with digital tools. Larry L. Jacoby, psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis, affirms that information is better remembered when it is self-generated, rather than simply read or revisited.

Secondly, embed desired changes by establishing a cadence of follow-up sessions and by assigning reflective between-session tasks. Personalization, paired with periodicity, will cement critical changes in behavior.

To make the most of your teammates’ talent and potential, make sure that you provide them with thoughtful tools, facilitate their implementation, and offer support for long-term revision.

Here’s a question you’ve probably heard more than ever lately:

What does it mean to bring our organization into the future?

It’s what leaders at some of the best-known companies in the world are asking, including Karen Carter, Chief Human Resources Officer & first-ever Chief Inclusion Officer at Dow, the global materials sciences company. Carter has held a variety of business and leadership roles since joining the company over 25 years ago, and she describes the future-focused work she’s leading now to be some of the most rewarding and exciting of her entire career. Here’s why.

It accelerates who we want to be

"Future of Work" isn’t a new concept at Dow, and Carter points to the 2019 separation from DowDuPont as an important moment and launching pad for what was to come.

“As the new Dow, we recognized that we had a unique opportunity to determine who we wanted to be and make very intentional choices about what that could look like for us,” says Carter.

She points to other external drivers that provided the additional momentum to address the future at Dow in an even more deliberate way:

“Yes, COVID certainly accelerated our attention to ‘future at work’ in the ways you might imagine. For instance, we’re focused on a thoughtful return to work policy, we’re making important investments in our technology and our digital capabilities in multiple ways. But for us, expanding the definition of modernization means a different level of consideration to world events or social unrest, to race and equity, to our leadership and our culture – we knew that addressing those issues would become an essential part of our definition of modernization at Dow."

Everything is connected

The north star guiding Dow’s modernization efforts is the company’s ambition: To become the most innovative, customer-centric, inclusive, and sustainable materials science company in the world.

“Everything we’re doing links back to achieving our ambition. For example, you’ll see important digital upgrades to support our manufacturing and commerce, which strengthens our ability to create and deliver our products more sustainably. We partnered closely with our customers to inform and co-create how we can drive more innovation, agility, and ultimately improve the customer experience through enhanced technology.”

Modernization must also connect to Dow employees in very real and practical ways, says Carter.

“When you talk about modernizing workforce capabilities, it’s easy to think that this means you’re being replaced by technology or robots. That’s not what we’re talking about. This is about long-term employability for our employees and ensuring nobody is left behind in our transformation.”

She adds:

“That means we must address both skills and competencies, and also our mindset and culture at Dow. We’re approaching this in an integrated way in order to move the needle."

Modernization means fully stepping into your place in the world

At the heart of modernization comes a long-held value at Dow: Trust.

“You can’t modernize without trust. For us, this means that employees have to trust that they have the right skills to take advantage of digital transformation. Customers have to trust how our use of technology benefits everything we do as their partner. And, we have to trust leadership", says Carter.

"Surveys today that tell us that people trust companies more than the government or media in some cases. Who would have thought that this would mean that we have an obligation to address societal issues as a global chemical company?”

She describes what this means for Dow this way:

“We have to take action, we have to collaborate and step outside of our gates to solve problems. We have to fully embrace our position in the world, and that goes beyond profits. To earn your seat as a modern company, you do this: You help society."

“We must modernize ourselves”

Not surprisingly, modernization and digital transformation is a massive undertaking for a global company like Dow. Add to the mix the general pressures of operating in a complex, competitive industry, and the stress of Covid, Carter recognizes that it is easy to get overwhelmed in the level of changes happening for all of us.

“We can make this much easier when we help leaders recognize the positive outcomes that come with modernization, starting with their own lives."

Making the leadership shift

To do that, Dow has evolved its definition and expectations for leaders, starting with a different contract for leadership at the company.

“We expect leaders to empower employees, to have more authentic conversations, to demonstrate inclusive leadership in tangible ways. It’s about having a distributed leadership model, versus a hierarchical one, driven by collaboration, versus command-and-control. Leaders must be at the forefront of modernization, and that means we have to be very selective about who we put into our leadership ranks, so we have leaders who are showing up committed to being on this journey.”

Carter anticipates that this shift in leadership will be tough for some to embrace.

“Many of us grew up in an environment where our worth was tied to how many people reported to us. That’s not what modern leadership is about. You aren’t climbing up the ladder to get a seat at the table. You’re climbing up the ladder to pull someone else up.”

At the heart of this approach is accountability:

“You aren’t just responsible for the decisions you make today. You’re responsible for the ones you made 15 years ago. How many people are better off today because of decisions you made earlier in your career? That’s how we have to think about leadership today, as a modernized company. If we can do that right, we’ll be in the very best position possible to achieve our ambition and create the very best future for ourselves, our employees, and our company.”

They’ve taken the best from what they learned during the pandemic and what they knew before to create innovative new policies and workspaces that enable a new style of more flexible, hybrid work.Many people and leaders are full of excitement about this return to the office – the past year has been rough, and they’ve missed the camaraderie of the in-person environment. Others have a different perspective, appreciating the time back from commuting and increased flexibility. Every company has people at both ends of this spectrum, with others in between. All may be excited about what hybrid work has to offer, but for different reasons, and with potentially clashing expectations.

So how will this actually play out? And how will your teams make it work?

Katy Young, SVP, Head of Client Solutions, and Fredrik Schuller, EVP, Head of BTS Coach, share what hybrid work could look like and principles for you to keep in mind as your company ventures into this uncharted territory.