Insights

For someone who is taking the reins of a leadership role for the first time, there can be a lot of uncertainty, questions and doubts. What really makes a good leader? Are you set up to be a good leader? What is the correct management style for you? These are topics and headlines that have been widely debated and pondered. The question behind these that everyone truly wants to know is: How do I succeed as a leader?

Up until this point, we have lacked the language necessary to design our careers in ways that veer from the traditional script. But now there is hope. A new vocabulary is emerging. At the heart of it is a shift from pursuing a “career path” to creating your “career portfolio.”

New research finds that this view is outdated: Engagement and retention don’t correlate with benefits awards. Employees have begun looking beyond material offerings and assessing how they feel about the company they work for and that requires a different approach.

What makes a company “future ready”? The author analyzed top companies by revenue across four sectors, measuring seven equally weighted factors, then analyzed what leading companies were doing differently. 

With increasing certainty, one can consider that the year 2022 will rely on a hybrid working model, even Forrester analyst Sharyn Leaver has predicted that 60% of organizations will shift to a hybrid model in 2022, but one-third will fail in their first attempt at anywhere work. 

Organizations today spend great sums of money on creativity training, hoping that it will spur innovative and entrepreneurial thinking among the ranks. Unfortunately, most of this training just doesn’t work. Why not? Because it puts too much faith in the powers of “divergent thinking,” or the random generation of new ideas a process most of us today call brainstorming.

The pandemic has forced us to unlearn the old ways and turn to new ones in our lives. For companies, it has been no different. The ritual of welcoming new recruits, especially fresh graduates, has been daunting in the absence of in-person training.

Climate change is now firmly on the agenda for boards. Yet a gap remains between what directors say about climate change (essentially, that’s it’s a critical strategic issue) and what their companies do about climate change (essentially, very little). Based on a survey of dozens of directors in 43 countries, ten pieces of advice emerged for boards in 2022, including conducting a board-effectiveness review focused on climate; refreshing the board make-up to ensure climate expertise, and linking executive compensation to climate targets.

There is no doubt that without having a dedicated workforce, achieving success as an organization is not possible, and rightly so. Hardworking, honest employees and managers are one of the reasons behind many booming businesses. Today, organizations seek to hire a workforce that is capable, committed, and loyal to the organization. And to ensure that your staff goals are aligned with that of the organization, you need a skillful manager.

Every entrepreneur knows that running a business is an endeavor that can easily spill stress over to areas of life outside of work. That's why practicing mindfulness is top of mind for business leaders wanting to change this unhealthy dynamic.