Chief Operating Officer, Director Client Experience at Essentic
As new workforce challenges emerge, so do new opportunities. Not long ago, in the pre-Coronavirus days, Akin Omobitan, Ideas Curator atEssenticandAdam Kingl, Author and Consultant, got together to discuss Adam’s new bookNext Generation Leadership: How to Ensure Young Talent Will Thrive with Your Organization.In it, Adam addresses the challenges of leading work forces comprised of individuals from multiple generations.Akin: Leadership can be quite the broad stroke. Do you have a leadership style and if so, what inspired it?Adam: I was mainly influenced by‘Why Should Anyone be Led by You?’by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones. It asks questions of what it means to be authentic and encourages you to tell your story. Refreshingly unique at the time. In the 1980s, for example, leadership was more an act of imitation – read this book by Jack Welch, now be more like Jack Welch. Present day leadership is more about acquiring the skills and knowledge required to be the best version of yourself.We humans seek connection, and we can't have genuine connection unless we have trust, and we can't have trust unless we know the person across from us is genuine.Akin: What did you witness as a leader that steered you toward becoming an author?Adam: Back in 2009 when I started working at London Business School, I directed the Emerging Leaders Programme – this was for high potential executives in leadership positions for the first time, and they were almost all Gen Ys (otherwise known as Millennials). Companies were telling me these Gen Ys seem to be different from previous generations. They find it difficult to manage them and can’t calibrate the best leadership style. I found that some of the paradigms that Gen Ys were expressing on this course about work, life, careers, leadership and how they want to be managed was very different from what I experienced coming out of college. I wanted to really get under the hood of that and find out what was going on, why their paradigms were so different.So, I surveyed them for five years. I asked the same questions of ten cohorts and conducted follow-up interviews to get further qualitative details. The plan wasn’t originally to write a book; I thought I would write some articles and do some talks. Even though I'm not formally an academic, that's how research typically begins, by asking questions we’re curious about. As I continued to do follow-up interviews with HR professionals and built up some great examples, I ultimately thought, ‘Now I have enough for a book.’Akin: My guess is your learning continued once your decided to write the book. What did you find?Adam: I couldn't really talk about generations until I did some research on generational theory. What I learned is that a generation is the product of the context in which it was raised. In your formative years, what was going on in terms of dominant parenting paradigms? What was the economic situation? Was there a recession or a period of surplus? Was there famine, war, peace? These things, as well as others, uniquely affect a generation.Take Gen Y; they’re more about self-reliance. They grew up seeing their parents and older siblings lose jobs and pensions in the great recession. They've lost the concept of a pension being a final salary. What does that tell them? You can’t rely on anyone else. You cannot rely on a company for a job for life or to be looked after in retirement.Akin: What do you believe was Gen Y’s response?Adam: Gen Y are now known for jumping from job to job because if you're not going to give them a financial reason to stay, they’ll only stay as long as they have development opportunities. Otherwise, they’ll go somewhere offering something else, or join the gig economy or do their own development. They’ve have a reputation for not being loyal, but I tell HR directors of older generations, ‘If you have an issue with Gen Y’s loyalty, you only have to look at your own decisions to figure out why that might be.’Akin: That tells us a little about what Gen Y are seeking from employers. Are you able to share a little more?Adam: In the survey I mentioned, I ask what three things Gen Y look for in an employer. The top three answers, from number three to number one answer, are: development opportunities, organisational culture and work-life balance.There is semantic discord between the generations about the term work-life balance. When Gen Y says work-life balance, what they generally mean is that technology allows us to work anywhere and anytime: I can work from home, I can work evenings, I can work weekends. Gen Y aren’t rejecting the work; what they’re rejecting is the Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, facetime approach.They’re not saying that people don't have to get together physically, but let’s forget this nonsense about not leaving the office before the boss does to show, for example, we’re working hard.Akin: Did you come across organisations seemingly ahead of the curve when it comes to the challenges of not monitoring time in the office and reducing a top-down management style?Adam: Let’s look at one example, Haier, the biggest white goods company in Asia. The organisational structure is incredibly flat, the CEO wants no distance between employees and customers. They’re completely customer-centric: how do we serve customers better and find new needs? The whole organisation is built around what they call micro enterprises. A micro enterprise is a team focused around self-organization and self-selection.The CEO says, ‘I don't pay my employees the customer does, so if you can think of a product that does well for customers, you can make a good living. You have a strong incentive to think of things that work.’ Also, if you think you can lead a team better than the incumbent, you can raise your hand and put that to a vote.When we talk about entrepreneurship, agility, adaptability, we often look to tech companies. However, Haier is in a very traditional industry but possesses incredibly innovative philosophies of work and organisational structure.Akin: It seems a tall order, asking companies to accommodate for three, four, five generations. What do they have to lose by ignoring the challenge?Adam: By not accommodating for all generations, you certainly lose employee, and potentially customer, retention. For example, if you're in professional services and your clients get attached to a particular employee and you then lose that employee, you can very realistically lose their clients too.Akin: And I guess you also risk losing future leaders.Adam: Yes. We have to think that inevitably Gen Y are going to lead our companies. It’s highly probable they’ll lead in the way they’d always wished to have been led.Akin: Changes in leadership will undoubtedly change the identity of companies and industries. What might our new reality resemble?Adam: Well, the concept of the purpose of business being to maximise return to shareholders is already dying. The way in which companies will have to be profitable is they will have to be more authentic and passionately pursue a mission, serving customers better and in new ways every day. In other words, organisations will have to focus on the outputs that manifest their mission, not the outcome of profit, which is the logical conclusion of conducting one’s outputs well.Akin: It sounds like we’re learning from the past and improving, with a greater value being placed on people enjoying their work.Adam: An organisation is cooking with gas when it has people who get up every day aware of their strengths and energised with a sense of fulfilment. This benefits organisations and customers, it’s a powerful virtuous circle. There’s value in being able to recognise your best behaviours.Akin: That does, of course, rely on knowing your strengths.
Adam: Precisely. One way in which we can do that in a clear manner comes from the discipline of positive psychology plus assessment. As you know,Essenticintegrates these ideas that have circulated in academic consciousness for a few years now; positive psychology and the power of storytelling as a diagnostic tool. Their service has provided unique answers to tens of thousands of people from various organisations and cultures.
Akin: Before I let you go, Adam, who is your book for?Adam: The book is for anyone who is in the position of leading others. If you’re a manager, you’re dealing with these issues. If you're a Gen Y, you might not know what kind of leader you’ll be, but you can get some ideas of what might resonate with you and the context in which you've entered the workplace.
