Women in Board Rooms Create Better Performance - Horasis Global Meeting 2021

On June 8th, 2021, the Horasis community gathered for the annual Global Meeting to navigate latest developments and discuss the post-COVID future. Under the theme “Fostering Shared Humanity”, over 1000 speakers and delegates debated how to be entrepreneurial and at the same time proactive in advancing sustainable development in the interest of the global public good.

What are the seedpods of shared solutions to solve the existential challenges facing business, governments and humanity at large? How to nurture the deep transformations our world needs? And how to ignite discourses on openness, fair globalization and equality?

I was delighted to be able to contribute to an incredible panel, chaired by Lisa Sennhauser-Kelly, with fellow-panelists such as Ayumi Moore Aoki, Anita Motwani, Nina Angelovska and Luisa Delgado, to discuss a theme on the global agenda: women on boards.

We fail consistently to meet targets for women on boards, in circumstances that damage organisational reputations and the opportunities offered by embracing fresh styles of leadership.

Having seen little progress with voluntary efforts, several countries have enacted legislation that calls for a minimum percentage of female directors. But is it working? Are we choosing the right candidates?

Board quality is dependent on board diversity – and for this, we need a combination of skills and experience. Diverse boards are less prone to 'groupthink' and more likely to embrace new approaches to meet threats and opportunities.

Women are a rapidly growing economic force in many leading and developing economies. In many countries women influence or control nearly three- quarters of household spending: without greater and more diverse female representation on their boards, companies are losing out on not only an important segment of talent, but on a critical marketplace perspective.

So what will it take to get more women on boards?

I am pleased to share the full session in the video below as well as my contribution to the topic.

1. What is your story?

I’m an advisor on social trends, economic impact and culture and expert in marketing, communications and public affairs, I’ve had a career in finance, and I’m passionate about diversity and responsible leadership. Over the past 20 years I have worked for both the private and public sector in Milan, London and Zurich.

I grew up in Milan, my husband is German so we have a trilingual household, and we currently live in Zurich with our 3 young children.

I’ve had a non-linear career by choice, which these days have become the new normal, and today I help organisations to build trust as social capital, as I believe that the social, economic, and environmental challenges of our time, truly require new approaches to leadership and responsibility.

My daily mantra at work is to foster and develop skills such as empathy, emotional quotient, ability to listen to what is not said, and to understand and analise society and its trends. I greatly admire companies that have a positive impact on society, that deliver responsibly and walk the talk when it comes to social development goals, diversity, gender equality, responsible and trustworthy leadership.

My advice for younger women who are starting today, for women who are struggling with work, from lack of recognition to impostor syndrome, is to choose very carefully the people you surround yourself with, there always needs to be a balance of give and take, but most of all, of mutual respect. So, find and use your voice, respectfully, but firmly. With your boss, your peers, your circles, your stakeholders, there are lines that should not be crossed and balances to keep at all times, this will actually earn you respect.

Also, one skill that takes time to learn and master is the ability to say no when something simply does not work for you.

Never stop learning, learn to zoom in and out, from the bigger picture down to the detail, and back, make plan A, B, C, and be ready to adjust over and over again. But most importantly, be curious, be open and enjoy the work you do.

2. What creates high performing boards? What are the leadership qualities required and what has gender to do with this?

Hundreds of studies on gender and leadership have found that at the individual level, men and women are close on most aspects of leadership potential, with no significant differences found for intelligence or general learning ability, as well as general leadership.

However, there is a female advantage when it comes to transformational leadership, a style that is linked to higher levels of team engagement, morale, and productivity, as well as effectively rewarding individuals for their performance. Also, men tend to lead more autocratically and are more likely to be laissez-faire leaders— a counterproductive leadership style. Women tend to be better communicators, have higher emotional intelligence, and lower levels of aggression, a pattern that is altogether associated with superior leadership capability.

So why do we need gender-balanced boards? Beyond fairness, increased gender diversity brings a competitive advantage to modern companies, which face extraordinary competition in an economy that puts an unprecedented premium on knowledge. Women comprise more than half of the pool of human capital. Companies that fail to fully leverage and draw from more than half of the pool risk losing an edge.

Also, companies better connect with their stakeholders – be it customers, employees, owners, and the communities in which they operate – when they have greater diversity, including on their boards.

There is very clear research from McKinsey, Credit Suisse and Catalyst that documents that companies with gender-diverse boards experience greater returns on equity, increased returns on sales and higher returns on invested capital.

So a high-performing board is one that generates and implements fresh and most inclusive ideas. When a gender imbalance exists, boards can easily fall into ‘group think’ and fail to see and account for perspectives that might enhance company performance. Great ideas can arise only when a diverse pool of thought is active and present at the table.

3. If women are drivers of higher performance, due to their skills and abilities, why aren't there more women on boards, what is holding us back? Are we holding ourself back?

I think that when it comes to women and leadership we should be admitting that often the world of work works against us. That, coupled with the lack of inspiring and diverse role models, and the fact that leadership today is much less meritocratic than we think, all that does not help women to move up through the ranks and into senior positions. We have too many systemic barriers and many unrealistic expectations.

The current barriers affect companies’ cultures and everyone working within it, women and men. To succeed, women have had to adapt, and this has proven increasingly difficult.

New role models to me are crucial to break the cycles of outdated cultures, inspiring women and men to a new identity of leadership, one that leverages skills such as collaboration, empathy, empowerment, and trust, helping younger generations of women and men to rise to become new role models themselves, leaders driven by strong soft skills, empathy and trust.

New successful forms of leadership do not take only one form, but all have a common denominator: emotional quotient and competence over confidence.

In general, women or men, I believe we should be very aware of how, often unconsciously, we fall for leaders who are confident, narcissistic and charismatic, we should instead promote people into leadership because of their competence, humility and integrity, incidentally – but proven- this will lead to a higher proportion of female leaders too. Falling for "charismatic" leaders can be very dangerous.

Also, to get better at choosing their leaders, companies need to change how leaders are groomed and promoted. These changes would not only allow more women to advance, they would help men who don’t fit our assumptions about what a leader “should” be. The result would be a rising tide of leadership competence that really would be good for business and help us moving towards more sustainable economic models too. But that’s a topic for another panel 

4. What are your thoughts about quotas, pros and cons and which way do you lean on this point?

I believe quotas are often the only way ahead, unfortunately. I used to be against gender quotas as I felt government intervention on this topic felt like we, as a firm, had failed as we had to comply with strict government policies. However corporate politics, bias, stereotypes, and dynamics in many countries, in many sectors, and in many firms are simply too difficult to overcome. Also, often quotas do not guarantee that we select the best female candidate for the role. And this can backfire against women, how many times have we heard “she only got the role because she is a woman”?

In 2003, Norway pioneered the use of gender quotas, requiring public companies to fill at least 40 percent of their boards with women. Otherwise, they would risk losing their board certification. Inspired by Norway, other countries, including Iceland, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium and Germany, soon followed suit by enacting their own targets.

By contrast, Britain avoided quotas when it launched an initiative back in 2011 to increase the number of women directors on boards. The effort not only boosted the representation of women directors without the use of quotas, but also dramatically decreased the number of all-male boards from 152 to none in the FTSE 100, and to just 15 in the FTSE 250.

So while the reasons behind the gender imbalance may be complicated, the solution does not have to be. Companies looking to diversify their boards should consider adopting the ‘Every Other One’ approach as somebody recently. Fill every other vacant board seat with a woman.

If this happened, company boards would reach actual gender parity within just a few years.

Companies also can – and should – expand the criteria for board directors to achieve parity. Corporate leaders should cast a broader net to include senior female executives with strong business track records.

Boards are increasingly recognising that gender diversity is imperative to successful business, but more action is needed. While some boards already have a substantial representation of women, and a number have been adding women, they must make it an ongoing priority to increase the number of women on their boards.

M.

(manuela.andaloro@smartbizhub.com)

Towards Trustworthy and Responsible Leadership

Article originally published on Horasis.

On March 18, 2021, Horasis held its second digital Extraordinary Meeting, under the theme Rebuilding Trust. Thanks to the incredible work of Dr. Frank-Jürgen Richter, founder and chairman of Horasis, 1100 of the most senior members of the Visions Community – including several heads of governments and key ministers – offered the opportunity to shape the world’s agenda.

I was honored to be able to join an incredible panel, chaired by Metin Guvener with fellow-panelists such as Fahim Naim, Morgan Parnis, and Gary Shapiro, to discuss a vital theme for today’s societies: trustworthy and responsible leadership.

Many nations have noted reduced trust in the ability of political leaders to address the challenges crucial to our daily lives and our future. Cynicism about political leaders is running high, particularly when new pressures arising from globalization are making the involvement of government more important than ever. So how do we install trustworthy and responsible leaders with the inspiration and power to crack the issues that our nations need to solve?

I am pleased to share my contribution to the panel as well as the full session in the video below.

Metin: What is your personal experience and vision of leadership within the transforming world of families, business, politics, and communities locally and internationally?

Manuela: I have spent the past 20 years mostly in financial services, banking, media, and wealth management in Milan, London, and Zurich. Today I’m a consultant to the private and public sector on narratives and strategies around macroeconomic trends, social change, and digital transformation.

I’d like to briefly look back at previous generations. In the aftermath of the Second World War, my grandfather saw his country, Italy, transformed from an agriculture-based economy seriously affected by the world wars, into one of the most advanced and industrialized nations in the world, a leading G7 country. He went from losing two of his baby sisters to the Spanish flu to being able to thoroughly vaccinate his two daughters from birth. From his father’s horses to owning two good cars.

That generation had a very important skill. They had learnt to adapt to any life circumstance, they adapted to change, they trusted competence and institutions, they also had no option. Instead, what we see today at organizations or governments, or among citizens, is often a lack of trust and resistance to change. Experts measure this attitude in AQ, adaptability quotient, and our current generations are not scoring very high.

One reason for this, especially in recent years, can be found in the way information is shared, communicated, and consumed.

During the financial crisis of 2007-2008, I was working in London, the heart of the European crisis at the time.

The financial crisis didn’t merely have disastrous economic consequences, it also negatively impacted the public’s trust in the financial world, in corporations, and in governments, tarnishing their reputation and, as many believe, leading to the strong winds of populism we’ve seen in the past few years.

What went wrong? And what is still going wrong in today’s crisis?

The ability that was most tragically and dramatically lacking during the 2008 crisis – and is still somewhat lacking – was the ability to communicate specifically of industry and governments; to communicate the nature of the problem, what was at stake in terms of risks, and thus why, in America alone, it was necessary to spend $700 billion of taxpayers’ money to solve the problem.

In the light of digital transformation, current information and communication models must be adapted to meet the growing needs of a public – citizens, professionals, politicians, and academia – that has access to ever-increasing amounts of information, and often of fake news, but regularly little clarity and perspective on numerous issues.

In my view, trustworthy and responsible leadership is tied to strategic communication, and is vital for industry and governments. Not only does it have to convey goals, intentions and strategies to stakeholders and society, but it also needs to educate the general public.

Responsible leaders are unbiased thought-leaders to the extent possible on certain topics and must work to reduce fake news and speculation: governments and the industry have a moral duty to provide context and clarity by working together and keeping communication channels open with all stakeholders, including the media and influencers, to create mutual trust.

In the next 10 years, our democracies and the world at large have plenty at stake. It is a decade in which we will set and achieve crucial goals.

A new and strong model of responsible leadership, along with talent and excellence, will help to deal with the most urgent issues, in order to generate new waves of more sustainable and fair growth, capitalizing on essential emotional intelligence and people’s adaptability.

Metin: Mentorship has an important role in everybody’s life, and I know it is particularly close to your heart – can you please elaborate on how it has featured in your life both as mentee and mentor?

Manuela: Mentorship taught me both who I wanted to be and who I absolutely did not want to become. I had both examples of successful, emphatic mentors who were great leaders with a high EQ, and examples of arrogance. As a mentor myself, I have tried to use honesty and transparency as a baseline to show empathy, to tailor my awareness and understanding of situations based on how my mentee was experiencing them.

Mentorship has transformed me in the sense that it helped to see clearly what type of leaders are de facto able to have a positive impact on people, on society, and on our democracies, and those that were extremely damaging. In this sense, it has shaped my understanding of the bigger picture and the importance of what we call “soft skills”, which are the skills that are at the foundation of our societies, our governments, businesses, and that will get us through the next decade.

The popular press focuses on charisma as the mark of leadership, but history is full of charismatic leaders who attracted lots of followers and then led them in manipulative ways. 

Metin: Books played a deep and foundational role in your early life as a reader and for some of you, in later life as a writer – what book would you like to share with us today?

Manuela: As a writer myself, I get incredible inspiration from what I read. I have two recommendations, on very different themes.

 - “Quiet, the power of introverts”

By Susan Cain. The book raises awareness on how modern Western culture misunderstands and undervalues the traits and capabilities of introverted people, leading to “a colossal waste of talent, energy and happiness”.

In Western cultures, extroversion dominates and introversion is viewed as inferior. The book outlines the advantages and disadvantages of each temperament, citing research in biology, psychology, neuroscience, and evolution to demonstrate that introversion is common and normal, noting that many of humankind’s most creative individuals and distinguished leaders were introverts. Cain urges changes at the workplace, in schools, and in parenting.

- “The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths”

By Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of Economics of Innovation & Public Value at UCL. The book talks about the role of governments as drivers of excellence and innovation and describes the role of the public sector as a “top-choice investor” in the history of technological change. There is a plethora of examples of such, often in the US: just think about the favorable setting in which Apple itself was born and has become the colossus we know today.

In Italy, an important example in this sense is the Center for Convergent Technologies of Genoa, created by the Ministry of Finance 25 years ago. A great, high-class research center that has attracted and continues to attract foreigners and Italians, including returning expats.

Today, a comparable example may be the Human Technopole of Milan, the new Italian research institute for life sciences, created by the Italian government in synergy with the private sector, with the aim to become a leading European center of research, attracting national and international talent.

Metin: Having worked with a vast array of clients who have benefited from your strategic advice, vision, value, and voice, can you please explain your driving value proposition to organizations who want to transform their leadership in a trustworthy and responsible manner?

Manuela: I tailor business strategies and narratives at the intersection of macroeconomic trends, social change, and digital transformation, raising awareness and engagement for organizations, governments, and societies on their impact.

My key impact on organizations is helping them build trust as social capital. The social, economic, and environmental challenges of this decade require new approaches to leadership and responsibility. I support them in framing this need, creating the narrative and engagement, and supporting the latter with ad hoc strategies.

Some argue that those in authority positions within an organizational pyramid are the leaders of the organization, and that all that is needed to lead is for the followers to respect the authority of the position. This conception worked in the past, but works less and less in today’s organizations. We are seeing the decline of authority and the rise of trust as an organizing principle. To be effective today, strategic leaders need to combine trust with expertise and emotional quotient.

The definition of trust provided by the OECD Guidelines is “a person’s belief that another person or institution will act consistently with their expectations of positive behavior”. Trust matters for the well-being of people and the country where they live: there is strong evidence on its role in supporting social and economic relations. Trust between individuals and trust in institutions determine economic growth, social cohesion, and well-being. These are crucial components for policy reforms and the sustainability of political systems as well as industry.

Metin: What do you think is a characteristic that great leaders share, and conversely, a habit to avoid so you don’t become a leader who is not expressing full potential?

Great leaders leverage emotion and intuition, showing compassion, humbleness, and openness. They listen and empower, promoting common goals by inspiring a shared vision of sustainable prosperity. Moreover, they make digitalization and innovation truly happen, they innovate responsibly through emerging technology, they capitalize on expertise, intellect, and insight, and they are the first ones to embrace continuous learning and knowledge exchange.

A habit to avoid? I’ll quote Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and pick the most dangerous: toxic charisma.

In times of multimedia politics, leadership is commonly downgraded to just another form of entertainment, and charisma seems a must to keep the audience engaged. However, the short-term benefits of charisma are often neutralized by its long-term consequences.

- Charisma dilutes judgment: There are only three ways to influence others: force, reason, or charm. Force and reason are rational, charm is not. Charm is based on emotional manipulation and, as such, it has the ability to trump any rational assessment and bias our views. 

- Charisma is addictive and research proves that it fosters collective narcissism. Especially in the era of social media.

 Experts recommend upgrading to a more rational and uncontaminated leadership model by:

1. Selecting leaders using scientifically validated assessment tools, instead of relying on “chemistry” or intuition. For example, narcissists tend to perform well in interviews, and confidence display is often mistaken for competence.

2. Fine-tuning politicians’ media exposure and airtime, which often make charismatic candidates look more competent than they actually are. This has nothing to do with limiting freedom of speech, but rather with tweaking and fact-checking content to provide factual and educational narratives.

3. Finding the hidden talent, avoiding the charisma trap. There is a universal management paradox whereby the people most likely to climb the organizational ladder do so because (rather than in spite) of character traits that impair their performance as leaders. This has been causing a considerable amount of damage at different levels and in all environments, we simply cannot afford it any longer.

Manuela Andaloro

(info@smartbizhub.com)

Do not wait for leaders. Become them.

“In terms of promoting diversity in the industry, there are some easy steps that could be taken to try and break the image of financial services as a realm of male domination. Increasing the number of women speakers at major industry events sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s still something event-coordinators struggle to do. Organisations like EWPN are playing such a vital role in breaking these patterns, not only by empowering women, but also by promoting women in the payments industry who deserve recognition, who would be overlooked, in many cases, by their male counterparts.”

— Angela Yore, MD, Advisory Board EWPN

Left to right, Chloe Templeton, Megan Caywood, Manuela Andaloro, panel moderated by Angela Yore

The world is in desperate need of great leaders—whether in business or in politics. Yet, many leadership opportunities are withheld from half of the workforce.

Even with all the progress we’ve made for equality in so many important ways, women are still severely underrepresented in business leadership positions. Women-led companies make up only 4% of Fortune 500 companies, a trend that holds steady throughout most business sectors.

According to the latest World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, “Female talent remains one of the most underutilized business resources.” In some industries, like finance, this is especially clear.

In finance, as career level rises, female representation declines. Although 46 percent of financial services employees are women, at the executive level, it’s only 15 percent. (WEF 2017 data)

The outlook looks better than when I started my career 19 years ago, or even since my banking days 2 years ago, yet, much remains to be done, starting from raising awareness on role models who lead leveraging their high EQ.

New role models are crucial to break the cycles of outdated cultures, inspiring women and men to a new identity of leadership, one that leverages skills such as collaboration, empathy and trust, helping younger generations of women and men to rise to a new identity of leadership, one that doesn’t take only one form.

But how are we all driving steadily this very much needed change? What new real models for women and men are we raising awareness on? Men are as much trapped in most of this “alpha-male” world as women are. Times are changing, a clear reflection of this is the increasing number of millennials (women and men) who are less than fascinated by old corporate working models and by old and outdated environments.

The lure that many large corporations once had in attracting and retaining talents is long gone, replaced by new working models, attractive start-ups, high impact lean companies that favour calm competence over loud arrogant behaviours.

Millennials are not alone on their quest. It’s enough to think of how many people we know above 40, men and women, who are daily trying to change the way they work, to find more meaning in what they do, to leave behind the old ‘work life balance’ to find sustainable ways to create a winning synergy between their work and their life.

It was a great honour to join last year one of the leading events in the payments and Fintech sector for their first ever all-women panel.

Beyond the now well-known benefits of gender balance, our goal was to share learnings, experiences and stories from diverse female role models,  raising awareness on new, different types of female leadership and successes.

As the two thousand guests gathered, it became apparent that women represent still a stark minority  in the sector, and at the same time,  that interest in the topic of gender balance and of leverage of the female brains is ever so relevant for men and women alike. 

The payments industry is not unique in gender inequality: traditional payments companies have been technology and finance driven, both mostly male-dominated industries that have somehow landed in a fairly versatile space.

The panel I was invited to sit on was expertly moderated by Angela Yore, Founder of SkyParlour, EWPN board member and leading advocate for women empowerment in the FinTech space. Fellow panellists were Megan Caywood, then Chief Platform Officer at Starling Bank, now Global Head of Digital Strategy at Barclays Bank, and Chloe Templeton,  Head of Mutuals and Women in Finance at HM Tresurey, now International Policy Lead for Women's Economic Empowerment at the Department for International Development (DFID).

We spoke about the importance of empowering women and men to achieve diversity and close the gender gap, and of how to frame and invest in our own personal brand.

What follows is a snapshot of our panel discussion with key take-aways.

Question: “What to do about the fact that confident women leaders are often seen negatively?”

Megan: “Be confident anyway. We need confident women leaders. The world doesn’t benefit by us shrinking so that others aren’t intimidated.”

Question: “Can you tell us more about the Women in Finance Charter?”

Chloe: “In 2016 HM Treasury launched the Women in Finance Charter which commits signatory firms to make significant progress on improving the representation of women at the most senior levels of their organisation. Over 270 firms have signed the Charter, who together employ more than 750,000 staff.”

Question: “Why is the number of women on boards still so low?”

Angela: “When I say to the Fintech leaders I work with, ‘why is your board so lacking in diversity?’, the tame response I often get is that women are simply not applying! And it’s true that women only represent 29% of staff in the sector and white men dominate the boardroom. Men still make up the majority of high paid jobs in financial services but good things are beginning to happen and . California is leading the way as the first US state to require women on corporate boards and PwC is the first of the big four to ban all-male job shortlists.”

Question: “How can women’s voices be heard more?”

Manuela: “A famous statement of Christine Lagarde post financial crisis quotes `If Lehman Brothers had been a bit more Lehman Sisters ... we would not have had the degree of tragedy that we had as a result of what happened.` Beyond the obvious what this highlights is that women are normally naturally more risk-averse than men. Which is very good for most businesses but can be backfiring when it comes to promoting ourselves in the workplace and our role in society. Our own personal brand should be the best representation of our values across our personal and professional lives, and should be out there.”

M.

(info@smartbizhub.com)

———-

For more information:

Women in Finance Charter materials here.

Analysis of the Charter’s impact here 

Firms who want to sign the Charter can do so here

Payexpo 2019

One thing to bet on? Yourself. #FearlessFridays

Making an impact, raising awareness on topics that are driving our society forward, connecting great minds and smart ideas, investing in human capital and core skills.  I worked on my passions and turned them into a business. 

Over the past 18 years, I’ve had quite the career journey: 12 different business cards and titles, 5 companies, 3 countries. My most recent addition is the business card I cherish the most: my 6th company, my own.

In each of those positions, I was amazed by the many great people who surrounded me and the power that came from our personal and professional relationships with each other. The most simple yet powerful leadership lesson I learned over my career was that success in life comes as much from what you know and from how you nourish your relationships.

Yet, many career-oriented colleagues continued to focus solely on the one most advertised pathway: the steep career ladder. No matter what the cost was, and what values it clashed with. Somehow considerably less time, energy, thought, and effort went into harnessing their networks and nourishing relationships with key stakeholders around them and outside of their immediate professional world, and even less went into improving vital skills such as self-awareness, emotional intelligence, charisma, self-brand, strengths awareness, to name a few. A pattern began to form for some of those colleagues: at some point, inevitably, their careers stalled, or stopped. Or they simply grew tired, less passionate, they found less purpose in what they had been doing. And the landscape outside did not look comforting. How many had invested in well-rounded networks and had efficiently mapped their strengths, skills and passions, had worked on their core "soft skills", or were clear on what drove them beyond their job, benchmarking them with reality and feasibility? Very few. 

I knew other colleagues who understood the importance of networks but didn’t know how to approach building them strategically. Or did not think they had the ‘social skills’ to maintain strong relationships, or sometimes they were lacking the time and the structure. So many fell back on emails and virtual relationships via social media, exchanges that were never of the same quality as relationships built in-person and over the years. A network built by chance, convenience, social media platforms, and the goodwill of friends, colleagues and business partners is also a bit haphazard.

What if?

What if there was a network where successful professionals could meet in-person and strategically build and strengthen their relationships? What if someone helped them to prioritize? What if a network offered high-impact training and in-person content normally meant for C-Suite executives, but it was made available for those who believe in making an impact and in the power of a strategic community and cross-industry exchanges?

#SmartPlan was born from the belief that our professional lives are based on three key pillars: education, experience and network. While we dedicate an incredible amount of time to the first two pillars, we often leave the strength of our networks to chance, luck, spare moments and digital platforms. Yet, research suggests that almost 90% of roles and business partnerships leverage personal relationships. And relationships need genuine interest and skills to be nourished and grow.

This is where #SmartPlan comes in. 

Our community brings together an elite group of diverse, successful professionals to increase the value we bring to each other and increase the impact we have on the world.

#SmartPlan’s mission is to accelerate the success of impact-makers by cultivating an inspiring and valuable in-person network while providing high-impact training on the latest sought-after skills, such as charisma, self awareness, self-brand, emotional intelligence in business, and much more.

The future of business and of work does no longer necessarily involve a straight-line 20 years career within the same corporation or even industry. 

“One of the paradoxes of the future will be that to succeed one will need to stand out from the crowd while at the same time being part of the crowd or, at least, the wise crowd. So, you will need to both stand out with your mastery and skills and simultaneously become part of a collection of other masters who together create value.

That’s because, in a future increasingly defined by innovation, the capacity to combine and connect know-how, competencies and networks will be key. It’s in this synthesis or combination that real innovative possibilities lie. So, whom you choose to connect with, and to whom they are connected, will be one of the defining aspects of future working life.

High-value networks will consist of a combination of strong relationships with a few knowledgeable people and a larger number of less-connected relationships with a more extensive network. Your high-value networks will connect you with people who are similarly specialised as well as those with very different competencies and outlooks. It is in the diversity of these broader networks, that the possibility of innovation lays.

I believe there is an opportunity over the coming decades to shape work and life in a manner that enables people to reconnect with what makes them happy and creates a high quality of experience. The breakdown of automated work, the rise of home-based working and the increase in the possibility of choice provide the foundation for a shift in focus, away from quantity consumed as the only measure of success.” (Source: The Future of Work, Lynda Gratton, organizational theorist, Professor of Management Practice,  London Business School).

Are you ready for the shifting balance of power? Visit #SmartPlan. 

M. 

(info@smart-plan.org)

What's your inner pace?

Last summer I was invited to a talent development offsite,  'women fit for success'. I very much enjoy and applaude these programmes and investments on the company's talents, but I do wonder whether tailoring programmes specifically for women doesn't make the problem of gender equality in the workplace even worse.

Nevertheless, I pack my overnight bag and off I go. The whole two days programme was very interesting, one thing in particular has hit a nerve, the pace calculator exercise. 

After a short networking lunch on day 2, that followed an intense morning and an even more packed day 1, we are asked to stand up from our chairs and start walking in circles around the room, following the pace that the workshop leader would indicate. 

Mentally I wonder 'Seriously, with all the emails piling up in my inbox, my endless to do list, why are we doing this random exercise now?' It took fifteen minutes before realisation hit home and I saw how important is my inner pace, at any given time of the day, and how I could make that work to my benefit. 

So we keep walking in circles, slowly, then fast, then very fast trying to avoid collision with the other twenty ladies, then almost running, then very slowly, then we are asked to choose our pace and keep walking. 

My pace of choice that afternoon after lunch, from 1 to 5, where 1 is slowly walking as if you are admiring art in a museum and 5 is rushing for the train in heels, was 2/3. I felt uncomfortable with 4 and 5, almost annoyed, and so I did with 1 and 2. 

How would my mind and body perform when forced out of their natural pace in a particular moment?

Sunday walks.  

Following the whereabouts of the youngest driver in the house. 

Being a 'morning person' I know that would I have done the same exercise at 9am through to 12pm, I would have gone for 4 or even 5, at 5pm to 8pm probably as well, but after lunch? My mind needs focus and slow pace, as much as it needs adrenaline in the morning and early evening. Your 'inner pace' can also change depending on the time of the year, after a regenerating holiday you would probably choose a pace 5 throughout the day as much as after a long year and a particularly tiring patch (erm) you would probably want to hide under the duvet, no I meant choose a pace 1/2 more often.

Our take away, you have guessed it, was to learn to tailor our days, workload, tasks, based on our personal natural pace. Not that often we are given the choice (hello 1pm meetings) but knowledge and self awareness always make you score higher.

M.

Walking down the Zurich lake on a Sunday in October during a 'pace 1' afternoon, reminded me of the funny picture below someone shared with me.