Data Privacy Rules Are Changing. How Can Marketers Keep Up?

As the pandemic forces companies all around the world to shift to remote work and digital systems, renewed attention has been drawn to questions around data privacy. After all, consumers might be willing to accept a delayed package, a canceled flight, or an extended service window in light of the pandemic — but compromise their personal data, and it is game over. What can marketers do to meet rising consumer expectations (not to mention regulatory requirements) regarding data privacy?

Welcome to the Era of Consumer Data Protections

This conversation isn’t new. A recent study found that 84% of customers will abandon an online purchase if the website isn’t secure. Back in 2018, the EU passed the landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to increase data privacy requirements, and earlier this year, California announced there would be no pandemic-related delay in enforcing the newly-passed “California Consumer Privacy Act” (CCPA).

These regulations give consumers more awareness and control over exactly what personal information is collected, how it is sold, and how its security is ensured. Marketers have taken a variety of steps to comply with the new regulations, such as making sure web forms include opt-in checkboxes that ask for consent before adding users to a mailing list, providing easy access to privacy statements and disclosures, and creating dedicated web pages where users can submit requests to access, modify, or delete their personal information.

However, while both B2B and B2C marketers have taken extra care for some time to ensure prospects have consented to being targeted, the current climate has made it much more challenging to maintain adequate protections. The pandemic has forced countless non-digital businesses to shift to online operations overnight, and many of these companies didn’t have remote work policies and procedures in place for managing sensitive data outside the office.

When combined with the onslaught of new regulations like the CCPA, these businesses have understandably struggled to protect consumer data as reliably as they used to. But with agile, adaptable tools, marketers can capitalize on this shift to online operations to build consumer trust and demonstrate dedication to data privacy.

How Marketers Can Adapt: Analytics & Automation

Specifically, analytics and automation technologies can help companies meet new legislative requirements around customer and auditor requests much more efficiently and affordably. The CCPA specifies “rights of access” requirements, which means that customers must have a way to ask for a copy of the data categories being gathered, or for their data to be deleted. To comply with these requests quickly and reliably, businesses need digital, do-it-yourself solutions for automating mission-critical tasks like data deletion and extraction. For example, forms that auto-populate with necessary information can help ensure that complicated requirements are met. Similarly, real-time desktop guidance tools or virtual assistants can help employees execute tasks in a specific order, or prompt contact center agents to provide and confirm proper disclosure information.

In addition, analytics tools can provide insights that significantly reduce the potential for human error in complying with complex, global data protection regulations. These tools can be used to identify customer interactions with higher compliance risk and automatically queue them into a predefined auditing workflow. For interactions where customer data is being collected, for instance, these tools can determine whether the proper CCPA or GDPR disclosure has taken place, and then automatically prompt agents in real time to share the required disclosure information and maintain compliance. This reduces the need for manual call listening, freeing up quality monitors and supervisors to be more responsive to complex inquiries.

Analytics tools also make it possible to build queries that identify all interactions that mention key words such as “CCPA,” “personal information,” “remove,” or “disclose.” With these queries, marketers can better understand the volume of traffic pertaining to the CCPA, which can be useful for trending and reporting. In addition, interactions that mention data removal could be automatically funneled into a quality monitoring workflow, enabling reviewers to easily verify that the information requested for removal was indeed removed from the company’s database.

Looking Ahead

As the pandemic pushes companies to conduct more of their business online, the data privacy conversation launched by regulations such as GDPR and CCPA has taken on new urgency all around the world. To maintain compliance — as well as consumer trust — companies must invest in automation and analytics tools that safeguard customer privacy. It is only by investing in solutions that are agile, adaptable, and capable of keeping pace with evolving regulations that organizations will be able to thrive in the new era of consumer data protection.

Source: HBR 27 Aug, 2020

 

Technology: Bridging the Digital Divide Through Coding

 

Encourage students in your life to explore rewarding leadership paths of the future.

Whether you agree with the idea of reopening schools or not,  distance learning will soon be the norm. The old-fashioned educational system of long days, crowded classrooms and antiquated expensive textbooks will become a thing of the past as parents and students adjust to the changing mode of education. Everyone must embrace the fact that this will be a turbulent academic season.

As parents, we must adjust our traditional thinking and adapt to a changing narrative about education and the outlook for career prospects for our children. Honestly, many of the professions and business models that we once wanted for our children may be gone, and many will never return — especially with major brick-and-mortar operations, which are barely holding on during this retail apocalypse.

With most K-12 schools across the country facing the reality of distance learning, parents must also face the reality that the goalpost is moving toward tech-driven fields and careers. From medicine to law and engineering ,  distance learning will drive new innovation and demand within the tech sector and lead the future of entrepreneurship.

My son’s school has always been prepared for remote/distance learning as all K-12 students are issued an Apple iPad Pro on the first day of school. No notebooks, pen or paper required, as all notes from the class are shared via Canvas. If a child is absent due to illness, they can log in from their iPad and listen to the instruction via FaceTime by requesting the teacher log in from his or her desk.

Apple has been a silent frontrunner in the distance-learning space since the first iPad launched in 2010. Recently, Apple announced updates to its Everyone Can Code curriculum, which introduces students to the world of coding through interactive activities. It is designed to take students all the way from writing their first lines of Swift code to building their first apps.

Why is coding so important, especially now?

With the closure of schools in March 2020, more than nine million students did not have the high-speed home internet required for online learning. In addition, there continues to be a parent/caregiver technology knowledge divide with many of the required programs needed to transition to remote learning. The high-speed internet access divide will negatively impact students as they will trail behind their digitally connected peers and classmates, forcing them to wait for paper packets with limited instruction and support.

Subsequently, the academic gap may lead to a career prospecting gap as well. Industries that have felt the most impact from economic decline are hospitality, sports, entertainment, travel and tourism, and restaurants. Once upon a time in the K-12 landscape, career counselors steered students toward these professions as they presented stability and unlimited growth. Now, not so much. 

Coding helps kids with communication, creativity, math and imagination. Apple recently launched its new Learning from Home website, where educators and parents can access on-demand videos and virtual conferences on remote learning plus schedule free one-on-one virtual coaching sessions, all hosted by educators at Apple. “Without coding, computers would literally do nothing," says Travis Addair, a senior software engineer at Uber. "They would be completely useless.”

The next generation of entrepreneurs are facing the new possibility of self-paced online learning and will need skills to meet the needs of a post-COVID-19 world. How can we close the learning gap this school year, while giving students the skills for a successful future?

Visit your local library 

 I know it sounds antiquated and anecdotal, but many libraries have reopened and are providing free online access for patrons. Digitally divided communities can create a concentrated effort to encourage students and parents to use libraries for the academic year and learn new career skills, such as coding. We cannot afford more students to fall behind this year, so contact your local library.

Teach students new leadership paths 

I’ve had many open and honest conversations with my 15-year-old son about what the real world will look like after he graduates and factors he must consider when choosing his own leadership path for the future. Although he has always been groomed to work in our family business, I want him to explore other options, without limiting himself to outdated beliefs and career prospects. Coding is now just as important as English and math.

Even if there is a vaccine or cure tomorrow for COVID-19, the damage to many industries that we have normalized as “stable” may not be necessary or sustainable for graduates in 2020 and beyond. Consider coding as a tool to accelerate learning or as a career prospect. Either way, students will have a head start academically.

Internships! Internships! Internships!  

My success would not have been possible without the gift of several meaningful internships. My first internship was at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office when I was a senior in high school, where I worked closely with attorneys, judges and the police department to learn every aspect of criminal law before deciding on law school. I served as an intern for three years and gained valuable skills and connections, which lead major law firms to make considerable high-paying job offers while I was still an undergraduate.

To retrain the unemployed, underemployed and/or underserved market, internships can accelerate the learning and lessen the digital divide by encouraging students to learn valuable skills beyond the classroom while completing their classwork. This can be a collaborative effort to provide Wi-Fi access and leadership skills to help students with limited options. Although many companies are working remotely during the pandemic, it is a great way to attract remote interns to join the team, while gaining access to technology as well.

Recent events have highlighted several inequities that have remained hidden in our society. Although there is no homogeneous solution, education will never look the same again. If you still need assistance with high-speed internet access, the FCC has released a list of resources to help students during this pandemic. While parents are transitioning into their new roles as homeschool teachers this year, it is equally important to remember to help students explore rewarding leadership paths of the future, not the past.

Source: Entrepreneur India 26 Aug,2020

Resilience: Can it be learned?

In the organizational context, a resilient workforce can be built through various dialogues, innovative assignments, a support network, mentoring, and guidance. Let’s explore how.

It is 5 AM on the clock, Ria wakes up to get ready for work, makes some food for herself, and switches on her laptop. She meets and greets her new colleagues on chat and starts to prepare for her onboarding in a new company. She is excited to begin a new adventure. 

On the same onboarding call, is also Steve, who woke up just ten minutes before the call and is not that enthusiastic about this change. He misses his old colleagues and is also extremely anxious about his new role, as he makes a career transition. 

For some people change is an energizer, a motivator; in fact, these people may seek out change and thrive on it. For other people, it is just the opposite, and change is experienced as exhausting and demotivating, something to put up with and be endured. And even though there is no agreed definition of resilience, it fundamentally relates to one's ability to respond to change, stress, and adversity, positively.

Knowing how change affects you, your peers, and your workforce can help determine learning and development strategies that will allow you to build a much more resilient workforce for a world of work where the only constant is change.

Once discovered and understood how change affects everyone differently, the important question to ask is: Can resilience be learned?

Resilience is not a passive quality, but an active process. How we approach life, and everything it can throw at us has a massive impact on our experience. According to psychologist Susan Kobasa, there are three main elements that resilient people possess: challenge, commitment, and control.

In the book, ‘Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness’, Dr Hanson also discusses the scientifically grounded foundation for lasting wellbeing. He cites inner strengths including grit, gratitude, compassion, and courage, that can fortify resilience to help overcome life’s inevitable adversities. So yes, resilience can be learned, encouraged, imparted and harnessed. 

In an organizational context, a culture of resilience can be fostered and among the workforce the competency can be built through various ways: challenging projects, a support network, mentoring, and an empowering work culture that allows people to push past their mistakes. Let’s explore how: 

How can business leaders, HR & L&D professionals help?

Complex problems & challenging opportunities

“Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.”

- Gever Tulley

How often do you give your employees the chance to solve different problems, or do you wait for external pressures to take them by surprise? It is true that we can’t predict change, we can’t foresee a crisis. To prepare them for this change, talent must be indulged with diverse opportunities. They should be encouraged to work out of their comfort zones. This can be encouraged by enabling people to flex within their roles; encouraging self-development and upskilling, entrusting them with key projects and responsibilities, and enabling them to build relationships with colleagues across silos. That way, when crises do occur, people are already communicating, collaborating, and out of their comfort zone. 

Some organizations also foster resilience through simulation learning and gamifications, wherein they put the employees in a business scenario or a crisis situation they could face in the future. People often find that they have grown and now are stronger as a result of a struggle.  

Learning from failure 

Failure has always been the best teacher and time and again world renowned leaders have proven that. But leaders rarely give themselves and the employees a chance to experiment and fail. HR leaders and business leaders should hence work together in building a culture where failure is welcomed as a springboard for growth and an opportunity to learn and upskill, rather than something to be shied away from. Enable the talent to make mistakes, accept their mistakes and learn from them. 

Talent should be encouraged to confront failures and understand them, and leaders must work along with them to help them deconstruct these failures and learn from them.

As the quote that never gets old says, “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”

But it should also be a two-way dialogue, where leaders are empowered to discuss their failures and what can be learned from them. We all need to get a bit more comfortable making failure part of our everyday vocabulary, and a more transparent component of our careers as a whole.

A strong support network

Caring and positive workplace relationships provide social support which nourishes further emotional resilience and also makes teams feel more connected – which can also lead to them being more productive. Whatever the crisis or the stress trigger may be, people often need to hear other points of view in order for them to get a bit of perspective. As leaders, in fact, you can guide talent based on your own experiences and adversities you may have faced in your life. 

Through a strong support network, the employees can guide each other and help each other sail through the storm. 

How can you learn resilience yourself? 

Respond & not react 

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. 

-Charles R. Swindoll

Easier said than done, yes! But it is the bitter truth. How do you want to shape your life? When facing change, try to put your efforts where you can have the most impact, you feel empowered and confident. Change the narrative of your thoughts, replace them with positive affirmations and look for solutions. 

Part of resilience comes from the knowledge that you have a choice; that you can respond in an intentional way that reduces your stress rather than just reacting to what is happening.

Commitment & Purpose 

Being committed to a larger purpose and your goals often provides a compelling reason to get out of bed in the morning. From concepts like ‘Ikigai’ to ‘Essentialism’, there are many ways in which you can help yourself identify what motivates you, guides you, and inspires you. 

As Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles say, “There is a passion inside you, a unique talent that gives meaning to your days and drives you to share the best of yourself until the very end.”

Take care of yourself 

Most importantly, practice self-compassion. Be kind to yourself. Take care of your well-being. Some experts recommend mindful journaling, yoga, and meditation. Others may find more positive energy by playing a sport, doing something creative, or simply going for a walk. 

Don't let negative thoughts derail your efforts. Instead, consistently practice positive thinking. 

So when the next challenge or change comes, remember, that this time the ball is in your court: Do you succumb or do you surmount?

Source: People matters 24 Jul, 2020

 

Are you an authentic leader?

The rapidly changing world of work requires agility, flexibility and adaptability of leadership styles and approaches to an ever-changing landscape. The current global pandemic has further accelerated the need for these skills and authentic leadership.

“I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I’ve become. If I had, I’d have done it a lot earlier.” – Oprah Winfrey

It’s amazing how many of us have two sides to our personality, a ‘work me’ and a ‘home me’. At work, we often try to come across a certain way, whether it’s to garner more recognition or to fit in with our managers and colleagues; we end up changing ourselves and how we act. This is especially true in leadership, where managers often feel pressure to fit their personality to match their role. The problem is that by ‘acting the role’ of a leader, those around them often feel like they’re being lied to or deceived. 

Then leaders are stunned when their employees don’t like them, don’t trust them and end up leaving. But it could be better if individuals can remain authentic in their leadership approach, they can bring their whole self to work while still being effective, productive and inspiring leaders.

What is authentic leadership?

The idea of authentic leadership has been around for a long time, even if it was known by different names until Bill George’s book ‘Authentic Leadership’ popularised the term in 2003. Since then, the term has become business jargon, often overused and not well enough understood to be meaningful. But there is something behind the jargon – ideas and concepts that have been around for centuries that can help leaders lead people by having a sense of self-awareness, identity, honesty and passion.

We all have a different idea of what authentic leadership is, based on our own knowledge and experiences:

“At its most basic level, authenticity means being genuine – not a replica, not a copy or imitation. Authentic leadership holds making the most of our strengths, recognising and trading off our weaknesses and taking full self-accountability for the impact we have on others. What authentic leadership is not about is adopting the styles or traits of other leaders.” – Steve Robinson

The key behaviours of an authentic leader

The central component of authentic leadership is genuineness, which means every authentic leader is different. However, there are several markers that these leaders tend to share.

Authentic leaders:

Demonstrate behaviours which enable you to trust in them all of the time – they’re approachable, visible, and they show up in the same way each day

Take ownership when they have made a mistake and share responsibility for any mistake

Show the necessary courage to push further up the leadership chain, to question current status quo or defend their people or processes

Continually commit to their own learning in order to understand themselves as a person and how they and others see the world

Have an ability to get their ego out of the way - they truly empower and develop others

They influence and inspire others by revealing a bit about themselves – being an authentic leader means being human and building real connections with people

Deliver great outcomes over longer periods of time

There is a perceived level of expectation around what a great leader should do and how she/he should behave. These expected norms can create myths about leadership being inspirational, exhibiting unrelenting confidence, having unwavering decision making, showing unshakeable self-belief and revealing no signs of personal weakness. In authentic leadership, whilst some of these may well help in the execution of the role, the real test is somewhat more grounded.

Deep self-awareness: The foundation of building authentic leaders

Self-awareness builds and grows – it’s a lifelong journey of learning from experiences and being able to share these along the way. Self-aware leaders resonate with others by telling stories of success and defeat, of good times and tough times and of accomplishments and setbacks. Truly knowing their values – who they are, what do they believe in, what’s the right thing to do – for the right reason and in the right way is often all that leaders have to help navigate by when the deep mist of uncertainty prevails.

In being able to ‘lift their veil’ and reveal their true selves, authentic leaders transfer humility, credibility and trust to those around them. They generate believability by being ‘human’. People follow them not through the leader’s manipulation, carrot or stick strategy, or through threats or even because of their power or position – but through compelling influence. Authentic leaders demonstrate some vulnerability and at the same time fully understand their genuine influential ‘edge’ with others.

 Authentic leaders have a ferocious tenacity on the longer-term goals. They align their personal values, develop future leaders and build sustainable successful organizations.

In a world increasingly impatient for results and demanding immediate outcomes, authentic leadership is continuously tested. The pressures of instant delivery versus longer-term desirable outcomes are a true leadership tension in itself. Authentic leaders though, know what they can and can’t settle or compromise on in the short term – because it will impact on the longer-term outcome. 

How to be an authentic leader

An in-depth study by the Harvard Business Review of effective leaders ranging in ages from 23 to 93 found that there is no “cookie cutter leader”. Every person interviewed had a different idea of what an ideal leader looks like, with each individual having a unique combination of characteristics, traits, skills and styles that led to their own success. The one common theme was that all the leaders were consciously or subconsciously taking in their real-world experiences continuously, and using those experiences to frame who they were at their core. As a result, they found the “purpose of their leadership and learned that being authentic made them more effective”.

This study is one that we all can learn from, whether we’re managing other people professionally or not. That’s because the study shows that leaders are not born leaders; they become great leaders throughout the course of their life by taking in experiences and letting it guide them and their leadership style. Often we assume that strong leadership is innate, that you either have it or you don’t, and that employees will automatically be good leaders just because they’ve been promoted into that role. However, like most things, leadership is a skill that has to be learned, refined, and honed over time. Essentially, it’s a continuous learning journey. Applying that way of thinking is something that anyone can adopt well before they reach managerial level, or even before they enter the workforce.

“Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet - thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing - consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust.” – Lance Secretan

The new reality of work requires agility, flexibility and adaptability of leadership styles and approaches. The current global pandemic has further accelerated the need for authentic leadership. The complexity is only expected to increase around technical, economic, financial and social issues as uncertainty looms over the entire world of work.

Perhaps all of us striving to be our unique, authentic selves will create a collective array of authentic perspectives, values and principles to complex situations. The tensions and conflict here will be vividly apparent but paradoxically this may also give rise to the existence of the one last bastion of stability – authenticity.

Source: People matters 05 Aug, 2020

 

6 Ways a Crisis Can Help You Cultivate a Growth Mindset

 

Disruptive, stressful experiences are often opportunities for growth. Research has shown that crises can help lift the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mantra that pervades many organizations, creating new opportunities for people to voice their ideas on how to do things better.

For example, when the pandemic forced an insurance company we advise to go fully remote, the challenge of remote work prompted several teams to explore better ways of tracking progress. Field employees proposed new metrics for tracking sales contacts with customers, as well as new ways to integrate these metrics with existing key performance indicators on the Salesforce platform. Leadership liked the new system so much that it’s now being scaled nationally.

Similarly, basketball and hockey teams often show improved performance after losing teammates to injury, because the remaining teammates are able to discover new ways of working together. As teams are forced to take on new challenges, face new uncertainties, and recover from mistakes in the Covid-19 era, they begin to internalize that both their own abilities and those of their peers are not fixed, but rather can be developed.

This growth mindset can serve us — and our teams — well during this crisis. Below, we offer six suggestions for managers looking to leverage the transition to remote work to nurture a growth mindset in themselves and their teams.

Be patient. While it may feel like a long time, we are still only a few months into the widespread shift to fully remote work, and we are still learning. By now, most everyone knows how to share a screen or a run a breakout session on Zoom, but it may take longer to reshape deeply ingrained work practices for a remote environment. Be patient with yourself and your people. Remember to recognize effort, even if outcomes don’t yet live up to your expectations.

While it’s nice to talk about the benefits of a growth mindset, learning a new practice is challenging and the lack of immediate, measurable progress can be discouraging. Forgive yourself, and be generous with others — try to focus on the effort being put in and the valuable insights you’re learning from that effort, rather than the lack of immediate results.

Teach the growth mindset to others — and reinforce it in yourself. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spent his first months on the job teaching people the value of a “learn it all” culture rather than a “know it all” culture. He led by example, sharing monthly videos where he reviewed his top learnings and prompted groups across the company to discuss theirs. Consider doing something similar on your team, though perhaps on a smaller scale. For example, you might dedicate part of a weekly or monthly team meeting to a discussion of what team members have learned during the crisis so far.

Send the right signals. Both what you say and how you act send critical messages to others. For example, in a recent study, leaders asked newly promoted executives, “What have you done since we last talked, and what if anything have you learned from it?” every two weeks. Fairly quickly, because they knew he would be asking, they started to pay more attention to their own growth and were astounded by how much they were learning.

You too can send signals to your team. You might ask about learning, or informally reward progress made, lessons learned, and recovery from mistakes as much as star performance. To model what a growth mindset looks like in action, you might share not just your final triumphant plan, but also the setbacks and potholes along the way.

Reset expectations and revisit established practices. The shift to remote work provides a perfect excuse to reset your team’s expectations around giving and receiving constructive feedback. If you’re a team leader, try asking, “What three things would you try to change if you were in my role?” Modeling openness to feedback will make it easier for your colleagues to accept feedback themselves.

This crisis is also a good time to encourage your team to assess and improve established practices. Online work is significantly less forgiving of coordination and leadership failures, so it’s a great opportunity for involving others in implementing immediate course corrections. This might involve starting meetings by communicating what you know, indicating that much is still unknown, and inviting teammates to share not only their knowledge, but also their concerns and questions. By getting things out on the table, more issues can be addressed.

For example, a team leader we advised shared that after just a few weeks of remote work, an open conflict broke out between two of her employees. The tension, as it turned out, had been simmering for months. As the team leader started to sort out the situation, she realized that the root of the problem was that one of the employees had a rather terse and direct communication style, which the other employee found offensive. When work went remote, the tonal ambiguities in their emails coupled with the pre-existing tension in their relationship caused the problem to escalate quickly, resulting in a major conflict.

In trying to learn from this episode and revise team practices, the team leader facilitated a session with the entire team to brainstorm how best to communicate in a virtual environment. One new practice the team developed was the “two email rule”: if two emails sent to a colleague are insufficient to resolve an issue or reach an agreement, you are expected to call or video conference with that colleague. After implementing this rule, the team both had fewer misunderstandings between employees and was able to more quickly resolve complex work issues.

Get to know your teammates better. Working remotely, we’re coming to know our teammates in a different way. We see their workspaces, their children, and their pets. One executive jokingly commented that before Covid, if a cat jumped onto a teammate’s laptop during a (rare) virtual meeting, the typical response was embarrassment, apologies, and a hastily disabled video feed. Now, he said, people just laugh it off. Studies suggest that being less worried about social evaluation and embarrassment stimulates experimentation and creativity, both of which are key to growth. Additionally, other research shows that personal identity expression at work can also boost employee creativity.

While the Covid-19 crisis presents a variety of new challenges, it also creates new opportunities for leaders to cultivate a more expansive growth mindset in themselves and their teams. Though it won’t be easy, the right mindset can help teams to better coordinate, innovate, and own their own futures, making it possible not only to weather the crisis, but to come out of it stronger.

Source: HBR 20 Aug, 2020

The future is here: The time to invest in human skills is now

In the now of work the organizations which see the most successful growth will be those that hire based on human skills such as resilience, agility, building successful relationships, leading with vision and heart, and excellence in communication.

The last ten years have been a rollercoaster for leaders in almost every industry and country. The economic crash of 2008 had such a profound impact that levels of productivity are still lower than they were all those years ago – and yet advances in technology are moving at such speed that we simply can’t predict what the future will look like for many industries. The pandemic has further brought more economic challenges and accelerated tech innovation. But the present and the future is more uncertain than ever before. 

It's a huge challenge for leaders to enable productivity today, while trying to predict what will be needed in order to be successful tomorrow.

So much of the future world of work can seem uncertain. Leaders are wrestling with questions such as

How will my organization have to evolve to stay ahead of competitors?

What shifts in strategy, focus, and investment will be required?

Who has the skills and expertise to lead us through all-encompassing change?

Human skills investment is exploding

It’s impossible to tell what opportunities will arise in the next few decades. What we can tell you though, is that people, and their magnificent and irreplaceable human skills, will never be obsolete. It may seem counterintuitive, but in this age of rapidly advancing technology, human skills are becoming ever more vital in successful organizations.

There’s a worldwide rise in soft skills investment that tells its own story. 2019 saw $15 Bn invested in soft skills in the US alone, and that’s predicted to rise to around £38 billion in the next seven years.

The smartest leaders know that the hard skills needed in the coming years can’t yet be predicted – but they do know that the forecasted changes will require people whose human skills are second to none. The organizations which see the most successful growth will be those that hire based on human skills such as resilience, agility, building successful relationships, leading with vision and heart, excellence in communication, giving and receiving developmental feedback, and a willingness to be open, coachable, and adaptable.

Technology is an enabler of humanity

There’s a recognition that, while innovative tech may be an enabler of great relationships, investing in human skills is going to become the key differentiator in many industries. In part that’s because leaders recognize that the changing world of work will require us all to be supremely adaptable, comfortable adopters of new technologies, and able to roll with new processes and organizational structures. But it’s also because new technologies are going to free us up from much of what now occupies us – the dull-but-necessary back office work, such as order management and administration. 

 For many people, their working lives will be gloriously unburdened by innovative technologies, but leaders will have to make smart decisions about how to fill the gap that’s left behind.

Research suggests we’ll fill our time instead with wringing value out of human relationships; building stronger and deeper connections with customers who we can then truly partner with; mentoring and coaching those at the beginning of their careers; working in numerous squads and streams that each require something different from us. All of these changes and more will require emotional intelligence more than anything that has come before. Just look at these numbers and think about what it’ll mean for your organization.

This shows that within ten years, organizational reliance on physical and manual skills, and basic cognition will shrink. Instead, organizations will be recruiting and training people who can demonstrate higher cognitive skills, as well as highly developed social and emotional skills. Change of this scale is going to involve a lot of organizational redesign: who can be retrained and in which areas, who has transferable or untapped skills that can be used, what skills are there simply no room for as we shift strategic focus.

 The time to plan to invest in human skills was a decade ago: the time to actually invest in human skills is now. 

Your organization is likely to have ambitious plans to increase its size, impact, or profitability; the best way to achieve these goals is to commit to the development of your people, who will make your strategic goals a reality.

Source: People Matters 24 Jul, 2020

8 Ways Managers Can Support Employees’ Mental Health

Uncertainty breeds anxiety, and we are living in uncertain times. Between rising numbers of Covid-19 cases, questions about whether or not to reopen economies and businesses, the ongoing protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, and the economic fallout of the pandemic, we don’t know what will come next. And that’s taking a toll on our mental health, including at work.

We saw an impact early in the pandemic. At the end of March and in early April, our nonprofit organization, Mind Share Partners, conducted a study of global employees in partnership with Qualtrics and SAP. We found that the mental health of almost 42% of respondents had declined since the outbreak began. Given all that’s happened between then and now, we can only imagine that the figure has increased. Much has been said about this short-term mental health impact, and the long-term effects are likely to be even more far-reaching.

Prior to the pandemic, many companies had increased their focus on workplace mental health (often in response to pressure from employees). Those efforts are even more imperative today.

As we navigate various transitions over the coming months and years, leaders are likely to see employees struggle with anxiety, depression, burnout, trauma, and PTSD. Those mental health experiences will differ according to race, economic opportunity, citizenship status, job type, parenting and caregiving responsibilities, and many other variables. So, what can managers and leaders do to support people as they face new stressors, safety concerns, and economic upheaval? Here’s our advice.

What Can Managers Do?

Even in the most uncertain of times, the role of a manager remains the same: to support your team members. That includes supporting their mental health. The good news is that many of the tools you need to do so are the same ones that make you an effective manager.

Be vulnerable. One silver lining of the pandemic is that it is normalizing mental health challenges. Almost everyone has experienced some level of discomfort. But the universality of the experience will translate into a decrease in stigma only if people, especially people in power, share their experiences. Being honest about your mental health struggles as a leader opens the door for employees to feel comfortable talking with you about mental health challenges of their own.

Prior to the pandemic, the biotech firm Roche Genentech produced videos in which senior leaders talked about their mental health. They were shared on the company intranet as part of a campaign called #Let’sTalk. The company then empowered “mental health champions” — a network of employees trained to help build awareness for mental health — to make videos about their experiences, which were used as part of the company’s various mental health awareness campaigns. (See the editor’s note below regarding our relationships with this company and others mentioned in this article.)

Those of us working from home have had no choice but to be transparent about our lives, whether our kids have crashed our video meetings or our coworkers have gotten glimpses of our homes. When managers describe their challenges, whether mental-health-related or not, it makes them appear human, relatable, and brave. Research has shown that authentic leadership can cultivate trust and improve employee engagement and performance.

Model healthy behaviors. Don’t just say you support mental health. Model it so that your team members feel they can prioritize self-care and set boundaries. More often than not, managers are so focused on their team’s well-being and on getting the work done that they forget to take care of themselves. Share that you’re taking a walk in the middle of the day, having a therapy appointment, or prioritizing a staycation (and actually turning off email) so that you don’t burn out.

Build a culture of connection through check-ins. Intentionally checking in with each of your direct reports on a regular basis is more critical than ever. That was important but often underutilized in pre-pandemic days. Now, with so many people working from home, it can be even harder to notice the signs that someone is struggling. In our study with Qualtrics and SAP, nearly 40% of global employees said that no one at their company had asked them if they were doing OK — and those respondents were 38% more likely than others to say that their mental health had declined since the outbreak.

Go beyond a simple “How are you?” and ask specific questions about what supports would be helpful. Wait for the full answer. Really listen, and encourage questions and concerns. Of course, be careful not to be overbearing; that could signal a lack of trust or a desire to micromanage.

When someone shares that they’re struggling, you won’t always know what to say or do. What’s most important is to make space to hear how your team members are truly doing and to be compassionate. They may not want to share much detail, which is completely fine. Knowing that they can is what matters.

Offer flexibility and be inclusive. Expect that the situation, your team’s needs, and your own needs will continue to change. Check in regularly — particularly at transition points. You can help problem-solve any issues that come up only if you know what’s happening. Those conversations will also give you an opportunity to reiterate norms and practices that support mental health. Inclusive flexibility is about proactive communication and norm-setting that helps people design and preserve the boundaries they need.

Don’t make assumptions about what your direct reports need; they will most likely need different things at different times. Take a customized approach to addressing stressors, such as challenges with childcare or feeling the need to work all the time. Proactively offer flexibility. Be as generous and realistic as possible. Basecamp CEO Jason Fried recently announced that employees with any type of caretaking responsibilities could set their own schedules, even if that meant working fewer hours. Being accommodating doesn’t necessarily mean lowering your standards. Flexibility can help your team thrive amid the continued uncertainty.

Normalize and model this new flexibility by highlighting how you’ve changed your own behavior. Stacey Sprenkel, a partner at the law firm Morrison & Foerster, proactively told her teams that she was working odd hours because of her childcare responsibilities and invited them to share what they needed to work best during the pandemic.

Ask team members to be patient and understanding with one another as they adapt. Trust them and assume the best. They are relying on you and will remember how you treated them during this unprecedented time.

Communicate more than you think you need to. Our study with Qualtrics and SAP showed that employees who felt their managers were not good at communicating have been 23% more likely than others to experience mental health declines since the outbreak. Make sure you keep your team informed about any organizational changes or updates. Clarify any modified work hours and norms. Remove stress where possible by setting expectations about workloads, prioritizing what must get done, and acknowledging what can slide if necessary.

Make your team aware of available mental health resources and encourage them to use them. Almost 46% of all workers in our study said that their company had not proactively shared those. If you’ve shared them once, share them again. And be aware that shame and stigma prevent many employees from using their mental health benefits to seek treatment, so normalize the use of those services.

Although managers will be on the front lines of addressing mental health issues, it’s on the most-senior leaders in your company to take action as well.

What Else Can Organizational Leaders Do?

In our 2019 Mental Health at Work Report, issued in partnership with SAP and Qualtrics, the most commonly desired workplace mental health resources were a more open and accepting culture, clearer information about where to go or whom to ask for support, and training.

Mental health symptoms are just as common in the C-Suite as among individual contributors. Sharing your own mental health challenges and modeling healthy behavior are two of the most important steps you can take. Here are a few additional things that leaders can do to normalize and support mental health at work.

Invest in training. Now more than ever, you should prioritize proactive and preventive workplace mental health training for leaders, managers, and individual contributors. Before the pandemic, companies including Morrison & Foerster and Verizon Media were convening senior leaders to discuss their role in creating a mentally healthy culture. That positioned them well to navigate the uncertainty that has unfolded. As more and more employees struggle with mental health, it’s important to debunk common myths, reduce stigma, and build the necessary skills to have productive conversations about mental health at work. If you don’t have the budget to invest in training, mental health employee resource groups are a low-cost way to increase awareness, build community, and offer peer support.

Modify policies and practices. To reduce stress on everyone, be as generous and flexible as possible in updating policies and practices in reaction to the pandemic and civil unrest. For example, you may need to take a closer look at your rules and norms around flexible hours, paid time off, email and other communications, and paid and unpaid leave. Try to reframe performance reviews as opportunities for compassionate feedback and learning instead of evaluations against strict targets. In mid-March, the CEO of Wikimedia Foundation sent an email to her organization outlining changes to mitigate stress, including: “If you need to dial back [work hours], that’s okay.” She also committed to paying contractors and hourly staff on the basis of their typical hours, regardless of their ability to work. When you make changes, be explicit that you are doing so to support the mental health of your employees, if that is the goal.

Measure. Ensuring accountability doesn’t have to be complicated; it can be handled in a simple pulse survey done regularly to understand how people are doing now and over time. BlackRock, the global investment management firm, is one of many organizations that have conducted pulse surveys during the pandemic to understand the primary stressors and needs of staff. This direct employee input has helped shape new programs, including remote management skill-building for managers, enhanced health and well-being support for employees, and increased work flexibility and time off.

As much as we might like to return to the way things were, we won’t. So let’s use this opportunity to create the mentally healthy workplace cultures that should have existed all along.

Source: HBR 07 Aug, 2020

Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught in a Classroom?

 

In early April, a Thai student in our entrepreneurship class saw a shortage of high quality, low cost hand sanitizer across Thailand. To support the Covid relief effort and generate revenue, he quickly shifted his family’s medical supply company to sanitizer production. Closer to home, when Dollaride, a business incubated in NYU’s Future Labs, recognized that the pandemic had eliminated demand for their shared commuting van business in New York, they refreshed their business model to leverage their existing vans, technology, and routes to support burgeoning package delivery demands.

Neither entrepreneur followed a typical business school approach when deciding to pivot their business: they didn’t conduct a long-term market analysis, develop a business plan, or weigh various alternative approaches. In fact, had they done these analyses, they might have concluded that the short-term gains wouldn’t justify the retooling investment, or they might have gotten stuck trying to figure out how to estimate the duration of the pandemic or how soon global manufacturing might recover. Instead, they simply took action based on the resources at their disposal.

This approach to entrepreneurship is called “effectuation,” or leveraging what we know, who we know, and who we are in order to take action. Business schools don’t generally teach this approach, as they tend to focus more on lengthy risk and return calculations. But as we face an increasingly uncertain, complex future, schools must adopt new teaching philosophies designed to forge agile, entrepreneurial leaders.

Can Business Schools Teach Entrepreneurship?

While modern MBA programs offer a host of entrepreneurship programming ranging from formal coursework to startup competitions and incubators, there is a great degree of skepticism around the idea that entrepreneurship can be taught by academics in a classroom. Countless successful entrepreneurs never went to business school — many didn’t even graduate from college. Moreover, developing the penchant for imagination, disruption, and counterintuitive action required for effective entrepreneurship doesn’t generally fit into a typical business school curriculum defined by abstract analytical models and precise calculations.

Nevertheless, many schools feel that there is still a place for formal education in the world of entrepreneurship, and have taken steps to update their offerings to meet the needs of today’s students. In a recent study, we looked at three top North American MBA programs to better understand how they are approaching this challenge. In an industry where programs are prone to mimicking one another, we found that these programs broke the mold and developed their own philosophies in teaching entrepreneurship.

The first approach we observed focused on instilling an appreciation for the value of real-life experience with an “operating theater” classroom setup. The University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management converted their entrepreneurship classroom into a medical-school-style operating theater, where students sit in a large auditorium and watch as a professor performs surgery not on a human body, but on a startup. In Rotman’s Creative Destruction Lab, a panel of established entrepreneurs join the professors in poking and prodding at these startups, helping students absorb the intuition that entrepreneurship skills can only be developed through experience. Other business schools have adopted similar programs, such as NYU Stern’s Endless Frontier Labs, which shares Rotman’s focus on experiential learning.

The second approach we observed focused on “rewiring” students to take action instead of falling into analysis paralysis. We all have a voice in our heads that says, “What if this goes wrong?” or “How do I manage this risk?” Imagine the power of an education that helps you quiet that voice and instead say, “What if it goes right?” The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business is the birthplace of “effectual” entrepreneurship, an approach that invites students to recognize their existing entrepreneurial resources and accept a certain amount of risk. This mindset is antithetical to a more conventional business school approach that emphasizes minimizing risk. Additionally, while the business world is often known for its cut-throat, fiercely competitive nature, Darden’s program instills in students an appreciation for the power of collaborative innovation by encouraging students to share ideas openly with their peers and tap into diverse insights and perspectives to co-create entrepreneurial ventures.

The final program we observed took more of a traditional business school approach. Our research suggests that the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School continues to emphasize the types of resource and risk optimization approaches that are more characteristic of the rest of the business school world. This approach is grounded in the idea that business schools should teach entrepreneurship in a similar way to how other subjects are taught: by providing students with analytical models and tools from published academic research on new venture creation. While this philosophy may be helpful for more mature startups, as well as for helping founders avoid common startup pitfalls — such as choosing the wrong co-founder, accepting poor venture finance terms, or making suboptimal product decisions — it’s less useful for entrepreneurs dealing with extreme uncertainty.

Educate MBA Students to Embrace an Unknowable Future

The current pandemic illustrates the importance of preparing entrepreneurs to face an increasingly complex, uncertain world. We must educate these future leaders to view the uncertainty of our unknowable future not as a problem to be solved, but rather as a reality to be embraced.

After all, in the unknowable future, all leaders will need to be entrepreneurs: visionaries that can imagine, adapt, and act nimbly to address whatever challenges come their way. Business schools should not delay in adopting new teaching philosophies that empower the next generation of entrepreneurs — as well as all business leaders — to meet these challenges.

Source: HBR 07 Aug, 2020

Put people first and your organization will be successful in future: Cargill India's HR Head

He mentioned that the company has seen outstanding resilience amongst the teams, with employees putting in longer hours and additional effort to get work done.

Raj Karunakaran, HR Head, Cargill India feels that during this crisis, the everyday performance management helped Cargill in responding to business challenges with far more agility. In an interaction with People Matters, he shares the key focus areas for the company, why the organization is measuring performance amid the crisis and how he is preparing the business and workforce post-COVID.  

As a leader, do you measure performances during the crisis? If yes, what are the key parameters that are considered while measuring performances?

Back in 2012, Cargill decided that effective performance management needs to be a continuous process. Instead of per­for­mance rat­ings and annu­al review forms, we focus on man­agers hav­ing fre­quent, on-the-job con­ver­sa­tions, and giv­ing reg­u­lar, con­struc­tive feed­back. We call it ‘Every­day Per­for­mance Man­age­ment’. This includes effec­tive two-way com­mu­ni­ca­tion, giv­ing feed­back, and coaching. During this crisis, everyday performance management helped Cargill in responding to business challenges with far more agility.

We focused on –

Simplified process, goals aligned to the changing business needs, and a new way of working protocols.

Ongoing discussions between managers and employees, informal feedback, coaching, goal review, and adjustment during the crisis.

Simplified and flexible goal setting with fewer, more dynamic goals aligned to business strategy and tailored to the dynamic business environment.

Qualitative assessment of the employee achievements, contribution to business success, and development opportunities.

During the crisis, our managers approached performance management with more flexibility, leniency, empathy, and compassion. We looked at various ways to recognize and show appreciation for employees who ensured we continue to deliver to our commitments. This approach has helped Cargill in keeping high employee morale, engagement, and productivity during this crisis.

How do you recommend addressing performance management today? What are some of the pillars of performance that you focus on?

The need for performance management systems is to be flexible and agile in order to meet a myriad of business needs and dealing with challenges during the COVID crisis. Employee-manager relationships and trust are central and the foundation of the performance management. The pillars of a strong performance management process are having more frequent, future-focused conversations on continuous improvement and development. It’s critical that managers and employees feel equipped and empowered to adapt both their work and goals to the new situation. By putting people first, you will help set up your organization to be successful in the future.

As the pandemic resets work trends, how should HR leaders rethink workforce and performance planning? What approach are you following?

In many organizations, HR remains the custodian of overseeing the performance management process. It is critical that HR leaders rethink this approach and see how it can be made truly a manager-employees driven process. We believe that effective performance management is an ongoing process employee-manager relationships are at the heart of effective performance management. 

Performance management processes need to be flexible to address different business needs. We have invested in strengthening the related capabilities of both managers and employees. This included building trust, coaching, effective communication and effectively delivering and receiving feedback. Here are some of our approach at Cargill.

Engage in more dynamic and flexible goal-setting rather than once a year SMART goals.

Build managers' capability on coaching, giving regular informal feedback rather than limiting feedback to once or twice in a year.

Streamline documentation to the minimum required rather than extensive and complex documentation.

We have integrated a coaching approach in our performance management process. This approach has built an engaging and collaborative partnership between our employees and managers. Managers guide employees to make deliberate and empowered choices. It helps in generating creativity and promotes collaborative discovery of solutions and helps employees understand how they can develop and grow.

One of the studies suggests that globally 43% of people are redesigning jobs as a way to prepare for the future of work. As people leaders continue to wrap their heads in this crisis. How can employers ensure their workers to embrace new technology and upskill themselves?

We put people first and reach higher. These values guide every decision we make. It helps us to balance both our business and people's needs. The pandemic has reshaped the way we think about our physical work environment for our employees – in our offices and plants, as well as how we connect with our customers.  As a result, we’ve turned our attention to how we innovate our ‘new normal’ embracing new technologies and upskilling our employees to work in a new work protocol.

This includes investments around virtual leadership, collaboration tools, digital ways of doing business, long-term goals for employee experiences, as well as the physical needs of the organization like work innovations, technology investments, etc. COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of fully digitized approaches to re-create the best of in-person learning through live video and social sharing. This transformation permits greater personalization for learners—and in turn greater effectiveness.

You have launched the Cargill Cares Employee Disaster Relief Fund for the health and wellbeing of the employees. What was the thought behind coming up with such an announcement? Do you think, it’s high time and employers need to prioritize the well-being of the employees? Do corporates need ‘Chief Wellness Officer’?

At the core of our values is our commitment to Putting People First. Our commitment is stronger than ever as we navigate this challenging time. Mitigating financial distress for those impacted by COVID-19 is a key pillar of our Putting People First commitment. To support employees during times of personal or natural disaster, including the COVID-19 crisis, Cargill recently launched the Cargill Cares Employee Disaster Relief Fund and contributed $15 million as an initial start to the fund. Employees can apply or contribute to the employee disaster relief fund through a new online portal. The fund will be managed by a non-profit organization, E4E Relief, which specializes in administering funds like ours. We hope through this fund, we can come together in a powerful way to help our colleagues by providing some peace of mind during this incredibly uncertain time.

We’ve taken all necessary precautions to support employees and keep people safe at our production facilities, including temperature testing, cleaning and sanitizing procedures, prohibiting visitors from entering our facilities, prohibiting international travel, limiting domestic travel, adopting social distancing practices and offering shift flexibility to keep our major production facilities open. We’re prioritizing overall health and wellness, which includes mental health support for employees. We have a dedicated focus on providing resources, including a Psychological Well-Being Toolkit. In the next six months, we will deliver additional employee and leader resources, mental health awareness training, and leadership-led campaign to de-stigmatize mental health and demonstrate care and concern.

What kind of impact you have seen on the business and workforce due to this pandemic and how are you preparing your business and workforce post-COVID?

During this unprecedented time, Cargill is working around the clock with farmers and our customers to continue feeding the world safely, responsibly and sustainably. As our work comes under the ‘essential services category’, the responsibilities of our employees have risen exponentially during this time. We have seen outstanding resilience amongst our teams, with employees putting in longer hours and additional effort to get work done.

 I strongly feel that this is a time to show more empathy, be role-models and be declarative on employee wellbeing and worklife balance. Goes without saying, that we are providing all possible infrastructure support to help employees work remotely and ensuring all safety precautions are taken at our manufacturing locations across India.

Source: People Matters 07 Aug, 2020

 

Telemedicine is Laying the Roadmap for Healthcare's Future

One New York doctor explains how it has "introduced a whole new level of convenience and respite."Growing up, I had witnessed my father, Dr. Franco Lenna, MD, attend to patients in his clinic. However, the past several months have changed the way healthcare works and proven that telemedicine holds a lot of promise. It has, in fact, become a necessity, since it reduces vulnerability while allowing doctors and nurses to handle more patients. At the same time, it provides increased efficiency and accessibility to those in need. It not only eliminates travel, but also provides clinical support seamlessly, improves patient outcomes and overcomes geographic hurdles.  So, whether we are prepared or not, telemedicine is on its journey into the fold, slowly increasing in acceptance and set to transform the future of healthcare as we know it. Per McKinsey & Company, providers across the U.S. "are seeing 50 to 175 times the number of patients via telehealth than they did before."To explore this topic in-depth, I spoke with Dr. Ari Bernstein, MD, a New York-based physician and author who is operating at the leading edge of telemedicine. "We must realize that telemedicine is at its pinnacle in present times, expanding and growing far beyond usual interactions between patients and physicians," he explains. "For me, technology is multiplying the relevance and value of telehealth by meeting the aim to improve people's health, reduce costs, enhance the patient experience and increase provider satisfaction while ensuring everyone's safety."Greater monitoring, larger accessDr. Bernstein shares that "the use of telemedicine to screen a patient's health remotely has introduced a whole new level of convenience and respite for both health providers and patients. It is serving to substitute in-person visits to a medical professional by facilitating virtual doctor meetings."Greater monitoring, larger accessIt has also made additional monitoring and care possible that was otherwise unavailable. For instance, patients living in far-flung areas can virtually consult with experts who can monitor and evaluate their condition and make sure they receive the right treatment at the right time. Though Dr. Bernstein cautions that "this hasn't entirely eliminated visits to the doctor, but instead, the process of physical appointments and telehealth are functioning in tandem with each other."With telemedicine, physicians are able to provide consultation, healthcare information and services to patients or clients at multiple locations. Defeating geographic barriers is particularly crucial in remote zones where people may have to travel hundreds of miles to see a special care provider, even when they are ill."Telemedicine is proving to be convenient for constantly monitoring chronic ailments like diabetes, hypertension or COVID-19," says Dr. Bernstein.Relative affordabilityTelemedicine is already playing a huge role in containing costs. In the past, providers struggled with compensation for telehealth services, but more and more health insurers are reimbursing the fees for these consultations. Consequently, patients are starting to view it as a viable system. Improved patient satisfaction"With the move towards consumerization and value-based care, it has now, more than ever, become vital to cater to the patients' needs," Dr. Bernstein implores. "Telemedicine, through its offerings ranging from lower cost, efficient monitoring and reduced wait times, is appealing to patients."And even though I grew up watching my father run a more traditional in-person practice, I strongly second Dr. Bernstein's outlook. Telemedicine is a win-win for all and should continue gaining ground and revolutionizing all facets of the health space.Source: Entrepreneur India 03 Aug, 2020