How are you making sure your organisation is dedicated to the same direction, stays strongly engaged to move forward and your teams are striving to give their best? Great leadership is without doubt the (not so) secret recipe to lasting success. It creates the resilience to go through uncertain times and enables the necessary transformations.

What do you need to lookout for in 20204?

Swiss leadership institute IMD shared earlier this month how they predict the trends for this year. Let me share them here with you.

• Agility - the year of 2024 might only become more uncertain and volatile; as a leader you want to enable your teams to grow in this environment and get stronger; this can be achieved with the right mindsets and the right way of working.
• Beginners mind - they call it apocalyptic leadership which translates into being open minded for new perspectives; this requires a radical shift away from traditional leadership styles and an understanding that the company success is based on the entire ecosystem and the value everyone contributes.
• Dual transformation - here the term ambidexterity is put in the mix which points to the suggestion that organisations need to look at dual transformation strategies; how do you ensure that the current business stays successful while an equal focus is put on the future business models?
• Experimentation - change is coming, looking back will not lead to the right decisions; though, the future is unknown and might appear daunting; the right tactics and routines in experimenting will lead to learning and value creation.
• Automation - since over a hundred years, productivity gains have been driven by machines; today artificial intelligence will drive another boost; how do we guide our teams to create synergy and excellence in the intersection between humans and machines?
• Mental health - employees at the brink of a burnout are not only less productive; they tend to make wrong decisions and are influencing the mood of the peers around them; establishing a positive environment will boost motivation, productivity and excellence.
• Purpose-driven - our jobs represent a major element of our lives; mundane, meaningless work will impact everyone's life balance and limit your people's motivation and engagement; creating a organisation vision that goes beyond profit will lead to higher value creation, improved effectiveness, better alignment and long-term success.

How will you drive change in your organisation?


Source: Seven leadership trends to focus on in 2024

This year might become a tough year and there might not be much we can do about it - especially about the external and geopolitical aspects. What we can focus on as a leader is to equip the organisation and enable our teams to give their best. And one special aspect is Energy!

Organisational Energy is what I want to talk about today. How often do we feel that work is draining our energy? That the efforts within an organisation are clashing; that people are lethargic and inert. And as a leader we simply wish that we are able to give our teams a spark.

I recently came across the work of Heike Bruch and it is refreshing to see peers that are sharing the same vision and passion for energy, positivity, and enabling Drive within our work ecosystem. Here are some of her thoughts on the topic:

• Bond people behind an opportunity or a challenge; this can be a project or a new strategy which people are sharing, have contributed to and which allows to channel their energy towards the same direction. I like to call this the Leitbild (a guiding imagination of the future state).
• Build confidence; show people that their contribution counts, that any opinion and action is valuable and that we are on joint learning journey. I like to call this Consideration.
• Avoid the acceleration trap; as a leader we have the tendency, when the momentum starts that we are pushing down the lever; this negative pressure actually leads to lower productivity because people feel disempowered. I like to call this Delegation of Control.
• Systemic approach to focus; focus on the key elements that make your project / strategy a success; and remove the distractions. I like to base this focus on Objectives & Key Results.
• Focus on your own energy first; this is the classic duality of change: as a leader you can only convince your team about the new way of working if you start first and become a role model.

As with many things with effective teams, the collective energy is larger then the sum of the individuals. When we align this energy we can create synergy that triples or tenfolds the efforts. As a team we can then ride that wave and easily overcome barriers. We can collectively become antifragile.

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Source: TEDxZurich - Heike Bruch on How to Manage Organizational Energy

When we look back at 2023 it was the year of ESG Reporting. The great thing about it is that companies started to take the topic of sustainability seriously and allocated resources to do something about it. And for any sustainability journey, understanding the baseline is important. Though, as Robin Hicks recently pointed out, companies are confused with the selection of standards, information and opinions. For example, calculating a company's carbon can take 2-4 years!

In my experience, this is frustrating and boring. Which leads to dissatisfied shareholders and employees as a lot of effort is put into something that does not generate results. With this we are fuelling resistance that costs energy and reduces productivity. That is why many well-intended sustainability journeys end and are axed.

Can we simply not do carbon accounting? No. Does it need to be this cumbersome? No. And here my experience in operational excellence is really helpful. An area where you focus on creating more value with the resource you have based on data and analysis. Let's apply this to ESG improvements as well. Here are some thoughts:

• Start your carbon accounting (and other sustainability reporting activities) in dedicated areas; first something simple to test your approach; then continue in areas that can create highest improvements.
• Translate the data intelligence into improvement action; the goal for ESG reporting is creating positive environmental and societal impact and this should guide our efforts.
• Formulate a sustainability strategy that is relevant for your industry, market and company culture; this will be the North Star to guide short-term and long-term decision making.
• Celebrate the results and achievements and let them drive the next effort.
• Embed ESG reporting into a broader transformation program that aims to enable every employee to become a climate ambassador; the goal is to drive new behaviour and mindsets and steer to a new culture.
• Reflect how your sustainability change journey can follow the values of honesty, courage, frugality, and synergy (more here).

What are in your eyes the key ingredients for a successful sustainability journey?

Reference: Eco-Business CSO Survey, Robin Hicks, Jan 2023

A New Year has started and fresh inspirations are coming in. At Hive17 we focus on facilitating effective teams, and that is particularly important on the top (also check our recent CxO Team post). Just yesterday, the Embassy of Switzerland in Singapore shared a post about the Swiss Federal Presidency and the Swiss Federal Council. An example I like to share as it is a high-level model for a self-organising team.

CxO Teams are in similar situations; they have broad and deep responsibilities; they have the tendency to focus the majority of their time on their own department; they tend to work less as one team. The Swiss government puts a structure in place to counter these tendencies. A structure that any company can learn from and become more effective in delivering change.

Here are some suggestions to look out for:

• Create common, shared goals that all team members commit to
• Establish job rotation so that every CxO team member has exposure and experience in all the functions and business units across the organisation
• Define shared initiatives that are accomplished as a joint effort across multiple departments; they strengthen the cross-departmental understanding, collaboration and alignment
• Build strong personal bonds among all the team members that are based on fellowship, win-win, and consideration
• And you might want to consider the CEO's position as the key person to drive transformation and acting as the glue to bring all the different parts of the organisation together under one vision and one direction

How do you build a more effective and self-organised CxO team?

Source: Swiss Federal Presidency, LinkedIn