Open Letter to the Modern Leader

It’s about the planet of course but it absolutely applies to companies that refuse to transform their mindset and redesign their culture with the genuine happiness of their employees as priority zero that will equally face extinction in the near future.

Every once in a while something reminds me of the extreme time pressure we are under if we want to make a difference in the workplace. I speak and talk about the new world of work every day and somehow I still manage to cognitively dissociate from the indisputable urgency as I am sure you do. I don’t believe you don’t know or worse yet, don’t care. I don’t subscribe to the divisive line of thought that perpetuates the myth of the draconian organisation that is led but uncaring, callous leaders only concerned with their own bonuses. I know for a fact, from meeting many many leaders over the past tens of years and from being one myself that the knowledge of the impending doom lest we change is always there. Ever present, ever heavy but ever burried deep down so you can function. So you can deal with the urgent list in front of you. So you can deliver on the organisational KPIs the shareholders need to see. And how all those immediate imperatives feel overwhelmingly needed this very second and manage to -temporarily- help you forget this other big to-do: cleaning up the Human Debt and transforming culture so you truly centre it around your people.

I know you know several functions of the enterprise are broken. Whether it is HR or Ops or even Tech that should have done better on this, you know you haven’t hit the spot where your people are flying high. And you also know, that for them to do so, it will take a lot more than any of the initiatives and projects that are right now on your radar.

To get them to be consistently high performing they’d have to be happy. You know this. They will never be who you hired them to be before they bring their best selves, are at peace and derive satisfaction from the work they do.

So you know, -intellectually and emotionally too- that there is a colossal amount of work to do. And it’s unclear work. It’s all wrapped up in the “fluffy” topics. There are hundreds of consultants and coaches online banging the drum every week about the mental health crisis at work, about the need for empathy, emotional intelligence and so-called soft skills and open dialogue with our employees and you find yourself reading and agreeing with the sentiment and the principle but miffed by the hundreds of proprietary terms and frameworks and frustrated with how it’s mostly empty rhetorics that doesn’t come with any practical suggestions.