- Share actionable advice from top leadership luminaries
- Celebrate a range of viewpoints (inclusion is not an endorsement)
- Contextualize workplace trends through a leadership lens
- Illuminate cultural recalibrations in the world of work
- Support your personal development in life, leadership, & beyond
New from ConantLeadership
‘Be the Keeper of the Flame’—How to Create Inspiring Workplace Cultures
In this new blog recap of a conversation between Amanda Poole, Chief People Officer of Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), and Doug Conant, Founder and CEO of ConantLeadership, these two C-Suite leaders share tips for creating workplace cultures that inspire people and drive innovation. Conant says that HR leaders, in particular, are essential because they are the “keeper of the flame” for company culture. To carry the flame effectively, both Conant and Poole offer several pieces of advice. Here are 3 key takeaways.
Bring Your Mission to Life. “You have to make it [the mission] real for people. It’s got to go beyond words and sayings on walls and has to be brought to life.”
Show People Why Their Work Matters. “Whether you have a 30-person or 30,000-person workforce, people want to feel like the work they’re doing has an impact, can make a difference, and they want to feel like they’re valued for what they’re doing every day.” As long as leaders keep this at the forefront, “the rest can follow.”
Listen and Learn. “Surround yourself with great people” who are “smarter, better, brighter” than you and, “unlock them to be awesome.”
Get the full story here.
Change Your Habits with ‘Episodic Future Thinking’
In this excerpt in Behavioral Science from her new book, Me, But Better: The Science & Promise of Personality Change, Olga Khazan shares a practice that can help leaders transform their daily habits to become more “conscientious” and more effective. Khazan says there’s a catch-22 to behavior change, which is that it’s tricky to implement desired habits without already having those habits: “It’s hard to do it if you don’t already do it . . . the very behaviors that turn you conscientious require a certain level of conscientiousness to perform.” This conundrum is compounded by the fact that, no matter how good our intentions, “the future rewards of ‘good’ decisions” are often less desirable than the immediate “rewards of ‘bad’ ones.”
Fortunately, Khazan has found a technique, “episodic future thinking,” that has been shown to “help correct this cognitive error.” The tactic asks us “to project ourselves into the future, essentially ‘pre-experiencing’ something,” all the way “down to explicit details—like what you’ll be wearing for a work presentation.” She explains, “This act turns our attention to those far-off rewards, and to what we could be doing now to make them more likely.” The practice is not only about envisioning positive future rewards. It is also effective to imagine undesirable outcomes that could come about as a result of our not developing new habits, and then ask ourselves, “What are the changes I would have to make to keep this from happening?” Get the full story here.
**For more on this, explore our 6-step Blueprint process for using tiny, incremental changes to develop a more effective leadership profile over time.
3 ‘Tribal Instincts’ for Better Leadership
In today’s social media ragescape, we often think of tribalism as a negative force in our lives and digital ecosystems, pitting us against each other in arguments replete with black-and-white thinking and vitriol. But Greg Satell’s coverage in his blog, Digital Tonto, of Michael Morris’s new book, Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together, illuminates a more hopeful view. Morris “points to three tribal instincts” that leaders can use, not to sow division, but “to pursue common purpose,” and transcend divisive “us and them” thinking in order to move forward together.
1. The Peer Instinct. “Humans have many disadvantages over other animals,” yet, “our superpower—and it is the most powerful one that nature has ever devised—is collective action.” The sharing of information, and cooperation, are powerful attributes: “Humans instinctively learn from our peers,” and “coordination is an important tribal skill.” We are hardwired to work together.
2. The Hero Instinct. “While the peer instinct arises out of our need to belong, the hero instinct is rooted in our drive for status . . . those who act in exceptional ways not only gain status, but also evoke ‘prestige signals’ that others want to emulate.” The hero instinct helps people lead by example, providing “ideals for us to live up to,” and “act as models for behavior.” While the hero instinct can be misused in shallow displays of wealth or in “asserting control over others,” it can also be positively leveraged to display “virtue” and to exemplify moral action.
3. The Ancestor Instinct. “The last is the ancestor instinct, which drives our reverence for tradition. This instinct is often expressed through symbols, ceremonies, myths, songs and other artifacts. By honoring these ancient codes, we signal our loyalty and devotion to the tribe and its ideals.” Leaders can call upon powerful shared histories to create unity and chart new paths forward. How can we know where we’re going if we don’t know where we’ve been?
Get the full story here.
‘Zigzag’ Work Is the New Reality
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“For decades, researchers examined work and home life as separate domains,” write the authors of this The Conversation post on the new world of work. They explain, “these days, the reality is more complex. Our work and home lives are more seamlessly integrated than ever, largely because of communications technology and the work-from-home trend.” While this has been true for many years now, as the lines between home and work continue to blur, researchers are developing new language to describe the resulting phenomenon. The authors note that now more than ever, “we deal with a work matter and a bit of domestic or family business virtually simultaneously, shifting attention and focus from one to the other within seconds.” They’ve dubbed this shift “‘zigzag working’ to describe how employees blend work and family roles within times and spaces that might have once been separate.” Their research shows that zigzagging “is practiced across genders, levels of seniority, and locations,” and “while it makes workers busier,” it also “makes them happier.” Leaders can “foster a more supportive workplace” by “recognizing zigzagging as a normal work dynamic,” and promoting discussions that “challenge rigid work-life boundaries.” And, “encouraging men to share their zigzagging experiences broadens the conversation beyond the assumption that openly juggling work and family is primarily a women’s issue.” Get the full story here. **For more on this, read our blog post, “A New World of Work Requires a New Way to Lead.” |
The Anatomy of an Inspirational Vision
In this HBR IdeaCast interview with Adam Galinsky, a professor at Columbia Business School who has done deep research into what makes leaders inspiring, he breaks down the specific components and characteristics of an “inspirational vision.”
Anchored in optimism. “One thing that is very, very clear” about an inspirational vision is that “it’s optimistic.” “The vision sees a better tomorrow, and that’s such an important part of it.”
Embedded in a core set of values. “Not too many values, a finite set, maybe three to five values, maybe even a single value that really drives forward the idea of this optimistic better tomorrow. So that’s the ‘what.’ It’s this optimistic values-based view of the future.”
Keep it simple. “You want to make your visionary message as simple and easy to process as possible. Lots of research shows that when things are simple, straightforward, people understand it better, but also see it as more true, which I think is incredibly valuable.”
Create a vivid, specific visual. “One of my favorite examples is the difference between: our goal is to make our customers satisfied, versus our goal is to make our customers smile. And that smile is more vivid and therefore more engaging.”
Repeat, repeat, repeat. “You want to repeat it over and over and over again. It creates a sense of fluency, which increases understanding and truth, value and validity.”
Get the full story, either by listening to the interview or reading the transcript, here.
**For more on this, explore our blog post, “2 Top CEOs Say Optimism & Courage Are Key to Shaping the Future.”
The Power of Letting Go
“Great leaders don’t just build—they release. They know that letting go isn’t a sign of weakness but a sign of growth, clarity, and strength,” writes Allison Dunn in this piece on her Deliberate Directions blog. Yet, says Dunn, “for many leaders, letting go is one of the hardest things to do. We hold on to employees who are no longer a fit. We stick with outdated processes, business models, and mindsets that once worked but no longer serve us.” She understands the instinct: “As leaders, we’re wired to build, fix, and optimize. When something isn’t working, our instinct is often to double down—to try harder, push through, or find a way to make it work.” Sometimes that’s the right path forward. But often, says Dunn, “the best decision isn’t to hold on, it’s to release.” She shares many practical tips for learning to shift your mindset and here are three.
1. Shift your mindset from “failure” to “evolution.” “Letting go isn’t failure—it’s an evolution. Ask yourself: ‘If I were starting fresh today, would I build it this way?’
If the answer is no, it may be time to release it.”
2. Take a quarterly “letting go” inventory.” Once a quarter, ask yourself and your leadership team:
- What processes, meetings, or strategies need to go?
- What roles or responsibilities need to be delegated or restructured?
- Where are we holding onto something that isn’t producing results?
Schedule time to clear out outdated systems. Less clutter = more clarity.”
3. Model the “letting go” behavior. “Be open about what you’re letting go of—whether it’s a strategy, a process, or a belief. Tell your team:
- ‘I realized I was holding onto X, and it was keeping us stuck. So here’s what we’re doing instead.’
- ‘We’re no longer doing this, because it’s not serving our bigger vision.’
When leaders let go visibly, it gives the team permission to do the same.” Get the full story here.
How to Make Better Decisions
“As reinvention pressure rises, CEOs need to rewire their decision making,” says this strategy+business deep dive on how to make better decisions. The article shares three research-backed components to smart decision making, supported with charts, graphs, and statistics. Here’s a brief summary of the three imperatives for leaders looking to “retool their strategic decision-making in the face of continuous disruption.”
1. Adopt a process mindset. “Senior leaders are used to judging strategic decisions by their outcomes,” but that can be risky because outcomes “are often determined by factors outside a leader’s control, including luck.” Instead, “process” should guide strategic decisions: “When it comes to decision quality, process is the only thing leaders can fully control,” and “following a good process increases the probability of having good outcomes.”
2. Foster trust, debate, and dissent. “Though executives desire honest input, they inevitably find themselves surrounded by people who may be hesitant to provide it. After all, who wants to contradict the boss?” However, to avoid “inferior decisions that rely on missing or incomplete information, it is crucial to break out “of the executive echo chamber.” Leaders should cast “a wide net for contradictory viewpoints,” and ensure “that challenges to executive thinking are not only permissible but encouraged.”
3. Leverage uncertainty. “A sound process doesn’t eliminate uncertainty from decision-making. Rather, it helps leaders manage uncertainty in a more advantageous and strategic way.” This means learning to handle and recognize “untested opportunities,” as well as “asking themselves not simply whether they may be pursuing the wrong opportunities—a so-called error of commission—but, more critically, whether they may be committing an error of omission by missing opportunities altogether.”
Get the full story here.
**For more on reinvention, read our coverage of why innovative leadership requires courage.
Leaders Must ‘Walk’ the L&D ‘Talk’
“When it comes to learning and development (L&D), HR leaders talk the talk. But do they walk the walk?,” asks Paige McGlauflin in this HR Brew piece on how to model continuous learning to employees. McGlauflin notes that there appears to be a gap between knowledge and practice among leaders: “Despite recognizing that L&D is critical to HR strategy . . . people leaders often fail to prioritize them for themselves and their teams.” Citing experts and research, she says the first step in prioritizing learning is doing it yourself to show that “it’s important that everybody in the organization invests in their own growth.” Leaders must “walk the talk” in order to be perceived as trustworthy: “People leaders who tell their workforce to participate in L&D without doing so themselves may not be taken seriously.” And championing L&D is not just a matter of leading by example; it is also imperative that leaders keep their own skills current to stay relevant in a changing world. McGlauflin says leaders “who neglect their own L&D may be putting their jobs on the line,” and risk their skillset becoming obsolete. Get the full story here.
**Looking to prioritize L&D? Discover how ConantLeadership can help your team learn and grow.
More Insights & Resources from ConantLeadership
In last month’s newsletter: How to retain talent for the future; the art of good conversation; perfection isn’t credible; kindness > niceness; don’t ask ‘why,’ ask ‘what’; why leaders need time in ‘spacious mode,’ and more.
About the Author: Amy Federman is ConantLeadership’s Director of Content and Editor in Chief, and co-author with Doug Conant of the WSJ bestseller, The Blueprint.
(Header photo by The Creativv on Unsplash)
