Weekly Impact Brief (2023.Nov.26)
The attributes of successful CEOs and leaders, managing transformation and building a work culture of agility and worker well-being.
Note: We are in private beta. There are rough edges; this Brief will evolve in the coming weeks before we launch more broadly. We value your feedback! To share your input, click here.
Read time: 3.5 min
Welcome
It’s great to have you here!
This Brief offers leaders quick, fact-driven insights on trending articles released in the last week around leadership, innovation, and more. These are curated from top sources, such as McKinsey, Harvard, and many others, looking at elements of the Impactful Framework.
In case you missed the last Impact Briefs, here are the links for the previous two:
Thought Starter
Last week, we covered the element of “Teamwork”; this week, we cover “Processes”. Process Optimization encapsulates the strategies, practices, and techniques that organisations employ to enhance their operational efficiency and drive peak performance.
Highlights
McKinsey & Company: What Makes A Successful CEO?
Gallup: 8 Cultural Attributes Of A Truly Agile Company
Harvard Business School: Do We Underestimate the Importance of Generosity in Leadership?
MIT Sloan Management Review: Balancing Change and Continuity During a Transformation
[Feature] Deloitte: Six Leader/Worker Disconnects Affecting Workplace Well-Being
Impact Pulse
Each week, we review 200+ articles from 50+ premier academic and consulting firm sources to highlight a few “essentials” below.
What Makes A Successful CEO?
Big Idea: For newly appointed CEOs to navigate rapid industry transformation and high failure rates, they should focus on strategy, resource management, and adaptability to drive company success.
Quick Quote(s): "The CEO is the person ultimately responsible for the success of a company. Their job is to develop strategy and deploy the resources to deliver on it… Just three in five newly appointed CEOs live up to performance expectations in the first 18 months on the job… Making one or two bold moves more than doubles the likelihood of rising from the middle quintiles of economic profit to the top quintile."
8 Cultural Attributes Of A Truly Agile Company
Big Idea: The Agile8 are the 8 most important, key factors that drive company agility in response to changing work conditions and global challenges. They consist of cooperation, speed of decision-making, trial tolerance, empowerment, technology adoption, simplicity, knowledge sharing, and innovation focus.
Quick Quote(s): Gallup’s German data from 2019 showed that just 9% of German workers strongly agreed their company had the right mindset, tools and processes... to respond quickly to business needs… Employees who experience their company as agile are very likely to believe their company is ahead of the competition, the company's financial future is secure, and their employer is successful and growing… Think about how you encouraged cooperation, perhaps, or empowered managers, or freed knowledge from silos. All those actions -- and many more -- helped workers succeed in a fast-changing workplace."
Do We Underestimate the Importance of Generosity in Leadership?
Big Idea: Generosity is an undervalued trait that has the potential to develop a positive, ‘boundaryless’ organizational culture and should be incorporated into leadership development and hiring practices.
Quick Quote(s): "Management experts applaud leaders who are, among other things, determined, humble, and frugal, but rarely consider whether they are generous… Various studies have shown that one of the sources of happiness is generosity… For years, my colleagues and I, based on our research, have advocated for the notion of hiring for attitude and training for skills. Attributes of attitude are learned from birth… Generosity falls under the rubric of attitude."
Balancing Change and Continuity During a Transformation
Big Idea: Culture has a crucial role in the adoption and success of digital transformation. A balance must be found between change and continuity in order to successfully implement it. Focus on managing diverse team roles and perspectives, addressing tech-first leadership pitfalls and employee satisfaction to drive successful cultural change.
Quick Quote(s): ""Instead of revenue growth, many organizations have instead experienced unrealized benefits. Instead of optimization, they have experienced extensive costs and huge investments that have not really given much bang for the buck… Digital transformation is not just about technology, it's about culture and finding the right balance between continuity and change. So don't overlook the human aspect of digital transformation; cultural concerns are at the very heart of its success… Culture may become a form of straitjacket that makes an organization unable to change when needed and thereby becomes obsolete in a dynamic environment."
Featured Summary
Below are our featured insights for the week: Deloitte explores the differing perceptions of leaders and employees and how this leads to disconnects and gaps in workplace well-being.
Six Leader/Worker Disconnects Affecting Workplace Well-Being
Big Idea: There are six gaps between leaders’ perception of workplace well-being and the realities that employees face that need to be addressed to improve employee well-being and sustainability, namely the perception gap, the care gap, the modeling gap, the satisfaction gap, the priority gap and the action gap.
Quick Quote(s): "Our Well-being at Work survey revealed six significant disconnects between C-suite leaders’ perceptions of worker well-being and the realities workers are experiencing. These gaps may be at the heart of the well-being paradox—a fundamental reason why worker well-being continues to deteriorate despite organizations’ strategic investments."
"84% of respondents say that improving their well-being is a top priority this year—with 74% saying it’s even more important than advancing their career."
Parting Thoughts
Thank you for spending your precious time with us.
We are still in early “beta” mode for the coming weeks. If you find this Brief useful, please forward it now!
Please feel free to reach out with any thoughts or questions that today’s insights might have sparked.
Impactfully yours,
Ali Monadjem (LinkedIn profile)
For The Impactful Executive Team
P.S. If you want to sign up for The Impactful Executive private email list or share it with a friend or colleague, you can find us here.