It has been fascinating to meet with Peoplemax clients about their objectives and challenges for 2023 during my first few months as CEO.
The most common concern that I am hearing is employee engagement. Many of our clients feel their organisational cultures were significantly eroded by the pandemic and that engagement levels have not yet recovered. This is particularly concerning for them given the economic outlook for 2023.
Consequently a top priority for almost all of them is to rebuild a strong organisational culture.
Peoplemax is currently working with clients both in the UK and Australia in this area. Based on this work, we have identified several key principles to consider when looking to rebuild culture as follows:
Role modelling from the top. We have found that unless the CEO and Top Teams are clearly engaged in changing themselves, organisation-wide efforts struggle to get traction.
Specifically, C-suite leaders need to be able to connect emotionally with their people in the current climate, establish an atmosphere of Psychological Safety and Stretch, and provide practical tools and support for building resilience and wellbeing.
Strategic alignment. A key measure of success for us in any culture change initiative is accelerated strategic execution. The culture plan must be entirely fit-for-purpose for the strategy.
Evidence-based interventions, drawing upon the latest psychological research on human motivation. Changing behaviour at scale in sustainable ways is tricky and requires expertise to make stick.
An integrated, multi-faceted approach. Culture change requires intervention from multiple angles. In our experience, the more coherent and coordinated these initiatives are the higher the rates of success.
These are exciting times! And this is impactful, meaningful work for both clients and our coaching community.
Have a great weekend everyone,
Amos
