Let me paint a picture for you.

Your company is hemorrhaging money, and nobody’s happy about it. 

Your turnover rates are sky-high, making it challenging to be effective and efficient. 

The overall reputation of your company’s culture is not ideal. 

You feel like you’re backed into a vortex of endless cost cutting plans.

Does this sound like a scenario that you know all too well? I know what you’re thinking and how you’re feeling because I’ve been in your shoes. In fact, to hear in great detail how I faced a similar situation and turned a sinking ship around at Barclays, read my book, The Better Way to Win.

Reassessing the basic function of leadership

To respond adequately, however, leaders need to forget what they learned in business school and reassess the basic function of leadership.

What do I mean by reassessing the basic function of leadership? Said differently, can you tell me what the actual relevance of leadership is? This question totally stumps most leaders as the conventional wisdom is that their job is to manage performance by driving the right behaviors. Knowing their numbers supersedes knowing their people. This is wrong and given the dismal levels of employee engagement, which has actually declined over the past 20 years, it’s clear that command and control management is outdated and must be replaced with a different type of leadership style.

Connected leadership

The Great Resignation, which occurred earlier in 2022 and was prompted by the factors listed above, was a sure sign that the power dynamic has shifted. Leadership effectiveness today is dependent on leaders who effectively manage the ecosystem, which is what actually impacts results. Understanding and removing barriers that hinder workers and frustrate clients is the primary job. Allocating company resources with smart prioritization and relentless process review and improvement is how today’s leader will define their relevance, connecting with the workforce and business in much more meaningful ways than merely through entitlement due to status. 

Seeing firsthand the effect of connected leadership on businesses I and my leadership teams have led, I would say it’s the closest thing to alchemy you can imagine as it drives higher performance, deeper employee engagement and astounding productivity increases with less effort and at a lower cost than the alternative. 

Yes, there is a Better Way To Win!