Management gemsFind here some gems from our monitoring of the best publications on leadership and management

A lack of opportunities for promotion is the number one cause of resignations, according to a 2021 study conducted by the Pew Research Center in the United States. 63% of respondents who had left their job cited this reason, in the same proportion as a too-low salary. For companies wishing to hold on to their employees in the context of a taut job market, the message is clear: the support of career development must be improved.

Too often, the reflex is to entrust career development to local managers. Are they not the ones who best know their team members and who are therefore best equipped to assess their potential? In reality, this approach has proven to be rather misguided. On the one hand, managers are often poorly informed about potential career paths. On the other, they want to hold on to their best people and tend to dissuade them from leaving the team.

The highest performing companies in this regard entrust career development to a dedicated team, with three key missions: making careers paths more visible to all, providing the means to pick up new skills, and offering opportunities for feedback and coaching beyond the immediate support of the person’s N+1.

Source: Why Companies Should Help Every Employee Chart a Career Path, George Westerman, Abbie Lundberg, MIT Sloan Management Review, March 2023.

Geopolitical events can greatly affect companies. The war in Ukraine is sad witness to it. Its economical impacts are many: closure of subsidiaries in some countries, disorganization of the supply chains, tensions on some raw materials, soaring costs…

But be careful: confronted with the impact of the crisis, we easily forget that any change can also offer new possibilities. For example, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, whilst disrupting the European energy market, accelerated the transition towards renewable energies. When the parameters that governed a sector are suddenly upset, it is time to wonder. Could what represented a marginal differentiation on the market become an asset to exploit? Isn’t it time to revive an innovation project that was abandoned because of a lack of profitability? Similarly, the constraints on the supply chains boost the emergence of pivotal geographic areas, such as India and Vietnam. Isn’t it time to establish operations there? When a crisis happens, we must of course protect ourselves—but also know how to overcome the ambient pessimism to actively explore the possibilities offered by the new context.

Source: Black swans, gray rhinos, and silver linings: Anticipating geopolitical risks (and openings), Andrew Grant, Ziad Haider, Anke Raufuss, McKinsey, February 2023.

What do owls, penguins and kingfishers have in common? All three species have inspired a major technological innovation, the Shinkansen. Indeed, when the engineers at Japan National Railways were entrusted with the development of a train capable of connecting Tokyo and Osaka in two and a half hours, they were confronted with a serious issue: the speed provoked an acoustic deflagration effect at the entrance of tunnels, which was considerably above authorized thresholds! To find a solution, they did not turn to fundamental research but towards solutions adopted and refined for centuries by animal species confronted to similar challenges. Thus, the aerodynamics of the penguin guided the design of the carriages. Engineers also sought inspiration from the fine fringes in owl feathers, which make their flight silent, to design the pantographs that connect the train to the power line, thus reducing noise further. Finally, the shape of the kingfisher’s beak, which allows it to enter the water at high speed, inspired the shape of the locomotive nose.

This anecdote illustrates the power of biomimetics. Rather than always looking for a disruptive innovation, wouldn’t we gain by imitating what works best in what already exists, particularly in nature?

Source: Evolutionary Ideas, Sam Tatam, Harriman House, 2022.

When the situation is serious, should you rather show gravity to underline the importance of the challenge, or introduce a touch of lightness to help the teams overcome this difficult time?

At the beginning of 2020, a global lockdown is imposed to try and curb the Covid 19 pandemic. Connor Diemand-Yauman, co-CEO of the NGO Merit America, has to lead his first virtual meeting with the whole organization. People are exhausted and very stressed; the atmosphere is tense. Before handing over after his short introduction, he pretends to inadvertently leave his shared screen on. Everybody can then see him searching in Google: “What do inspiring leaders say in difficult times?”. This trait of humor immediately relaxed the atmosphere. It contributed to fuel the dynamism of the teams in those circumstances.

Of course, humor remains to be used with caution. It is not about laughing at the expense of others or giving the impression that you are treating the situation lightly. Nonetheless, it is proven that laughter binds groups. At the individual level, it releases a cocktail of hormones that appeases and energizes. These are precious effects, especially when times are difficult… Up to you to play!

Source: Why great leaders take humor seriously, Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, TEDMonterey, January 2022.

As early as 1889 in The Age of Unreason, Charles Handy envisaged that careers would no longer follow a linear path and would instead progress through a variety of different jobs. Indeed, in 2007, Americans were on average changing jobs three times during their career; this proportion rose to seven in 2010, to reach twelve to fifteen in 2019!

This evolution is both stimulating and disconcerting. How can you account for your career in a coherent manner when you have such a diversity of experience? The author of The Art of Work, Jeff Goins, advises us to think of it like artists would their portfolio: each work of art has its own value and constitutes an accomplishment by itself. But combined, they show the uniqueness of the artist and their evolution. Similarly, each experience in a career, even without any apparent link with the others, has its own value and contributes at the same time to defining the professional identity of that person.

To talk about it, identify a guiding principle: which competences, which soft skills or what know-how have you used and developed in each position you have held, and how do they make you unique?

Source: Career Change: The Questions You Need to Ask Yourself Now, Laura Sheehan, TEDxHanoi, June 2018.