In collaboration with Business Engage and the 30% Club, Gauteng Women in Insurance (GWII) hosted a Leaderwalk on 20 September, with sponsors F&I Insurance, F&I Reinsurance, Genasys Technologies, Old Mutual Insure and One Insurance.
Themed High Touch Leadership for Hybrid, guest speaker Nikki Bush, an award-winning speaker and five-time best-selling author shared practical tried and tested insights, frameworks and tools to help leaders become more engaging and dynamic in both online and face-to-face team engagements.
Engaging with teams
Bush started the talk by saying that deskless does not mean voiceless. “With the hybrid work environment, it feels like a disconnect and disengagement. A lot of leaders today are feeling anxious about the new working arrangement and are experiencing resistance from teams.”
“You, as a leader, need to be engaging with your teams. The world of work is changing, and we need to embrace it. This is the time to make changes. Allow your teams to find their voices in this new deskless environment,” she added.
“So, where does the resistance to hybrid come from? While humans want choice and adaptability, when we are given it, we don’t know what to do with it. As leaders, we need to narrow down on the choices available, to anchor our teams so they can help us shape the new world of work and not just endure it,” continued Bush.
To engage and keep your staff, Bush said you want them to buy into giving you their discretionary time and effort… they will go where they are given the most attention. Emotions are running high now. Are you, as a leader, filling those emotional cups? Are you listening to your staff? Do you hear and see them? How are you helping your people feel they belong?
What is it that you want to bring people back to the office for? “Face to face connection, socialising, team building, to build and maintain relationships etc. This all points to belonging and togetherness. And this is what you, as a leader, want to bring back… belonging and togetherness,” she said.
The new employee mantra
“To be an engaged leader, you need to be a coach, to know your people. This is customised leadership. You need to know that different people have different needs. You need to be motivating people differently, in order to get the best out of people. Then reinvent your weekly one on one check-ins with direct reports - to check in with each one of them and ask them questions: tell me about last week? What worked last week and what didn’t? Then talk about the priorities for the upcoming week. Then ask, is there anything I can help you with? To show that support and make that week work better. This will make people seen, heard and feel important. It will make them feel noticed and that they are paid attention to,” she said.
“This will give a sense of belongings and togetherness… and the team member’s cup will be full. It’s about the quality of your attention rather than the amount of time you spend with them. This is deep listening… high touch leadership and the new employee mantra,” added Bush.
“In terms of the hybrid environment, we need to help people dance with change and disruption, because they need to be responsible for themselves. Micromanagement in this hybrid environment is not the answer. Because as a leader, you become the boss and this creates a bottleneck. You need to elevate your team, celebrate the differences and bring those to the table to empower them. There will be a fear to participate, if there is no trust. Being part of a team is a gift. You get to collaborate and co-create. Be fun and surprising too, to elicit a deep level of connection,” continued Bush.
“We need to be open to the possibility of how things can be different. The office is wherever you are. You just have to have a rhythm and consistency. You have the tools and resources, it’s the people and teams that need to be engaged. Don’t micromanage or have meetings for the sake of absenteeism,” said Bush.
Tips to take forward, according to Bush - variety and contrast (change things up to keep people’s attention); be attentive to everybody in the team and give everybody an opportunity to contribute to the team. This is part of the new employee mantra – they want to be seen and heard. You need to experiment and see what works in your new world of work.
So, what are the things that are working and not working for you and your teams in this hybrid environment? Asked Bush.
A discussion
We thank our table hosts (below) for accepting our challenge to facilitate discussions:
- Alexandra Blair Schudel, Head of Intermediated Distribution, Chubb
- André Pienaar, Director, F&I Re (Pty) Ltd
- Audrey Husayihwevu, Treaty Executive, AON
- Brian Mariga, General Manager: Operations Support, Innovation Group
- Carlo Van Zyl, Manager: Key Accounts, Tracker
- Christelle Frost, Head of People, Genasys
- Karen Naidoo, Managing Director, Mutual & Federal Risk Finance (MFRF)
- Nerisha Nana, Chief Operating Officer, Pineapple
- Tamara Naidoo, Head: New Business Development, Old Mutual Insure
In the feedback session, all the table hosts agreed with the comments that Bush shared.
Andre mentioned that during his breakaway session, the attendees mentioned there was a feeling of being isolated during the pandemic and a fear of not being heard or seen. But now they get to bring the fun back and instil some of the learnings from Bush into their team cultures.
In her feedback, Tamara shared that the ladies in her breakaway had a conversation about the hybrid environment – they found that working from home gives more access to people in different forums and formats. They also realised that they not only need to be coaches but facilitators to make sure there is a contribution from everyone and to make everyone heard. They also spoke about the pros and cons of working from home. One of the pros, being able to be at home with kids. The cons no face-to-face interactions and socialising.
Christelle summarised her chat in how unique the pandemic was for everyone. The challenges that everyone experienced were different, from team dynamics, to trust issues, to those that are performing much better than before. From a leadership perspective it’s also very different. Some created a healthier environment and made it work. Others struggled to do everything virtually and tried to overcompensate. The key thing here is how we all had to manage ourselves and take ownership.
Alexandra said the things they talked about is how we figured out how to handle Covid… but there was a challenge in figuring out how to do hybrid. From the practical side to the tools needed, there was no textbook guide on the “how to”. E.g., did companies think about the right chair, the right desk, cyber security, loadshedding etc. On the fun side, there was rituals that made us connect… the zoom chats, the WhatsApp groups etc. This has brought us a higher understanding of people, and the emotions involved when it goes back to the office environment.
Nerisha said everyone is different. Their talk revolved around how others prefer working in the office, while others prefer the hybrid environment. Adapting to this change has a lot to do with the personality of the person, and their needs, wants and preferences. But in some environments, working from the office is better and more suited.
In her concluding remarks Bush said emotion is important. You have to ditch the complex management theory and go back to basics. Have the coach element to be interested in others and interesting to them.
Thank you
Thank you to all the delegates who attended this event, we hope that the session provided practical insights and will help you become more engaging and dynamic in both online and face-to-face team engagements.
Thank you to our sponsors F&I Insurance, F&I Reinsurance, Genasys Technologies, Old Mutual Insure and One Insurance for making this event possible!
See photo album here