When organisations announce a new strategic direction, formal communications such as town halls, newsletters, and videos are expected. Yet, beyond traditional communication methods, what actions can senior leaders take to demonstrate commitment to new ways of thinking and working?  

The power of symbolic acts 

 ‘Symbolic acts’ are a powerful but often overlooked tool for shifting culture and moving the needle on a new vision or strategy.  

A ‘symbolic act’ is a highly visible action or decision leaders take to role model organisational changes.  

Symbolic acts in action 

What do symbolic acts look like?  

Consider an organisation that is refocusing on customer innovation, intent on being first to market with best-in-class products. Historically innovation has been stifled by red tape and a fear of failure.  

A senior leader could become a role model by regularly sharing personal stories of risk taking and failure, promoting a growth mindset and normalising calculated risk-taking. Alternatively, the leader may choose to speak last in every meeting, encouraging input from employees at more junior levels.  

The symbolic act should resonate with employees and provide a clear signal of a change in direction. Consider Steve Jobs’ decision to discontinue 70% of product lines upon returning as interim CEO of Apple in 1997. This act clearly communicated that Apple would focus on its core offering of personal computers. 

By “walking the talk” and executing symbolic acts that are meaningful and noticeable to employees, leaders demonstrate their commitment to thinking and acting differently. 

Some additional examples include:

Symbolic acts across the organisation 

Symbolic acts aren’t just for senior leaders. It is impactful when middle managers and influential frontline employees adopt symbolic acts.  

Symbolic acts can be individualized or collective. For example, employees could start meetings with a ‘value share’, or an entire leadership team might collectively adopt casual office attire. 

Symbolic acts are an effective way to deepen transformation efforts by positioning leaders to visibly and authentically role model the changes they want to see in the business. By incorporating symbolic acts into engagement strategies, leaders can deepen the impact of transformations. 

Have you employed symbolic acts in organizational changes? Or do you have alternative strategies for effective role modeling and engagement? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section. 

The role of the middle manager has already evolved beyond recognition

Cast yourself back to the early 1990s.  No internet, no email, no instant messaging or video calls.  Communication was slow and structured which reflected the hierarchical, top-down nature of many organisations.  The average middle manager acted as an administrative gatekeeper, controlling the bridge of communication and flow of information between executives, support functions and operational staff.

Technological advancement of the last 30 years has evolved the middle manager role beyond recognition. Now the middle layer takes on an increasingly strategic role in what have become much flatter organisational structures. Responsible for managing up, down and across. Middle managers are the driving force of business. They are the engine of performance and they have become responsible for everything from influencing and shaping the vision to communicating and executing the strategy.

It’s not surprising that as these roles have become less bureaucratic and administrative, ‘softer’ skills have become more important. We all know the best managers are the ones that can connect with you on a personal level and have the meaningful conversations that create a sense of belonging first and foremost, ignite commitment and drive performance. In other words – to be successful, middle managers must now develop their people skills in empathy, active listening, and influencing others.

But we’ve still not got it right. Middle managers cope with high stress and often little thanks.

We are not making the middle manager role easy though, when it’s never ‘enough’ and lacking in meaningful reward. Organisations are increasingly asking middle managers to do more with less as businesses continue to tighten belts and squeeze out efficiency. Middle manager workloads are high, expectations are higher, and both the external and internal operating contexts are often uncertain, changing and ambiguous. While we know that ‘ruthless prioritisation’ is the answer, it’s almost impossible to achieve. It’s no surprise that a global pandemic has forced many to re-consider their priorities, lifestyle and options, and that younger generations are shying away from progression into middle management in search of roles that offer less stress, more meaning.

The advancement of AI and agentic workforces could change everything. Again.

And what’s more we are facing into a very real and imminent scenario of being on the brink of another major shift in the way our workplaces operate. As AI capabilities continue to advance and business continues to de-layer organisational structures, middle managers may once again find themselves in a very different environment altogether. One where they are managing a broader, more cross-functional set of responsibilities, a mix of human and AI agentic teams, and perhaps in many cases even less resource.

Beyond the initial reaction of fear, this future holds an exciting opportunity for middle managers to make higher-value, more meaningful contributions to the business performance. But doing so relies on an enhanced set of capabilities over the ones needed today.

To succeed in the future middle managers will need different skills and capabilities.

If business wants the middle layer of their organisation to succeed, they must look to upskill and equip them in the essential skills of the future. This will become less about being the most applauded subject matter expert operating with the highest technical proficiency. Going forwards, leadership development must focus on a combination of:

But leadership development alone is not enough. It’s time to reinvent middle management and strengthen leadership at the essential core.

And yet, even if capability building will become an important lever, it’s not enough by itself. We know that even the very best leadership development courses don’t change business by themselves. It will take more than a 2-hour, 2-day, 2-week training to be able to shift what it means to be a middle manager, to embed a shift in ways of working that allows for higher-value contribution, to ensure that executives are playing a role in empowering this layer to step up. It will take a reinvention of middle management to strengthen leadership at the essential core.

The reinvention of middle management requires a systemic approach.

If we really want to shift the role of middle managers for the future, it will take a systemic approach that reviews organisational culture holistically, going beyond the mission statement and values.

It’s about reviewing the embedded ways of working in the organisation that come to characterise a middle manger’s day. The way individuals and teams collaborate and communicate with each other; the way work is managed and performance is measured; and the way the organisation learns and adapts to evolve. These, often unspoken, rules about how things get done must support the reinvention of middle management if we want to strengthen leadership at this level.

And this may mean reviewing the operating model, structure and accountabilities; how the business strategy is cascaded to inform day to day activities; the organisational symbols, rituals and stories as well as the leadership style – how are these factors contributing to the role of middle managers, and how do we shift them in support of the reinvention?

And if we get it right, middle management will become the pipeline of emerging leaders that it ought and deserves to be.

If it’s time for a reinvention of middle management in your organisation let’s talk about how United Minds can partner with you on:

Change & transformation: supporting the adoption and embedding of AI-driven ways of working.

Leadership development and capability building: in the competencies your leaders need to for today, as well as the technological, emotional and cognitive competencies they’ll need to lead humans in a future AI-enabled workplace.

Organisational redesign: designing sustainable structures, and future-proofed job roles with realistic expectations that are adaptable to technological, AI advancement.

Organisational culture: shifting expectations, mindsets and beliefs, as well as the ways of working, activities, and processes that either enable or prohibit progress towards the strategy.

Our research found that, across 50 engagement drivers, the further employees were from the top of their organization, the less engaged they felt—by a wide margin. This highlights the need for a way to change culture that truly reaches and involves the whole organization, not just the top. 

Culture is a powerful and sustainable source of advantage.  

It’s a bigger driver of job satisfaction than salary, and the biggest driver of attrition. Companies with strong innovation cultures are 60% more likely to be innovation leaders. More than four out of five executives believe an ineffective culture increases the chances of unethical behavior.  

Glassdoor, MIT, BCG, Journal of Financial Economics 

For most organizations, the culture they want feels out of reach.  

This is true both for leaders and their employees. According to the Journal of Financial Economics, 92% of surveyed executives believed that improving corporate culture would increase firm value—while 84% believed their company needed to improve their culture. For employees, the percentage who reported feeling connected to their company’s culture has remained flat at just above 20% for the last four years, according to Gallup. 

 
Journal of Financial Economics, Gallup  

What makes culture work so hard? 

In our research on the employee experience, we uncovered a pattern that may help us understand the real challenge we need to tackle. We observed that, across 50 drivers of the employee experience, the further you get from the top of an organization, the less connected and engaged employees tend to feel. 

We’ve color-coded the data to show you how persistent this pattern is. Check out the methodology behind the numbers on page 32 of our longitudinal study, “Employees Rising: Advocacy, Activism, Agency.” 
 

There is a 26% difference between the average engagement score of an organization’s leadership team (84%) and its individual contributors (58%). 

United Minds 

The data makes sense when you consider how culture work has always been done—and it illuminates the pain points leaders and practitioners should address to help their organizations build and maintain healthy, high-performing cultures.  

PAIN POINT #1 

One-time, one-way decisions 
Discussions about changing an organization’s culture tend to happen once among a small group. And once decisions are made, the work tends to focus on alerting and aligning people—versus truly engaging them in the process. 
 

PAIN POINT #2 

Words over actions 
The main work products of culture change are presentations that capture intent—versus targeted actions designed to quickly build momentum and drive measurable progress. 
 

PAIN POINT #3 

Mission: impossible 
The responsibility of using those work products to galvanize a workforce behind the new culture tends to rest with a few under-equipped leaders—most often leaders in middle and front-line management.  

Today’s version of culture work is like building a bonfire. Leaders build it big and build it once. And the further away you are, the less light and warmth you feel. And it’s clear the bonfire approach isn’t working. The gap between what leaders say and what people experience is widening. This impacts trust both inside and outside the company. 

Inside organizations, assumptions at the top tend to be rosier than the reality for the rest of employees, according to research from PwC: “86% of leaders think employee trust is high, compared to 67% of employees who say they highly trust their employer. This employee trust gap of 18 points is higher than in the past.” 

Outside, the gap between leaders and customers is even more pronounced: “90% of business executives think customers highly trust their companies while only 30% of consumers actually do.” 

For culture work to succeed, we should think of it like building a thousand campfires. Leaders hand out kindling, so the fire is sparked where people already are. Everyone can create it. Everyone can look after it. And the warmth reaches everyone who needs it. How could you do this? We suggest that you follow two principles when thinking about culture change. First, make it simple. Then, help it spread. 

Principle 1: Make it Simple. 

Focus the work on the vital few areas that drive the greatest, most immediate impact on your organization’s culture. In other words, focus on “The Why and The Way” of your organization. 

The Why is your guiding ambition. It can be as big as aligning to a new brand or merging two organizations. Or it can be as focused and surgical as a commitment to being the category’s top customer service brand.  

The Way is a set of nine critical behaviors you need working toward your ambition. Here’s a canvas showing “The Why and The Way” together. 

Nine behaviors drive culture change.  

We identified these nine behaviors based on our decades of collective experience and successful culture change engagements with leading organizations. These behaviors act as the building blocks of any organization’s culture. Through these 9 lenses, we can see how well your organization delivers on your guiding ambition—then take targeted action to unblock the path to performance. 

Lead  

  1. Prioritize: What does the organization signal is most important to focus on, implicitly and explicitly?  
  1. Measure: How does the organization measure success for the business and its people?  
  1. Reward: What kind of work is recognized and encouraged?  

Organize  

  1. Communicate: How is information stored, shared, and used to work toward the organization’s goals?  
  1. Collaborate: How do people work together and to what degree are they autonomous?  
  1. Resolve: How does conflict arise and get resolved?  

Evolve  

  1. Grow: How do individuals develop and progress in the organization?  
  1. Monitor: How well does the organization perceive opportunities and threats and how willing it is to change in response to them?  
  1. Adapt: How well does the organization change in reaction to the perceived opportunities and threats? 

Principle 2: Help it Spread. 

Work with a bias toward bottom-up action, not only top-down communication, so that we build agency in the people who have the greatest impact on the employee experience: middle managers, for three reasons. 

They are trusted. Our research shows that managers and their peers are the top two most trusted sources of information. 60% of hybrid knowledge workers report their direct manager is one of the top two influences on their connection to corporate culture.  

They have an outsized impact. Employees who have managers who listen to them and are committed to their success are an average of 3.3X more likely to agree across the 50 measured drivers of employee experience, and 58% less interested in leaving their job tomorrow than employees who don’t.  

They need support. Managers are the gatekeepers of change. Change spreads only with their support. To gain that support, we need to invest in their agency—meaning they need to:  

  1. See how they contribute to a future they believe in.  
  1. Have the means to make a positive impact.  
  1. Feel valued because of their work. 

United Minds, Gartner  

By making culture work simpler and focusing efforts on specific outcomes, this approach makes culture tangible and actionable, at the same time connecting the changes in behavior to intended business results.  

Galvanizing employee communities across the organization to co-create and spread culture requires leaders to part with the idea that they need to control culture and allow their teams to carry the spark, but the result — empowered, engaged teams inspired by your strategic intent — is worth the risk. 

In boardrooms worldwide, “doing more with less” has become the mandate of the moment. Trade wars, tariff hikes and economic uncertainty are forcing hard choices – whether that’s reducing overhead, downsizing or streamlining operating models. This is becoming more apparent in M&A context where organisations often need to adopt a “do more with less” approach ahead of integration to ensure ROI from the deal.

Naturally, doing more with less can feel like a struggle particularly against a backdrop of several turbulent years. Yet again we’re upping the ante, turning up the dial on the pressure cooker -and it hurts. But what if we’re thinking about pressure all wrong? What if constraint isn’t the enemy – but the catalyst?

When De Beers faced market crisis in 2008, they discovered something unexpected. The pressure didn’t break them, it transformed them. Under constraint, they reimagined their entire business model, creating a more agile organisation that thrived when conditions improved.

This isn’t just luck. Studies show that moderate pressure increases focus, accelerates decision-making, and triggers innovation. The key isn’t reducing pressure – it’s building the resilience to harness it.

Four Keys to Turning Pressure into Performance

1. Build Emotional Commitment – shift from Loss to Possibility

People who see pressure as a challenge perform better than those who see it as a threat (Lazarus, 1991). Netflix’s shift from DVD rental to streaming wasn’t just strategic – it required deep emotional resilience. They helped their team see the loss of their core business as an opportunity to own the future.

Quick wins:

Going deeper

2. Rational Understanding – demonstrate control in chaos

Research shows teams operating at 80-90% capacity make better decisions and waste less time than those at 60-70%. Why? Because constraints force better choices and a fixation on what’s within our control. When Toyota faced supply chain disruptions, they focused exclusively on what they could influence. This clarity helped them recover faster than competitors who tried to control everything.

Quick wins:

Going deeper:

3. Collective experiences – winning together, failing together

Collective experiences help teams navigate high-pressure situations by fostering social support, shared resilience, psychological safety, and collaborative problem-solving, which reduces stress and enhances overall performance. When Airbnb lost 80% of their business overnight in 2020, they turned crisis into cohesion. They created transparent daily updates, shared decision-making, and made space for collective problem-solving.

Quick wins:

Going deeper:

4. Input and contribution: feedback and dialogue

Around 84% of employees consider psychological safety as one of the most valued aspects of the workplace; and it’s proven to be vital in reducing stress and building resilience. When Zara faced supply chain chaos, they amplified voices from the front line, demonstrating that their best solutions came from those closest to the problems.

Quick wins

Going deeper:

In today’s business environment, pressure isn’t going away. The winners won’t be those who try to eliminate or ignore it, but those who learn to harness it.

The question isn’t how to do more with less. It’s how to use constraints to unlock possibilities that abundance keeps hidden.

Return to office: the leadership challenge your business can’t afford to get wrong

The debate on the return to office (RTO) isn’t just a logistical question; it’s a litmus test for leadership in a post-pandemic world. Policies that once seemed straightforward—mandating when and where employees work—are now fraught with complexity, nuance, and trade-offs.

For organisations navigating this challenge, the stakes couldn’t be higher: the risk of alienating top talent, stifling innovation, or fracturing cultures is very real. But so is the opportunity to create a model of work that strengthens engagement, drives performance, and sets the foundation for long-term success.

Here’s how leaders can tackle the thorniest questions surrounding RTO, and why getting it right requires a bold, evidence-based approach.

The cost of mandates: breaking the social contract

Enforcing RTO mandates without a clear rationale or employee input risks eroding trust. Employees crave agency and autonomy, and overly controlling policies can feel like a breach of the unspoken social contract between employer and employee.

The fallout? Disengagement, attrition, and a workforce that feels infantilised rather than empowered.

Leaders must ask themselves: How can we balance business needs with employee expectations in a way that fosters trust and accountability?

It’s part of a bigger employee value proposition picture

The RTO debate feels like a decision in its own right, but the truth is that leaders instead of determining the RTO strategy in isolation, leaders must see it as part of a wider employee value proposition strategy.

It starts by identifying who and where the talent you need to attract and retain is, understanding what their expectations are and then designing a holistic employee value proposition that includes your route for RTO and hybrid working. 

A rigid RTO stance risks alienating those who place a premium on flexibility, notably working parents, employees with caregiving roles, Gen Z workers who value independence and technological fluency, and individuals with disabilities for whom remote or hybrid work can offer essential accommodations.

Leaders must ask themselves: What talent do you need to attract and retain, what are their expectations and what is the holistic employee value proposition you offer?

The fairness equation

Fairness has emerged as a flashpoint in the RTO debate. Corporate employees who can work remotely often do, while frontline employees in retail, manufacturing, or healthcare have no such (or limited) flexibility. This disparity is a potential recipe for resentment and divide.

To bridge this gap, some organisations are redefining their cultures entirely – positioning corporate teams as “in service of” frontline workers. Others are introducing measures to create a sense of fairness, like shorter working weeks or improved benefits for frontline roles.

Leaders must ask themselves: What measures can we implement to address fairness head-on, ensuring every employee feels valued and respected?

The role of leadership

Returning to the office isn’t just about space—it’s about purpose. Employees, especially Gen Z, need to see the “why” behind RTO policies. They want clarity on what they’re expected to do in the office and how it aligns with organisational goals.

An arbitrary policy isn’t enough. What’s the purpose of those days? Are they for collaboration? Learning? Social connection? Without this clarity, the office risks becoming just another box to check.

Moreover, senior leaders must model the behaviours they want to see. Junior employees won’t buy into an RTO policy if they notice their managers are rarely present.

Leaders must ask themselves: What does it mean to ‘lead by example’ in a hybrid world and what can we do to ensure our actions match our words?

The cost to learning and development

We also know that with hybrid working comes a cost to learning and development, especially at more junior roles. It’s on both leaders and employees in their early careers to take responsibility for plugging the gap that working in person naturally provides for learning and growth opportunities.

Leaders must ask themselves: How can we create a culture of learning and collaboration in a hybrid world to support our continuous development and growth?

The hidden risks of RTO: innovation and well-being

Research shows that working remotely two days a week has little to no negative impact on productivity and even boosts job satisfaction. But it’s not without trade-offs.

Innovation, particularly across silos, often thrives on in-person interactions. Building trusted relationships and sparking spontaneous ideas are harder to replicate virtually.

At the same time, remote work has introduced the “cost of coordination”—an explosion of meetings that has left employees stretched thin and burned out.

We also know that as we learn to adopt AI into our day-to-day, we risk disconnecting from colleagues even further—turning to AI to ask questions and solve problems, rather than the humans in our teams.

Hybrid models that don’t address these issues risk exacerbating well-being and innovation challenges.

Leaders must ask themselves: Where is the sweet spot? How can we be deliberate about the way our teams work together to harness the benefits of both remote and in-person work?

The future of work

The return to office is not just a logistical exercise; it’s an opportunity to reimagine the future of work. Leaders who succeed will:

  1. Determine the RTO stance as part or a wider employee value proposition strategy: identify the talent you need to attract and retain, what their needs and expectations are and determine your hybrid working approach accordingly.
  2. Involve employees in decision-making: RTO policies imposed on employees rather than developed with them can expect to fail. Employees want agency, not mandates.
  3. Define the purpose of office time: Focus on collaboration, learning, and culture-building—not simply presence.
  4. Address fairness head-on: Acknowledge and address disparities between different employee groups.
  5. Equip middle managers: Managers are not the decision-makers but they are the linchpins of any RTO strategy. Yet they’re often the least prepared to navigate the complexities. Investing in their skills and confidence is critical.
  6. Make data-driven decisions: Use insights from productivity, engagement, and attrition data to refine policies over time. But we wary of strict tracking and monitoring of individuals that risks creating a rules-based culture of control and mistrust.

As Professor Thomas Roulet notes, “Hybrid work is an experiment in progress.” Organisations that approach it with humility, adaptability, and a commitment to fairness will not only navigate this transition—they’ll thrive in the new world of work.

The question isn’t whether to mandate a return to the office or not. It’s how to find the right solution for your organisation and launch it in a way that builds trust, drives performance, and sets the foundation for long-term success.

Learn more about United Minds’ approach and process to determining and launching an RTO position.

We’d love to know what you think, get in touch!

Over the past six months, we’ve seen a surge in clients asking for support with their Gen-AI transformation efforts. There’s a growing recognition that Gen AI is not just another technological shift—it’s a transformation unlike any before. As businesses move from pilots to full-scale adoption, they can’t afford to overlook the psychological responses to this change. Working closely with heads of AI and digital transformation leaders, we’ve gained an understanding into why Gen AI adoption demands a distinct approach, how it diverges from past digital transformations, and why the human side of change is now more crucial than ever. 

Why AI adoption needs a different approach 

  1. It’s learning by doing like never before – in training teams around Gen-AI we learnt very quickly that Gen AI is best understood through hands-on exploration, as its power truly unfolds when people use it directly. Unlike past digital transformations, there are no strict guidelines; it’s intuitive, and personal discovery is essential for shifting mindsets and forming a new relationship with technology. 

Overcome this by: Leaders need to trust their teams’ abilities to explore and grow. Encourage this with behavioral nudges that build confidence, and set up regular touchpoints for sharing successes, failures, and innovations. 

  1. People come to AI with diverse perceptions, biases and expectations – Gen-AI is forcing people to reflect on the purpose and meaning of work, and critically their role within it (self-determination theory). The fear of the unknown, combined with the status-quo bias means people are reacting in more extreme ways, and there is far more loss aversion to overcome. Layer on top of that change fatigue from years of digital transformation efforts, and you’ve got yourself a pressure cooker for resistance.  

Overcome this by: meeting people where they’re at, overcommunicating and being completely transparent (and human) about both the tools and their limitations, and about the change curve people may experience. Whatever you do, don’t let resistance hold you back, go where the energy is (because there’s as much curiosity as there is resistance) and create moments in time for celebration, excitement and engagement.  

  1. Building the plane while it’s taking off couldn’t be more true – In many cases organisations don’t know what the future state looks like. They may have a few use cases which are essential in telling the story and showing potential, but the end goal is still unclear. Tools are evolving and being built every day, we’ve only just scratched the surface of what the possibilities are. For many, that’s exciting, for others it brings a sense of uncertainty and fear. Lewin’s Change Model which encourages organisations to unfreeze, change then refreeze must happen simultaneously or at record-speed to be successful. In many ways the ‘refreeze’ stage isn’t possible; people will constantly be in the state of flux. A growth mindset becomes essential.  

Overcome this by: Tackling it and explaining it head on. Don’t try and pretend to have all the answers. Involve people in the process of defining the destination but leave that open to evolution as more knowledge is built.  

  1. Safety is paramount (both psychological and legal) – creating a culture of constant experimentation is essential, and that is only possible if psychological safety is in place. People need to feel comfortable to try and fail, whilst critically understanding the guardrails, legal and ethical implications particularly when Automation Bias can lead us to over-trust AI outputs. It’s in many ways a juxtaposition, one that requires careful thought and a highly tailored approach.  

Overcome this by: Be clear about the rules and open about the legal and compliance implications of using Gen AI. Invest in culture change efforts and behaviour change pilots to shift mindsets and ways of working. Critically, ensure leaders are driving accountability at the same time as creating the culture of psychological safety; a careful balance to strike.  

  1. Leaders are learning too – whereas in most change programmes, top down leadership role modelling is the first priority, with Gen-AI adoption, the most senior leaders are often the last to adapt their ways of working. Of course, they know at an organisational level it needs to happen and are keen advocates, but on a personal level they’re often resistant to trying it themselves. This needs to be overcome, but at the same time your greatest influencers may not be who you expect.  

Overcome this by: Invest in 1:1 coaching with leaders to help overcome any fear or resistance. Focus on creating a groundswell of influencers and champions at all levels of the organisation, use your Gen Z employees, give them a voice at the table of decision making, offer reverse coaching experiences for managers.  

This is arguably the biggest shake up of work as we know it since the first Industrial Revolution. To overlook the human aspect of this change would be to admit defeat before you’ve even begun. Join us at the upcoming Business Change Conference on 27 November where we’ll be joined by in-house Gen-AI experts who’ll share their learnings of Gen-AI adoption.  

#UnionizeStarbucks. #StarbucksWorkersUnited.

The collective outcry of disgruntled Starbucks employees this summer was just one of many examples of people taking their issues with working conditions to the court of public opinion – social media – that we have seen over the past few years. And they were effective. By month’s end, despite a US Supreme Court ruling that favored Starbucks, consumers were siding with the baristas, investors were selling their shares at a loss, and union negotiations were on track to deliver to workers a better contract.   

Our new research shows that employees today are seeking agency – the ability to make an impact and the recognition for doing so – above all else from their employers. Those employers who do not offer opportunities for impact and value risk their employees grabbing it on their own terms, thereby changing consumer sentiment, influencing market valuations, and remaking their workplace.  

This trend marks the latest evolution in how employees are engaging with their employers online; something we first observed in and have been tracking since 2014. That was the year of social campaigns so viral—remember the Ice Bucket Challenge?—they broke the Internet. Research we pioneered then revealed a startling development: engaging employees on social media resulted in brand messaging traveling 10X further than corporate channels. For organizations willing to invest in developing and empowering champion networks, the rewards were stratospheric—and the risks were low.  

Fast forward to 2017, when we witnessed that advocacy morphing into something far more volatile. With one blog, you may recall, a disgruntled employee at Uber managed to dethrone its CEO. Research we conducted that year affirmed the trend: employees were gaining significant traction online by calling out their employer for unfair practices (real or perceived) or calling on them to take a stand on issues within or outside of the workplace. The risk/reward ratio, for employers, had dramatically reversed.  

In 2021 and even more so today, we see that while winning brand advocacy is still possible, it’s by no means a given. To be sure, many employees have taken at least one action to advocate for their employers in the last 12 months—but these numbers have declined by close to or more than double digits since 2014. At the same time, employees’ activist positions have remained the same or slightly increased.  

Faced with these headwinds, employers are not powerless. Our client work worldwide, bolstered by our ten years of research, highlights exactly how you can ride the momentum of employee advocacy while curbing the tide of rising employee activism.  

Investing time in understanding what issues employees – and all important stakeholders – care about when it comes to navigating societal issues will also help get ahead of potential activism. A strong societal issues framework that balances stakeholder perspectives with organizational values and the realities of the business will allow for better coordinated planning as expected and emerging issues come up. 

Based on the above, the questions we advise our clients to consider include:  

While the proven approaches increasing employee advocacy and mitigating activism are relatively straightforward, they are anything but simple. We work closely with our colleagues at United Minds across North America, South America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East to help clients anticipate, minimize and address organizational risk, while at the same time improving employee engagement, satisfaction, and ultimately, performance.

Published originally in Compass for the Chaos.

Leaders today face unprecedented risk if they fail to successfully navigate sharply conflicting demands from stakeholders both inside and outside of the company. Read about the real (but blinded) challenges leaders are facing over on the Page Society blog.

A global pandemic, digital transformations with the rise of AI, employee turnover, economic uncertainty, climate change, war even. And that’s just the last few years.

Leaders face unprecedented challenge

Leaders today face more challenge, more complexity and more volatility than ever before. Leaders operate under some of the most difficult economic, social and political pressures ever seen. They must be everything from bold visionaries, effective strategists to inspirational team leaders whilst also delivering business results month on month, quarter on quarter. And they face high expectations from a whole range of stakeholders – whether that’s delivering results to shareholders, providing competitive products and services for customers, operating sustainably and in service of the community and, last but certainly not least, delivering stable, meaningful work for employees.

It’s in this context that employees’ expectations on leaders are also changing. We are now in a world where the boundaries between personal and professional lives have blurred even further as the blessing and the curse of hybrid working has become the norm. And where employees are less reluctant to settle for anything less that contributing to meaningful, important work. We’re in a world where employees expect their leaders to show up as people first, business managers second.

Evidence and research tells us the most effective leaders lead with heart

From our recent Meeting the Moment survey of 1,000 employees based in the US and UK across a range of industries, business sizes and employee roles. We asked questions about the threats and challenges their companies were facing, the changes they were going through, what employees felt their leaders were doing well, and the impact this has on employee satisfaction, engagement and business performance. We found:

Leaders may be measured on business performance, but they can’t succeed without an energised, engaged and empowered workforce committed to the company’s purpose and their role in delivering the strategic results. A workforce that feels listened to and cared for as humans and that feels trusted and safe to collaborate, innovate, and learn, often during times of change. Evidence shows that the best leaders, those with the most impact, are those who are not just high-performing, but those that lead with a big heart and humanity.

Leadership development needs a rethink

Traditional leadership development has equipped leaders with the skills to build strategies, set objectives, track and measure performance and solve problems. However, frameworks, models and theories that serve a purpose in the classroom quickly get dusty in the real-world where leaders rely on their instincts, the views of those around them and the data in front of them.

Leadership development needs to do a better job at supporting leaders to be more human. We need to do better at equipping leaders to understand what motivates and drives their people. We need to curate the experiences that will push leaders to shift their thinking and see their role in a new way. And most of all, we must provide leaders with the skills and tools that allow them to focus on the people who deliver for their businesses, over the task, in the moments that matter most.

Nurturing high-performing leaders with heart

So how do we do it? At United Minds, we support leaders to first understand the psychology of their own habits and behaviours. What drives and motivates them, what holds them back, what’s behind their behaviours? By understanding how mindset affects behaviours – for both themselves and then for others – leaders can determine the actions that are right for them as individuals to show up authentically and that can be adopted straight away to shift outcomes.

The reason this approach is powerful is that it nurtures the essence of being a leader. It nurtures those core leadership skills that can be applied regardless of the environment. Whether it’s financial pressure, organisational restructure, the introduction of technology, leadership transition, organisational culture and employee retention issues, or outside-in economic, societal or environmental forces. By focusing on a leaders’ psychological awareness and behaviours, we are nurturing the leaders our businesses need today regardless of the challenge they face.

That’s why, we believe that more human leaders are better able to take on the challenges they face in the real-world. When we upskill leaders to understand their psychology and to lead with both heart and compassion, we’re equipping them to navigate and perform effectively, regardless of the challenge they face. And when we get it right, we get leaders who can drive business performance and a great employee experience.

Our three-step model to developing high-performing leaders with heart

Via our collaboration with Professor Thomas Roulet, Professor of Organisational Sociology & Leadership at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, and based on his research and thought leadership, we apply a three-step model to the development of high-performing leaders with heart.

We start with the individual – the first critical step for any leader wanting to be effective and impactful in leading teams and organisations.

  1. Leading self
    Leaders must first and foremost get absolutely clear on their own purpose and vision. Through self-awareness and reflection, leaders can understand the psychology of their own habits and behaviours. Then they create actions that can be adopted straight away to shift those behaviours, showing up in the organisation with a conscious and authentic leadership style.
  2. Leading others
    An effective leader aligns a team around their vision, provides focus and empowers their people to take ownership and make the decisions that will deliver high-performance. Through behaving with heart, compassion and great communication, leaders can support their teams through change and transformation, as well as create trusted relationships and safe environments that facilitate collaboration, creativity, innovation and productivity.
  3. Leading organisation
    With these foundations in place, organisational performance follows with a leader strategically positioned to drive results, nurture and drive an enabling culture through leadership role modelling, as well as clear, purposeful, strategic communications, and create the energy that will continue to drive a business forward as it continues to change, transform and evolve.

At United Minds, we are a group of HR practitioners, psychologists, coaches, business consultants, communicators, and change managers. It’s our purpose to make business more human and we believe that starts at the top.

That’s why we love partnering with our clients on leadership alignment and development programmes that nurture high-performing leaders with heart. For us, that’s leadership impact.

If you’re interested in learning more about what we do, get in touch.

Business leaders recognise that the pace of change is constantly increasing. Organisations are now expected to play a pivotal role in driving and sustaining long-lasting change in society. That’s hard to do without an authentic purpose that is lived and breathed by the whole organisation.  

In a recent study of 1000 CEOs, 89% of their organisations had a purpose, but the CEOs’ biggest challenge was making it actionable and relevant. Connecting people to purpose requires everyone to be accountable for that purpose, and feel empowered to make decisions in pursuit of it. It can’t be left only to the leaders at the top. 

However, change fatigue for employees is real. They need to be re-energised to build their creativity. How can we unlock the passion and joy people find in their work? How can we reignite the pride and purpose in our people without it feeling like yet another change initiative?  

Empowering your team starts with you 

The answer lies in empowering employees through clear accountability and devolved leadership. In a recent United Minds study of 1000 US and UK-based employees, 77% believe leaders could drive more accountability. Similarly, 75% believe leaders could empower employees more. For organisations to harness the opportunities within today’s rapidly changing business climate, it is critical for all employees to be accountable for the organisation’s success – and most importantly, to feel empowered to do so. 

United Minds has developed a simple visual framework to help you explore, define and activate the critical factors needed to drive greater accountability and empowerment of your people. The ultimate benefit is creating the conditions for everyone to actively contribute towards strengthening your business.  

The questions below will help you take a closer look at each of these critical factors.

Click here to review the full framework

The Why: Purpose, Vision and Strategy

You can only hit the target if you know what you are aiming at. People need to have a North Star to guide them when they are making decisions. Understanding the purpose, vision and strategy ensures their actions are aligned with the organisation’s priorities and its strategic intent for creating value. 

Questions to help you explore The Why: 

Think about these questions from the point of view of the employee. As a leader, you will have a much closer connection to the business strategy and to the purpose and vision, and be clear on your role. Can you confidently – and measurably – say the same for your team? 

The Way: Culture

Culture guides the “way things are done” in an organisation. Having a culture that is built on genuine vulnerability-based trust; that values feedback to enable honest conversations; and fosters a sense of agency to make decisions and take accountability without fear, ensures growth for individuals and better outcomes for the organisation.

Questions to help you explore The Way:

Are people in your organisation empowered to proactively step up to drive organisational goals?
– Ways to identify if you’re empowering your people include checking whether managers measure outcomes, not just inputs, and recognize the right behaviours in their teams.
– What stories are people sharing? Do they reinforce proactivity?

The How: Processes and Systems 

Policies, processes and systems go some way to activating these critical factors and making the behaviour change more sustainable. These should be designed to promote and reward individual ownership, with defined responsibilities that create clarity and accountability without limiting initiative. Underpinning these should be measures on how improved empowerment and accountability tangibly impact business and purpose KPIs. 

Questions to help you explore The How: 

Don’t do it alone 

Now that you have explored the why, the way and the how behind enabling greater accountability and empowering your team to drive purpose-led change, it’s time to put it into action. Role model empowering your team by identifying people to develop a plan and put it into action. United Minds partners with organisations to design tailored solutions, starting with assessing where your culture currently is, and how you want it to evolve to get you closer to your Why. We support you in bringing your team along the journey through our people-centered approach – resulting in genuine empowerment and sustainable change, with a clear business impact in mind.  

Click here to speak to us about how we can help.