As part of the Future of Work Exchange (FOWX), we host a regular podcast featuring coverage of industry news, software developments, Future of Work happenings, and, most importantly, conversations with industry thought leaders. Recently, our own Christopher J. Dwyer, architect of the Exchange and host of the Future of Work Exchange Podcast, had the tables turned on him: Afterhours, sponsored by Utmost and hosted by Neha Goel, the company’s vice president of marketing, featured Christopher as part of its Contingent Workforce Radio series.
Neha and Christopher discussed a variety of issues related to the state of talent and the future of work (click to listen to the full interview). This is an excerpt from that conversation. (Note that this excerpt has been edited for readability.)
Neha Goel: As we explore the human element in the workplace, let’s talk about another tenant of the Future of Work — empathetic leadership. Is this something you are seeing put into action? And can empathetic leadership be measured in a meaningful way?
Christopher J. Dwyer: Yes and no. I feel like there is an appointed effort. There is a very focused effort for leaders to be more deliberate in leading with empathy and leveraging conscious leadership tactics. But, I do not think many organizations have a handle on how to measure it.
That is where we need to go as business leaders. It is tough to measure something like that, however, because it is so qualitative. How do we know that we are doing the right things as leaders? Or how do we know that we are leading in the right way? How do we know that our employees are having a positive experience and that they feel safe and comfortable? Do they feel that they are part of an inclusive culture?
It circles back to the question of how to measure those things. NPS scores are not going to help. Informal surveys may give you some type of picture. This is the next big leadership challenge going into the second half of the year and into 2023. It can be difficult measuring not just empathy, but how cognizant you are of your leadership and its impact.
It is encouraging to see that more leaders are very conscious of their styles of leadership. But you still see many leaders who are not flexible and still rigid — the Elon Musk-type celebrity CEO who does not care about flexibility or employee feelings, and insists we need you in the office and you need to be part of the team. (Editor’s note: check out yesterday’s article on Malcolm Gladwell’s horrible take on remote work.)
We are so far past that. I have been saying for over two years that there is no way you can put a positive spin on a worldwide pandemic that has killed so many people. It has disrupted life so much. But if you were to take the positives of the fallout from the pandemic, there are many accelerants from the Future of Work angle that came to light.
You have remote work, the reliance on automation and tech, and the desire to be more data-led to gain a better understanding of where we are going as a business and how we are going to survive. But there is the other piece where leaders need to realize that they need to change their leadership style or risk losing workers.
“I am going to lose the talent that exists in my business, and I do not want that to happen.” I do see leaders doing it, but measuring it continues to be a challenge. I do not think many organizations have that figured out yet.
NG: That is fair. It would be fascinating to have you back in a few months and see potential progress.
CJD: Absolutely. I look at some of the most read articles on the Future of Work Exchange since we launched, and one of the top three articles is a piece on why empathy is the only way forward.
A reason it is one of the most popular pieces is that business leaders are interested in trying to hone their style to be more flexible, more empathetic, and more conscious in thinking about their workforce and their staff.
I remember the early days of the pandemic quite clearly. Memories of COVID-19 close contacts and quarantining, 14-day isolations, and kids unable to go to school. Neha, you have young kids, as I do. How disruptive was it to have kids at home for weeks and months at a time? And remote learning was not exactly a conducive way to learn for them (even though it’s a great way to work, haha).
Truly conscious leaders understood how difficult that was for their staff. And they were the ones who were offering flexible options or realizing that, “Hey, this person needs to sit with his or her daughter as she does second grade remotely. Yes, he or she is going to be offline for a couple of hours, but will be back in the afternoon.”
It is leaders who truly step into their workforce’s shoes and acknowledge what everyone is going through and recognizes the need to support them through this. Those are the leaders who are realizing their workforce is happier. They are more engaged. They know that we are here to support them.
I would love to come back in four or five months and say we have a couple of real-life cases we can share of how a business was able to measure its effectiveness. Did our profits go up? Did we have less turnover? I think those could be some of the early metrics to use.
