“Future Focused” is a Guide for Leaders Wishing to Harness the Power of Culture in the Workplace of Today
New book co-authored by Heidrick & Struggles’ Ian Johnston and Rose Gailey offers insights on pivoting culture during a tumultuous period to be truly prepared for the future.
London, UNITED KINGDOM, Oct. 28, 2021 – Heidrick & Struggles (Nasdaq: HSII), the global provider of executive search and leadership advisory services, has today released, “Future Focused: Shape Your Culture, Shape Your Future”. The book examines how leaders from a multitude of sectors have used culture to drive successful organisational change and deliver purposeful, sustained performance. It also examines those who haven’t fully utilised culture… to their peril.
The book’s release comes as candidates worldwide become increasingly more purposeful with their career choices; people want to work for an organisation that stands for something. Aside from anything else, having a meaningful culture can assist companies in the war for talent from both a hiring and retention perspective.
The book highlights a number of successful company cultures through the lens of leading inspirational CEOs, including those from Meggitt, ApTiv, Rolls Royce, DBS Bank, Proximus and more. Leaders can learn from the achievements of successful CEOs and can observe from the case studies that when you put the culture right in there at the heart of the strategy, and make a very clear statement that it’s the delivery mechanism for that, it really makes a difference.
CEOs and executive leaders must make sure that culture is systemically “hardwired” into the fabric of the organization’s HR systems, quality and operational excellence initiatives, and employee and customer experience to be sustainable.
As well as success stories, the book also touches upon a number of companies who were negatively impacted by their lack of culture, or the culture that was promoted in the company. This shows the vitality and necessity of nurturing company culture and makes for interesting reading.
Instead of going the usual route of focusing on the positive and not being aware of the things that went wrong, leaders can learn from challenges faced by others.
“Communication is oxygen for organisations at all times, but most especially in times of transition,” stated Ian Johnston, partner at Heidrick & Struggles, London and co-author of the book. “Leaders who communicate openly, honestly, vulnerably, and consistently will enable employees to weather uncertainty and move to action. Embedding an effective organisation culture is no easy task but may prove to be a vital investment of resources when looking towards the future.”
There are many unknowns facing leaders during the return to the office, not least the question:
How do you ensure the people’s working experience is consistent, whether they are present in the office or not? People’s sensitivity to culture has increased because a huge proportion of people have been working from home for 18 months. Therefore, there is a rare opportunity for leaders to really shape organisational culture, whilst people are open to the opportunity.
“Additionally,” continued Johnston “and as we learned from our global CEO Culture survey, those CEOs who link culture to strategy also outperform their peers, in fact doubling their 3 year compound growth rate for revenue. This book further emphasizes the importance of a healthy culture on performance, talent and purpose”.
To receive a free digital copy of “Future Focused,” please find the link here.
About Heidrick & Struggles
www.heidrick.com
Heidrick & Struggles (Nasdaq: HSII) is a premier provider of global leadership advisory and on-demand talent solutions, serving the senior-level talent and consulting needs of the world’s top organizations. In our role as trusted leadership advisors, we partner with our clients to develop future-ready leaders and organizations, bringing together our services and offerings in executive search, diversity and inclusion, leadership assessment and development, organization and team acceleration, culture shaping and on-demand, independent talent solutions. Heidrick & Struggles pioneered the profession of executive search more than 65 years ago. Today, the firm provides integrated talent and human capital solutions to help our clients change the world, one leadership team at a time.®
