Hacking Work on Labour Day!

It’s International Workers’ Day, so let’s get into:

• Recalibrating work – hacking ways to motivate your teams and release more potential.
• Generational EQ – accelerating growth through Gen Z upskilling, careers and retention.
• Scaling Skills-first – learning productivity from high pressure movie production projects.

‘Work’ is different for each of us: why you work; what you work at and don’t; how much effort you exert or don’t. Do you lean in or push back? Do you give it a shot or give it your all?

As a business leader, you’re all in, by definition and default. Your work is your passion and purpose. It’s not a part-time pursuit. And it’s not about you. If your business is to thrive, the ‘I work for the paycheck’ or (in the US) ‘my day job gets me healthcare coverage’ attitudes across your workforce won’t do it.

How can you get everyone inspired and involved, aligned and engaged?

YOU have got to work it—do the work to understand what motivates and matters to each person on your team. Modeling your example, they can engage and energize their own teams. You need to be creative and innovative developing your business and your workforce, putting humans first.

Issues to uncover: Every person has their own lens, context, concerns and aspirations. What works for each of your team, especially aligning their skills and interests with the business purpose? What energizes them to keep going the extra mile?

Actions to take: Lean in and learn about each person you work with:

• Put yourself in their shoes, seeing the world as they do.
• Discover more about them and deepen your relationships.
• Find common ground and create events to share activities.

The better you connect, the better you’ll communicate and collaborate—particularly under pressure tackling a pivot or supporting a growth spurt. Make time to learn about your tech and your talent. They counterbalance each other and work together. Modern work is tech-driven and talent-focused.

To successfully scale your organization, career development must be strategic not tactical, proactive not passive, overt and ongoing—especially with Gen Zers. Why? Upskilling and non-linear careers need strategic planning, intentional mapping and regular updating for employees and managers across your company.

AI-boosted digitalized operations are dynamic. Gen Zers believe they need to keep upskilling and growing with the business—or they must leave. Watch me describe why upskilling matters so much to younger cohorts and what extra attention new non-linear careers require.

Source: Clip from my interview with Kamber Parker Bowden discussing multigenerational workforce issues.

Issues to uncover: How are younger employees’ careers currently developed at your company? Have you recently lost any Gen Zers because they didn’t see a path for their growth? What upskilling programs are there and how are they planned?

Actions to take:

• Use AI to match employees’ skills to evolving project work, enabling internal mobility.
• Commit managerial resources for strategic planning to launch or expand a talent marketplace.
• Create cross-company projects for employees to develop new skills or explore different areas.

It’s not just up to you and other leaders to work it out. Innovations to improve performance involve employees cultivating self-knowledge. Each employee can reflect and identify their top skills and assess how best to align and refine work design with personal preferences and skills.

Movie production teams work intense, long project days on set when every minute counts. Watch Hollywood producer, ​Steven Puri​, discuss how progress gets assessed in great detail at the end of each day of filming which has informed how his new tech venture, the ​Sukha Company​, supports focused productivity.

Source: Clip from my upcoming podcast interview with Steven Puri.

Key questions to ask: Do employees understand their strengths, work styles, and ‘flow’ scenarios? How much are skills emphasized to help managers orient people’s work? Is teams’ work being redesigned and tasks reassigned to use AI to better tackle complex problems and more frequent non-routine projects?

Actions to take:

• Guide managers to break down tasks to assess where AI can reduce overload so team members can focus on highest value problem solving.
• Incentivize employees to take responsibility for discovering and applying their work preferences to enhance personal and team performance.

Need targeted insights: if you are interested to get advice tailored to your specific company, business issues, workforce and growth dilemmas, next week I am launching limited individual executive coaching for leaders focused on scaling through uncertainty. If you would like to reserve a session, there will be just a few available each week.

Keep tuned in for regular data insights and tips from the field.

See you next week!

Sophie