“Our children should be questioning us and demanding more. They deserve better.”

7 things I learned from leaders at this morning’s Fluxx Exchange

“While you can’t control what happens in the world, you can control how you lead your company” Lori Torres, CEO and Founder of Parcel Pending.

A worldwide pandemic, global political and social unrest, and renewed urgency to act on the climate crisis; there’s huge demands on organisations and their leaders to interrogate their purpose, and the impact they have on people and the planet. This means evolving how those at the top of a business respond to their employees, users, and customers; being accountable, transparent and making decisions with humility.

Although this began before the pandemic, the last 18 months has emphasised the need for authentic connection. Internally, that means leaders need to be vulnerable, genuine and open. Externally, that means converting compassion into action by using business purpose to enact positive and meaningful change in our communities.

Here are my seven learnings from Fluxx Exchange: The Yin & Yang of Leadership.

1. Avoid leadership echo chambers. Communities like Adas List exist to offer leaders support in tackling the big complex challenges. When we’re looking to make impactful, genuine change, seek conversations outside immediate peer groups to create stronger, more diverse cultures.
2. “I want to make sure they feel like they’re making progress.” Remote working means the impact of our work can be hard to see. A FTSE100 Global Director shared that her team needed to work harder to put a strong feedback mechanism in place, creating the space for consistent, regular, feedback and recognition, which in turn strengthens a distributed team.
3. ‘Ambivert’; a person who has a balance of extrovert and introvert features in their personality. Thanks David Bailey.
4. “I’m gay 12 months of the year, not just in June.” Too many brands are Cause Washing; “don’t fall into the trap” says Inzone Consumer Insights Founder Alex Beraud. “Consumers see straight through it”. Reminder of the recent Brewdog nightmare here.
5. “Improving your self awareness improves your leadership, which is hands down the number one thing for young leaders to focus on” says coach Phoebe Cherry. Enneagrams, psychometric testing and theory based measures for authentic leadership can all be useful when employing remote teams. They help to understand how people think and what their intrinsic drives are.
6. Let’s champion being our authentic selves. “I still body-popping at the beginning of my meetings!” says David Villa-Clarke, Executive Director of the Aleto Foundation. “I want to put a smile on your face, laugh along with me!” The organisation identifies and equips tomorrow’s leaders with mentoring, development programmes and confidence boosting learning experiences.
7. “The next generation will be the most demanding we’ve ever seen,” says Fluxx Founder Rich Poole. Equipped with ever-advancing technological resources and capabilities, and impassioned by the current state of the world (politically, socially and environmentally); why would we expect the next generation to sit back quietly? “Our children should be questioning us and demanding more. They deserve better.”

There was plenty more to add to this list, so please do add your comments or drop me a note at jassi@fluxx.uk.com. I’d love to continue the conversation.

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