Corporate Volunteerism Can Increase Talent ‘Stickiness,’ But CEOs Have To Do It, Too

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by Wendy Steele

 

Rather than quietly volunteering at a soup kitchen or giving back in secret through a foundation, consider a more visible role alongside employees.

 

Corporate volunteer programs have become a requisite for companies to meet CSR goals and create change in the community. Well-designed volunteer programs can give companies many benefits in return, including creating trust, engagement, and loyalty with employees – a must in the current talent retention market.

In fact, recent statistics have shown that “employees who participate in employer-sponsored volunteering are five times more engaged at work.” However, a 2022 study conducted by Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP) found that the average employee volunteer participation rate across organizations is only 17%.

While corporate volunteer programs have demonstrated positive impacts, the low percentage of employee participation in these programs creates doubt whether they are effective or just in place as a “ticking the box” exercise.

The truth of the matter is corporate volunteer programs cannot take a one-size-fits all approach if the company is looking to meet the program’s intended goals, drive employee participation, and reap the additional benefits that come with doing good. It is up to the company’s leadership to be intentional in incorporating volunteerism into their business model. While every company should take a unique approach designed to align with their culture, community, and stated values, the following five steps are a great start to build a roadmap for any successful program.

Step one: Lead by example, volunteering begins with the C-Suite. 

Continue reading →

Analytics Generative AI Competency Leader

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The Analytics Generative AI Competency Leader will be responsible for driving the growth and success of our practice focused on generative artificial intelligence (AI). This role requires a combination of technical expertise, industry knowledge, and leadership abilities to deliver innovative generative AI solutions to our clients. The Practice Leader will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to develop and execute strategies that leverage generative AI techniques across various domains.

Key Responsibilities:

  1. Practice Development: Develop and implement a comprehensive growth strategy for the generative AI practice, aligned with the company’s overall business objectives. Identify new business opportunities and cultivate relationships with key stakeholders interested in generative AI solutions.
  2. Develop AI Strategy & offerings: Collaborate with clients to define their AI vision and goals. Design customized AI strategies & offerings aligned with their business objectives, industry trends, and technological advancements.
  3. Lead Implementation of AI Solutions: Lead the implementation of AI solutions by working closely with cross-functional teams. Define project scopes, timelines, and deliverables. Ensure seamless integration of AI technologies into existing systems and processes.
  4. Provide Expert Guidance: Act as a trusted advisor to senior executives and stakeholders, offering expert guidance on AI-related decisions. Educate and raise awareness about AI best practices, potential risks, and ethical considerations.
  5. Lead AI Transformation: Drive AI transformation initiatives, including change management, training programs, and cultural shifts. Foster a data-driven mindset within organizations and promote the adoption of AI across various departments.
  6. Stay Current with AI Developments: Continuously research and evaluate emerging AI technologies, frameworks, and methodologies. Keep abreast of industry trends and advancements to provide up-to-date recommendations.
  7. Collaborate with AI Specialists: Work closely with AI specialists, data scientists, engineers, and other relevant stakeholders to develop cutting-edge AI solutions. Foster a collaborative environment that encourages knowledge sharing and innovation.

If you might be interested or know someone who might be interested, please let me know!

Thank you in advance!

 

Sincerely,

Larry Janis I Managing Partner I Integrated Search Solutions Group

P-516-767-3030

 

Are You a Marketing Leader Managing Change? Read On!

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by Emmett Fitzpatrick

 

 

Employees are reporting record levels of change fatigue – on average, they reported experiencing 39 work-related changes annually – meaning executive leaders of all functions need to help them navigate this environment. This is a particularly acute challenge for marketing leaders, who are often tasked not only with engaging their own teams in change, but also helping internal business partners and even external stakeholders respond to disruption.Last year, as part of our Marketing Symposium, I led a breakout session on helping leaders engage their team in this changing work environment. Below are three key takeaways that I shared; I invite you to consider how you can incorporate them into your day-to-day responsibilities of managing your teams. And by the way, this year’s Symposium is being held in Denver in May, so reserve your spot today!Before I get to the takeaways, I urge you to remember one piece of advice when it comes to managing your teams during change:Stop telling your employees to change, and start figuring out what’s getting in their way.With this hint in mind, let’s get to our recommended actions for you.

Acknowledge that your employees are likely fatigued

This one sounds easy, right? Well, yes, it is!

We need to acknowledge – for ourselves – that your employees are likely fatigued, and not be shy about sharing that with your employees. Continue reading →

Talking a Walk Could Be a Step Toward Better Negotiation

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by Dave Gilson

 

Many people think of negotiation as a fight, but it’s really about collaboration, Margaret Neale explains to me as we begin our walk. “What negotiation is to me is joint problem-solving: let’s find a solution to a problem that we’re facing.”

Right now, the problem Neale and I face is how to get across the Stanford campus without getting soaked by an unseasonable shower. Where’s one of those famous covered walkways when you really need it?

Neale, a professor emerita of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, is an expert on negotiation and, to paraphrase the title of her book on the subject, how to get more of what you want. She’s found that the traditional approach to negotiation — two adversarial parties staring each other down over a table — doesn’t work all that well. “If you’re fighting, you’re not creating value. You’re trying to dominate,” she says. “Reframing it from battle to collaborative problem-solving opens up the opportunities for negotiation in such an amazing way.”

If you’re fighting, you’re not creating value. You’re trying to dominate.
Margaret Neale

I’ve joined Neale on this stroll to hear about her latest article, which explores an easy way to break out of the boardroom-battle model. Recently published in PLOS ONE, it details an experiment in which around 160 volunteers were split into same-gender pairs and given a 30-minute exercise where they had to hammer out the details of a fictional job offer. Half of the recruiter-candidate pairs talked while sitting across from each other in a room; the other half haggled while taking a walk outside. Continue reading →

The art of leading in the AI age

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by Pia Lauritzen

 

 

 

Advances in generative AI are provoking a flood of opinions about the technology’s effect on our working lives. When AI is said to improve everything from productivity to brand loyalty, it is tempting to assume that it can improve leadership, too. Maybe it could free up time for leaders to work on their relationships. Or help them become better at dealing with emotions and give real-time feedback during difficult conversations. So, is AI going to make for better leaders?

The short answer is that leadership is not a product of technology, so the technology itself can’t improve leadership. But technology can shape leaders, as we’ve seen throughout history. Indeed, there are three distinct periods when it comes to discussing technology and leadership, and each one has required a different kind of leader. In the first era, the premodern era—think preindustrialization—tools compensated for our weaknesses, and leaders needed to be subject matter experts who could master these tools for survival. In the modern industrial era, technology complemented our limited nature and helped improve our lives; leaders needed to be administrators who could use the technology to help us be more productive. The third era is the post–World War II digital era—whose offerings include AI—in which we have technology that is designed to overcome our limitations; and our leaders need to be what I call organizational midwives, guiding us through a working life that is defined more by what technology does for us than by what we do ourselves.

It was Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher, who identified the distinction between premodern and modern technology in his seminal 1954 lecture, “The Question Concerning Technology.” He made it clear that although different generations of technology have different ways of influencing human beings and behaviors, our fundamental purpose for using technology remains the same: to deal with the fact that we are limited creatures, thrown into this world without knowing why and for how long.

That’s probably not what a CEO, who is focused on delivering results, is thinking about every day; but in a very real sense, a good business leader is helping her teams cope with limitations using the technology on hand. Heidegger didn’t say anything about leadership in his lecture, but he did speak of a connection between the artificial and art that is useful in understanding how the role of leadership has evolved. In ancient Greece, “at the outset of the destining of the West,” Heidegger said, it was not technology or “the artificial” alone that bore the name techné. Art, understood as “the bringing forth of the true into the beautiful,” was also called techné. Like that of art, the role of leadership is not to make our lives easier but to remind us of the beauty of using ourselves and our limited time and resources in a meaningful way. To put our experience, knowledge, and skills to use, we need something (technology) to compensate, complement, and overcome our limited nature, and we need someone (a leader) to help us achieve goals that none of us would be able to achieve on our own. Continue reading →