Human beings are a leader’s area of expertise

In the second of a series of articles exploring company culture, the EIC’s Alan Mullett sets out his view that the best leaders are those that can combine technical and procedural skills with an understanding of what makes people tick.

This series of articles summarises the findings of a ‘live’ six year pioneering cultural transition programme in the utility sector.

In the last article we found that culture is not static, especially in our fast-changing utility sectors. And that we need to continually adapt our cultures if we are to remain relevant. Before we move on to the next steps of cultural change it is worth revisiting why constant cultural adaptation is so important and urgent in our utility sectors.

It is important for us to remain relevant and fit for purpose, and move from being the custodians of critical analogue infrastructure assets, to leading and managing intelligent digitised utilities that play a key role in averting a global climate catastrophe. To do that we need to create dynamic and resilient cultures that deliver against a backdrop of tighter regulation and increased political and societal scrutiny. There is also the constant pressing drive to safely deliver more and better for less whilst maintaining shareholder confidence.

We need to create cultures that attract, retain, and motivate increasingly rare, more aware, and more knowledgeable talent. Cultures where innovation increases, and CO2 decreases. Cultures that combine our heritage of technical expertise and process, procedure, and systems competence with a motivated, productive and fulfilled community of employees. Cultures that deliver exceptional levels of productivity and wellbeing. To quote Simon Sinek, “To combine the mechanistic with the humanistic.”

In the last article we identified culture as what leaders say, think and do, day in and day out. It then followed logically that if you want to change a culture you need to change the behaviours of the leaders. There you have it, investing in the right leadership development provides a clear route to a culture that produces extraordinary levels of productivity and wellbeing. One where safety improves and customer and employee satisfaction scores have a strong upward trend, where innovation abounds, and shareholders enjoy sector leading returns.

If only it where that simple.

“You don’t get fired for hiring one of the top 5 consultancy firms.”

The bald truth is that nobody knows your business better than you. Nobody knows better how to keep the water, gas and electricity flowing than you do. You live it day to day, and you will live it tomorrow and the day after, long after the consultants have gone. Only you are intimate with the operational day to day reality. It may be difficult to swallow, but change is always more successful, cost effective and sustainable when it is owned from within. Of course, it is wise to call on external expertise, but not for that external expertise to take ownership, to take the plaudits for success or take the blame for failure. So that you are accountable for success or failure and in doing so make cultural change expertise part of the IP of the business, so you can draw on it again and again. To be a learning organisation that has the confidence and competence internally to continually adapt its culture to achieve its aspirations and meet the challenges it faces.

There is another concept we need to wrestle with. One that may raise a few eyebrows:

“You wouldn’t expect a surgeon to ad lib their way through an operation.”

Many leaders in the sector are promoted to their position of seniority because of expertise in their given field, such as asset management, engineering, or regulation. They spend many years studying and practicing their specialism. Few have spent many years studying leadership and practicing leadership. They are expected to learn as they go along – to ad lib.

Human beings are a leader’s area of expertise, the human condition is their specialism. Most organisations focus on technical expertise, process, and procedure not on what makes a human being productive and happy. Combine the two in a leadership team and you will have a competitive advantage. Equip leaders with all the skills they need to truly fulfil their role.

The design and delivery of a humanistic behavioural change-based leadership development programme, set against the new cultural objectives, is at the heart of any cultural change initiative. Giving leaders the knowledge of how we tick as humans and the skill to change human behaviour for the benefit of all is the very mechanism of cultural change.

That brings us to our next challenge.

I’m in favour of progress, it’s change I don’t like. (Mark Twain)

Few of us relish change.

We all love the thought of renewing, reinvigorating, and reenergising our organisations, but behavioural change is challenging, probably one of the greatest challenges leaders and organisations face.

We can get stuck in the old ways, “It works so why change it?” Change is happening all around and within us, and with the advent of AI, faster than ever before. We must adapt as we move to a technology driven, decarbonised economy. To truly understand how we humans tick as leaders to win the hearts and minds of all involved, from leaders to customers. To create cultures where people willingly embrace change because they can clearly see that it is in their and everyone’s interests.

We have talked a lot about culture, but what precisely constitutes a culture that produces extraordinary levels of productivity? That will be the subject of the next article.

And for those who are becoming impatient and want to cut to the ‘How to’ there will also be a checklist, a procedure, a process, to follow.