The Leadership Enigma

Rachele Focardi is a leading expert on the multi generational workforce, author and LinkedIn Top Voice. One of the main questions in this episode is whether 'purpose' remains the great divide or the great connector post pandemic?
A quick guide to the Generations:
The Silent Generation: Born before 1946
Baby Boomers 1946 - 1964
Gen X: 1965 - 1980
Millennials: 1981 - 1995
Gen Z: 1996 - 2010
A leader who can harness diversity of thought and multi generational working across their workforce will see an enhanced competitive advantage.
Rachele describes Purpose as something that is inherently owned by the younger generations who strive for change and want to experience the workplace as an enabler for positive change. We saw Millennials rise up especially after incidents such as 9/11 and the financial crisis and they drove the debate for change as they had seen their parents struggle with work being a pay check as opposed to a meaningful individual and collective sport. They also took a huge amount of criticism for this rising up and Rachele saw an opportunity to start to study these dynamics.
Resilience is a big cause of generational conflict, the reason being a lack of understanding of the others experiences and the difference in parenting styles we were exposed to. Cultural differences have exacerbated these feelings and Rachele describes the differences between hardship and psychological safety.
Rachele carried out the post pandemic workplace study and discovered that the four main ingredients for people feeling purposeful at work were
1. Helping others
2. Making impact
3. Growing and feeling fulfilled
4. Being recognised and appreciated by your colleagues.
42% of employees feel that the only way for them to feel enabled to experience purpose in their job is to change employers.
To view a copy of the results and its impact on purpose visit: www.xyzatwork.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rfocardi/

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Matt Abrahams is the host of the globally ranked Podcast 'Think Fast, Talk Smart' and lecturer at the world famous Stanford University Graduate School of Business in California. Matt is passionate about helping people hone and develop their communication skills. Think Fast, Talk Smart started many years ago where Matt began helping students at Stanford to be able to deal with questions from faculty and it has since grown into a global powerhouse of learning fuelled by the rise of podcast consumption during the pandemic.
As fellow podcasters we investigate how the process of humble enquiry and listening has allowed us both to create very real, powerful and intimate connections with our guests.
Public speaking is a ubiquitous fear for many as we risk our status being eroded in a social hierarchy by a poor performance. However the importance of a leaders ability to communicate effectively is clear and we all need to invest the time and effort to practice and hone our communication style for maximum impact.
Matt is full of top tips including helping people deal with the anxiety associated with public speaking using his two pronged approach to managing 'Sources' and 'Symptoms'. Sources are what generate, initiate and exacerbate our anxiety and symptoms are the things we experience. The basis for many nerves if our fear of a potential negative outcome in the future so by being more present and in the moment we can mitigate that fear.
We also discuss how leaders can prepare to speak 'off the cuff' and deal with questions and interventions. Matt's methodology is (1) get out of your own way, don't judge and evaluate yourself all the time. What we need to do is utilise the improvisation technique of 'Dare to be Dull'. As Matt explains, just get it done as opposed to heaping pressure on yourself. This will actually reduce the cognitive load by striving for mediocrity so you can achieve greatness. (2) Structure your content (approach) so you can simply slot your answer or response into a pre determined structure. A good structure to deal with questions Matt uses is A.D.D. as opposed to discovering the answer as you ramble!
Answer the question
Detailed and concrete example must then be provided
Describe relevance or value
Think Fast, Talk Smart is available on all major podcast platforms
www.nofreakingspeaking.com

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This episode was created in collaboration with Heidrick & Struggles. I chat to a panel of young leaders to discover what they want from their leadership and culture and what kinds of leaders they aspire to become in order to shape a World Better Led.

The panel includes Sarah Sage, Floris Hondmann, Lea Evers and Jacob Vincent with huge thanks to TA Mitchell and Luisa Muse. This is an important episode for all leaders in a multigenerational working environment.

All of these young leaders are passionate about a ‘World Better Led’ and how their work can create clarity, purpose, meaning and opportunities for growth and development. Human Centred Leadership has taken pole position and profit now becomes a far more complex and contextualised question for organisational leaders to answer and provide a compelling narrative to those they seek to recruit.

Young talent has an expectation for their leaders to be authentic but not perfect and to take the time to understand, respect, communicate and lead in a personalised way.

Empathy is important to them all, they care. They have a strong bond and sense of collaboration between themselves, and they know more about each other's lives than perhaps was common in early careers just a few decades ago.

The pandemic allowed all of us to reassess priorities and identify our own non-negotiables and the way we work will never be the same. We discuss the idea that working from the office is actually the time that we need to switch on our ‘out of office’ notifications. They want the office to be productive and focus on celebration, connection and education rather than endless meetings, reports and zoom calls which can be done at home.
Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigma/videos
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Hybrid Work: Finding the Perfect Balance

Cost of living crisis: It’s time to address financial wellbeing

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www.leadersenigma.com

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Sane Ngidi is a young female black leader in Africa working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This is an episode of two halves, the first focuses on some of the learning Sane has gained in her early corporate life and the second is a story of vulnerability, self reflection and resilience.
Sane started corporate life as an industrial psychologist with her initial roles in Durban until she moved to Johannesburg.
Sane is thankful for the strong role model of her mother when growing up and being told that you can always pave the way for others and lift those around you.
During Sane's Phd she carried out research into perceptions of black African leaders in financial services. A common theme was of leaders not feeling ready or worthy of the role. However they also reported the power of male ally ship which helped them through their careers.
Sane describes Africa as a place that lacks diversity but craves diversity in the workplace. Organisations are trying to ensure that they 'see' everyone as they build diversity of thought in their leadership teams. The Employment Equity Act is also a powerful guide for African businesses for the quotas they must fulfil.
When Sane initially moved to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2021, life changed. In December 2021 Sane's father died suddenly and unexpectedly. She later discovered he knew he was dying but didn't share the news with his family. Whilst still grieving, in February 2022 Sane's aunt fell ill and died, followed in April 2022 her uncle was tragically stabbed and died. Sane realised that the cumulative impact of these losses meant she was not coping and she openly asked for help. She was not able to be her best self and she took a break from work for about 6 weeks. Then in September 2022, Sane's mother passed away. Of all the deaths, her mother's was emotionally peaceful due to a long illness. 2022 fundamentally changed Sane's view of mental health. She told this story in 2023 at the 'Ignite' staff event so people could understand her personal story. She was overwhelmed by the care, love and compassion from others and for their understanding that is OK not to be OK at times in our life. Trauma, grief and mental health can't be seen and Sane realised the need to speak up and be vulnerable in order to get the help she needed.
Big thank you to Mark Watt, Partner at Heidrick & Struggles for being my super connector for great guests especially in Africa.

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Oliver Percovich is the founder of Skateistan which won the Oscar in 2020 for best documentary and a BAFTA. Oliver's story is an amazing example of how one person can create a movement for real change.
Oliver is an Australian who decided to go to Kabul with his girlfriend in 2007 with nothing more than a bag of clothes and 3 skateboard decks. In 2009, Oliver founded Skateistan, which initially operated out of a small skatepark in Kabul. The organisation quickly gained popularity and expanded to include a school that provides free education to children in grades 1 through 9. Skateistan is now providing skateboarding and educational programming to over 4,000 young people each week.
Kabul in 2007-09 had a lot of International presence but nobody really understood what was going on at ground level. Oliver's curiosity and human centred approach meant that he quickly became trusted by the local communities. As soon as he started skateboarding in the streets he became something of a local attraction, especially with the children who were seeing this for the very first time.
Oliver was fascinated how the girls especially, wanted to get involved when local tradition prohibited them from attempting many hobbies. He started using an empty fountain to allow the girls and boys to try skateboarding, (half the population is under 15 years old). He gave the girls preferential treatment to let them try skateboarding yet he only had between 3-7 boards at any one time. The girls quickly became better than the boys in a society that normally promotes the boys first. Oliver also realised that the skateboarding was uniting children from different ethnic and socio economic groups in the area.
At this point, little did Oliver realise that he had started a movement. The challenge for him now was how to scale. Oliver had no resources yet he decided to link the skateboarding to education and schooling whereby he would pay some of the girls $1 each to help teach other girls and also get them off the streets begging and back to school. He was now changing lives! Now he was thinking bigger.
After the age of 12 girls and boys needed to be separated in public and so Oliver realised that he needed to try and find an indoor facility to make sure that girls and boys could continue skateboarding in a private facility.
Oliver took advantage of a chance meeting with the incoming President of the Olympic Committee who decided to come and see the sessions at the fountain for himself. He was blown away and decided to give Oliver land for the indoor facility which he had funded by the Canadian Government, again based on an chance meeting. Momentum was now with Oliver, the Norwegian, Danish and German governments now came into the project and in October 2009 Oliver built the largest indoor sports facility in Afghanistan for children which also included 4 classrooms for the children. Success and social impact led to more success as the facility was seeing 500 kids in a week and Oliver insured that at least 50% of them were girls.
Oliver is an amazing example of resourcefulness over resources and the power of how one person can lead dramatic and sustainable change.
Today, Oliver has 12 projects around the world 3 skate schools in Afghanistan. He also has a knowledge sharing network that has inspired a lot of other social skateboarding projects to pop up around the world. He is now connected to over 850 projects in over 100 countries. All resources are available free to these projects as they are not seen as competitors but as an extension to their purpose.
Skateistan has received many awards including an Oscar for Best Documentary and a BAFTA.
https://skateistan.org
You can also find Oliver and Skateistan on Inst

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