Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER February 22, 2016 NEWS 11 to make them stick. "We'd change a process or sys- tem, and generally get the techni- cal solution right, but didn't spend enough time thinking about the behaviours and the consequences that would make the change actu- ally happen, and that's 80 per cent of the success equation." Leadership When Nielsen first arrived at For- esters years ago, there were a lot of long-term people who hadn't seen a lot of change in their ca- reers. But today, both those who are still with the organization and newer hires recognize change is part of the job and you've got to be a leader of change, she said. "Organizations used to think of change management as a skill that you bring in when you have a change that's going to happen, and now what's emerging is it's now being embedded into every leader's role, and it's being embed- ded into the HR role. "And it's not about a process, it's more about the way in which we think about making the change — we have to acknowledge the fact we expect people to behave differently." Cineplex tried to internalize the push towards innovation and change within the roles of man- agers, said Briant, "not in a very formal way, but we just consid- ered it to be part of that role…. (It's about) helping your team understand the concepts, help- ing them embrace them, execute on them." RSA created a similar directive, said Edgar. "ey follow set processes… and make sure the changes are embedded and sustained within the organization so you get the maximum benefits," he said. "So we use that as a way of mak- ing sure leaders don't feel they're off the hook — it's their role to take their teams through what's been a significant amount of change and our role to equip them with the skills to do that." Competence issues As part of the transformation, a lot is being pushed down to managers and yet surveys show many lead- ers are seen as a disappointment, incompetent or complete failures, said Hendry. And many employ- ees would forego a pay raise to see their direct supervisor fired. So, do employers have the nec- essary competency at that level? he asked. e management ranks have now thinned so much that leaders must be good at change manage- ment, said Nielsen. For Cineplex, it's a key respon- sibility within human resources, said Briant. "One of our key deliverables is to ensure the manager at all levels across the organization is effec- tive… through messaging, tone at the top." e role of leadership has be- come really hard because of all the changes around the expecta- tions of employees, demographic changes and the diversity piece, said Edgar. "You need to equip leaders, plus there's less of them. But if you get that right, then you could argue that they now become the attrac- tors of talent and the custodians of the culture that the organization has, so I think often a cause of problems in organizations is bad leadership." MLSE has spent a lot of time talking to leaders and figuring out their true challenges, said Carter. "ere are less of them, they are required to do more, they're get- ting the crunch and in listening to them, they need tools in their tool kit," she said, which MLSE is try- ing to supply. "There's recognition around that table at the executive level that we can't make change, we can't improve our customer service, we can't do any of those things with- out those people on the ground having that same energy for those efforts and contributing." When it comes to the particular challenges for leaders, these may include critical thinking, strate- gic planning and understanding financials, said Carter. "That is the dirty secret of management is that there are lot of people out there who are really good functionally, who've grown up inside their functional area but they get to a certain level and they do not have a full grasp or understanding of financials," she said. "We've started to try to at- tack that in different ways and the feedback has been incredible on anything we've done to grow skills in the organization around that." For Sabapathy, the true secret is leaders understanding human behaviour and performance, and HR can jump in by helping define what the role of the manager re- ally should be and developing sup- porting tools. "It can be confusing because it's not only the things they need to starting doing, but also the things they need to stop doing. Today, there are generally less managers, and there are lots of demands put on leaders as we expect leaders to do performance coaching, em- ployee development, help people clear roadblocks, delegate, follow up and evaluate performance," he said. "We just keep adding more stuff and are much better at this than taking things off their plates." Helping leaders understand clear expectations as well as what they can stop doing is a focus for the next few years at Cadillac Fair- view because the mid-manage- ment group often feels squeezed in the middle, and can be over- looked as initiatives roll out versus being considered a lynchpin in the process, said Sabapathy. Sometimes it's about providing more context, said Carter. "They've got all this, they've got their staff, they're feeling that crunch, and you'll often hear from them 'I don't have time' or 'We don't have the resources.' Well, it's really the ones that are good at it that have that real true understanding and linkage to the context of where the business is headed and what we're trying to achieve. Sometimes you can deal with less or do things that are hard… but they have to under- stand the greater end." ere's also the issue of some leaders producing great results but not great behaviour, said Ed- gar, so the challenge is managing that performance. "It's really important to follow through on those really symbolic decisions around people that ev- eryone knows are a bit of a chal- lenge, even if they have been there a long time or have got some key relationships with custom- ers," he said. "How you deal with these situations is a sign of how people are treated overall in your organization." Effective managers key to transformations ROUNDTABLE < pg. 10 are filled by women. So we really do have that culture ingrained that we really have senior role models who come from different backgrounds and have different life situations and are at different points in their lives, but are will- ing to get out there and be role models and be open about what is negotiable and non-negotiable in their given situation and still make it work." ere is also a very strong focus on creating work-life balance and a flexible work culture, said Title- man — which is a critical element. "We do a lot of that at AmEx, and we also embrace flexibility in quite a formal way. So our of- fice structure is set up that 80 per cent of our workforce does not go to the same desk every single day. And most of those people work virtually one or two days a week. So we really walk the talk again around workplace flexibility," she said. "I challenge leaders to be very open-minded about 'Does this work really need to get done in the office every single day?' And, generally, the answer is no, and that opens a whole new realm of flexibility that is highly appreci- ated by all. "ose are just a couple of ex- amples of how our culture really emphasizes what is needed in the workplace to do a little bit better for our women in the workforce." "at is the dirty secret of management is that there are a lot of people out there who are really good functionally but do not have a full grasp of financials." Embrace flexibility C-SUITE < pg. 6 Linda Jackson, CEO of Citroen, in Velizy-Villacoublay, France, in December. Many women say they are ambitious but don't believe they can reach the C-suite, according to a recent Canadian survey. Credit: Charles Platiau (Reuters)

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