Flexibility, listening and demonstrating leadership qualities are all the right ingredients to success in the new working world post-Covid.
Close to 100 people gathered at the Chester Hotel for the first P&J business breakfast to be hosted live and in person since the start of the pandemic.
The audience at the event, which was held in association with law firm Turcan Connell, heard from a trio of experts who each gave their insight into leadership in the post-Covid age.
The event was opened by Press & Journal managing editor Craig Walker, chaired by Press & Journal business editor, Erikka Askeland, and the welcome speech was delivered by Paul Macaulay, Turcan Connell tax and succession partner.
Mr Macaulay said: “We are certainly living in interesting times and events like the Press and Journal business breakfast provide a valuable platform for reflection and a space for some real insights from the speakers.
“What emerged strongly is that sound leadership is more important now than ever as we face fresh challenges in the wake of the pandemic.”
Trio of experts
Chris Herd, founder and chief executive of Firstbase, a global technology start-up that facilitates remote working, was the first speaker up.
He was followed by Louise Lang, co-founder and director of people and culture consultancy Lindsay & Lang, with more than 25 years’ experience in human resources.
Last up was Jeanette Forbes who founded Aberdeen-based information technology company PCL Group in 2000, as well as the well-known Grape and Grain wine bar in Aberdeen.
Mr Herd’s business recently raised $50 million in its latest funding round following $13m investment raised last year from international investors after quitting Highland League football to focus on the start-up.
Remote working to take-over?
He told the audience he believes in the next 10-15 years all of the 255 million desk jobs globally will be done remotely the majority of time.
He said: “The reason I believe that is because I have spoken to a lot of people, at this point probably 3,000 companies and thousands of employees, and learned from what their intentions are post-covid.
“If someone has done great work over the last couple of years, they’ve been working remotely in the most difficult possible circumstances. There’s been lockdowns, home schooling, inability to travel, inability to see friends and family.
“It seems incredibly disingenuous to say you now need to come back to the office and commute for one or two hours a day.”
Higher quality of life in hybrid working
Mr Herd also touched on the subject of hybrid working – and the importance of employees and employers having the same understanding of what it actually means.
He said: “Going back to the office full-time is a beacon for your competitors to steal your best people.
“Workers don’t want to miss their kids walking, laughing and talking for the first time like I did.
“They want to do great work while having a higher quality of life.
“Companies that don’t give it to them I fear won’t survive this decade.”
Mr Herd delivered some statistics claiming 90% of workers don’t want to return to work full-time, 30-40% of people don’t want to step foot in an office at all and less than 10% want to go back to an office full-time.
Speaking about “trying to save Aberdeen” Mr Herd said: “I worry we have missed the boat and worry don’t have the mindset to do it.
“I worry we haven’t diversified from oil quickly enough.”
He labelled Union Street a “disaster” and said there hasn’t been enough innovation happening in the city with too much focus put on oil and gas when it comes to new businesses.
Important to listen and ask
Ms Lang then gave her insight into the ways of remote working saying she believes the most important part is for employers to ask employees what they want and need – and if you can’t meet their needs to tell them why.
She said: “I don’t believe leadership post-covid is any different to leadership pre-covid.
“What I do believe is that what our expectations were pre-covid and what our expectations are post-covid is that we are now asking leaders to demonstrate those qualities.”
Ms Lang then asked the audience to tell her what they believe are important aspects of leadership pre with some of the answers including flexibility, integrity, communication and authenticity.
She said: “Our employees are asking us to visibly demonstrate these traits to make them feel valued and their contribution be valued within the organisation.
“We do that by ensuring we know our people.”
Build trust
Ms Lang said the biggest area she works on is bringing awareness with leaders to themselves and and how they impact others.
Speaking about hybrid working she said: “There is a lot of scepticism around hybrid working and perhaps that comes from a place of mistrust.
“But it’s all about building trust and rapport.”
Ms Forbes was next to take to the podium and she spoke about the impact Covid-19 had on the both of her businesses PCL Group and Grape & Grain.
Lockdown led to Grape & Grain, on Thistle Street, being closed for 15 months.
She said: “No trade, no money going over the till but rent to pay, electricity to pay, national insurance and all the contributions to pay.
“Although your staff are on furlough you still have those contributions to make.
“We were in debt. How were we going to survive?
“Keeping the team for me was probably one of the biggest challenges I had. Because 15 months of your staff sitting at home doing nothing isn’t easy.
“We had to take everything back to the core.”
Ms Forbes revealed she had to pour 400 bottles of Fever Tree tonic down the drain along with 200 bottles of craft beer as it was all out of date by the time of reopening saying it was losses you couldn’t recover.
HR skills play a part
Speaking about post-covid leadership Ms Forbes said business will always be about relationships which are always about people.
“She said: “Ensure you have the right HR policies and support in place because covid demonstrated to us if you haven’t those survival skills are very difficult to put into place when you have no capacity to think about them at the time.”
Ms Forbes has since moved PCL Group to a new office in Golden Square to give her the business the “capacity” to survive should there be another lockdown and included a gym to help with workers mental health.
The live event was recorded and will be available to view shortly.
