By now, you have probably heard that Elon Musk gave his Twitter employees an ultimatum—commit to the “extremely hardcore” corporate culture he was implementing or leave. This was further described as working “long hours at high intensity.”
According to CNN, a Twitter employee who was recently laid off, told them (in regard to the mass exodus of Twitter staff): “People don’t want to sacrifice their mental health and family lives to make the richest man in the world richer.”
Arianna Huffington wrote in her newsletter “On My Mind”: “Employees no longer feel they have to tolerate, let alone celebrate, this burnout-factory approach to work.”
Bottom-line, we live in a totally different culture from the Industrial Revolution—or even the dawn of Silicon Valley when humans were expected to perform without sleep or any consideration to their physical or emotional well-being. Workers were expected to leave their personal lives at the door, and devote themselves to their work exclusively for whatever number of hours was expected of them, no matter what else was going on in their lives.
Competent leadership requires intention as well as mindfulness.
Today, great, modern CEOs and business leaders are expected to care about their people in specific and unequivocal ways. If you want to have a corporate culture that attracts top talent:
- Be more democratic than autocratic; for example, involving people in decisions that affect them.
- Care about the impact executives have on others.
- Take the time to understand your people.
- Invest in ensuring people know that they are heard and understood.
- Ask for feedback and commit to self-improvement as a leader. Don’t assume you know what your stakeholders think.
These are topics we look forward to addressing in 2023.
This has been yet another tough year. Let’s focus on your and others’ well-earned opportunity for some time to reflect, rejoice, connect, play, and meditate. You see, the more you gain insights into yourself and become more aware of your own impact on others, the better leader you will be.
Happy Holidays from all of us at EXCN. Will 2023 be the year you ask your team for feedback and commit to improvement as a leader?
