AMPLIFY  VOL. 37 NO. 8
  

A sailing regatta known as the “Refeno” runs from Recife, Brazil, on the northeast coast to the famous island of Fernando de Noronha, covering a challenging 300 nautical miles. Competing in that regatta was a wooden trimaran called “Ave Rara.” When Ave Rara was racing, it was valued at just US $40,000. The boat competed for 16 years and won in its category 15 of the 16 times it raced.

But that’s not what is impressive.

Four times, Ave Rara — against all odds, competing against high-tech carbon boats worth millions of dollars and sometimes skippered by Olympic sailors — won the prestigious Fita Azul award (the award for being the first boat to cross the finish line).

Despite the stark financial and technological contrasts, Ave Rara, led by its sole professional sailor, Gustavo (Guga) Peixoto, and a rotating crew of amateurs, triumphed repeatedly. The sailing conditions were always grueling and dangerous — 22 hours of relentless and cold water spray — but the crew’s resilience and unity prevailed.

Each year, Peixoto inspired his team with a shared sense of purpose, excitement, and determination. This was never about money, fame, or even the award. It was always about believing in a common mission.

Ave Rara’s success stemmed from emotional engagement, connection, and a shared purpose, which proved more powerful than any bottom-line criteria.

In this article, we examine reasons for increased employee disengagement and what it’s costing business. We then look at companies getting it right (where people are excited about going to work and feel psychologically safe to innovate), why it’s a competitive advantage, and how leaders can create those more human company cultures.

The Industrial Age Is Over

Trust in business is currently at its lowest level ever. The “2024 Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report” recently revealed that only a minority of people globally trust businesses to do what is right, reflecting widespread skepticism and concerns about corporate integrity and transparency.¹

This isn’t great news for business.

When people aren’t engaged and don’t feel a connection to something, there are massive consequences. This is why absenteeism is currently through the roof; people are calling in sick more than ever, and many employees are simply checking out (either showing up for work and not engaging or quitting altogether).

And this is costing companies billions.

In fact, disengaged employees cost US companies up to $550 billion a year, according to a 2023 Gallup report.²

You see, companies are working as though it’s still the Industrial Age. They believe that focusing on profit is the only way to run a business. It worked then because products and services were uniform and based in one region, and executive thinking was independent.

Workers clocked in, did the basic work that needed to be done (with the manager barking orders), and then clocked out. The quality of life wasn’t great or aspirational, but it worked in that context. Nothing personal — only business.

Do we honestly think that this scenario works now?

We are now in the technological and digital age. Business is much more interconnected. We are more interdependent, our competitors are also our allies, and change is more fluid. The work is global, the challenges exponentially more complex, and the solutions require creativity and involvement from various sources, sectors, and regions. People are also demanding transparency, to the point where transparency is fundamental to the way business needs to be done (to create trust and connection) — and because of technology, you can no longer hide.

We’re at an inflection point. The power is shifting into the hands of people: customers and employees. More than ever, there is a competitive urgency to create spaces and cultures where people want to work and that make them happy. The leaders who can do this will win; these leaders put human values like kindness, empathy, vulnerability, imagination, creativity, and courage first. Spaces need to be created where people like what they do, feel psychologically safe, feel empowered, aspire to do their best, want to come up with great ideas and solutions, and want to stay.

Engaged employees have major consequences on companies: Gallup found that engaged teams are 21% more profitable, and happy employees are 400% more innovative.³

This, of course, makes sense.

When people believe in what they are doing and feel a part of it, they create better customer service. When employees feel psychologically safe to innovate, they push their thinking further and happily voice their ideas. They are excited about going to work, don’t often miss work, feel like they are a part of the solution, and don’t quit. And if people aren’t leaving, then companies aren’t spending billions to replace them.

Getting It Right

So who’s currently getting this right? And what does that look like?

In my book Return on Humanity: Leadership Lessons from All Corners of the World, I bring this thinking to life with a handful of inspiring examples. Here’s one below about GOOD Agency, the first company I worked for in London after graduating from the Ivey Business School back in 2001. 

I arrived in London shortly after the 9/11 attacks, and it was a grim economic period; the odds weren’t in my favor. However, through various contacts and connections, I was fortunate enough to meet one of the partners of Ideas Unlimited, a small communications company based in Battersea, London (which later turned into GOOD Agency).

At that time, Ideas Unlimited was run by three directors: Chris Norman, who oversaw the charity portfolio (the area I worked in when I worked for them), and two others who managed commercial brands such as events, horse shows, property, and luxury goods. Over time, the not-for-profit arm of the business grew to encompass about 90% of their work. Norman was passionate about promoting a human-to-human approach to business —connecting with humanity and values rather than focusing on self-interest and commercial outcomes.

Initially, this mission was primarily realized through their charity clients, as it was thought this was the only way. However, Norman soon realized that although the charity sector was important, it didn’t have the reach, influence, or financial power to make a significant impact on a global scale. He concluded that real change needed to happen within the business sector. Shortly afterward, Ideas Unlimited evolved into GOOD Agency, with Norman as the sole director.

GOOD’s work shifted to helping clients define and promote their purpose, demonstrating the positive social and environmental impacts they could achieve while creating value for stakeholders and benefiting the business’s bottom line. Norman believed that communication was the strongest weapon for creating change. Brilliant ideas need to be communicated clearly, concisely, and compellingly to make an impact. GOOD’s focus was not on traditional ad campaigns but on overall delivery, doing, and behaviors — real impact was at the core of the company’s ethos.

GOOD’s first significant project was with Mars, helping it define and understand its environmental positioning. Mars’s staff didn’t appreciate the importance of having a sustainable supply chain. To address this, GOOD created a traveling photo exhibition to re-engage Mars’s internal staff with supply chain and corporate sustainability practices. The exhibition illustrated how the company sourced cocoa and sugar, the benefits of relationships with farmers, and how sustainability impacts communities.

From then on, Norman’s work with clients focused on helping them connect with the human story and make things meaningful. He emphasized the importance of considering all stakeholders, not just shareholders. This included employees, communities, and everyone impacted by their products. As he explained: “Marketing and sales lack meaning if they don’t have purpose.” This philosophy guided GOOD as it evolved, staying true to Norman’s mission of making a difference by changing the system.

The Human Organization

I hadn’t seen Norman in years, but on a 2023 trip to London, we met up. I was eager to understand more about the company’s work, especially in the context of Britain’s economic crisis post-pandemic: a recession, a cost-of-living crisis, and the rise of AI. I wondered if his business had been negatively impacted, suspecting that perhaps, in this challenging context, purpose had been shelved in favor of cost-cutting and a return to business as usual.

I joined him in the company’s bustling, colorful office in South East London for a meeting over a cup of tea. I asked about his team size, and he told me they had just over 60 employees, with room for another 20, as the agency was growing rapidly. I observed a positive energy as I walked past breakout rooms, a library with bright yellow chairs, and groups of people happily discussing projects. It was clear from our conversation that the need for corporate purpose was greater than ever.

Norman shared that people now want to know two things when they go for interviews: how the company makes money and who they are making that money for. If they don’t like the answers, they don’t want to work there. He explained that huge companies in the UK financial services sector are struggling for talent due to a lack of meaning in their work.

Norman recounted a recent conversation with an investment firm and how he’s helping its leaders think through some big questions. For example, how can an investment firm alleviate wealth or social inequality? He agreed that these are hard questions to reflect on but said that if they don’t know the answers, it’s important they try and find them. “It’s about creating change, being committed to that change, and being authentic. If you can’t demonstrate your commitment, you’re a fraud,” he said.

As we continued to reflect on the return of being more human and having purpose, Norman confirmed that the return is better relationships: they are better with customers, with employees, and with communities. “The world is built on relationships, and that is what more human organizations deliver,” he explained.

Norman’s commitment to authenticity is evident in GOOD’s status as a B Corporation, a certification for for-profit companies meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. GOOD is also employee-owned, with a staff council that advises the executive team and holds the company accountable. Norman encourages ideas from all levels within the business, fostering an environment where individuals can bring their whole selves to work.

Norman’s journey reinforces the importance of taking purpose and meaning seriously. Kindness, humility, honesty, vulnerability, and a vision are crucial for staying on the right path. As he put it, “If you don’t catch up, you will soon be irrelevant and then extinct. It will happen to you, so seriously think about how you plan to respond.”

Now, more than ever, companies need to understand the importance of creating human company cultures. But simply wanting to create these cultures isn’t enough. The million-dollar question is how they can be created. They don’t just happen — it’s impossible to have human company cultures without leaders who are tapping into their human competencies. You can’t have one without the other.

Gold Dust

So, as we finish this article, let me leave you with something to ponder.

If we know we need leaders with human competencies to create competitive company cultures, what can we do with the leaders that we have?

The good news is that everyone has access to human competencies. It doesn’t matter where you come from, how much money you have, where you’ve been educated, or where you fit into society. It’s the “gold dust” we all have at our fingertips.

The problem is that the pressure of education, work, society, family expectations, and culture have conditioned these “soft skills” (or, rather, “power skills”) out of us. We’ve been taught that being kind, vulnerable, compassionate, empathetic, and humble is a weakness, not a strength.

But I can tell you, after 20 years of rewiring talent to create successful, more human company cultures, everyone remembers how to tap back into these human competencies. They just need to be shown how to see the value and given permission to do things in new ways.

For two decades, we have challenged leaders to push beyond the boundaries of their mental maps, gently nudging them into uncharted territories. This approach has sparked revolutionary and game-changing transformations in individual and team behaviors. The result? Better leaders who build better companies that ultimately contribute to a better world.

We are at a pivotal moment in the future of business — a time to pause and reflect. Will you continue to prioritize profit and hope for the best? Or will you recognize that the path forward lies in reshaping leadership to generate profit through a focus on people, and it’s crucial to equip leaders with the human competencies needed to foster cultures of engagement, trust, and shared purpose among employees? If you only aim for the bottom line, you will miss the mark. Remember, culture and people must come first.

References

¹ “2024 Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report.” Edelman, accessed August 2024. 

² “State of the Global Workplace.” Gallup, accessed August 2024.

³ Gallup (see 2).