Your Cheese Has Been Moved - Go Find Some More

Are you finding that some of your managers are struggling to respond to the change to the business landscape? Yet some are displaying balanced processing, sound judgment and effective people skills? The latter will prove to be the “inclusive leaders” of the future, who will build winning gender-balanced businesses.

The Patrons of the Automotive 30% Club are inclusive leaders; Catherine Faiers, Stuart Miles, Astrid Fontaine, Kristian Elvefors and Daksh Gupta. They are putting the safety of people first, showing empathy for each employee, innovating with new processes and agile working, and collaborating with peers, partners and clients to develop long-term solutions that are improvements on the past.

Their teams will avoid burnout, stay healthier and resilient for when the second wave hits, and their businesses will continue to function successfully through the new normal.

When working in Ford of Europe in the early 2000s, my colleagues and I were given the book “Who Moved My Cheese” by Dr Spencer Johnson. The company was facing such severe financial difficulties we even resorted to taking every other light bulb out on the offices to save costs, and the book was sent from the US parent company as part of a mass communication to the workers to encourage them to stay positive. It is a rather weird bit strangely comforting story, of mice in a maze who would find cheese in the same place each day, until one day to their bewilderment the cheese was no longer there. The mice were shocked and stunned, and went away hungry. Each day they would return to the cheese place, to find no cheese. However one mouse put on his running shoes and ran around the maze to search for more cheese, and found it. He then left directions on the walls of the maze for the others to follow so that they all found the cheese.

It’s a simple story about the importance of rising to life’s unexpected challenges through adaptability, flexibility, and problem solving. The cheese represents what fulfils us in life; work, success, money or relationships. 

The pandemic has well and truly moved our cheese. Many will be trying to find their cheese in the same place as before, and showing little ability to adapt to the new normal. However some will have looked for a way to solve the problem with agility and speed, collaborating with and leading others with emotional intelligence. 

Such adaptability and agility is one of the core qualities of Inclusive Leaders, who are therefore better able to respond to existential threats. As defined by Business In The Community they are highly aware of diversity amongst the people they work with and manage, and are comfortable with using different and flexible approaches to work organisation to get the best results and the most from their team. They are skilled at adapting their style to complement others, shifting cultural perspective in authentic ways.

It is the positive effect of Inclusive Leadership that leads to the superior financial performance of companies that have a better gender balance and include women as decision makers. Where women have a voice and influence, businesses make more ethical and less risky decisions, leading to improved performance versus their peers. The McKinsey 2018 report “Delivering through Diversity” found that companies in the top quartile for diversity on the Executive teams are 21% more likely to outperform their competitors in the bottom quartile. Where both women and people of colour are decision makers, the performance is even better at 35%.

PWCs Global CEO Survey 2017 revealed that the most important skills required to respond to rapidly changing business landscape were Problem Solving, Collaboration, Adaptability, Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Creativity and Innovation. It was the need for those skills, and the deficit of them within their male dominated organisations, that mobilised the CEOs to reach out to new talent pools of women and people of colour. During the pandemic period, as the shape of business shifts and transforms to adapt to legislation and the changes to customer and employee behaviour, these human skills are more important than ever before.

The pandemic moved the cheese of the Patrons of the Automotive 30% Club, and it will continue to move, but as inclusive leaders they have put on their running shoes and will find some more. 

I hope you will too.