Brian Hartzer is the author of THE
LEADERSHIP STAR: A Practical
Guide To Building Engagement. He
is an experienced executive and
leadership mentor, who served as
CEO of the Westpac Banking Group
from 2015 to 2019. Earlier, he spent
15 years in senior executive roles at
the Royal Bank of Scotland Group
and ANZ Banking Group. Hartzer
has also worked as a financial
services strategy consultant at First
Manhattan Consulting Group in New
York, San Francisco, and Melbourne.
He is currently an advisor and
investor to several Sydney-based
start-ups, including Quantium, a
data-science company.
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Leadership Priorities For Navigating The Next Normal
But in many organizations, remote working makes
it harder to onboard new employees, build team
relationships, collaborate on creative work, and
mentor young people.
To maximize team effectiveness, the best leaders
will set clear guidelines that balance the need for
physical presence with the desire for flexibility.
They will also devote more time to mentoring and
reviewing individual employees’ work product and
behaviour to help them achieve their full potential.
Identify and Breakdown Barriers That
Hold People Back
Resource constraints, technology limitations,
ever-changing government rules and regulations,
difficulty in accessing training, the challenges of
building and navigating relationships among a
remote workforce—all of these can make it harder for
people to achieve the goals that are set for them.
And as the Covid- and technology-disrupted market
becomes less predictable and more dynamic,
companies will need their people to think creatively
and be willing to challenge convention. Yet many
employees will gravitate to simply “following the
rules” to seek safety in chaos. This is particularly
true of middle managers, whose financial
circumstances—mortgages, children’s education,
parental care responsibilities—can make the prospect
of job loss particularly daunting.
To avoid falling behind, leaders in the “Next Normal”
will need to be proactive in identifying—and knocking
over—the barriers that hold their people back—
whether they are financial (resource availability),
intellectual (training), political (e.g., decision rights),
or emotional (confidence, team relationships, etc.).
When employees see their leaders take action to
make their lives easier and help them succeed, it
goes a long way to increasing their confidence and
reducing stress—as well as attrition.
Bonus Thoughts About Navigating the
Next Normal
The “Next Normal” will bring new challenges for
leaders to navigate, with employees expecting—if not
demanding—a more engaging workplace if they are
to stay rather than join the Great Resignation.
Over the past twenty years, through CEO and senior
executive roles in the US, Australia, Asia, and the
UK, I’ve studied and applied the practices that high
performing leaders use to build and sustain high
engagement in organizations both large and small.
And I believe a concerted focus on applying what I
call the “5 Cs” of Leadership are the critical practices
that will help build the engagement and cultural
resilience needed to navigate the “Next Normal”.
Do employees feel Cared about as individual human
beings? Do leaders provide Context that helps them
find meaning in the organization's purpose, and see
how their work contributes to that purpose? Are they
Clear on what’s expected of them? Do leaders Clear
the way so that they feel supported and safe? Are
their contributions Celebrated in a heart-felt way?
Leaders who can answer “Yes” to the above will be
well prepared to navigate the “Next Normal”.
Leadership Excellence presented by HR.com JANUARY 2022 9 Submit Your Articles
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