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Good morning,
I’m Aman Kidwai, and welcome to the first edition of The Modern Board.
Business leaders are trying their best to operate during unprecedented, seismic shifts in labor market sentiment, technology adoption, remote work acceptance, and employee empowerment, while consumer tastes are shifting as well.
“We are in the midst of a Great Reshuffle, where employers and employees are rethinking not just how they work, but why they work,” LinkedIn COO Dan Shapero told Fortune. “Going forward, leaders will be required to rethink how teams work together, even if that change feels uncomfortable or uncertain. […] As in most times of change, great leaders that embrace this moment of change, and learn as they go, will shine and outperform.”
There are no right answers. Best practices are less relevant than they have ever been. This is why Fortune is launching The Modern Board newsletter: To help corporate leaders meet this urgent call to make progress on matters of sustainability, equity, and management ethics.
“The pandemic has forced leaders to get more comfortable with rapid change and pervasive uncertainty,” Garrett Lord, CEO of Handshake, told Fortune. “Historically reliable processes, protocols, and mental models are being reshaped to accommodate our new normal, and has reinforced the need for agile and adaptable leadership.”
More broadly, we are facing a looming environmental crisis, widespread untreated mental health issues, and a socioeconomic system that has failed to make enough progress toward equality, with critiques of the system ringing louder than ever in recent memory.
The business world can no longer stay neutral on these topics.
“Business as an institution has a vital role in rebuilding a more inclusive and sustainable economy,” Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera, told Fortune. “Society needs companies to be a catalyst for positive social change, ensuring that their growth and innovations have a broader and equitable impact on our communities.”
The only thing we know for sure is that returning to the pre-2020 ‘business as usual’ would be foolish. People are dying because of business as usual. That is not an exaggeration — the World Health Organization estimates that people working 55 or more hours per week have a 35% higher risk of suffering a stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease compared to those who work standard 40-hour work weeks.
If you see a successful billionaire founder as a titan of industry, without acknowledging that their wealth is built on startup capital that most people don’t have access to, or that their incentives are not aligned with what is best for our society or even a free market, or how they often take advantage of low-wage workers, domestically and abroad, it’s time to realize the error of your ways.
Success on the financial statement is not enough. In fact, it might even be a red herring.
The Modern Board’s assessment of businesses will focus on impact, representation, average tenure of employees, how much companies spend on developing their people, and measurements around the sustainability of the companies’ supply chains and external effects of their products or services. These things matter and they impact the bottom line.
“From a business perspective, you’re able to attract, motivate, and retain top talent if you’re focused on making a positive impact on society,” Maggioncalda said.
The problem is, today’s business leaders collectively haven’t learned enough about these topics, including: diversity, equity, and inclusion, corporate social responsibility, or business ethics. They’ve known how to say the right things for at least 50 years, but they have failed at making meaningful progress.
It’s time for new leaders, as well as a new definition of leadership and the metrics that matter.
That is the direction of The Modern Board newsletter and my coverage here at Fortune. I look forward to digging in with you.
Can’t wait for the next edition of the newsletter? Then check out The Modern Board vertical, where you’ll find continuous coverage on the changing landscape of corporate leadership, including how corporate social responsibility is taking on new meaning, and how to ensure your company is adhering to Nasdaq’s board diversity requirements.
Aman Kidwai
aman.kidwai@fortune.com
Ask an academic
Heidi Brooks, professor of organizational behavior at Yale, on the new mandate for managers.
Dr. Heidi Brooks of Yale University said she’s been really focused on the future of management, telling Fortune that this is “a good time for us to tap into our aspirations for who and how we want to be as managers and work cultures and organizations.”
In a recent article, Brooks discussed the role that middle and frontline managers will play in the new workplace. She explained how at this time managers are making a huge shift, from being seen mostly as centers of expertise and conduits of information, to being more about helping employees meet their purpose, being shepherds of company culture, and driving belonging, and psychological safety at work.
“That’s a big reframe over information transfer,” Brooks said. “There's this expanded role as people step into more senior roles in the organization.”
The Modern Board had a chance to speak with Dr. Brooks to discuss the evolution of managerial skill sets and how senior leaders can develop stronger management standards through their frontline managers.
How to address turnover challenges amid the “Great Resignation”
HB: It's not just whether or not employees get their way [...] they care about the process and whether it feels fair, or whether they were considered as we get there. It's not just whether or not they work in the office one day a week, two days a week, three days a week for five minutes, it's whether the conversation happened in a way where they have voice and some sort of sense of feeling heard and there's transparency in the agenda.
Should companies be offering more structural support beyond the manager and HR business partner (HRBP)?
HB: I think a lot of companies do a lot of experimentation in that space, where there are more layers of employee resources even within HR. And I think there is some effort to make coaching available through the manager, so manager-as-coach I think has been a useful direction of attention.
There are employee resources that are available that go beyond the more transactional HR kind of stuff into answering “How can I really thrive here?” or talk through a situation. So I've heard about a lot of companies along the size spectrum that are experimenting in that domain.
Now the question is: what works from who, for what impact, and for whom, I don't think we're really clear about that.
How can managers balance wellbeing with the pressure to perform and hit monthly or quarterly numbers?
HB: Anchor on the idea of helping workers thrive, which is really very different in spirit than creating the conditions for optimal performance. When the attention is on performance, we might ask that workers and employees do anything it takes, and we've kind of been on that plan. I call it over-indexing on hyper productivity.
I think it's a problem that managers are focused on hyper productivity, the constant push for exceeding goals is the norm rather than getting more nuanced about ‘now is the time to push’ and ‘now is the time to recuperate.’ But that's complicated by our short-term perspective.
What does corporate social responsibility (CSR) mean to you?
LinkedIn COO Dan Shapero
“Corporate social responsibility is knowing that the success and growth of your company is aligned with the betterment of humanity. We call this product 'society fit'. LinkedIn’s vision is to create equitable economic opportunity for people all over the world, which is an enormous source of pride for me and so many who work at LinkedIn. We believe in a future where all job seekers have the resources and networks needed to build meaningful careers. Our product underpins that mission, and our team that leads social impact doubles down these efforts by helping create access to opportunity with things like coaching events for job seekers and investment in community nonprofits.”
One good idea
Mandatory time off
With many leaders trying hard to figure out how to address employee burnout, one idea stands out: long stretches of company-wide PTO.
LinkedIn, Bumble, Mozilla, Hootsuite and a host of others are starting to give their entire company a full week or some extended period of concurrent time off so that employees can truly unplug.
Teuila Hanson, LinkedIn's chief people officer, told CNN that the company saw signs of employee burnout through quarterly surveys, noticing a spike in August of last year when it became apparent that the COVID-19 shutdowns would last for a while. After expanding employee benefits and implementing ‘no meeting’ days, this was a next step to improving morale.
For Edward Chiu, founder and CEO of New York City-based tech startup Catalyst, the decision to give the week off was not an easy one given pressures to grow and reach product targets, he explained in a LinkedIn post. But combined with other efforts, including a resource guide to making the most of PTO and a party later in the month for the greater NYC tech community, he felt it was the right way to reward and inspire them.
“My team is incredible, and they’ve more than earned a real break,” Chiu wrote. “If giving that up for one week will give our team an opportunity to relax, recover, and come back refreshed, it’s a no-brainer.”
Doing the work
Resilient Coders
Resilient Coders is a nonprofit offering free programming coursework to low-income, urban students of all ages and abilities. Founded by David Delmar, a former PayPal engineer, the organization started off in Boston but has since expanded into Philadelphia with recently announced plans to also open in Pittsburgh. Resilient Coders’ partners include Microsoft, Google, State Street, and the Cambridge Innovation Center. The organization has placed students at Wayfair, The Boston Globe, Digitas, and Wistia, among others.
Numbers that matter
65%
Data from PwC’s workplace pulse survey has shown a significant uptick in employees reporting that they are looking for other jobs. The latest survey says that nearly two-thirds of employees are looking to make a move, up from 36% in May.
Is the ‘Great Resignation’ going to get worse?
