People first, profit will follow

Friday 07 May 2021

The Institute of Directors focused its Mid-Term Debate on leaders adjusting their practices ‘post-Covid’, with more emphasis on letting employees prove themselves with less micro-management.

IoD Guernsey President Wendy Dorey quizzed the Managing Director of Board Intelligence, Jonathan Knight, about what has changed in the culture of leadership since the pandemic took hold around the world.

“We’ve seen shorter, sharper meetings and meetings that are focused more on what matters,” said Mr Knight.

“It’s become clear that we need an awareness of self and others. Leaders who have a higher ‘emotional quotient’ and are more able to support those around them are getting more results from their employees."

Biggest lessons from our panel:
- frequency of comms and sharing info. More transparency
- more flexible and trust of employees
- changed view of technology
- Laser focus on what really matters#Iodmidterm2021 pic.twitter.com/a4buEsSyuH

— IoD Guernsey (@IoDGsy) May 6, 2021

Pictured: A panel debate saw questions put to; Environmental Sustainability Manager at Guernsey Electricity, Alex Herschel, left, and Group Head at Aztec, Matt Horton.

IOD Committee Member and Non-Executive Director Fiona Le Poidevin hosted a panel of Directors from across various industries affected by the pandemic.

The CEO of Healthspan, Martin Talbot, said he became very aware of the situations people were forced into because of the lockdowns.

“Sometimes people are forced to be in a set of circumstances they don’t wish to be,” he said.

“What we found is people are very comfortable working at home and are very responsible about their work, but they didn’t necessarily do the work when you expected.

“There was a sense of responsibility," he added. "They didn’t need to be told what to do, they simply aspired to what they needed to do."

Pictured: Hundreds of people came to the event which was also live-streamed to people who couldn’t attend.

The Director of Creasey and Son Ltd – which operates Marks and Spencers - spoke about the contrasts of running both a non-essential and essential business during lockdown.

“We had department stores that simply couldn’t operate and had a food business that was essential,” said Jonathan Creasey.

“The medium-term strategy is linked with borders and confidence and is still the area we’re struggling with,” he said.

He mirrored one of the keys sentiments of the debate, which was that his is a people business, and to operate successfully the board needed to be on the floor “taking the temperature of the room” and supporting his staff, who were being put under immense pressure.

The seminar finished with questions from the floor and was organised by Black Vanilla.