While the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry has now concluded, the revelations of decisions made and actions taken to pursue short term profit at the expense of honesty, remain front of mind.
It begs the question then, of what we as organisations can learn from the Royal Commission and do to prevent greed, dishonesty and unethical behaviour creeping into our own companies. With this in mind here are four ways to mitigate people risk within your organisation.
1. Encourage authentic leadership
Authentic leadership emphasises building credibility through honest relationships and ethical dealings. It fosters integrity within your organisation.
But if you were to look closely at the way staff are hired and promoted in your company, what criteria they are selected on and the traits and values that are encouraged in your leaders, could you emphatically say that they are enabling authentic leadership?
If not, then it is time to look at your processes, policies and procedures to ensure authentic and transparent leadership is encouraged.
2. Determine if you have the right organisational structure
It’s not unusual for companies to be operating within limiting organisational structures, particularly when they have grown quickly and new hires have been made based on urgency and not proper workplace planning.
For this reason, it is critical to determine whether you have the right organisational structure now and heading into the future.
3. Regularly evaluate whether you have the right people in the right positions
In Good to Great Jim Collins said to “Get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.” While you can make every effort to ensure the right people are in your business, the right people may not be in the right seats. As a result, their skills and abilities can be under utilised or overestimated.
As you change your processes, policies and procedures and look more closely at your organisational structure and culture, you may find that you don’t have the right people in the right roles, or that some roles are no longer needed.
4. Negotiate separations
If you discover through the last step that you do have the wrong people within your organisation, then you need to take the step of negotiating separations. Recently, we’ve seen an increase in the number of negotiations with senior executives who need to be transitioned on for the good of the company.
While it can be a bold move, it is also a necessary move for many organisations who need to create change, minimise risk, encourage authentic leadership and create the right culture for their organisation.
If this is the step that needs to be taken it is important to protect your reputation with outplacement and career transition. The preventative nature of outplacement means that the results aren’t found in what you gain as an organisation, but rather what you avoid – complaints, workplace conflict, defamatory rumours and social media posts and unfair dismissal claims.
The quicker and more comfortable you can make an employees career transition, the easier and more positive the transitioning process can be for both the employer and employee.
Here at Turning Point Partners, we provide the Executive Accelerator Program, which is designed to help C-suite executives who are facing redundancy prepare for their next career move. To find out more call us today on 1300 278 345.
