If you want to know how resilient we are as a nation, you only have to look at how quickly we went through the five stages of grief when the result of the Brexit referendum was announced. There was little time for denial as the results came flooding in from counting stations across the country. And yes those results did give rise to anger in some quarters, but in a way that anger was as much directed at the way in which we had become a polarised nation as it was at the results of the referendum.
Whilst a few tried to temper the result, commenting that perhaps we could still carry on with this or that element of the relationship, the market initially reacted with depression before largely bouncing back as an acceptance of the situation swept across the land. And whilst, at the time of writing, there is still turbulence and uncertainty, there is also a growing mood of optimism as organisations start to see the potential of operating in a post-Brexit landscape.
So how do businesses position themselves in order to maximise their opportunities over the next few years? In a changing landscape the winners are those who are prepared to be flexible, to understand and react to the market place and to work with others in order to secure a mutually rewarding future. In other words, the winners will be those who set out to build a culture of innovation which sets Next Generation Organisation attributes of Intelligence, Collaboration and Adaptability at its heart.
People at the heart of success
And the key to success is people. Now more than ever leaders and HR specialists need to be aware of the importance of the people dimension. In particular, the way in which people individually and collectively are likely to react to the changing landscape. Make no mistake, despite the mood of the country moving towards acceptance, the uncertainty threat posed by Brexit is likely to have triggered the fight or flight reaction in numbers of individuals. This in turn could lead to dips in levels of employee engagement, at the precise time when leaders need to be boosting engagement in order to secure the future.
It is therefore up to leaders to work to overcome this instinctive response and that means employing ‘Neuroleadership’, a term coined by neuroscience and leadership expert David Rock to describe the way in which leadership approaches can impact on the human brain and instinctive responses. With that in mind how do we build trust, engagement and positivity? The solution comes down to authentic leadership; deploying openness and communication and listening skills, but above all leading through example.
Forget ‘don’t do what I do, do what I say’. That has no place in a leadership style which has to build trust and engagement. Building a future fit culture requires the leadership to demonstrate the qualities required through their everyday actions, approaches and decisions. They have to be aware of their actions, aware of the consequences of their actions, and aware of the reaction to their actions. Only then can employees truly move forward from the fifth stage of Brexit (acceptance) and work with the leadership in order to build a strong future.
