TZL 1411 (web)

PETER ATHERTON, from page 3

4) Supporting communities 5) Protecting the environment 6) Generating long-term shareholder value

6)The redefinition of winning. How success for individuals, leadership teams, and business overall has changed. 7)The “great resignation.” More than 40 percent of employees are planning to leave their current employers for new jobs over the next six to 12 months. 8)The decentralization of work. The continuation of a decades-long strategic shift from a geographic to a practice- centered service model, now accelerating forward and widening beyond just our office locations. In this article, I’m going to focus on the redefinition of winning – as better understanding and succeeding with this challenge better positions us for success with most of the others. WINNING TODAY. Your people, especially your top talent, want to win at both work and life – and they want to do so while making a difference and having an impact. The days of sacrificing all for a career and then “living” in retirement are over. The desire to live a more meaningful and balanced life while excelling at work is the new norm. At a leadership level, winning is about more than just a better business strategy. Leaders today must also effectively develop and successfully execute strategies related to: ❚ ❚ Culture. Identifying and framing the value-based behaviors needed and desired for success at all levels in our organization and rewarding, incentivizing, and holding all accountable for adherence ❚ ❚ Diversity. Bringing in more insight and expertise in terms of people, ideas, and place. ❚ ❚ Innovation. Getting better at both what we do and how we do it. ❚ ❚ Sustainability. Ensuring our success over the long-term individually, as teams, and as an organization. “Your people want to win at both work and life – and they want to do so while making a difference and having an impact. The days of sacrificing all for a career and then ‘living’ in retirement are over. The desire to live a more meaningful and balanced life while excelling at work is the new norm.” A recent statement by the Business Roundtable, a group of 181 CEOs from top companies nationwide, summarizes much of what’s changed. Their statement redefined the purpose of the corporation. In contrast to a past “paramount duty” to stockholders, the leaders committed to serving all six of their identified “stakeholders” in terms of: 1) Delivering value to customers 2) Investing in employees 3) Dealing fairly and ethically with suppliers

This is a very public bar – but one that most all leaders are being asked about and held to. “Our success moving forward must be as much or more focused on people and purpose – our internal and external stakeholders and our mission, vision, values, goals, and objectives.” WINNING FOR YOU. For most of us, our focus has been on projects and profits – it’s how we were raised. Our success moving forward, however, must be as much or more focused on people and purpose – our internal and external stakeholders and our mission, vision, values, goals, and objectives.

As a result, most of us have gaps.

How we define winning in terms of each of these, what I call the 4Ps (projects, profits, people, and purpose), is a key step to closing our gaps. THINK DIFFERENT TO DO DIFFERENT. As a leader and leadership team, do you look for and see all the right patterns and know how you’re being affected – both internally and externally? Do you believe that succeeding with people and purpose is pivotal to your success with projects and profits? Belief will bring investment, engagement, discussion, understanding, alignment, trust, and new outcomes – in this order. Investing in new era leadership, management training and development, and updating your strategic planning initiatives can begin at any time. You can turn challenges into opportunities and create your more diverse, inclusive, innovation-focused, and success- driven culture that great talent will want to be a part of – and be more dedicated to – beginning today. Take your next steps toward winning – and don’t let inaction become your team’s greatest challenge! PETER C. ATHERTON, P.E. is an AEC industry insider with 29 years of experience, having spent more than 24 as a successful professional civil engineer, principal, major owner, and member of the board of directors for high-achieving firms. Pete is now the President and Founder of ActionsProve, LLC , author of Reversing Burnout. How to Immediately Engage Top Talent and Grow! A Blueprint for Professionals and Business Owners , and the creator of the I.M.P.A.C.T. process. Pete is also the host of The AEC Leadership Today Podcast and leads The AEC Leadership Mastermind. Pete works with AEC firms to grow and advance their success through modern and new era focused strategic planning, executive coaching, leadership and management development, performance-based employee engagement, and corporate impact design. Connect with him at pete@actionsprove.com.

THE ZWEIG LETTER OCTOBER 4, 2021, ISSUE 1411

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