“The biggest concern for any organisation should be when their most passionate people become quiet. Never push loyal employees to the point where they no longer care”!
I am a loyal fan/follower of Brigette Hyacinth, who is a bestselling Author, and an International Keynote Speaker on Leadership, Management, HR, Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence. Her latest book, Leading the Workforce of the Future: Inspiring a Mindset of Passion, Innovation and Growth” is one compelling book that I will recommend to all executives and professionals who are seriously concerned about the new normal environment. Commentary about the book quotes “Leading the Workforce of the Future mandates new levels of self-awareness.
As the workplace evolves in the direction of innovation, digitalization, and rapid change, leaders must follow suit in order to remain relevant and engaging to this multigenerational workforce. This book provides concrete advice and best practices on how to engage and retain top talent.
It addresses several areas to focus on to future proof yourself and your business. In this book you will discover strategies to: Become the leader your team needs you to be. Accelerate talent development.
Reshape your culture. Reskill your workforce. Create an innovation mindset. Succeed with purpose. The future is no longer some far-off destination; it is already here. Don’t be caught off guard!”
Feedback from readers set me thinking as I went through my archives to retrieve an article I wrote in September, 2017 titled “How Assertive are you in Managing Risk in your Company?” I am therefore extracting parts of the article to re-publish. Interestingly, every part is still relevant three years later. The main difference is the new environment within which business is conducted and how to listen more to employees who are assertive to benefit from recommendations made for proper risk management.
The definition of “assertive” from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is ”someone who behaves confidently and is not frightened to say what they want or believe. The Collins Dictionary also says: someone who is assertive states their needs and opinions clearly, so that people take notice.
Once again, we all know that every activity in life is composed of balancing the reward and the risk. The best part is when you have made a success of it and overcome the hurdles. In the workplace, we perform daily transactions which involve risk, and at the end of the day, we check for any errors, shut down our computers, close our books and files, lock our offices to go home to rest peacefully, praying our books have balanced.
The above definition of assertiveness connotes the fact that assertiveness can go both ways…to your detriment and downfall or to your reward and promotion. Everyone likes to be promoted on the job, as a sign of advancement. We all want to have a sense of self-actualization in a stage of our life. How do we get there?
The “Practice what you preach” analogy
With all the beautifully packaged adverts on television, radio and social media, practicing what is preached is a must, since anybody can take the banks on if their staff default in exhibiting the core values. This is where the problem starts. Each bank has its operational policies and processes for every activity. These cannot be applied in a vacuum as their execution incorporate the core values of the company. Now let us ponder over a few issues that cause role conflict and ethical dilemma for young professionals, and which does not show the practice what you preach analogy:
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Placing square pegs in round holes. Many people are aware the supervisor is not fit for the job, and yet, the person is placed there for only God knows why. Is it to facilitate someone’s personal agenda?
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The “do what I say, not do what I do” syndrome.
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Lack of transparency in reports.
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Unfair reward systems
The list is endless.
Assertiveness in Banking
In managing risk, we sometimes need to utilize a certain behavioural skill, which is assertiveness. Wikipedia says: “Assertiveness is the quality of being self-assured and confident without being aggressive. it is a learnable skill and mode of communication”. It describes assertive people as having the following characteristics:
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They feel free to express their feelings, thoughts, and desires.
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They are “also able to initiate and maintain comfortable relationships with [other] people”[
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They know their rights.
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They have control over their anger. This does not mean that they repress this feeling; it means that they control anger and talk about it in a reasoning manner.
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“Assertive people are willing to compromise with others, rather than always wanting their own way … and tend to have good self-esteem”.
