Creating Authentic Organizations

Imagine designing the best company on earth to work for . . . What would that company be like? How would you build and sustain it? As a leader, you need to know. In the past, businesses made people conform to the organization’s needs. But the old paradigm has shifted. Now leaders must transform their organizations so that they attract the right people, keep them, and inspire them to do their best work. How do you create a culture people want to belong to? In this powerful and necessary follow-up to the classic Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?, leadership and organizational sages Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones identify and illuminate the six key organizational attributes to do just that. In separate chapters, they delve deeply into each one: 1. Let people be themselves 2. Practice radical honesty 3. Magnify people’s strengths 4. Stand for authenticity (more than shareholder value) 5. Make work meaningful 6. Make simple rules With vivid stories and examples from global companies, the authors illustrate the kind of strong, attractive workplace culture that leads to sustained high performance. They also provide ways of assessing how your company is doing and describe the tensions and trade-offs that leaders must manage as they transform their organizations. Why Should Anyone Work Here? is the question all contemporary organizational leaders must constantly ask themselves if they want to survive and thrive in the new world. This book will help them answer that question.

Our identity is often bound up what we do at work. The work we do goes some way to describing who we are, what we stand for and it reveals, in one dimension at least, a tangible and valued contribution that we make to the world. Authenticity in organizations matters more than ever. In today's complex and global economy it's more important than ever that we empower employees to bring their authentic selves to work. Doing so leads to increased innovation, productivity, more thoughtful risk-taking, a sense of responsibility and enhanced adaptiveness to change. Creating Authentic Organizations goes beyond the remit of authentic leadership and shows how the concept of authenticity can and should be applied to your organization. It offers a new management framework based on the freedom to operate, meaningful dialogue and a deep search for personal meaning at work; autonomy and the opportunity to make an impact is a key driver of productivity. With simple and powerful models and strategies to bring about workplace authenticity, this bold and cutting-edge approach will show you how to ensure more authentic dialogue and encourage open and meaningful discussion around threats and challenges. Creating Authentic Organizations gives you the tools to bridge the gap between the corporate persona and the authentic self, leading to greater employee engagement, well-being and organizational resilience. Online supporting resources include an authenticity and freedoms diagnostic tool and guidance notes.

Mastering Psychological Safety: Your definitive guide to cultivating a psychologically safe workplace In The Authentic Organization: How to Create a Psychologically Safe Workplace, CEO of the Psychological Safety Institute Gina Battye, delivers a hands-on manual to create work environments where people thrive. You’ll discover actionable strategies to establish a psychologically safe workplace; challenging and transforming workplace attitudes and outdated workplace cultures. Expect to experience a paradigm shift where psychological safety is at the core, enabling an inclusive culture and catalyzing organizational success. This book goes beyond the mechanics of creating a safe workplace, it also empowers individuals to unleash their authentic selves, not just surviving, but truly thriving, both professionally and personally. You’ll gain valuable insights and practical guidance to bring your authentic self to work, effectively navigate workplace interactions and create a highly conducive environment for teamwork and collaboration. Ultimately, you will have everything you need to drive cultural change and take an active role in creating a psychologically safe environment that empowers your team and transforms your entire organization. Gina masterfully navigates you through her distinctive approach, the world-renowned 5 Pillars of Psychological Safety framework, meticulously designed to cultivate an environment where your organization and people thrive. Within these pages you will encounter: A transformative process that empowers individuals to bring their Authentic Self to work, tapping into hidden capabilities to excel in their professional lives. A comprehensive communication framework that equips individuals to effortlessly master effective workplace interactions. A ground-breaking methodology that cultivates an environment where teams thrive and collaborate effectively in a calm and focused workplace setting. A must-read blueprint for anyone aiming to create psychologically safe work environments, The Authentic Organization is your comprehensive guide to cultivating a workplace where individuals and teams thrive. This book is the ultimate manual that leaders, managers, human resources professionals, Employee Resource Group leads, and business innovators have been waiting years for.

Authentic Excellence for Organizations explores organizational culture from a values-based perspective and applies the psychological principles of values-based flourishing to organizations. Integrating the principles of Giving Voice to Values (GVV) and Authentic Excellence (AX), this book provides a process that details how organizations can harness their team’s inherent wisdom to flourish through the relentless pace and pressure of today’s world. Moving beyond team-building strategies and programming, this book helps develop confidence in managing the tensions inherent in organizations. It explores: The difference between moral values and personal values; How both can be effectively expressed and managed in organizations; The possibilities of shifting from a fear-based culture of "Or" to an inclusive and values-centred culture of "&"; and How to practically create flourishing "&" cultures using the GVV model. How to create an organizational culture that effectively sustains "&s" like competitive & collaborative, productive & fulfilled, and innovation & tradition This book is intended for organizational leaders, members, and HR managers looking to develop strong and thriving teams. It also aligns with required or recommended reading for secondary or undergraduate courses that explore values, leadership, organizational development and performance, decision making, ethics, and entrepreneurship.

This Harvard Business Review digital collection showcases the ideas of Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones, authors of Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? and Why Should Anyone Work Here? In Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?, Goffee and Jones argue that leaders don’t become great by aspiring to a list of universal character traits. Rather, effective leaders are authentic: they deploy individual strengths to engage followers’ hearts, minds, and souls. In Why Should Anyone Work Here?, the authors argue that it used to be that businesses could ask individuals to conform to the organization’s needs but that now today’s leaders are charged with creating the best company on earth to work for: they must transform their organizations to attract the right people, keep them, and inspire them to do their best work.

In the wake of continuing corporate scandals there have been few, if any, CEOs that have stepped forward as models of "doing things right"—except the former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, Bill George. George has become the unofficial spokesperson for responsible leadership—in business, the media, and academia. In Authentic Leadership Bill George makes the case that we do need new leaders, not just new laws, to bring us out of the current corporate crisis. He persuasively demonstrates that authentic leaders of mission-driven companies will create far greater shareholder value than financially oriented companies. During George's twelve-year leadership at Medtronic, the company's market capitalization soared from $1.1 billion to $460 billion, averaging 35% per year. George candidly recounts many of the toughest challenges he encountered -- from ethical dilemmas and battles with the FDA to his own development as a leader. He shows how to develop the five essential dimensions of authentic leaders—purpose, values, heart, relationships, and self-discipline. Authentic Leadership offers inspiring lessons to all who want to lead with heart and with compassion for those they serve. Bill George helps readers answer vital questions such as: What should I do when my personal values conflict with company business values? How do I make trade-offs between the needs of my customers, my employees, and my company's shareholders? Do I really want to devote my talents to business? Authentic Leadership provides a tested guide for character-based leaders and all those who have a stake in the integrity and success of our corporations.

Never before have the pressures of a comparative and competitive world impacted on our sense of wellbeing, particularly among young adults. Building on the principles of Giving Voice to Values, which honors the complexity and difficulty of leading with our values, this book addresses the unique challenges faced by young adults. It provides a clear process that details how to harness natural wisdom to flourish through the relentless pace and pressure of today’s world. Moving beyond mere values clarification, Authentic Excellence helps the reader to develop a deeper relationship with their values and confidently express them, and builds effective coping skills to manage the relentless noise of our comparative and competitive world. Authentic Excellence answers five primary questions: How are young adults affected by this world of relentless change and pressure? Why are young adults vulnerable to a plateau that can negatively affect their resilience? What is the difference between fear-based excellence and authentic excellence and what role do values play in this distinction? What is necessary to move beyond fear-based excellence and why is it so hard? How do you train a deeper level of effectiveness that includes more consistent productivity, fulfillment and resilience?

Organizations today are awash in change. Managing change requires leaders to focus simultaneously on managing the business and providing effective leadership to the people. More often than not, it is the focus on the people side that loses out. This book offers a framework for understanding the issues and competencies that contribute to effective leadership during times of change. Its purpose is to help leaders determine how to choose and move among a variety of managerial approaches--to help them see what's working, what's not working, and what's missing. In this way, leaders can more clearly assess their impact and learn how to meet the demands of both managing the business and leading the people.