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Mulling over an extraordinary day – spent at the People Power Conference and at a masterclass led by Global Scot, Gary Steel – it occurred to me that I had experienced the perfect balance of theory and practice. 

While the People Power Conference convincingly persuaded and articulated the benefits of employee engagement, Gary, who is head of human resources at power and automation tech company ABB really brought the value to life, demonstrating how his company had truly harnessed the power of leadership.

This is what I took away:

People are your only asset – not the biggest, not the greatest - the only! To realise clear business results from people you need to put them in positions where they can succeed.  Your short term plan should be a people plan, and your long term plan should be a people plan. Leadership and employee engagement are intrinsically linked.

Good leaders:

  • Include and involve all staff - and sometimes key partners
  • Focus not about the trappings but the act of leadership
  • Have a good say-do ratio (if you say you will, do it – delivery as a leader is vital)
  • Listen and ask good questions (across all grades and levels)

How to engage employees

  • Develop all staff and drill deeper, widening your talent pool
  • Don't just focus on those who always deliver - give others a chance and they may surprise you, allow some mistakes
  • Focus on international and cultural similarities and what we have in common. Openness is key; most employees worry about the same things
  • Retain staff – by giving leadership and ownership to all. You cannot avoid losing staff unless you’ve hired people no one else would want. Focus on engaging all staff and expect that your best staff may well be approached by other companies.

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*People Power branding and graphics copyright The Good Agency

A bit about Gary Steel and ABB

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leading power and automation technologies companies, enabling utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. In the UK, ABB operates from more than 20 locations and employs around 3,000 people. Worldwide, the ABB Group of companies operates in over 100 countries and employs around 145,000 people.

 

GlobalScot Gary Steel was born in Scotland and holds a degree in commerce from the University of Edinburgh. He is Head of Human Resources at ABB, prior to which he had a long career at Royal Dutch Shell. Gary has worked in numerous global roles and lived with his family in Monaco, Gabon, Netherlands and Switzerland.