London Inc. Summer 2022 - 19

path out of this tense, stressed environment
demands new approaches
from leadership and management -
an explicit turn away from top-down
management towards viewing workers
not as a labour cost to be minimized
but as people investing their talents in
your business.
It isn't possible to go back to 2019
normal, he says. Times have changed,
and businesses need to change with
them.
" Some of our customers are thriving, "
he says. " They have people who
are empathetic, who give a shit, who
are checking in on people not checking
up on people. Our customers who have
embraced that are seeing tremendous
returns on investment. "
" I WOULD SAY
THE STATE OF
THE EMPLOYEE
RIGHT NOW IS
COMPLETELY
GONG-SHOW "
-Terry Gillis
Specific remedies are hard to articulate.
A disengaged workforce can't be
re-engaged with modifications to the
hybrid work policy, nor can it be re-engaged
with simple salary increases.
What is missing, Gillis says, is so often
a shared sense of purpose. When workers
are alienated from their place in the
value chain, or when their compensation
doesn't seem to reflect the value
they create, disengagement is soon
to follow. Good leaders, he says, will
know to fix that problem at the level of
purpose.
Think about Greenpeace, Gillis
suggests. Whatever you think of them,
Greenpeace has clarity of purpose, he
posits, and its employees are all rowing
in the same direction as a result.
" Greenpeace's employees will go and
ram a whaling boat off the coast of
Japan and put their life on the line
for a cause, " he says. Greenpeace isn't
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SUMMER 2022 | londonincmagazine.ca | 19
struggling for employees, or with a
disengaged workforce.
But even if your business isn't like
Greenpeace, there are lessons to be
learned, Gillis says. " When your organization
is not aligned to its purpose
- I don't care if it's Covid, a recession
or the greatest gold rush in the history
of humankind - people will feel a
disconnect, " he says.
And for London businesses, who are
locked in a battle for talent, it's even
more important.
" When there's a lot of competition for
the resources, you need to double down
and triple down on getting it right, "
Gillis says. " Londoners are a tolerant
bunch to an extent, but then that tolerance
runs low - and then people will
vote with their feet. "
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London Inc. Summer 2022

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