Hello, please let it work.
Thank you to Bethan Staton for writing the newsletter while attending the Humanity Conference in Cornwall. If you have the opportunity to attend next year, grab it. This is a rare and valuable collection of 2,000 leaders of all kinds, including CEOs, founders, “changemakers” (human changers” (human changers) from business, civil society, arts, government, etc. I go back to some ideas and action points that have come out of hundreds of panels and discussions (I’ve only seen chair/see a few of them).
I then left for the holidays and ran through the careless people of the bestselling bestsellers by Sarah Wynn-Williams, a memoir of her time as a senior Facebook executive. (Full disclosure: The author is married to an FT editor.) It’s a troublesome, sometimes scary read, but more unexpectedly, dark and entertaining. Highly recommended.
Read how ancient Greeks and Roman wisdom can help us in the workplace. Office therapy provides advice to leaders on communicating with teams in a volatile and tariff-filled world.
As always, email your ideas, thoughts and dilemma: isabel.berwick@ft.com.
What have the Romans done for us? 🏺
The ancients have enjoyed the success of social media. Most notably, the modern interpreter of Stoicism, the extremely popular Ryan Holiday. A stoic approach for those who do not follow trends is rooted in four values: courage, stolen, justice and wisdom. (Quote mark sample: “No one is not your master.” Epictetus
Ryan’s daily stoic account has 3.3 million followers on Instagram, but it’s a strange lack of on LinkedIn (25k). And that lack of followers could be a giveaway: Stoicism and its approach to living a better self-disciplined life related to modern workplace and corporate leadership? (Especially when it appears to be barely controlled.
Robert Rosenkrantz believes that we need more stoicism in our work and every other bit of our life. The homemade US billionaire financier and philanthropist, now in the 80s, is about to publish a Memoir Cum Handbook called The Stoic Capitalist: Advice for Dequartious The Dequiredious. (If you’re ambitious, exceptional or not, don’t postpone to the title.) As someone who isn’t ingrained in stoic mantras – perhaps because I’m a woman, given that these modern repetitions of ancient wisdom are more popular among men * – I really enjoyed the book.
So, what can we teach us to follow Stoic practice, for example, about managing others? “Be soft to people and struggle with the problems,” Robert told me via email (we met in person at lunchtime before at his very flashy London club, where I was too polite to take notes. I didn’t have the courage to find someone else for that role.”
Given our deep recruitment crisis, did you wonder if a stoic approach could provide shortcuts and interview questions that could reveal the true personality of a candidate? Robert suggests, “thinking about the most important qualities for the work at hand and asking unexpected questions that are difficult to avoid. Remember that interviews are a time to focus entirely on what’s right in front of you.” There is no smartphone.
A stoic capitalist, Robert provides examples of good interview questions that give insight into the candidate’s skills and characters. (This was for the HR head.) And: “Please tell me about the beliefs you once had deep feelings. (This was about the work of nonprofit staff in public service. As Robert points out, “a question that is difficult for most people”)
Finally, to save us from the time to read Marcus Aurelius, I asked Robert to outline the lasting corporate lessons we think we should learn from ancients.
“Acting for the benefit of society. In the context of business, it means mindfulness with regard to all members, employees, customers, suppliers and shareholders.
*Remember the 2023 “Roman Empire” trends in Tiktok? I think stoicism is related. I don’t know why. (Please email me your thoughts.)
Office Therapy
Problem: I haven’t answered a specific question this week (but please come – regular service will resume next week). Instead, I wanted to cover all the issues that I’m obsessed with with all my leaders and managers. The AI threat was already looming (I heard about the whole team who was fired by the bank last week for “AI Advances”). Now we are in the midst of Donald Trump’s tariff disruption.
So, what is the best way to calm/reliate/lead at the moment?
Answer: I turned to Kevin Delaney, a regular workplace expert at this workplace. He is the CEO and editor-in-chief of Charter, the future of the US for Work Media and Research Company. Kevin’s first point is that he needs to ignore the urge to “wait and see” what happens next. Clear communication is important in times of crisis. When we don’t hear anything, we tend to (as humans) create things to fill the void.
Kevin says there are specific ways to convey the message. “Research shows that there are the types of communication that are most effective in maintaining and strengthening trust, and involves sharing scenarios about what’s coming and what an organization will do about it.
“In addition to telling more, research shows that even the best leaders listen more.”
That’s good advice for all of us at this worrying moment for the global economy.
Are there any dilemmas of office therapy? It anonymizes everything appropriately. Email: isabel.berwick@ft.com.
Five Top Stories from the World of Work
Business Lessons to Draw Out of Trump’s Trade: Andrew Hill sees Trump’s 1987 book, “The Art of Art and the Explanation of Tactics Still Used by the President” (wide, bullying, persistence). As one expert says, this means he “may win in his hand, but it’s not necessarily a game.”
Women, the work, and why we do it all wrong: I have reviewed three books on work. This includes the new title of Cordelia Fine, Patriachy Inc.
The United States may be reversing its course on child labor. Incredibly, some US have rewind protection for children in the workplace. As Sarah O’Connor says, parts of America seem to have returned to the 1800s.
Shai Weiss of Virgin Atlantic: “In aviation, you need to be paranoid”: A great interview with the airline boss, talks about the revival of Virgin Atlantic after the pandemic and some difficult business decisions he had to make. Philip Georgiadis.
The Risk of Performance-Based Layoffs: A shocking read from Hannah Murphy and Rafeudin, especially about the new wave of massive “low-performance” firing in the meta. The affected workers interviewed by FT said there were always good reviews.
One more thing. . .
I would like to recommend Jamie Dimon’s letter to annual shareholders. If you don’t have time to read the whole thing, go to Section 4, “Management Learning.” This has the bits that hit the heading. In particular, JP Morgan’s chairs and chief executives don’t like most meetings. However, there is much to digest about his approach to leadership. For example, he fired all management coaches in the organization when he arrived 20 years ago. It’s all fascinating. As Jamie says, “What the heck is culture?”
Words from the working IT community
Return to CEO Hot Topics as a long featured video star. If you are a CEO who excels in films, please contact us. Or someone who likes to hold a phone and record random things (#Authentic).
One of the working leaders enthusiastically describes the online work of William Peake, a global managing partner at law firm Harneys, as “Linkedin Legend in Legal Sulcles’ LinkedIn Legend.” This fan wasn’t overstated. The video is excellent, and so is his post. (William’s CV also includes a spell as a medieval jouster.
Before you log off. . .
Hat Tips Faul For a link to Paul Millard’s Passless Newsletter (Subscribe to all self-employed), he is a blog post on Jevon’s Paradox. (That’s my stupidity, but Tim Harford of FT writes about it.)
As Tina writes, Jevon’s paradox dates back to the 1860s. Tina speaks eloquently about the AI-driven dilemma. As productivity tools become more efficient, we need to consider what they are optimizing. Increased productivity, like increased coal combustion, is not good in itself.
