Webinars Retrospective: 4 Experts’ Perspectives on Leadership

Through the dreaded Covid-19 crisis and being apart from our clients in-person, we wanted to keep that wonderful Great Place to Work community spirit flowing, so we created the Staying Connected Webinar Series. During the series, we were joined by a fantastic array of speakers from the community. Panelists shared insights and offered practical advice, as we navigated unchartered waters together. We covered a lot of ground, so we are now delighted to share this series of key points from each instalment of the series, beginning here with expert perspectives on leadership.

Building & Maintaining Trust While Working Remotely

In our first webinar of the series, we were joined by the Head of the Graduate Business School in TU Dublin, Colin Hughes. Colin, an insightful and experienced GPTW collaborator, shared the findings of his PhD research on Building & Maintaining Trust While Working Remotely. Naturally, it isn’t feasible to summarise the entirety of Colin’s findings here, but a few takeaways were:

• Trusted leaders have been found to be perceived as having the ability to perform in the role, being benevolent in their decision making, and acting with integrity.
• Trust can be built through displaying vulnerability, being open in communication and being consistent in messaging.

The Champion Mindset

As the lockdown continued, we were joined by the motivational Gary Keegan, CEO of Uppercut, and an expert in high-performance coaching. Gary spoke about some important principles related to leading through adversity; how adversity can lead organisations and people to a space of vulnerability; and why vulnerability is our learning friend when leaders facilitate its expression.

• Gary discussed the benefits of adversity, stating that often leaders find they learn the most about themselves by reflecting on failures. It is possible to learn from mistakes and adapt their behaviour to overcome future adversities.
• Leaders' learnings can be passed on to employees, guiding them on how to focus on what they can control, in the midst of a situation where so much falls outside of that remit.
  
  

Credible Leadership

This episode of our Staying Connected webinar series brought the recipient of 2020's GPTW Ambassador award, Jarlath Dooley (People Success Director, Version 1) to discuss his experience implementing the Great Place to Work methodology in a growing organisation, and the key to maintaining a practice of credible leadership.

• Jarlath informed us that a culture built on trust is how his organisation competes with the budgets of large multinational companies.
• Jarlath discussed the need for psychological safety and effective, honest, and consistent leadership in creating a sustainable, high trust culture.
  
  

Most Trusted Leader

For the final instalment of our Staying Connected webinar series, we were in conversation with Declan Ronayne, CEO of Woodie’s. Declan was recognised as Ireland’s Most Trusted Leader 2020, awarded in partnership with TU Dublin Graduate Business School.

• Declan shared his thoughts on the benefits of building personal connections with staff, encouraging, and listening to authentic feedback.
• This approach coupled with a willingness to accept and address less than favourable responses, enables leaders to develop their organisation’s culture and build trust with employees.

These insights were well received by attendees, where the benefits of leadership styles supported by the GPTW methodology were plain to see. If you want to talk to our team about the role high trust leadership could play in your organisation: get in touch today! 

And why not check out the full Staying Connected webinar series!

About Great Place to Work®

Great Place to Work® is the global authority on workplace culture. We help organizations quantify their culture and produce better business results by creating a high-trust work experience for all employees. We recognise Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies and the Best Workplaces™ in more than 60 countries.

To join the thousands of companies that have committed to building high-trust company cultures that help them attract, retain and take care of their people, contact us about getting Certified™ today.