How to be a calm leader in an angry world

Hello and welcome to Working It.

I was in Amsterdam last week at a conference about artificial intelligence in the workplace — complete with an unsettling AI art exhibition. Sightseeing afterwards took twice as long as Google predicted because of my inability to read maps, both real and virtual. I repeatedly course corrected, iterated (as the techies say) and found a couple of hofjes in the end.

The parallel between navigating an unfamiliar city when you have no sense of direction, and persisting, as a novice, with the unfamiliar, ever-shifting terrain of generative AI is maybe a bit tenuous, but it struck home for me. Especially after crossing the same, all-too-physical, canal bridge for the fifth time 🙄.

Read on for tips for leaders during this time of polarisation and outrage, and Dear Jonathan offers advice to a graduate who’s losing heart in the broken recruitment market 💔.

PS No new Working It podcast today. We return next week.

How to be a calm leader in an angry world 😠

As the US election looms, it is a good time to refresh our thoughts on how to deal with political differences in the workplace. I’ve been interested to see how opinion on this has shifted in recent years. Work-watchers may remember that during the pandemic there was little support for the few companies that banned political discourse. The mainstream view was very much focused on “bringing your whole self to work”. And talking about it.

Now, not so much. What I hear from conference platforms and see on LinkedIn is a focus on working towards a common purpose: the goals of the team and the wider organisation, rather than talking through differences in social and political outlooks.

Fine in theory. How, in practice, can leaders manage rising heat at work 🍳? When a new book called The Age of Outrage: How to Lead in a Polarized World landed on my desk, it was a sign (as Co-Star would tell me) to get in touch with its author, Karthik Ramanna. He’s professor of business and public policy at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. In the introduction, he identifies the drivers of outrage: “For many people in the United States and the Western world, more broadly, there is real fear of an uncertain future that will be worse than the present, deep resentment about governance decisions from the recent and distant pasts, and a nagging sense that traditional cultures are under siege”. A smart summation of why we are where we are.

Karthik pointed out to me that there is “some evidence to suggest that workers are segregating themselves into Republican and Democratic ‘tribes’, further exacerbating outrage and polarisation both inside companies and in the US as a whole”. Leaders, he suggested, must — more than anything – be prepared for the next “outrage”, because these will keep coming. We aren’t going back to the quiet life anytime soon 😶.

The leadership model we need now, Karthik believes, is “not the lead-from-ahead model championed by many business schools [👀], where bombastic rhetoric is used to ‘rally the troops’”. Instead, leaders can “build cultures of active listening, so that when you are presented with a crisis of outrage you already have some trust that can allow you to turn down the temperature and find authentic bottom-up ways to move the organisation forward.” Stop, listen, learn.

Finally: “Don’t expect to be liked by everyone. The nature of our world today is such that, no matter what you do, you will be seen as part of the problem, especially if you are in a position of power. Have a sense of perspective on that, and don’t try to lead or live life as if it is a popularity contest.”

I like this honesty. Leaders don’t hear enough of that 🙉.

In a sentence: Keep calm, gain the trust of staff — and don’t expect to solve global problems from the corner office.

Want more? A report from a UK consultancy, Diversity by Design, called Flying Flags and Ticking Boxes: What Went Wrong with EDI and How Leaders can Fix It offers pointers on how to make structures and policies actually inclusive.

Dear Jonathan 📩

The problem: “I read there are 140 applications for every job — and I’m always in the 139 that get rejected. What can I do to change the odds? I have a good degree and worked in the summer holidays — am I falling victim to the AI that recruiters use?”

Jonathan Black’s advice: The “140 applications per job” figure came from a recent Institute of Student Employers report — and it is an average, since the rate can be over 200 in financial services and 74 (still a lot) for charities. These numbers are at least 50 per cent higher than last year.

Some context might help. Readers may remember that after the 2008 crash 💥 there were very few vacancies for a time, and the same happened after the earlier dot.com boom and bust. Graduates live through these disruptions, many taking alternative routes. Some stay out of the job market by enrolling to study a masters degree, or a PhD. MBAs are showing their counter-cyclicality as US schools report an average 12 per cent increase 🚀 in applications after the post-pandemic lull.

Some graduate programmes remain open to students 18-24 months after they leave university, so if you can’t secure a place this year, you could reapply next year, perhaps with more relevant experience.

Part of the boom in applications has come (we are told by recruiters) from applicants using AI 🤖 to write CVs, cover letters and even help with online assessments. Recruiters want to learn about your personality — so while AI might give you hints on overall structure, it can have the effect of polishing away the interesting edges of your documents, and making your application look similar to everyone else’s. That’s a sure-fire way to be rejected.

How to land that first job? First, remember that it is just your first job, and you may stay only a year or two. Then focus on activities that enable you to demonstrate responsibility, achievement and team work. Progressive employers look for these attributes, plus curiosity about the organisation. Read around the sector and follow news stories. Even if you’re not in work, find ways to gather “transferable” skills: volunteer with a charity, or engage in a society or hobby.

Be creative in job searching and make sure you have thoroughly researched the sector and organisation before you send in a tailored application. Gather information from people who already work there — try LinkedIn. You’ll be in control of the process: running your own research, contacting people, or volunteering with related organisations. This is more positive than sending in 100 applications and waiting for someone (or something 🤖) to make a decision about you.

If you have enriched your CV with demonstrable skills, and written an engaging and tailored application, the chances are that you won’t be among the 130 who are rejected, but in the 10 who are interviewed.

Jonathan Black is director of the careers service at Oxford university. Send your career dilemmas to him at [email protected]. Next week: Isabel tackles an Office Therapy workplace problem.

Five top stories from the world of work

1. From intern to CEO: does it pay to be a company lifer? Emma Jacobs looks into the pros and cons of being a corporate lifer who makes it to the top. Lots of advantages in terms of institutional knowledge — but can these leaders stifle innovation?

2. Can the hard man of Brexit fit corporate groupthink? Former MP Steve Baker has joined an LSE professor to set up a consultancy that helps companies to encourage fruitful internal disagreement, reports Pilita Clark.

3. What if the NHS is a classic management problem? Camilla Cavendish argues that this huge and complex organisation will require top corporate turnaround experts to fix its dysfunction and lack of productivity.

4. Age matters when it comes to boards: Anjli Raval tackles one of the persistent problems in business — a refusal for leaders to consider board members who are “young” (meaning in their 40s) and highlights innovative work to change that.

5. The problem with the term ‘global majority’: Columnist Stephen Bush takes issue with the newly fashionable term to describe individuals from many different ethnic and religious backgrounds and nationalities.

One more thing . . . 

The comedian Miranda Hart spent a decade almost housebound because of fatigue and complications from previously undiagnosed Lyme disease. Her new memoir, I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You, chronicles what happened, and how she gradually rebuilt her life. I listened to the audiobook — read by Miranda herself. She shares resources and routines that she found useful for her recovery — and there’s a wonderfully optimistic ending 😍.

A word from the Working It community

Lots of correspondence from last week’s newsletter about LinkedIn offering coaching for all its employees as a new staff benefit. I heard from other companies offering this perk, including Linklaters, the law firm. Here’s Alison McBurney, its global head of business teams learning:

“Coaching and mentoring is available to everyone at Linklaters (lawyers, business teams and secretarial services professionals). The firm has an experienced coaching faculty made up of internal and external coaches and mentors, offering practical support in areas such as: developing client relationships, business development, strategic thinking, sustainable working practices, raising/building your profile, career alignment and really anything in-between, where an individual is looking to develop or overcome a challenge.”

My only Q is: why isn’t every business doing this?

A different perspective from Christina Patterson, a journalist and author. She offers a great response to my throwaway point asking why so many people are retraining as coaches:

“I decided to train as an executive coach four years ago, at the age of 56. Like so many journalists, I’d been through a brutal redundancy and was finding the pickings in my industry ever slimmer. Years of asking questions and listening carefully to the answers made coaching seem like a natural move. I now combine coaching with writing and broadcasting and I absolutely love it. I’ve worked with leaders and founders and their teams, but also with youngsters starting out and am always amazed by the changes people can make in their work and lives after just a few sessions. It’s lovely to feel useful.”

As ever, thank you to everyone who gets in touch. I’m (nearly) always at [email protected] or DM me on LinkedIn.

And finally . . . .🙋🏽‍♂️

I hope to see some of you over coffee at the FT’s shiny new HR Forum 🌟 on November 20. Sign up with this form and hear from experts including Louise Ballard and Rebecca Robins about how to manage five generations in the workplace. (I am struggling with two generations at home, but am all ears👂🏼.)