Hello and welcome to working on it.
I'm in Hong Kong for the first time – and I love it. Its borders have been closed during the pandemic, and it has faced political turmoil and uncertainty in recent years, but it remains a dynamic – and highly business-focused – place. Hong Kong is also diverse in its work: it is a coastal city where different communities have mixed for centuries. (I went to a fascinating lecture on this topic by Foden England, author of Fortune's Bazaar, a new book about Hong Kong's multicultural history.)
Note: If you miss office therapy, it will be back next week 🗓️.
Anyway, this is my current desk situation, as seen on Instagram ⬇️
Please email any thoughts or ideas – and the view from your office (can you conquer The Peak?): isabel.berwick@ft.com
You don't need to be cruel to be kind (just avoid being too kind)
Hong Kong has a very different workplace culture to the UK and Europe, and it reflects the wider Asian society. Everyone respects their elders, and company leaders here have told me that younger colleagues are reluctant to speak up. This is an obstacle (although not an insurmountable one, as I've also heard) for companies trying to foster an atmosphere of “psychological safety” — meaning that teams feel empowered to have difficult conversations about challenges and problems.
There's also an old-fashioned view of hierarchy – and people in Hong Kong can be that way (there's no way to say this politely). . . rude. So I was very interested to meet Dr. Bonnie Hayden Cheng, Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong Business School, and hear from her about new models of leadership and corporate culture – in Hong Kong and globally.
Bonnie's latest book is The Return on Kindness: How Kind Leadership Wins Talent, Gains Loyalty, and Builds Successful Companies. So she firmly believes that being kind — not to be confused with being kind — is a highly effective leadership strategy (more on that later). But I wondered: would this approach be difficult to implement in Hong Kong?
She said: Yes, workplaces [in HK] They are more hierarchical, bureaucratic and traditional, which can inhibit kindness in leadership. But I am optimistic that we can raise the bar. Results of a large-scale “kindness test” conducted by researchers from the University of Sussex, which included more than 60,000 people from 144 countries, show that two-thirds of participants believe the pandemic has made people kinder. Ultimately, kindness is a choice, and we all have a choice.
Bonnie came to believe in promoting kindness toward leaders, having “read a lot of the leadership books out there,” she says. And I was seeing a trend toward “people-centered leadership”—authentic leadership, ethical leadership, positive leadership. But we still do not see this in reality. Eventually, as we all know, these became just buzzwords. I decided to go beyond the jargon and get down to the basics. “Kindness.”
The key point she makes—and one that is difficult for authoritarian and top-down business leaders to understand—is that kindness is not the same as kindness. I've struggled with this distinction myself in the past, but Bonnie makes it clear. Nice leaders are vulnerable because they refuse to upset anyone, and they don't deal with problems for fear of being disliked.
On the other hand, actual kindness can lay the foundation for greater loyalty, trust, and openness between teams (i.e., all things that support this desired psychological safety). Bonnie's research also found that productivity improves under good leadership: the benchmark 🏆 for any organization.
Bonnie further explained:
“Kindness doesn't mean you have to lower your standards. You can still have high expectations, you can still hold your employees accountable, but doing so with kindness is the key factor that allows your employees to trust your decisions, knowing that you have their best interests in mind.”
In practical terms, we know that many workplaces – wherever they are located – still have a long way to go before “good leadership” is likely to be implemented.
So I asked Bonnie: What's a practical way everyone (whether we're leaders or not) can show more kindness? She suggested that we ask ourselves this question: “What is one thing I can do for my people today that will make things easier for them?” This can be something small, like checking in on someone who is struggling, and it can be something bigger, like initiating a policy change. Asking yourself how to remove barriers 🚧 for your employees so they can do their best will reap big rewards.
Do you have a kindness strategy? Why are so many people skeptical? Tell me about your experience with workplace culture in different regions. All ideas and examples welcome: isabel.berwick@ft.com.
This week on the Work It Podcast
On this week's Working It podcast, we decided to find out if the traditional resume should be discontinued as a hiring tool. Are there better ways to find the right person for an open role? Will AI turn everything around anyway? I spoke to Jess Woodward-Jones, founder of video-based recruitment platform Vizzy, and Jonathan Black, careers columnist at the Financial Times and head of the Oxford University Careers Service.
No spoilers – but I don't think the autobiography is dead. We have plenty of advice for both job seekers and hiring managers.
Five stories from the world of work
Interview: Makiko Ono, CEO of Suntory. There are very few female CEOs in Japan, and Andrew Hill's interview with Ono, the head of a major beverage company, provides insight into her career and personal motivations. In the 1980s, she missed out on opportunities to work abroad because female executives did not get jobs abroad.
Can I refer you to my guide? I've noticed some mention of the new practice of creating personal 'user guides' to help other people work with us – and here Bethan Staton finds out more about these online summaries of likes, dislikes and working practices. Will this result in more harmony in the workplace or is it all a focus on “me”. . . A recipe for chaos 🤷♀️?
Are things going backwards for women on Wall Street? Well, there must be a blockage in the pipeline. Brooke Masters provides an overview of the current situation, where many high-level women at major banks turn to other sectors when they find their path blocked.
Banks are on the front line of the remote work battle. Just when you thought the situation between the RTO and WFH had stabilized, a reminder came from Owen Walker and Akila Quino that many banks (mainly US-based) are taking a hard line on staff attendance in the office.
Why are women still thrown off the glass cliff? As International Women's Day approaches, Belita Clark delves into the glass abyss in a new book, where she finds evidence that women are more likely to land top jobs just as things go pear-shaped for organizations.
One (actually two) other things
Adam Grant, the Wharton professor/writer/ultra-prolific thinker, has 300,000 subscribers to his Substack newsletter, but in case you're not one of them, this week's memo made me think back to the common work (and life) phrase: “I owe you one “. When someone does something nice, good, or helpful for us, we seem to need to say so. Why? As Adam says: “Instead of feeling guilty, when someone helps you, your only obligation is to be grateful.”
And in bonus Big Thinker content 💡, Emma Jacobs has just written a must-read FT review of Cal Newport's new book, Slow Productivity.
A word from the business community
In response to last week's newsletter about the dire state of young people's mental health in the UK, I liked this practical example of what one workplace is doing to encourage balance for employees ⚖️. Here's Dylan Matthews, CEO of Peace Direct, a UK-based charity that supports grassroots peace activists in 14 countries:
“There is a lot of talk about the four-day week but at Peace Direct we have introduced something that we believe works better. Staff are paid full time but dedicate their Friday morning to learning and development. They can do anything as long as it builds their skills, whether it is reading a book on a topic relevant to our work, listen to a podcast or browse the latest reports from our sector.
“We ensure that employees invest in their learning and development – something that is difficult to do in a four-day week.
“Friday afternoons are dedicated to employee wellbeing. They can spend time walking, heading out into the countryside or watching Netflix. Whatever makes them happy! Employees become happier, more motivated and deliver almost the same results in four days as they did in five.” “And without long extra hours in the four days. This is definitely a win-win for everyone.”
I would say so 🙇🏼♀️.
Does anyone else want to share an innovative take on resilience and wellbeing? No pointless app-based initiatives, please 😤. Email me at isabel.berwick@ft.com.
Finally. . .
Thank you to everyone who came to my first ever book event, ahead of next month's publication of The Future-Proof Career. Business educator and future of work expert Diana Wu David moderated a range of excellent questions from the Hong Kong Literary Festival audience, some of which touched on local workplace culture. In this densely populated city, most people live in small apartments. Commutes aren't long, and many office workers really want to go into the office every day to have some personal space. (The snag is that some offices don't have enough desks for all their employees…) 🙁
The Literary Festival runs until March 10, with lots of great events coming up.
