The Future of Work: Compassionate Leadership

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤.

𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐮𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐥. 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐦𝐨𝐢𝐥. 𝐌𝐢𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞. 𝐀𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞. 𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐀𝐧𝐝, 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞, 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬.

To find out what both the present and future of work look like from a leadership perspective, I had the pleasure of speaking with Brian McCarson, Vice President and General Manager of the NUC Group at Intel Corporation.

𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐔𝐂 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝑼𝑪 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅'𝒔 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑷𝑪.

I'm the Vice President and General Manager of the Next Unit of Compute Group, or NUC Group. The team has been around for ten years -- our ten-year anniversary was in 2022 -- and this is the group that invented the world's miniature PC: tiny little 4-inch by 4-inch PCs that have all the power of a big PC. I've been managing this team for going on two years, and I've worked at Intel for 23 years.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐝?

𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕.

My personal priorities are products, people, and profits, in that order, even though I lead what I call a "people-first" organization. And you might ask: If you you're "people first," why would you put products first? Well, you don't know the right people to hire unless you know what products you're going to build. For building airplanes, building bicycles, or building computers, you need a different talent pool.

But if you really are focused on the best products, then bringing in the right talent and nurturing that talent is going to be key to your success long-term, and so is getting them inspired and being able to unlock the potential of technical innovation to create better business outcomes.

And when you're in a multinational company -- I've got team members across seven different countries -- it's interesting as a leader trying to figure out how to unlock the full potential of the workforce when you have people who have never met each other in person.

Despite that, they're expected to work together seamlessly to overcome some of the biggest technological barriers that humankind has ever faced, without actually being able to build true, meaningful, human-to-human relationships. So I've been exploring different ways to connect people and trying new ways to get managers not to take for granted that their teams are going to be adding new members that have never met before... and they may never meet.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭?

𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔, 𝒕𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓.

Being a multinational team, we've been looking at revamping the workweek, setting aside dedicated periods of the week where we know there's some time-zone overlap. We try to do all of our international work to the best of our ability in just two evenings a week U.S. time, which is two mornings a week Asia time. So for two days a week, people have to get up a little early or shift their work schedule to a little bit later.

Another important thing we found was that if you leave the window open to ten hours, you'll always find ten hours' worth of meetings, so condensing it down to a fixed amount of time forced more efficiency, pre-work, and discipline. And given that we have people working later two days a week, we tried saying, Why would any of us be working late on Fridays? So we established a no-meeting zone, meaning you're not going to be stuck in standing meetings on Friday, regardless of what time zone you're in.

That one has been overwhelmingly positive with the team, and what we're finding is, come Monday, people are feeling a bit more refreshed than they did before, which has boosted productivity on those long days -- Mondays and Tuesdays -- when we're doing a lot of our multinational work.

A second thing we're doing is spending time with all the leaders and managers making sure we understand why we're doing things when we onboard new employees, and that they also understand why we're doing those things. They can see what we do and how we do it, but they need to understand why we do it. Then you allow the employee and the manager to work together to decide what's best for each person's situation.

We try to be as individualistic as we can within that to allow people to have work-life harmony. Some days it's going to be more work, some days it's going to be more family, but as long as there's harmony between the two at the individual level, I think you get better employee engagement and you get better retention of employees. If they understand why we're doing things, it doesn't feel like silly busy work, because we're working towards a common goal.

We've also been trying to find new, fun ways to connect people, with things like Zoom-based trivia, magic shows, virtual wine tastings, or a day with a beekeeper. It's about finding ways that people can form experiences that give them conversation points and allow everyone to see each other as humans outside of just the context of our work. If you can find that bond, it changes things a lot.

And even though travel budgets are getting tighter, we're trying to get people to share meals. I can't emphasize that enough: sharing a meal with another human just unlocks a different level of experience in a relationship. Whenever possible, we always try to take the team out for a joint meal to get people to connect in different ways.

Finally, on video calls, we encourage people to turn on their cameras. With the cameras off, you don't know who you're talking to or what their interest level is. You just don't know the level of engagement.

𝐆𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭?

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒏 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝑬𝑸 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆.

There are very distinct cultural norms that are just standard business practice, and I'll use the example of one of my favorite countries on the planet: Japan. Japan has a very polite, courteous business culture. I've been in circumstances where you have two individuals from two different cultures going into a business meeting in Japan, and they came out of the room with completely different ideas of what they just heard. One was terrified... Oh my gosh, we're going to lose that business. And the other thought, Wow, boy, they love us, don't they? They just didn't recognize how different that is. Now, try to do that over a Zoom call, where only a fourth of the people are on camera. That's incredibly difficult.

Before the pandemic, I spent a week per month in China for the better part of three years, working on growing the ecosystem in the business. And there is not one deal, not one business deal, that I ever closed in a conference room. Every single time we went to the conference room, we shared information, we discussed it, we asked questions, and then we had dinner... and the deal was made over dinner. So if you're not there able to share the meal afterwards, you're not going to be the one to close the deal unless there really is no other option for that company.

And the modern leader -- whether you're in tech, business, finance, or e-commerce -- requires a different level of EQ [emotional intelligence] and a different level of cultural acceptance. You need to understand that if you want to be successful, it means actually engaging your customers, engaging your workforce, and being seen as someone who is a fluid member of a global society.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧?

𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒈𝒂𝒎𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆'𝒔 𝒂 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒔𝒆𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔.

There are always up-and-down cycles, and ultimately, your connection to the entire corporation is through your manager. If you have a great employee-manager relationship and a good line of communication, it can make you feel more confident and more secure. If you can have an open dialogue with your manager, if you know that regardless of their culture or your culture they'll seek to understand who you are as a person and what you're looking for in your career, then you can be confident that they'll help work with you around your strengths.

Trying to strengthen the employee-manager relationship is Job One, and the methods that worked in 2019 don't apply anymore. Veteran managers need to recognize that this is a new world. It's completely different game, and there's a new set of rules. You can't go into a game of checkers and play by chess rules -- you've got to adapt to the fact that there's a new normal. That's the first job. The second job is changing decision-making around leadership instead of around management.

One of the things I'm trying to push for in my team is making sure that it's the leaders who are setting the direction. You don't have to be a manager to be a leader, and being a manager doesn't make you a leader. Leadership is more of a "follow me, watch this... we've got this, let's go" mentality, and the boss culture of "go do" is not going to lead to a higher level of employee engagement, no matter what culture you're in. Creating a culture where that can happen, whether you're an intern or a general manager, and having the ability to make sure your voice is heard, regardless of your culture, background, gender, race, or ethnicity is what matters. Data and your leadership skills are what matter.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐔𝐂?

𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒋𝒐𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎.

First, every employee works with their manager to define for each period of time -- it can be monthly, quarterly, or annually, depending on the objective -- what they're working on and how you'll measure success. That's a joint employee-manager discussion. Employees who listen to what their boss tells them they're going to do often don't have the same level of success as the ones who engage in a conversation. How do we measure success and what are we trying to accomplish?

Second, successful employees build up those around them instead of concentrating on their own individual accomplishments. You'd think that the more you can emphasize how critical you are to the business, the more you'd be rewarded. That may be true in the short term, but in the long term, I think karma catches up.

Those who are brilliant at sharing the joy of success with those around them and building up those around them have the benefit of trust, which reduces relationship friction, increases productivity, and improves communication. All of this invariably leads to better outcomes, better relationship outcomes, better business outcomes, and better product outcomes.

𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐩𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝/𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥?

𝑼𝒑𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏... 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒋𝒐𝒃 𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕.

Our corporate vision for the Next Unit of Compute is to inspire the future of how the world works and plays, and we always want to be the best. We want to be that first innovator. We're not the Oregon Trail travelers; we're Lewis and Clark. We're trailblazing where no one else has gone before. Doing that means you can't Google or go to DuckDuckGo and search for the answer to the question you're trying to solve. You have to invent it.

If you want to be a leader in the industry, you have to have an innovation pipeline, and one of the things we're trying to do is to create a low-friction path for innovation. We created a small but mighty innovation lane where any employee who has a brilliant idea can go in and say, Hey, I want to use the Flex Lane to try something that's never been done before. Our plan is to try to streamline employee innovations so they feel like they have an outlet for creativity and invention.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤, 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞?

𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆'𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔.

I believe the Future of Work is going to be about the compassionate manager and the compassionate leader. We read books about the most successful personalities on the planet and their passion to win, but I don't know if we spend enough time understanding how compassion can help inspire people's passions and make them feel like they can come to life and be their authentic true selves in the workplace.

Embracing the individual and their needs is what's going to make people want to give their career-best to the business that they're giving their time to. That's something that can't be neglected, and looking for leaders who are willing to embrace that is going to make or break companies in the future.

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Brian McCarson is the Vice President and General Manager of the NUC Group at Intel Corporation, with extensive Edge/IoT/Embedded/Consumer hardware and software product development and scale experience. He has a demonstrated track record of growing high-margin businesses, and his management philosophy is to Simplify the Complex, Clarify the Ambiguous, and Turn Problems into Opportunities.

Gina Longo is a Leadership Development Trainer and the owner of Gina Longo Consulting. A former airline Captain and flight instructor, she now takes her experience as a leader in the aviation industry into the corporate world, where she specialises in helping businesses solve talent development and employee retention problems.

➤ If you're looking to troubleshoot your talent development and/or employee retention problems, please visit www.ginacall.com to schedule a complimentary Cause-Analysis Consultation.

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This is the second in a series of articles on the Future of Work.