Just like that, the fastest month of my life has come to an end. As I finished my time shadowing and working alongside President Gilbert Boileau, my role as Adecco Canada’s CEO For One Month 2020 will forever stand out as one of the most transformative and pivotal points in my career.
Expectations vs. Reality of the Program
When I was told that this year’s program was going to be conducted virtually, I surely had my concerns with what to expect: consistent internet connectivity issues, difficulty building rapport with people over video calls, inability for me to provide value to Adecco, and limited visibility and transparency of operations and employees.
Wow was I wrong.
The jam-packed schedule of daily back-to-back meetings was exhilarating. Everyone was incredibly supportive and welcoming, and they put an unbelievable amount of trust in my input. Their willingness to listen and act upon a 22-year old’s words is a huge testament to this amazing program. As I accompanied Gilbert to all his meetings, the executive leadership team, other CEOs, vice presidents, branch managers, and other employees consistently gave me the opportunity to speak up and share my thoughts. In addition to the fully-booked workday and the challenges/assignments for the global CEO competition, I was also trusted with taking lead on two high-impact strategic projects — both of which would have huge implications on the company as a whole.
Whether it was my daily 1-on-1 conversations and debriefs with Gilbert, our meetings with the leadership team, branch visits, or my 1-on-1s with VPs and other managers, there was always an incredible opportunity to learn from such brilliant people.
I’d like to share some of these life lessons with you.
Life Lessons
Prioritization: de-noise the signal
Imagine driving through a beautiful valley with your car’s radio tuned into your favourite FM channel as you sing a song with your friends. Your smile is as bright as the sun while the heavy wind gusts through the open window. You’re happily invested in the current atmosphere until you realize the height of the mountains has begun to interfere with your radio, completely distorting the sound quality and thus everyone except yourself stops singing, because you know the song by heart.
The song is the signal and the interference is the noise. Right now, you’re the happy one as you pay close attention to the signal, while your friends are completely disturbed and let down by the noise.
This is exactly how priorities in life work. People who focus on their priorities know how to follow the signal and not get caught up with the noise. This is especially true for anyone to succeed in business: understand your priorities and develop a system or routine to make them achievable. But the hard truth is that these priorities often clash with the concept of work/life balance. It’s unequivocally important, therefore, to always know your priorities — don’t have more than three at any given time. As a leader, it’s paramount that these priorities are articulated and over-communicated to their employees; as a result, overall team morale is significantly improved by taking out the guesswork and ambiguity of their daily life.
De-noise the signal. Know your priorities and know how to communicate them while keeping distractions at bay. Ignore the interference and keep singing your favourite song.
Follow the recipe: discipline gives you freedom
Imagine that you’re going to your friends’ first ever potluck this weekend. Everyone is bringing their favourite potluck dish, keeping in mind the various dietary restrictions. You decide to cook chicken cacciatore for the first time.
Are you going to freestyle cook this dish or are you going to follow a recipe? Most people are going to follow a recipe, but then add their own personal twist.
This is an example of how discipline can facilitate freedom. Kids will complain about their parents’ strictness. Students will complain about their course’s inadequate structure and deadline. Employees will complain that their managers are micro-managing them — that adhering to key performance indicators (KPIs) is seen as controlling every minute of their work life.
Discipline is the core theme here, and the truth is that we should appreciate external forces of discipline more. KPIs, deadlines, processes and other external forces of discipline give you structure when tackling the task or obstacle at hand. Internal discipline and motivation follow the internalization of these structures. When you can clear your mind of ambiguity and worry, you have more freedom to focus on the things that really matter.
Managers are like the hosts of the potluck. They understand everyone’s favourite dish and dietary restrictions (their employees’ strengths and weaknesses) and give you the recipe to cook your own dish (systems and processes that give you structure and guidance). When you follow structure, guidance and discipline, you then have more freedom to make an impact.
Knowledge: listen, ask, talk
After accompanying Gilbert to all his meetings, I learned how important it is for a CEO to know the details of how their business works. My respect for Gilbert increased every single time I heard him speak credibly about the specifics of various facets of the business.
I found that his ability to obtain all this knowledge and effectively lead people was highlighted throughout these meetings. He knew exactly when to listen, when to talk and when to make the decision.
These experiences led me to the next lesson I learned, this time about the power of questions and active listening. If you’re seeking an accurate answer from someone, quite frankly, 9 out of 10 people have the answer — they’re just being asked the wrong question.
“If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” – Albert Einstein
There’s nothing more powerful than asking the right question. In a meeting, one of the most respectful and effective ways to voice your opinion is by asking the right question. You allow people to see the answer through self-reflection rather than by just bluntly telling them.
Difficulty in crisis: embrace the change
In my previous article, I talked about the opportunities that can be present in a crisis and how to control the chaos in our everyday lives. After these last couple of weeks, I have witnessed firsthand what it feels like to lead a company through a crisis.
In panic mode, people look up to leaders who have an action plan. It’s vital that leaders are optimistic especially in challenging times. This isn’t about saying things are good when they’re not. It’s about clearly communicating to everyone the vision to overcome these obstacles. It’s about believing in yourself and the people around you to come together to end up with the right and best outcome. Gilbert and the rest of the executive team clearly showed me how they dealt with uncertainty. They embraced the change and saw the pandemic as a catalyst to enable several business transformations and other opportunities. They clearly laid out their strategic priorities and over-communicated them to their employees. They remained optimistic throughout the past few months. And they were readily accessible and open-minded to people whose work lives were being thrown into disarray.
As a leader, your sense of integrity, honesty, decency and other values are a stand-in for the values of the company. Your values are a true embodiment of the company’s values; what people think of you is what they’ll think of your company. And at times, it’s unbelievably hard to make some decisions that will let you sleep well at night.
Leadership is not easy, especially when the recent transformation to a work-from-home model has made it clear that leadership is not bound by location. The thing is, you can have all the data and analysis in front of you, but at the end of the day, as a leader, you still need to take a risk to make the final decision. This is in perfect contrast to rocket science: a subject that calls for exactitude. Careful math, precise numbers, elegantly conceived formulas and correct calculations will lead you to a confident and precise answer.
Leadership doesn’t work that way.
What I Learned About Adecco
Adecco is truly changing lives. Every day they put over 700,000 people to work around the world. Throughout my time here, I got to hear the unbelievably touching and heart-warming stories of those whose lives were transformed. Adecco helps anyone find meaningful work — regardless of who you are. I was able to learn an absurd amount regarding the staffing industry alongside the various facets of business and management. At the end of the day, Adecco is a people’s business directly affecting people’s lives. I was able to wake up early in the morning everyday with a smile on my face knowing that we’re helping people through such tough times. Throughout this pandemic, I was amazed to see what Adecco was doing to ensure the safety of their associates, to support their clients and to support their people.
Closing Remarks on CEO For One Month
A life-changing experience. I learned so much that my Microsoft OneNote is now asking for additional storage space.
The authenticity, trust, enthusiasm, support and mentorship from everyone at Adecco, especially Gilbert, was a huge testament to this amazing program. I made new relationships, mentors and friends. I also learned a lot about myself — my abilities and areas of improvement. I am forever grateful for this amazing opportunity to be challenged and to learn.
I never thought I would be able to obtain the trust I did from Gilbert through a screen. I never thought we would be smiling and having so much fun through a screen. He was truly an amazing mentor for me and is a perfect example of how to be a successful CEO and how to lead an organization through such hard times.
I highly recommend the CEO For One Month program to everyone regardless of your studies or areas of interest. You will learn things in a month that would have taken years to learn otherwise — if at all. When I applied, I knew the odds of getting this position was roughly 1/3600. I laughed and told myself it’s impossible.
You truly never know what lies ahead of you. You never know where you may end up. You never know whether the next time you say “hello” to a stranger, that person may become your next best friend or significant other.
The only thing you can do is get started… and soon, you’ll know.