Leaders should not rely on financial objectives to motivate people, according to Gerard Penning, executive VP of HR for downstream & Europe operations at Royal Dutch Shell.
Speaking at the HR Directors Business Summit in Birmingham, Penning said that the organisation’s wider vision and objectives needed to also answer the question of 'what’s in it for me?' for employees.
“For years we’ve tried to motivate people with growth objectives in financial terms,” said Penning. “We thought 94,000 people would get out of bed in the morning and get very excited by the financials.
“We found that we have to describe growth in a language that’s appealing to people. So be specific about what that will feel like.”
Penning’s talk, ‘Successful Leadership Attributes for Today’s Business Challenges – Learnings from Shell’, also covered other qualities all leaders should have, such as authenticity and good listening skills.
“Authenticity is not where someone says ‘I was authentically angry’ after a meeting, 'I just took the cork out',” said Penning, adding that one transformative experience in terms of his perceptions on leadership was encountering a manager around 10 years ago with excellent listening skills.
“When we had a conversation he was completely there for me. The world could be collapsing, the phones could be ringing, there could be paper everywhere, but he would step away whether it was five minutes or 35 minutes. That was a magical experience,” he recounted.
Penning added that employees will do anything for a leader when that’s in place. “You cannot fake it though,” he cautioned. “You have to be seriously curious about the individual.”
