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"Future Focused" offers a Playbook for Leaders to Unlock the Power of Culture in Today's Rapidly Changing Workplace and Create More Successful, Strategic and Purposeful Companies

CHICAGO, Oct. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

-- New book co-authored by Heidrick & Struggles' Rose Gailey and Ian Johnston

offers insights on pivoting culture to prepare for the future amidst a

once-in-a-generation shift in work and office life

Released today, "Future Focused: Shape Your Culture. Shape Your Future." (

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3338704-1&h=181212465&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2F1955750270%3Fref_%3Dpe_3052080_397514860&a=Future+Focused%3A+Shape+Your+Culture.+Shape+Your+Future

) examines how leaders from all types of organizations have used culture to

drive successful organizational change and deliver purposeful, sustained

performance. The book's release comes as the voices of employees take center

stage globally. "Future Focused" serves as a practical guide for business

leaders who are grappling with today's dramatic changes to work life brought on

by the pandemic and looking to sustain and drive culture through numerous

points of transformation.

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Building upon the book's core principles for shaping culture, leaders can learn

from the achievements of successful CEOs and reinvent culture to meet the

pandemic's myriad of forced changes, and provide steady, transparent and

future-focused leadership to deliver improved business outcomes. The book

highlights a number of successful company cultures through the lens of leading

inspirational CEOs, including those from Anthem, Aptiv, Helen of Troy, Jack in

the Box, Lumen, Yum Brands and more.

"Culture is the underpinning of great companies and supports performance during

unprecedented periods of uncertainty and volatility," said Krishnan

Rajagopalan, President and CEO, Heidrick & Struggles. "Today in the C-suite,

discussions on hybrid and virtual work policies are taking top priority as

leaders redefine what it means to be part of an organization in remote and

increasingly distributed settings. Values and mission, coalesced into a

meaningful purpose, are at the core of cultures that have helped companies

thrive both before and during the pandemic. This book offers sound best

practices built from more than four decades of experience to guide leaders as

they examine what the future will look like for their teams and workplaces, and

evolve their cultures and purpose to meet the unique needs of their

organizations."

Co-authored by Rose Gailey (

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3338704-1&h=4204054439&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heidrick.com%2Fen%2Fpeople%2Fg%2Frose_gailey&a=Rose+Gailey

) and Ian Johnston (

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3338704-1&h=3172699612&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heidrick.com%2Fen%2Fpeople%2Fj%2Fian_johnston&a=Ian+Johnston

), partners at Heidrick & Struggles and leading experts on organization

acceleration, culture shaping and transforming organizations, "Future Focused"

stresses that leaders who lay a solid cultural foundation, authentically commit

to a set of values, and define and depend on an inspiring purpose to build

companies will show more resilience and face less turmoil – and they will

continue to have that advantage no matter what the future holds. With

flexibility named as one of the fastest-rising job priorities in the U.S., and

younger generations of workers renegotiating the centrality of work and its

role in their personal lives, the authors also raise a sense of urgency for

companies to start focusing on culture now and provide a straightforward

framework to get started.

The new book offers four principles that highlight culture as an ecosystem,

impacting all stakeholders – from employees, to customers, to shareholders. The

principles define how to shape a thriving, high-performing culture in a healthy

ecosystem:

    1.  Thriving cultures require purposeful leadership.

    2.  Transformation is rooted in personal change.

    3.  Broad engagement is key for the culture to be lived.

    4.  Thriving into the future requires systemic alignment.

"We are at an important inflection point in the way workplaces define culture,"

commented Gailey. "More than ever, the way we are living and working today

requires empathetic leadership and the ability to listen with understanding and

provide a psychologically safe place for employees to voice concerns.

Additionally, as we learned from our 2021 global survey (

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3338704-1&h=3955667951&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heidrick.com%2Fen%2Finsights%2Fculture-shaping%2Faligning-culture-with-the-bottom-line-how-companies-can-accelerate-progress&a=global+survey

) of top CEOs regarding culture, leaders who link culture to strategy also

outperform their peers significantly – doubling their 3 year compound growth

rate for revenue. Culture, then serves to act not only as a catalyst to break

through uncertainty and stabilize an organization and engage employees, but

also to bolster financial performance."

In "Future Focused", Gailey and Johnston warn that failure to intentionally

shape culture opens the door to risk, while purposeful, future-focused cultures

secure mindsets and behaviors that deliver performance and minimize risk. CEOs

and executive leaders must make sure that culture is systemically "hardwired"

into the fabric of the organization's HR systems, quality and operational

excellence initiatives, and employee and customer experience to be sustainable.

"Communication is oxygen for organizations at all times, but most especially in

times of transition," stated Johnston. "Leaders who communicate openly,

honestly, vulnerably and consistently will enable employees to weather

uncertainty and move to action."

"Future Focused," published by Networlding, is available for purchase here (

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3338704-1&h=4165498893&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2F1955750270%3Fref_%3Dpe_3052080_397514860&a=here

).

About Heidrick & Struggles

Heidrick & Struggles (Nasdaq: HSII) is a premier provider of global leadership

advisory and on-demand talent solutions, serving the senior-level talent and

consulting needs of the world's top organizations. In our role as trusted

leadership advisors, we partner with our clients to develop future-ready

leaders and organizations, bringing together our services and offerings in

executive search, diversity and inclusion, leadership assessment and

development, organization and team acceleration, culture shaping and on-demand,

independent talent solutions. Heidrick & Struggles pioneered the profession of

executive search more than 65 years ago. Today, the firm provides integrated

talent and human capital solutions to help our clients change the world, one

leadership team at a time.(R) www.heidrick.com

Heidrick & Struggles Media Contact:

Mindi Wood

+1 (212) 551-0930

mwood@heidrick.com

SOURCE Heidrick & Struggles