The current economic crisis is testing leadership teams with the extremes of acute threat or overwhelming opportunity. Many organizations have reacted by cutting budgets and reducing investment in communication and people. Leaders hide behind their office doors and communicate only when they have positive news. The crisis has pushed leaders and their people into survival mode where their instinctive response is fear based, reactive and expedient. These behaviors drain their energy and lead to shortsightedness, short-term decision making and frustration.
But there are companies, like Sony Europe, that have reacted differently and with a more strategic and optimistic approach.
The attitude from the top
Operating with over 13,000 employees in over 20
countries, the organization has always believed
effective communication and leadership
development are important. That’s why Fujio
Nishida, President of Sony Europe, is actively
communicating with employees through face-to-face
sessions complemented by electronic forums to reignite
the passion of his people to live their purpose
of amazing, delighting and enriching the lives of its
customers. Everyone’s talking about the importance
of remaining positively challenged and to increase
usage of the right hemisphere of the brain to
develop the creative ideas that will see Sony leapfrog
into an even stronger brand in the future.
Nishida is engaging his people in various conversations via a roadshow in all European countries, as well as live broadcasts using the @sony suite of electronic channels comprising intranet, e-newsletters and screensavers. He also conducts regular breakfast sessions with between 12-15 employees and personally attends all leadership development programs to support the executives of the future. He travels across Europe and finds time to see both customers and employees of all levels in the local organzations.
Nishida is an emotionally intelligent leader who passionately believes his role is to motivate people. His aim is to leave a legacy of a business and culture of which Sony employees’ children and grandchildren can be proud.
This belief that people make the difference in a business is also reflected by a program that started over two years ago to build capacity and re-energize the organization. At a time when many leaders stop investing in talent, Sony continue to see people development as critical.
The Energy Project
The program, known as “Firing on All Cylinders”
and run by The Energy Project, helps individuals
sustain high performance through being happier,
healthier and more engaged in all aspects of their
lives. The Energy Project is a consultancy that
helps organizations build sustainable highperformance
cultures by introducing people to
new areas of value creation and building capacity
by teaching individuals how to manage their
energy rather than their time. While time is finite,
energy can be expanded; resulting in increased
personal and organizational capacity. The Energy
Project’s work has been delivered to many of the
world’s largest brands such as American Express,
Ford, Sony Pictures, Microsoft, Ernst & Young,
Nokia-Siemens and Toyota. It has also worked
with the UK police force, the National Health
Service and the Princes Trust.
How the program works
Based on extensive experience, practical and
experiential approaches it explores the four sources
of energy needed to optimize performance (body,
emotions, mind and purpose). The result is an
ability for employees to be open to each others’
value and ideas – thus coming up with the creative
breakthroughs needed currently in every business.
It’s a program that Roy White, Sony’s HR vice president, and other leaders, believe will pay particular dividends in the “economic storm”. Indeed, Nishida himself encourages people to take recovery and remain open to positive challenge in much of his communication and behavior.
The Energy Project work with Sony started when a pilot group of leaders attended its Firing on All Cylinders curriculum. This was a group comprising key executives of Sony Europe from a variety of disciplines, countries and cultures. They explored the energy of physical (body), emotional, mental and the human spirit (purpose and meaning) needed to sustain high performance over a four-day program spilt into 2 x 2 day sessions – two modules in each. During the first of four modules, Sony leaders explored the concept of managing energy versus time; the fact that human beings are designed to be rhythmic and the evidence that optimal performance depends on balancing the expenditure of energy with intermittent energy renewal. They worked with the four key components of physical energy – nutrition, fitness, sleep and daytime recovery – and learnt how to manage each one more efficiently and effectively. Each leader had oneto- one fitness and nutrition assessments and attended exercise classes at the beginning of each morning to help them experience the benefits of physical energy and how it boosts mental concentration for the day ahead.
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