Phil Wells discusses his practical approach to employee engagement and the power of his trademark phrase
Spend time talking with Phil Wells, head of people development and learning at L’Oreal, the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty company, and you will likely hear the word “concretely”.
In a business landscape full of buzzwords, lofty statements, and vague mission statements, Wells is unabashed about his commitment to the tangible, actionable, and measurable.
“I often ask, what does that mean for us, concretely? Or how will we see that concretely? I think these are great questions to ask ourselves,” he told HRD.
His approach is rooted in the belief that no matter how brilliant a strategy or change initiative, if it doesn’t translate into clear, concrete, everyday actions for employees, it will be harder to gain support.
“You could bring some amazing language and flourish and penmanship to a strategy, but if your employees and your teams don't know what to do with that on a daily basis, then you’ll lose them.”
Wells will share his experience and insights as one of the feature speakers at HR FutureFest in Melbourne on October 29.
Other HR FutureFest speakers include Bunnings Chief People Officer Damian Zahra, former Australian of the Year and body image advocate Taryn Brumfitt, and Holly Ransom, CEO and founder of Emergent Global Leadership Development.
Where are your teams’ feet?
It’s a question Wells believes more HR leaders need to ask—a nod to the management book Be Where Your Feet Are by US sports executive Scott O’Neil.
For Wells, this translates into leaders taking time to understand the challenges and day-to-day experiences of teams and “where your teams’ feet are right now.”
“Because if we're going to bring in an amazing transformation that involves a lot of new systems and metrics of effort, if we're going to get people to work on that, we need to know where they're coming from so that we can help to bridge that gap,” he said.
“If you start to understand where your people are standing, then you can actually bring something concrete, something actionable, you can bring a next step. But too often, we sit in meetings and see people disengaged from it.”
Wells says teams have one question when presented with change: What does it mean to me day to day?
“Some of the bad habits of HR in other organisations, and I've been guilty of this a long time ago, is … not being able to bring something tangible, concrete and actionable in order to drive the organisational effectiveness,” he said.
“If you start to understand where your people are standing, then you can actually bring something concrete, something actionable, you can bring a next step.”
Wells feels the same way about broad statements regarding identity and culture in business.
“Too many people talk about identity and culture and don't get concrete with that, don't articulate that. They just say ‘culture’, or they just say, ‘that's not our culture, that's not our identity’.”
“Leaders need to be articulate in how we demystify that for people. Who we are and who we are not?
“I think if you can be focused on that, you can be looking at measurable organisational effectiveness or measurable and tangible strategies to improve and enhance the employee experience. I think that's what gets people excited.”
Learning from experience
Wells knows what it looks like when he fails to take his own advice.
At the end of a presentation as the senior HR manager for L’Oreal in Hong Kong about seven years ago he saw looks from polite and respectful to cynical or judgmental.
“But you certainly didn't get that engaged look. You certainly didn't get that look of curiosity. And I think it's that curiosity that you want to try and engage, where people are curious and excited about where we could go together.
“I made the assumption that we were all in the same place,” he said. “I made the assumption that we were all going to just be ready to take off."
“I think my key learning there when it came to leadership was you can't assume that people's feet are all in the same place.”
Wells said his approach to people leadership is anchored in authenticity, empathy, and logic.
“I think when we can build that authenticity, that empathy, and that logic together, that's really where we start to have that trust and concretely build that trust, which results in psychological safety, which results in the opportunity to be courageous, which removes a lot of this fear of judgment or fear of failure.”
At HR FutureFest, Wells will join a panel on 'Leading Forward: Designing your leadership legacy in a disruptive world.'
So, what does he hope his leadership legacy will be?
“I think it was Simon Sinek [best-selling author on leadership] who said one of the best quotes that I've read in the last five years; the responsibility of leadership is to create more leaders.
“I feel that resonates really well with me, because with that simple authenticity, empathy, and logic, I think you can create other leaders—not cookie-cutter leaders—but you can create other leaders and empower other teams to build their own style, their own context, and their own high performance with that clear line of sight to value.”
