A new era of the workplace is here, and what futurists and experts have spoken about for many years has become our new reality.
Eleven years ago, while working as external consultants for KPMG Israel, my team created the 5 Lands Journey Model to support partners and leaders in their upskilling process. The model was designed to understand how critical disruptive trends (such as technology, globalization, regulation, the new generations, talent mobility and a new socioeconomic order) are going to change the face of the workplace, creating significant challenges and opportunities for most accounting firms, partners, leaders, and employees.
In the last decade, in all our projects, we put the 5 Lands components of higher purpose, well-being, emotional self-awareness and empathy in the center of the partners' personal life and career management. We emphasized these abilities since many well-positioned and well-remunerated partners didn’t find a sense of purpose in their everyday lives, didn’t pay enough attention to their emotions and well-being, and generally felt that something was missing in their lives. As a result, many lost their passion and willingness to positively impact their teams, their clients and society at large.
Today, phenomena such as the Great Resignation (which is not fully understood yet) put individuals, their needs and their purpose in the center more than ever. In the new reality we are all facing, partners and leaders can't think about their career management separately from their life management. In the past two years, most of us learned how precious time and people are in our lives and how we should not take anything for granted. Hopefully, this lesson will continue to guide many of the strategic leadership processes in the firm.
The only way to make sure that partners and leaders in any firm are future-fit and can prepare the entire workforce for the post-COVID reality is to stop separating our personal from our professional lives. This is an excellent time for partners, leaders and employees to embark on the 5 Lands Journey at a profound level and become the best version of themselves. On the one hand, they need to take good care of themselves and their well-being and find a deep sense of meaning in their everyday life. On the other hand, they need to make sure they manage their careers well — possessing enough of what we used to call the future skills, which have now become critical skills. Among those are growth mindset, creativity, critical thinking and emotional intelligence.
This unique journey needs to start with a self-reflection process. In most of our upskilling sessions today, we begin with questions based on the 5 Lands Model. These questions make leaders we work with think deeply about their personal lives, purpose and future career management.
A good suggestion might be to put the questions on cards and stop once or twice a day to pick a question and reflect upon it for a few minutes. It is also good to do it with someone you feel comfortable with or even with some team members.
Mindset Land
- To what extent do you believe that with effort and investment, abilities and skills can be developed?
- When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone? What happened?
- Describe one of your failures that you did not have an easy time dealing with. In what ways do you feel it contributed to your personal growth?
- What are you curious about? What do you really like to learn?
- When was the last time you invested effort in developing new knowledge or skills?
- Whom do you value as a successful self-made person?
- What do you do, as a leader, to make sure your direct reports develop a growth mindset attitude?
Artgineer Land
- When was the last time you demonstrated creativity (right side of the brain)?
- How often do you stop and try to imagine your future? How would you like to see yourself two years from now?
- To what extent do you perceive yourself as a person who knows how to prioritize effectively?
- What is your greatest passion?
- Who helps you think out loud about your personal vision and plans, in order to make them come true?
- To what extent do you use your critical thinking ability?
Emotional Intelligence Land
- With whom do you like to share your feelings?
- How easy is it for you to "count to 10" before you react?
- In what situations is it easy for you to show empathy for others? In what situations is it more challenging?
- Think about a period in your life where you continued and didn’t give up, even though you had a hard time. How do you feel about this period?
- What are the special abilities you value in yourself? What do you want to strengthen?
- In what situations is it easy for you to demonstrate flexibility?
- To what extent are you able to deal with situations of uncertainty successfully?
Sustainability Land
- To what extent do you feel a sense of higher purpose in your work?
- In what situations is it easy for you to look at the half-full glass, and what situations challenge you?
- Who are the people in your ”social bank account” (network)? How do these relationships help you to be the best version of yourself?
- What do you think you can do to build yourself a winning value proposition — both personally and professionally?
- What do you do to maintain your well-being — physically, emotionally and mentally?
I-21 Land
- How are you going to look when you become the best version of yourself?
- What are your strengths? How do you use them?
- What are your “next jumps”? How are you going to develop them?
- What would you like to invest in to become the best version of yourself?
- Who can help you be the best version of yourself?
- What impact would you like to have on a personal and professional level?
