Head of Learning & Leadership Development at WM

Phil Rhodes

Growth Opportunity

• Post-traumatic transformationfollowing traumaholds that people who endure psychological struggle following adversity can often see positive growth afterward. Trauma = pandemic.

• Individual Level: When faced with a threat or adversity, a natural response is to rely on social connection as a coping mechanism. The pandemic deprived people of the very thing they needed: social connection to become resilient and adaptively cope with adversity.

•Periods of reflection and self-awareness also mean employees may have experienced a wake-up call or realization of what they want to do next at their current company. They survived and overcame the adversity associated with the isolation, anxiety, depression, and loss associated with the pandemic, a renewed sense of self, purpose, and confidence in their capabilities, want to be challenged, and want more.

• More than Resiliency: Beyond resilience, organizational responses to trauma may support the development of new capabilities through which OPTG is ultimately realized.Resilience is ultimately about persevering in the face of adversity, whereas trauma involves profound disruption that can lead to growth.

Leading Today for Tomorrow

• Organizational Level of PT Growth: the process by which organizations not only restore themselves but reach a higher level of well-being as a result of a trauma, i.e., a pandemic. WM's process was to invest in the development of our frontline leaders, knowing they are an essential role critical to the well-being of our frontline employees and customers.

• What WM Did Not Do:Develop leaders the same way as in the pre-pandemic state: the world has been significantly changed, and leadership development must also change.

• What WM Did Instead:Evolved leadership capability &competency models: what does an ideal leader look like, provide the foundation to build upon, model for employees with a renewed sense of strength, self-awareness who want to develop and continue to grow, future focus is the health of a leader, a strong leader must be a healthy leader, all the benefits.

"Periods of reflection and self-awareness also means employees may have experienced a wakeup call or realization of what they want to do next at their current company."

• Prioritized empathy, vulnerability, social connection, self-reflection, and having real conversations.

• Leaders don't have to be mental health experts, but they do need to be able to listen with empathy, able to explain an organization's mental health benefits and resources, and able to connect.

Thriving after Adversity

• How WM Leading Today for Tomorrow Facilitated the Thrive: The leadership development program intentionally maximized the five benefits of post-traumatic growth.

• Personal Strength: focus on personal growth through the 26-week program and six-course units, e.g., starting with self-awareness, building trust, being empathetic, listening, leading with accountability, building interaction essentials, e.g., empathy, listening, into every course unit

• Improved Relationships: 26 weeks spent with peers from all departments, mixed cohorts, connecting with peers they wouldn't have the opportunity to do so otherwise, social learning.

• Appreciation of Life: individualizing their growth through digital coaching tailored to what the leader needed at the moment, meeting the leader where they were through coaching support and engagement. The graduation ceremony was personalized to each leader; families joined; less about senior leaders speaking (were included) but more on the leaders graduating, their experience through the program, what they gained, and celebrating each of them with heartfelt messages from their leaders, the leadership dev team on the impact the graduates made in their lives.

• New Possibilities: the entire design was new and allowed leaders to think differently; the old way was to show up for an event with no connection to how all concepts related and connected with peers. New way: cohort experience with a mixed audience, provided an opportunity for connections across the organization, created networks with peers, lengthy engagement where some very tenured folks never received investment to this degree, felt the investment

• Spiritual Changes: Transformed the spirit of our org through the pandemic by ensuring our employees were cared for, no layoffs, and guaranteed pay; launched our Commitments and Values before and during the pandemic and more than just words; reevaluated our CVs, starting with an action of staying committed to no furloughs parlayed into stronger relationships with our customers by helping our customers with their service as they reopened their businesses and then transformed into an investment in the needs of our leaders at the frontline.

Future Focus for Leadership Development

• Future focus on succession planning and building talent pipeline. Seizing the opportunity to develop our leadership pipeline at all levels.