Geoff McDonald (Team Energy)
Geoff is a keynote speaker, mental health campaigner, business transformation consultant and former global vice president of HR at Unilever. After 25 years with Unilever, he left h...
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Who are you and what is your background?
I'm Jeff McDonald. I'm a South African, the father of two wonderful daughters, the husband of Debbie, and I've had a wonderful career over many, many years. Started my career as a teacher once upon a time, three years of teaching maths and biology to a-level students, and then spent 25 years working for Unilever all over the world, culminating in the global head of HR for all of our marketing communications and sustainability efforts around the Unilever world. I then left Unilever to go out into the world and be an advocate, a catalyst, a campaigner for breaking the stigma of mental ill health in workplaces.
Can you give me an example of an energy-driving activity you have found to be successful?
All sorts of things that I think bring energy to individuals in organisations. But one of the most powerful drivers, I think of energy in an organisation is when that organisation has a greater sense of purpose and meaning than just growth and profitability. So people often say to me, Jeff, what's the purpose of an organisation? And I say, the purpose of an organisation is to answer the question, why do we do what we do? And then the cynics say to me, well, we know why we do what we do. The purpose of an organisation is to grow and to be profitable. Well, I would argue that that's the consequence of being a good and successful organisation is that you grow and your profitable, but it's not its purpose. It's not its purpose. And I think bringing purpose and meaning to people's work, real purpose, real meaning, is a critical driver of energy within an organisation.
What are some of the causes of low energy?
Yeah, look, I suppose there are many causes of low energy. One is just somebody not feeling healthy, not feeling well, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. They're not going to have any energy. So that's kind of at the individual level. If you're not protecting those aspects of your health, your energy is going to be low. I think then there might then will be organisational causes of low energy, no sense of meaning and purpose in your work. No sense of community at work, not having a good peer support network around you at work. Feeling overworked and undervalued as an individual is very energy sapping. Having a line manager, having a line manager. I sometimes talk about two types of line managers, drains and radiators. So having a line manager who drains every bit of energy out of you has a kind of glass half empty view of the world versus a line manager who radiates and brings energy. And then there might be other cultural factors that sap the energy of people. But I think for me, those are some of the main ones that are going to, I mean, line managers I think have such a critical role to play in creating that conducive, energised space. And they can only do that if they themselves are healthy and looking after the most critical thing that they have in their life. That they themselves have a sense of purpose, a sense of meaning that they themselves are able to shield some of the negative stuff that might drain the employee and being able to do that. So I think line managers have a critical role to play in managing the energy of their employees and the team.