Tax season may be over, but Jeff Jones and his team at H&R Block still have their work cut out for them.
The company is four years into a five-year transformation strategy that’s seen it diversify into small business services and financial products, while reinventing its traditional consumer tax offering too. H&R Block is also making the shift from a primarily brick-and-mortar retailer to a leader in deploying generative AI in its products, president and CEO Jones says. “Those are two examples of very hard from-tos that are well underway.”
The business problem is growth, and the key to growth is innovation, Jones tells me from his office in Kansas City, Mo. “Speed is required to innovate—what’s important to go faster, trust,” he says. “And I’ve learned the absolute key to trust is a new way to communicate.”
For teams and their companies, communicating well is no frill. Poor communication costs U.S. businesses as much as $1.2 trillion a year, or about $12,500 per employee, one study found.
So what’s this new way that Jones is talking about?
Early last year, he began an intensive personal leadership program at the Stagen Leadership Institute. “What I learned that we have put into practice at H&R Block is the power of intimacy on teams,” says Jones, who leads about 60,000 people worldwide. “And the power of disproving self-orientation on teams,” he adds, referring to a focus on one’s own needs and interests.
Jones shares a couple of examples.
At the start of every leadership meeting, the team does what H&R Block calls checking in. “Each leadership team member speaks, and they literally say whatever they have to say in order to be present for that meeting,” Jones explains.
One person might ask for grace because they’re dead tired, while another might remark that they can’t wait to get going. It’s wide open.
“When we first started doing that, people thought I was crazy,” Jones says. “They are now starting to realize that what it does is build intimacy.”
Then there’s the “balcony,” where everyone takes time to observe and reflect on how they showed up together as a team. Before our chat, Jones had just finished a daylong strategy meeting. “One of my colleagues said, ‘Hey, I want to let you guys know that when X and Y were happening, I felt attacked. I didn’t feel like the team was understanding where I was coming from and was taking the time to listen,’” he recalls. “A year and a half ago, no one would have ever said that and communicated with each other with that kind of open, raw approach.”
At H&R Block, which is committed to being a fully hybrid business, Jones has found a different way to connect with his team at scale too. Sure, the company has all-hands meetings, Teams channels, and an intranet. “But people started saying to me personally, ‘We want more time with you,’” Jones relates. So he launched a 20-minute internal podcast called Just Jeff that lets people ask him questions. “I commit to answering three questions on every podcast,” Jones says. “So then there’s a reason to tune in the next time.”
H&R Block also clearly and simply communicates its strategy to team members. To that end, the entire company has access to a one-pager that outlines its three strategic imperatives and four ambitions. “I would bet a lot of money that most of the organization could recite those verbatim,” Jones says. “And it’s because of the simplicity, the constant repetition.”
With everything else that’s in play, that doesn’t sound too taxing.
Nick Rockel
nick.rockel@consultant.fortune.com
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For Americans, safe and reliable water shouldn’t be a question mark. But as cyberattacks against the nation’s water utilities ramp up, the Environmental Protection Agency has warned, about 70% of facilities inspected by the feds last year fell short when it comes to stopping breaches or other intrusions. China, Russia, and Iran are all seeking the power to disable water and other critical infrastructure throughout the U.S., the EPA said. Let’s staunch that flow.
Oil change
For anyone who trusts an employer with their 401(k), here’s an eye-opener. When researchers looked at the 401(k) plans of 12 tech players, including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, they found that 2 million workers could have boosted total returns by $5.1 billion if those companies had ditched fossil fuels a decade ago. With the shift to renewables making oil and gas an increasingly risky investment, there’s more incentive than ever to leave them behind.
Health scare
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TRUST EXERCISE
“Gen Z’s reputation precedes them, as new criticisms of being ‘lazy’ and ‘difficult to work with’ seemingly occur almost daily. Whether analyzed in research or referenced in pop culture moments, there is no doubt the perceived notion that Gen Z ‘lacks work ethic’ is impacting how everyone perceives the youngest members of the workforce.
The pessimistic opinions surrounding Gen Z’s defining characteristics prove that employers can’t fully shake their antiquated ideas of what work should look like. If we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that normal no longer exists—or at least in the way it did five years ago. As the most diverse generation in history asserts its influence, many business leaders’ gut reactions are to panic against pressures to once again alter how we work.”
If employers take a dim view of Gen Z, who are soon likely to outnumber boomers in the U.S., they’d better change their attitude. That calls for a reframing of what work looks like, says Holger Reisinger, senior VP with Danish consumer electronics maker Jabra.
In a survey, Reisinger’s company found that almost half of Gen Z respondents expect to change jobs in the next year. The common denominator: lack of respect from employers who dismiss their desire for flexible working conditions, with some labeling them slouches. By slighting Gen Z, companies risk triggering their own decline.
Falling back on the old, top-down way of doing things won't fix the problem, Reisinger argues. Instead, employers must acknowledge what makes Gen Z different and meet them halfway. Not taking those steps would be, well, lazy.
