Name: New survey: Majority of Americans feel optimistic about the future
Uploaded: 2021-09-20
Duration: 6 min 4 s
Description: Ruder Finn CEO: Transparency, dialogue & knowledge are key to positive outlook.

Ruder Finn CEO: Transparency, dialogue & knowledge are key to positive outlook.

New survey: Majority of Americans feel optimistic about the future

Leadership

New survey: Majority of Americans optimistic about future

Kathy, thank you so much for joining us. Your company ruder. Finn has just come out with a interesting post pandemic survey. It poses the question, how do american people feel about the outlook for the future? Tell us about what the results are, What did people say? Well thanks susie. So great to be here and um you know we've all gone through a tough time. You know, I think that what what it means for the future is that we're more unified around you know these roots of the american spirit than we would have thought. Um There is something that unites us, we'll talk about the tribalism that we live in today. But this optimism, this feeling that the future is going to be better has really important implications for The growth of the country and our ability to work together to make things better. What when you look at the numbers, 58% of the people surveyed said that they think their lives will be better in the future, which is a real surprise but only 20% were negative about the current situation or the future. What do you attribute that to what we found is there are three factors that actually define this new leadership style that has an impact and that is knowledge, transparency and dialogue And these three elements um together um form a connection with people um that really engenders a positive outlook and really has a lot of implications for the way people behave in and shape. Start thinking 60% of those people when asked saying that um whether they would take actions to improve their future. So 60 percent and the conclusion of the survey was that they're upbeat because they've been exposed to this new leadership style which you've called T. D. K. Transparency, dialogue and knowledge. Why is that so effective? When we looked at the analysis and saw that above demographics, above where you live above any other factor, it's really this connection that these three things actually um achieve certainly in a company where people feel that leadership is being transparent talking to them, the dialogue back and forth. It's not just top down that they're gaining knowledge that can help them make their own better decisions but these three together comprise a kind of connectivity um that really um it motivates people makes them feel part of something um encourages them with a positive outlook which has great implications for a variety of different areas of life. Well let's just take an example getting people vaccinated. You know this is such a complex and controversial issue but if someone were exposed to this kind of T. V. K. Uh connected information, do you think more people would get vaccinated? Actually we found in our data that it has a very powerful impact on vaccine behavior. So um 20% increase in terms of people's willingness to get vaccinated um you know it's not just carrot and stick. Um there's something else is another factor that we have to really consider and have to really pick up which is getting people to feel they have more knowledge that we're transparent about the vaccines that we just want to talk about what the benefits are and what it means. So this T. V. K. Factor will improve and increase vaccination rates. One statistic that I found a little troubling. Going back to your survey is only 48% of women feel positive about the future. And that compares with 64% of men who are positive about the future. What do you think is behind that? Why is that the case? It's no secret that women have had to juggle quite a lot during the pandemic. You know families, careers caregiving. But really I think if we look at the T. D. K. Factor um it really can be an approach for helping women feel involved and engaged in and for connecting with women better. HR departments will have to take a more modified approach with women and parents the same. We found the same kind of data for parents as well. So this can give us insight into how we can approach would be more help women to succeed more and stay in the workforce. Is that going to require more relationship building in person one on one? Or do you think that technology which has been a bridge for so many new developments in the business world would be helpful in getting women to feel more connected and more motivated. What we've certainly learned in every industry in all parts of our lives. That technology makes a huge difference. So I would say that technology can definitely be helped the T. D. K. Factor being connected with people improve their likelihood to actually adopt new technologies to be willing to try something new. So I think that what we need to yes technology will be great and help but we need to actually be sensitive about how we introduce it Cathy you advise many ceos who run Fortune 500 companies and other business leaders. What are some of the take away lessons that you'd like to see business leaders take from this survey so that they can improve their businesses but also the lives of their employees. People ask me all the time um do I need to really create a new leadership style? Um You know it takes a lot of time. There's a lot going on this communication is is really um you know a big job to add to a Ceo's agenda. Um TDK and internal communications will make a big difference. It will help employees be productive. Um It will really define a more optimistic outlook for the future and it's going to help in some of the challenges we're facing today with regard to the great um resignation as we call it or migration out of cities which affect urban hubs. Um So I think that I would I would hope that Ceos will realize that there's a lot they can adopt in terms of creating this new leadership style.