When you hear the slogan “ The Future is Friendly” many of us might picture Telus’ signature ads featuring its iconic animals. Telus is the leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with an annual revenue of $9.8 billion and 12.3 million customer connections. This lengthy article by Dan Pontefract called “The TELUS Leadership Philosophy: a collaborative, engaging and open leadership framework for 35,000+ team members”, is centered around the concept that a consistently applied leadership framework will result in productivity, engagement and overall talent management improvement (Best Practices from McBassi, Bersin, ASTD and McKinsey). In 2009, Telus identified several challenges the company was facing and took the initiative to lay out their goals for the future with the Telus Leadership Philosophy (TLP). This plan included increasing team member engagement, supporting the move to a tight loose culture (high clarity and high empowerment), focussing on quality, and increasing organizational collaboration. The TLP is about creating an environment where every employee, regardless of their status within the company, is able to take initiative in order to feel like they are adding value and making a difference within the company.
Pontefract explains that for Telus to stay on top, they must constantly be improving and looking for better, more efficient ways of doing things. A clearly defined framework creates a sense of stability, makes the hiring process easier, helps establish how employees develop, and determines what their performance is measured against. In essence, the article expresses the steps and components of the philosophy including cost savings, coaching opportunities, emotional and social intelligence expansion, employee engagement, and increased collaboration, among other opportunities.
This blog post relates to Chapter 7: Communication, Chapter 11: Leadership, and Chapter 3: Values, Attitudes and Diversity in the Workplace. Every Organizational Behaviour concept or chapter works together to help form and create the ideal organization, working at optimal productivity and achieving maximum employee satisfaction.
The takeaway is to recognize that even the most successful and powerful companies need to constantly review how their organization is working. Given the pace with which technology and customer expectations are changing, processes and systems can always be improved for better productivity and employee satisfaction while ensuring that the company’s values are reflected in everything they do. As we move forward in Comm 292, our groups will inevitably encounter challenges, so having a strong commitment to common values, collaboration and respect for leadership will enable us all to achieve our mutual goals.
Word Count : 410
References :
Article : Pontefract, D. (n.d.). The TELUS Leadership Philosophy: a collaborative, engaging and open leadership framework for 35,000 team members. Retrieved January 27, 2017, from http://www.managementexchange.com/story/telus-leadership-philosophy.
Image Links : http://www.yourworkplace.ca/profiles/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/TELUS-retail-employees.jpg , http://john.morriscode.ca/images/telus.gif
