Professor Frederik Anseel is the preeminent maverick international authority in his field of HRM & Leadership.

He is Senior Deputy Dean of Research & Enterprise at the University of New South Wales, Sydney Business School, and an award-winning scholar at the Australian Graduate School of Management, a top-ranked university.

On Thursday, April 7, 2022, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., Anseel hosted a digital seminar exclusively for Turner titled: “Contemporary Myths and Misconceptions in HR and Leadership.”

Read the article here featuring all the highlights of the seminar: Frederik Anseel at the first Turner X-Over: “Riding the wave of business trends is dangerous.”

In this seminar, Anseel discussed—from both a scientific and practical perspective—topics that may be of interest to you as a director and leader:

• The leaderless organization. The myth: Managers are a hindrance and an unnecessary layer in an organization. Managers are often incompetent, and no one likes hierarchy. If people and teams could organize themselves, organizations would be much more effective. Think of self-managing teams, agile, and holacracy.
• Purposeful Leadership. The Myth: “Purpose” is the new buzzword. A company no longer exists to create value for shareholders. No, today companies espouse lofty ideals and see it as their mission to make the world a better place. In principle, that sounds good. There need not be a conflict between sustainability and shareholder value.

• Generational Differences in the Workplace. The Myth: A new generation of young people is entering the workforce, and these young people have fundamentally different values and work styles. To attract and retain these young people, organizations must therefore implement generational management. This means they need to be led, motivated, and rewarded differently.

Warm regards on behalf of all the Turners

Other possible myths that were discussed:

1. 1. The benefits of diversity (have been shown to be very few; neurodiversity is much more interesting)
   2. The downsides of working from home (it’s very difficult to maintain human connection)
   3. Open-plan offices improve communication and teamwork ( the widespread adoption of open-plan offices may well be the biggest blunder in the past 40 years of business management)
   4. On Selecting the Right People ( What Feels Natural Isn’t Necessarily Effective).
   5. What Can We Learn from the Success Stories of Top Entrepreneurs? (Pretty Much Nothing)