"Welcome to this month’s Link Letter. Reading across our chosen articles this month, a strong theme emerges around business purpose. As our Melcrum article highlights, dialogue within businesses around “purpose” (why are we here?; what is our mission? etc.) have increased exponentially in recent years. We think this is for a good reason. All our research shows that employees have an increasing need to understand the core purpose of the organisation for which they work in order to feel fully engaged. This is reflected in several of this month’s articles in different ways. For example, in our McKinsey article on ascending to the C-Suite, research shows that creating a shared vision and alignment around a firm’s strategic direction is seen as the most vital element of a successful CEO transition. Without a purpose to focus this vision and strategy around, this simply will not be possible. Equally, in Josh Bersin’s article about the engagement crisis in IT, he finds that, while IT professionals do feel that their own goals are clear and easy to understand,  they also feel somewhat behind in the translation of their goals into overall company strategies. Again, improved clarity about the purpose of an IT function within the broader business context would help enormously to start tackling this engagement crisis.

We hope you enjoy this month's reads."

Dr Andy Brown, CEO, ENGAGE

Leadership engagement

• Ascending to the C-suite - McKinsey
• How to work with people who aren't good at working with people - Harvard Business Review
• Leaders who can read collective emotions are more effective - INSEAD

Employee engagement

• The engagement crisis in IT: What to do? - Forbes
• The value in creating a culture of co-entrepreneurs - Fast Company
• Map out cultural conflicts on your team - Harvard Business Review

Communications engagement

• How to create a culture of feedback when you're not the boss - Quartz
• When did everyone start talking about purpose? - Melcrum
• Your enterprise social network is being used mostly because of your corporate culture- Forbes

And one infographic...

• The employer recipe for attracting Gen Y and Z

To learn more about the above areas or book an exploratory conversation with one of our experts, call us on +44 207 947 4471 or email info@engagegroup.co.uk.