Building Balance: How to Create a Leadership Culture

In today’s full employment market, flat organizations have become increasingly common, making it essential for companies to find relevant and creative growth opportunities to keep employees invested and engaged. TINYpulse’s recent “2019 Employee Engagement Report” found that 43% of workers would be willing to leave their companies for a 10% salary increase, which proves that companies need to work hard to retain talent.

At CA Ventures, corporate headcount jumped 33% in 2018 alone, and as we continue to grow, we know that promoting a culture of professional advancement cannot be about any one strategy. Instead, we implement a holistic, five-prong approach that includes affinity groups, leadership training, promotion opportunities across both verticals and functions, mentorships and internships that encourage engagement early on.

Affinity Groups

Affinity groups, by definition, bring employees with shared interests together and provide opportunities for engagement outside of professional responsibilities. In CA’s three affinity groups—Women of CA, Social Impact and Wellness—participation is highlighted from day one of employment via the onboarding process. As members, employees work together to manage budgets, propose and execute programming, and hold companywide events, such as guest speakers and volunteer and wellness days, that boast 100% participation from the corporate office.

While participation as a committee member is considered leadership—today, about 20% of our corporate employees are involved at any given time—there are also formal leadership roles within each of the three groups. These positions rotate annually, and members are strongly encouraged to pursue them. Those who do receive recognition through speaking opportunities at company events and direct communication with CA’s executive team.

Leadership Training

Leadership training is also essential for employee engagement, whether it be for the employees themselves, or the executives who oversee them. The same TINYpulse survey found that a lack of training is viewed as one of the top three pain points reported by employees.

For training to be effective, we’ve found that it should be seamlessly integrated into the corporate culture and embraced from the top down. For example, at CA, executives participate in a multi-series training program over the course of a year that assesses leaders’ strengths, evaluates styles and identifies how leaders can support each other. This initiative, as well as other external leadership programs offered to employees, builds self-awareness around workplace personality and supports a unified leadership philosophy.

Promotion Opportunities

CA is a proponent of career advancement and regularly promotes from within – a key strategy for retention.

To raise awareness of opportunities, we advertise open positions internally and provide coaching to employees who are interested in pursuing them. Those discussions identify readiness or areas for growth that are then built into a formal personalized plan.

In some cases, associates are encouraged to pursue opportunities in a different division of the company if the position better aligns with their professional development goals. In 2018 alone, we promoted 16% of corporate employees across CA verticals. CA also has a formal development program called LEAD (Leadership, Excellent, and Development) for high-performing, non-management talent that wishes to progress.

Mentorships

Younger employees have come to expect mentors to help them advance professionally—either through formal mentorship or organically through the corporate culture.

By virtue of our fast-growing company, many CA leaders have ascended the corporate ladder alongside their peers, all while helping less-experienced colleagues follow a similar career trajectory. This mentorship starts at the top with our CEO, who takes time to meet with our young leaders through intimate, invitation-only lunch groups, where they learn about the company and discuss business topics that interest them.

Internships

The final prong in our approach is a competitive, 12-week internship program that benefits both students and employees. At CA, we allow interns to focus their time in specific tracks that align with their interests, including development, investments/capital markets, accounting, property management and asset management.

Last summer, CA hosted 22 interns from 14 universities across the country. Track-specific experiences are supplemented with company outings and “CA Spotlights,” through which interns spend 30 minutes with senior-level executives who discuss their career paths. Interns who excel can often find full-time employment after graduation. In 2018, 66% of CA’s development interns were hired as full-time employees.

Investing in the growth of employees in a thoughtful way takes a great deal of time and resources, but the returns can be significant. Happier, more engaged team members are also more productive, and by keeping them, employers avoid the expenses associated with turnover.

Our efforts at CA have many proof points, including being named one of Chicago’s “Best Places to Work” by Crain’s Chicago Business in 2019. What we are most proud of, though, are the results of the survey used to create that ranking. With the majority of corporate employees participating, it found that overall engagement was 95% – a number that sets our firm apart from other employers, but also challenges us as our corporate headcount grows.

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Carmen Smith is vice president of human resources for CA Ventures and Katie Kazas is an executive vice president of capital markets at CA Ventures. The views expressed here are the author’s own and not that of ALM’s Real Estate Media Group.