Skip to main content
All Posts By

Caroline Tierney

Before coming Home, Caroline spent nearly 20 years proving the power of trust, meaningful connections and genuine purpose for in house communication, engagement and change teams at brands like Lloyds Banking Group and Clarks. Expect curiosity, resourcefulness, people led insight and a firm belief that what’s good for people is good business.

Caroline Tierney
In Change, Communications, Culture

AI and leadership: Take your leaders off Autopilot

Can AI replace authentic leadership?

No, but it can erode the trust your team has in you if you let it do the talking. 67% of people believe leaders exaggerate or aren’t fully truthful. That’s not a rounding error. It’s a credibility gap.  

At the same time, AI has made it easier than ever for leaders to communicate and…err lead quickly. Need a data summary? Done in seconds. Message polished? Even quicker. That’s before it starts advising you on how to handle that difficult conversation with a team member…  

That’s where the temptation creeps in. If AI can help leaders engage people and drive decision making faster, more clearly and at scale… problem solved, right? Well no.  

Because speed and clarity don’t automatically build trust. They can erode it. Especially when what’s being said feels polished, but impersonal. Or efficient, but repetitive and disconnected. Dare I say fake. The real challenge isn’t writing better messages. It’s building belief in them. 

Two years ago we declared death to the age of beige – to a world where every employer sounds the same, looks the same, is at risk of being the same. Reader: we underestimated beige. Somewhere along the way, businesses doubled down on safe and samey. Grey became the default.   

Meanwhile, as the tide of AI generated content rises, the need to find the genuine human connections which build trust feels more urgent than ever. 

Why we keep AI out of the driving seat. 

I was going to anthropomorphise AI here. I could compare it to my kids fighting to ride shotgun. Me being a bit slow to adapt as they grow up at pace and are suddenly perfectly capable of navigating me to a Saturday morning football pitch with just the right playlist to keep us smiling through the traffic. (A questionable mix of kpop, brain rot and 90’s indie classics if you’re interested.)  

But for me that’s where the danger lies – we give AI a voice, we assign human thought patterns and development, maybe even a moral compass to a system of models and machines.  

When we do that, we ask it to be something it isn’t. Something (that for now at least) it can’t be. And most worryingly we give it agency.  

AI isn’t accountable  

This matters because it’s in every AI is stealing our jobs headline and opinion piece.  AI didn’t steal a job. A human leader made a choice. That was probably a hard choice. I’m not saying it was always the wrong choice.  

You know what else is a choice? Taking ownership for your decisions. That is leadership.  

Looking your team, your customers, your shareholders or investors in the eye and owning your decision.  

That sounds a bit lonely, possibly scary. It doesn’t have to be. 

The good news and three practical ways to start… 

There is another way. Times of great uncertainty and technological revolution are also times of disruption. The door is open to new ideas and new approaches. We can wander in blind, or we can lead with intention. We can use AI – and all the other tools we have – to shape a future we want to work in.  

Those new ideas can be game changing, but I believe revolutionaries come in all sizes. So, here’s three small steps any leader can take to step away from beige and take control of their future… 

  1. Get curious. Ask why. Especially about AI. Why will this help us? In your next meeting or conversation, stop and ask a curious question – what are we afraid of? What would our customer/end user think of this conversation? What would happen if we did the opposite of this for 48 hours? Ask the people, maybe ask that AI agent you’re building as well!  
  2. Get creative. An old colleague once said to me ‘it’s easier to tone down a wild idea than think up a new one’. It stuck. Spend time thinking without limits to unlock fresh, creative thinking. We love to invite people into a dream machine – to explore what they would do if there were no deadlines, budgets or other constraints. We spend so much time managing competing requirements and increasingly refining prompts that giving your brain some creative freedom becomes vital exercise.  
  3. Have fun. It’s never been more important to remember we are not machines, that we need play to learn, develop and flourish.  Adult humans played games before the wheel was invented – we’ll be playing them long after AI has been replaced with whatever comes next. In difficult times it can feel important to be serious at work. Break out of this beige idea – start simply by getting outside with a walking meeting, or let us help with a bespoke board game designed to use the psychology of play to develop your people.  

Pick one of these three things and give it a try. Start spreading a little colour, differentiating and even creating competitive advantage by flexing fundamental human skills. After all these once ‘soft skills’ are being called “the most valuable skills you can have” by Sam Altman. And he knows a thing or two about changing the world. Join us in making sure we change it for better for people, planet and business.  

FAQs

Should leaders use AI to communicate?

Yes, but selectively. AI is excellent for drafting, structuring, and summarising. It is poor at building trust, reading emotion, and owning consequence. Leaders should use AI as a tool, not a spokesperson.

How can leaders build trust in the age of AI?

By being visible, accountable, and recognisably human. Share your thinking, not just your outputs. Admit uncertainty. Show up in person when the message matters. Trust is built in the gaps that AI can’t fill.

What human skills do leaders need alongside AI?

Curiosity, creativity, empathy, and play. These are the capabilities that differentiate a leader from a prompt engineer. They are also the skills that create competitive advantage in an AI-saturated market.

Can AI replace authentic leadership?

No. AI can simulate tone and generate ideas, but it cannot take moral responsibility, demonstrate vulnerability, or build genuine relationships. Authentic leadership requires a person willing to be seen.

If you’re rethinking how AI fits into your culture, change or communications strategy, we can help.

Talk to us about leading through change →

Caroline Tierney
In Culture

Death to vanilla values

Vanilla values breed vanilla companies. Want to be great? Start by standing for something. 

Values are what we believe – they guide the way we think, the decisions we make, and the actions we take. They’re the foundation of a strong, high-performing culture—not hollow slogans on a wall. 

Yet, insights from The Work Project reveal a blunt reality: while most organisations claim to champion values, only 54% of people believe they’re genuine.  

And It’s easy to see why  

Because you’re not saying anything different. Nearly two-thirds of the FTSE-100 use the same values: integrity, respect, customer-centricity, innovation, and excellence – with collaboration also being thrown into the vanilla mix. 

And the problem is that these overused terms have become cliché and lifeless, losing their impact. And when values feel generic and disconnected from the reality of your culture (i.e. Your actions don’t match your words), employees stop paying any attention to them. 

For some of the most overused values, such as trust, integrity, respect, it feels like we’re setting a very low bar. Aren’t these just the minimum standards we should expect? Just think about if a person introduced themselves as someone who had never robbed a bank, would you applaud their integrity? Of course not. So, why do you expect people to be inspired by these low-level expectations? 

The corporate smokescreen 

It’s clear that instead of using values as a decision-making and cultural tool, organisations are using them as a front for their corporate image – to project a picture-perfect persona. 

But the reality is, by sticking to the status quo – following the crowd instead of choosing to stand up for what you believe in – your highly-polished persona is simply blending in.  

And that’s going to be a problem. Because in our society’s growing demand for something more, the values of the places we work at, the brands we buy from, and the business we invest in is coming into sharper focus. 

  • 58% of people wouldn’t work for a company that doesn’t share their values (LinkedIn, 2023). 
  • 90% of consumers prefer brands aligned with their values (Yotpo, 2023). 
  • 91% of investors prioritise corporate values alongside traditional factors like dividends (Schwab Modern Wealth Survey, 2022). 

People care about this. And being vanilla is going to do nothing to attract the best talent. It’s not going to inspire and drive greater performance. And it’ll never enhance your reputation. 

It’s time to add some spice and say death to vanilla values.  

Making values your differentiator  

For values to be impactful, they need to be authentic, reflecting the realities of who you are today and driving the behaviours that will help you achieve your big ambitions. 

Here’s how:  

1 – Define your intent 

Before diving in, define what you want your values to do. Stand out in the market? Attract a target audience? Drive business critical behaviours? 

All are valid but having a clear statement of intent will help you stay focused and enable you to question if your values are noise or adding genuine value. 

2 – Find your unique culture 

Your values should reflect your culture and be rooted in who you are today.  

Talk to people to understand the qualities that make you unique.  

At the same time, think about your future goals. Identify any gaps between your current culture and the behaviours needed to reach those goals. Aligning values with your ambitions ensures they stay relevant and drive success. 

3 – Inject creativity 

With a clear picture of who you are and where you want to go, it’s time to create your values. And creativity will be a differentiator from the same old cliché words. Because if you’re saying the same thing, you may as well not say it all! 

We recommend aiming for between 3-5 values. This ranges makes them broad enough to cover key behaviours whilst still being concise and memorable. 

And whether you opt for singular words or short phrases, focus on language that feels distinctive, emotive, inventive, or even unexpected. 

Adding a visual identity can bring your values to life, reinforcing the characteristics of your culture, building an emotional connection and ensuring consistent communication – making your values more memorable, tangible, and engaging. 

4 – Lift off 

Ahead of launch, test your values with a small group of people to make sure they’re clear, believable, and applicable to roles. 

After making any adjustments, it’s time to share them. Whether through a big-bang launch or a more subtle rollout, values should be visible at every level—from company-wide communications to team meetings. 

And Employee Champions can help spread the message, from the ground-up, building credibility and serving as role models for your values. 

5 – Long-term value 

For values to be truly effective, they must live beyond the launch, becoming part of everyday actions. 

They should be visible and felt at every employee touchpoint, from hire-to-retire. If not, people will see them as the same empty words and lose interest… or worse. 

To get started, make use of existing data such as onboarding feedback, engagement insights and leavers interviews to pinpoint any priority areas. From there you can begin to align your processes with your values, creating an authentic experience. 

It’s time for a change 

Nothing great ever came from staying in your comfort zone.  

And whether you’re just starting to define your values or need a complete overhaul, we’ll make your values more than just words on the wall.  

It’s time to break the mould. To make your people stand up and pay attention. To shift behaviour. And drive performance. 

Let’s make work, really work. 

Caroline Tierney
In Change

Lessons in less is more from Roosevelt to South Cambridgeshire Council

Fancy improved productivity from your local council – including customer calls being answered more quickly, faster planning decisions and lower turnover in the refuse collection department?

Time to move council employees to a four-day week.

That’s according to a recent trial by South Cambridgeshire district council which showed productivity improvements and improved employee outcomes from their trial (Source: South Cambridgeshire Council).

This news was closely followed by the 4 Day Week Campaign announcing a new, wider ranging flexible working trial. This fresh evidence and a fresh UK government has re-energised the debate on whether more or less hours could be the cure to UK productivity since it flatlined in 2020.

Anyone considering this challenge would do well to remember it’s less than 90 years* since the weekend started catching on in much of the western world. Yet many hold on to working 9-5, five days a week as if there is no other option. Despite all evidence to the contrary.  

If Dolly doesn’t have the answer, who does?

Does building evidence of positive outcomes for four-day weeks mean my grandchild will write about 2024 as the moment society shifted to a four-day week? I’m no mystic, but I suspect not. The expanding scope of the 4 Day Week Campaign’s new trial to consider a fuller range of flexible working options holds the clue to where I suspect – and honestly hope – we’re heading.

The new trial represents a move towards a more rounded, more human and arguably more commercial approach – where one size fits all, is replaced with a meeting of business and human needs.

It’s why I’m holding out hope my imaginary grandchild will draw a line between the shifts we make to the reasons Henry Ford, Franklin Roosevelt and John Boot delivered a weekend for working people. They acted because they understood good human outcomes could also deliver good business outcomes.

Their intentions were commercially and socially sound and their decisions came to define the working lives of millions of people. That’s what we see continue in the most successful changes to working practices today and why the company that called themselves ‘4 day week’ are trialling a fresh approach.

However many days or hours we work, one thing is clear. Good business can also be good for humanity. As a B Corp this is baked into everything we do at Home. But it’s also a guiding principle I’d recommend taking into any conversations you might have on working practices in your business. If it was good enough for Henry Ford…

 

*There’s no single start point, but 1934 when British chemist Boots created a ‘weekend’ at their Nottingham factory to reduce absenteeism and increase productivity (sound familiar?) is a neat 90 years ago and just before Roosevelt’s New Deal made created a legal framework for the weekend in the USA.

Caroline Tierney
In Communications

Should leaders – and their comms teams – talk politics at work?

Short answer. Yes. And we’ve got five top tips to help.

Whether you like it or not, 2024 is a big year for elections. Over 64 countries will head to the polls – 49% of the global population can vote on a new leader. It’s likely your workforce will be thinking about their political future this year.

So what? Traditional internal communications and leadership advice has been to stay politically neutral – don’t rock the boat.

That’s probably still sage advice for surviving a family Sunday lunch, but it doesn’t stack up at work. 62% of adults expect CEOs to manage changes occurring in society, not just those occurring in their business. And 82% of employees say it’s important to them that their CEO speaks publicly about job skills of the future. (Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2024)

It looks like your employees expect to know where their employer stands.

And…in reality, if your business has a stated purpose or sustainability goals, or if your careers page contains DEI goals or a proactive approach to flexible working, you have taken a political position.

So, you’re probably already doing it – as most of us don’t actually manage to stay neutral at that Sunday lunch. Plus…Edelman also shows us that ‘my employer’ remains the most trusted institution – well ahead of government and the media. So you have a position of power and influence when it comes to these sensitive debates.

With great power comes great responsibility.
But fear not. We’ve got five tips to help you build the right internal communications strategy to survive this election cycle – whatever the global outcomes.

  1. Be authentic and consistent. Start with your existing strategy and build from there. If you’re a bank that promises to support start up businesses, look for SME policies which might affect your customers. Focussing on the areas you already talk about means you still own the story and have a clear purpose for any messaging.
  2. Work with Marketing, Employee Relations, Media and Public Affairs to co-ordinate an approach with the right impact across channels. This is a great time to build relationships, learn from each other, and demonstrate your collective impact to stakeholders.
  3. Know your audience. Always good advice, but particularly important on such emotive issues. You can’t and shouldn’t know every employees’ political leanings, but you can understand the issues that matter to them. Lots of new parents? They might want to see flexible working and affordable childcare moved up the political agenda with vocal support for the human and economic benefits from business leaders.
  4. Be inclusive and open. Taking a position will mean people disagree with you. Stay open, invite constructive questions and discussion and be ready to build on or change your thinking. Nothing builds trust like the meaningful human connections that come from actually being listened to.
  5. Equip your leaders. Some people will feel very uncomfortable talking politics with their team. Consider the support you can offer them – communication is a leadership skill, supporting development in this area is always a good investment.
  6. It’s OK to not know. A bonus 6th point. This can feel like a world filled with people sounding very confident about even the most complex and uncertain subjects. Don’t be pressured into knowing the latest on every election shift or party political policy – it’s always OK to say you’ll get back to someone. To take time to learn and demonstrate curiosity is a super power. And one we’d love to see more political leaders try out as a vote winner.

What approach are you taking to employee engagement and communications during the year of elections?

If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed or want to talk through your strategy we’ve always got the kettle on.

Caroline Tierney
In Change, Culture

Change the system, not the women.

Change the system, not the women.

I recently had the absolute privilege of joining 100 women – and about three men – at Careering into Motherhood live. Bringing together a community of individuals and employers working towards a world where motherhood and ambition can happily co-exist. We shared stories, insights, and advice with a view to creating a brighter, more equitable future. As well as providing practical support to help each other navigate the reality of a working world that is still not designed for working parents. 

Apart from the joy of being in a (real life) room full of working mothers and all the strength, resilience and excellent jokes that comes with that, this was a day full of education and inspiration I had to share. 

I’ve heard three is the magic number, so here’s my three thought-provoking moments from the day.  

1. System change is a long-haul project. But change can and is happening. 

Sometimes I feel like we’re peddling up a hill in the wrong gear. Especially when almost half of UK working mums believe their chances of promotion have been negatively impacted by asking for flexible work arrangements (Careering into Motherhood, 2023). We’re nearly three generations on from equal pay legislation in the UK. How can this be true? 

But then I looked around the room. And listened to women like JLL UK CEO Stephanie Hyde tell us “you can go part-time and end up as Chief Executive” and my heart sings. Stephanie and I aren’t so different in age. We both attended ‘promotion ready’ courses that included people telling you what to wear and how to speak to be accepted as a woman in a corporate (read: man’s) world.  

Now I sit and hear that shared parental leave and a package of support for working parents are becoming an expected benefit in the UK. Something that’s long been true in parts of Europe and is increasingly a way to differentiate your employer brand globally. The real progress for me is the approach is grounded in an honest appreciation that every family looks different. And perhaps most importantly that supporting working families isn’t all about maternity. IVF, adoption, miscarriage, caring responsibilities, extended family support – the list is endless.  

By taking a person-centred, flexible approach with empowered and supported line managers, employers are creating exceptional employee experiences in even the toughest of times. And it is always worth saying that is as much a commercial investment as it is a moral issue.  

2. You can get off the escalator. Our working lives are long enough to take some changes of pace. 

At Home, we’re all about the employee experience from hire to retire. We sometimes illustrate that as a linear diagram. But we know it’s almost always much squigglier than that.  

Some people will want to keep pushing for promotion as their number one priority whatever their personal life looks like. That’s great. But if you’re having conversations about talent gaps in your business, it might be time to take a fresh look at your approach to development.  

Does your talent pipeline focus on the people pushing up? Or does it make space for a more diverse group – including people who want to pause progress and deliver in a role where they feel confident while home needs more of them? Or who don’t want to take on a bigger role or team, but do want to find a new challenge they can deliver within their personal boundaries.   

I was the latter. And I felt sidelined because I needed to set new boundaries and had to re-evaluate what I wanted from my career. In my case, big corporate’s loss was Home and my own home’s gain. How many other women have dropped out of your talent pipeline and might be looking elsewhere for that new challenge?  

3. You can’t get there on your own 

This is as true of the leadership and People teams, as it is the parents. It can be easy to feel like you carry the responsibility of the world. That the stakes are too high to allow for failure. Whether that’s proving you can create the perfect parental leave strategy while you have that change window, or finding the perfect balance because your children only start school once. You might know the feeling – have you baked the cake, run the marathon, and impressed at the board meeting? All with an effortless smile of course. 

We’re all still learning.

It’s healthy to embrace failures. To help, find your allies and be open to coaching and support as you face new challenges and the latest phase (right now I’m potty training, having a confidence wobble 6 months into a career move and pretending to be interested in Star Wars Top Trumps in case you’re interested). It’s tough, but important to value and invest in your support team – whether that’s trusted friends, colleagues, mentors, or a professional coach.   

The bottom line? 

More than half of working people are parents. This is talent you can’t afford to ignore. And we are not going anywhere quietly. The good news? You don’t need deep pockets to become a destination employer for working parents. Yes, shared, well-funded parental leave and childcare investment are the headlines. But many of us are seeking trust, a little flexibility on when and where we work, respect for our long-term commitment and understanding that every family looks different. Which last time I checked doesn’t cost a penny in any currency.   

Need a little help understanding what your employees think of your approach to working parents? We’d love to talk.   

Close Menu