Monthly Archives: February 2010

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Emotional Resonance, Awe and Action

A New York Times article at this link describes a University of Pennsynvania study that concluded the most emailed Times articles brought about a positive emotional response of awe on the part of readers. That makes sense, doesn’t it? When hearts are moved, people move. I’m not knocking rational content, just recognizing the power of feelings to move people to action. I have learned from experience that I have to reach peoples hearts and minds to bring about change. Unfortunately, so few leadership development and change programs do that.

We are human beings, not human doings. We have feelings, a conscience, hopes and dreams. That’s what I love about my work. This week Jason Pankau and I were speaking at one of America’s largest, most well-respected corporations. The individuals we met came from all around the world and they were visibly moved to action. A woman from outside the US emailed me to say the stories we presented were inspiring and the message would resonate with her colleagues at home. The lesson here is that rational content is essential but if you want action you had better help people FEEL the need to change. Emotional resonance is the music that makes our lives and organizations sing.

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Your Corporation: Corpus or Corpse?

The root word of corporation is “corpus,” a Latin word meaning body. Does your corporation act like a healthy body where members support one another and recognize that harm to one is damaging to all. If not, perhaps your corporation is diseased with members harming one another through incivility or indifference. If so, your corporation is on its way to becoming a corpse (and its culture may be killing individual members, too).

Most corporations today are diseased. Corporate Executive Board research shows that 90 percent of employees today are either not engaged and giving their best efforts or they are not aligned with organizational goals. In this article that appeared this week in Hearst Newspapers entitled “Extinguising Employee Burnout” I spoke with reporter Scott Gargan about leadership, employee engagement, productivity and how to combat the growing problem of employee burnout that is literally draining the life out of individuals and organizations.

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Relationship Failure at Microsoft

An article appearing in The New York Times entitled “Microsoft’s Creative Destruction” makes it clear that the company has big problems stemming from internal rivalries. We teach that organizations that sustainable superior performance = task excellence + relationship experience.  So often organizations die because the failure to achieve relationship excellence sabotages task excellence. Keep that in mind when you read the article and it will become clear that Microsoft is heading down that path.

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Boost Productivity, Innovation: New Program with Linkage

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Jason Pankau and I recently teamed up with Linkage to offer a course on our book, Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion. Creativity and Productivity.  The course includes video with supporting participant and facilitator guides.  Here is a backgrounder on the program entitled Fired Up Leadership to Boost Productivity and Innovation.

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Lifting Spirits In Difficult Times

“The times are difficult. They require courage and faith.” – Thomas Merton

Last Saturday evening, my wife Katie and I attended a gathering to hear about a new artistic collaboration between our friend Rob Mathes and Irish poet Michael O’Siadhail. The evening of conversation, poetry and music brought a dose of truth, beauty and goodness to my day.  It lifted my spirit.

Performing one of the songs with Rob was vocalist James “D-Train” Williams.  Prior to the performance, my friend Ian Cron, catalyst to the Mathes-O’Saidhail collaboration, said a few words about courage and faith during difficult times. As usual, Ian was profound.  He quoted Thomas Merton, whose words are so applicable today.  We need courage and faith to persevere when the future looks threatening, as it does for so many.

During difficult times, we also need truth, beauty and goodness.  When I’ve been working so hard that I go numb, I find that truth, beauty and goodness have a mysterious power to revive me: truth in the form of learning something new and refreshing from a book, an article or a movie;  beauty in music, the theater or nature; and  goodness in a kind, encouraging or helpful outreach to others.

If you are facing difficulties and need to be refreshed, watch Rob Mathes performing for Kathy Lee Gifford on The Today Show, read Ian Cron’s wonderful book Chasing Francis, or reach out to encourage or help a family member or friend in need.  During a difficult time in my life when my beloved Katie was undergoing treatment for advanced ovarian cancer, my family was on the receiving end of a continuous flow of truth, beauty and goodness that I wrote about in an essay entitled Alone No Longer. The essay was published  as an Amazon Short.  I hope reading it will encourage you, too.

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Free Webinar: Re-energize Employees

BestPractices






Employees have been through a difficult season at work.  Layoffs, fewer resources and financial stress have taken a toll on employee enthusiasm, energy, engagement and alignment with their organization’s goals.  What should managers do to help employees recover, refocus and re-energize for the season ahead.  Jason Pankau and I are delighted to partner with the Best Practice Institute where we will be presenting a free hour-long webinar on the topic of re-energizing employees following the “Great Recession.”  The webinar will occur on July 14 at Noon EST. To read the webinar description and sign up:

  1. Click on this link
  2. Enter the Promo Code STPABP2 in on the right side (under the member sign-in box)
  3. You will be redirected to a page where you will need to enter information about yourself (i.e. your name, email and job position). After this page is filled out, you will be registered to watch the webinar for free!

This is a timely topic and we hope you will join us.

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    Employee Engagement: Beryl Companies


    One of my favorite business books is Paul Spiegelman’s Why Is Everyone Smiling?. Spiegelman is the CEO of Beryl Companies, a call center outsource company for the healthcare industry. On March 24-25 I’ll be moderating a session at the Conference Board’s Customer Experience Management Conference in New York City where Paul will be speaking. You can learn more about the conference at this link. And be sure to check out the above webcast I hosted with Paul.