I am excited to announce that my latest book, Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy and Understanding at Work is now available!

Connection Culture includes inspiring stories of great leaders who created connection cultures, scientific evidence that people and organizations need connection cultures to thrive, and descriptions of ways to connect that include attitudes, uses of language and behaviors. Written for busy leaders with little time to waste, Connection Culture is concise, inspiring, and practical.

Here’s a few of the wonderful reviews Connection Culture has received:

“A great leadership guide for leaders at every level.”
–Frances Hesselbein, President and CEO, The Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute

“This is more than a great read; Michael’s connection strategy is a game changer for leaders.”
–Vernon Clark, Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Former Chief of Naval Operations

“Connection Culture provides ideas, actions, and pathways that servant leaders can use to not only enhance performance, but more importantly to build a strong culture.”
–Howard Behar, Former President, Starbucks International

To learn more about the book and to purchase, please visit www.connectionculture.com/book.

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I am thrilled to announce the launch of a project we here at E Pluribus Partners have been working on for quite some time: a brand new website dedicated to helping you foster Connection Cultures in your workplaces.

ConnectionCulture.com is a publishing site that features content from the best and brightest thinkers on connection. You’ll find thought-provoking articles on leadership, wellness, workplace issues, career advice, examples of great connectors and more.

Additionally, the site features a Culture Quiz to help you determine what type of culture is dominant in your organization. The quiz is an excellent resource for sparking discussion in your organization about the impact of culture on the health and productivity of your teams.

Please check out ConnectionCulture.com, follow us on social media and help spread the word about this new resource.

If you are interested in contributing content to the site, please email editorial@connectionculture.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

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Connection has a powerful impact on our health and well being. Check out this infographic for a helpful summary.

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I’m happy to announce that my company, E Pluribus Partners, is now on LinkedIn! LinkedIn is another wonderful platform for sharing and discussing ideas about employee engagement and leadership, and we look forward to sharing helpful advice through this practical channel.

Follow our company page today and join the conversation!

Follow Now

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We are honored to have been featured on Huddle Recruit’s list of 20 insightful leadership and management sites. The list is designed to help entrepreneurs and innovators stay on top of the latest advice, and is a helpful resource for anyone hoping to refine their leadership skills. Check out the great list of blogs and prepare to be inspired.

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Much is happening at E Pluribus Partners these days. Presently we are:

• Working with a global advertising agency to create a custom employee engagement survey
• Teaching workshops on Connection Cultures at TCU and the forensic accounting firm Connolly, Inc.
• Teaching online training for Executive Development Partners
• Teaching a 4.5 hour online course for the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD)

In addition, we are pleased to announce that we have committed to writing our next book on Connection Cultures for ASTD Press. The book will be published in early 2015.

Expanding our relationship with ASTD is a great way for us to help more organizations develop healthy, high performance cultures. ASTD is the world’s largest association dedicated to the training and development profession with 120 chapters across the U.S. and members in more than 100 countries.

Stay tuned for more details about the book in the coming months.

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Who experiences greater levels of stress: management or employees? Managers seem to think they do, but hard research data makes it clear: Employees experience greater stress, and that affects the company’s bottom line.

It doesn’t have to be that way: Effective leaders can create an organizational culture that reduces “killer stress” and encourages “challenge stress,” which produces gains in productivity and performance.

Despite its reputation, all stress is not bad. What we call “challenge stress,” actually stimulates people to perform at their best.

“Killer stress,” is the kind that comes from feeling like you don’t have control over your work. Killer stress is unhealthy and in many individuals triggers fight, flight, freeze or stalking behavior — not what good leaders want to find in their organizations.

Here are three actions you can take to reduce killer stress, increase challenge stress and boost your company’s bottom line. 

Find the Right Fit

To boost challenge stress, which improves employee performance, help your employees get into jobs that fit their interests and strengths and provide the right degree of challenge.

If they are too challenged, they become overwhelmed by killer stress.  If they are under challenged, they grow bored and lethargic.  The right degree of challenge fires them up to produce positive results.

If you are not able to get them a role that is a perfect fit, consider giving them additional responsibilities or projects that fit well with their wiring.

Be Present in Conversations

When your employees feel they are connecting with you during conversations, it reduces killer stress.  To connect when meeting with your employees, get in the habit of “being present” by staying focused on them and giving them your full attention.

Show you are engaged and interested by asking questions and then asking follow-up questions to clarify.  Listen carefully to words, and observe facial expressions and body cues. Don’t break the connection by checking your smart phone, looking at your watch or around the room, or letting your mind wander.  When the conversations comes to a close, summarize by saying, “Here’s what I heard … is that correct?”

Seek Ideas and Opinions

When you seek and consider the ideas and opinions of your employees, it reduces killer stress and energizes them. Furthermore, when you implement their suggestions while giving them credit, they feel even more energized.

To do this, we recommend that you put your cards on the table by sharing what you’re thinking in a way that is not dogmatic. This allows others to feel safe to express disagreement.

This openness and psychological safety builds trust so employees will be more likely to share their points of view.

Next, ask them, “What’s right, what’s wrong and what’s missing from my thinking about the issue?” Listen carefully, without reacting negatively, and thank them for their input.

When you “find the right fit,” “just connect” and “seek ideas and opinions,” it preserves the benefits of challenge stress, protects employees and your organization from the harmful effects of killer stress and boosts the bottom line.

Note: I originally wrote this article for Foxbusiness.com.

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#5 Say Hi and Bye

When you enter a room and it’s appropriate given the context and number of people present, greet people by name.  When you leave their presence, say goodbye.  Not saying hi and/or bye, runs the risk of giving someone the impression that you are indifferent to them.  (This practice reflects the Connection Culture element of Value.)

This is the fifth post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others.  Although the attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

Update: Howard Behar, former President of Starbucks North America and Starbucks International, and I co-authored an article entitled “Leadership Myopia” that appears in the August edition of Leadership Excellence alongside articles by well known leadership experts Gary Hamel, Marshall Goldsmith and Patrick Lencioni.    On October 10, I will give a keynote speech at the Retailing Summit held in Dallas, Texas.  The Retailing Summit is a premiere event for senior leaders in retail.  This year’s conference includes Karen Katz, President and CEO of Nieman Marcus, Maxine Clark, Founder of Build-a-Bear Workshop, Duncan Mac Naughtan, EVP, Chief Merchandising & Marketing Officer for Wal-Mart U.S. and Graham Atkinson, CMO & Chief Experience Officer of Walgreens.

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#3 Listen Actively

Jane Dutton of the University of Michigan recommends four ways to listen actively.

First, paraphrase by expressing what you heard in your own words. For example you might say, “Let me make sure I’m hearing you correctly. You are saying that you need more financial resources to meet this month’s objectives.”

Second, summarize what you heard. For example, you could say, “if I boil down your points I hear you saying that we have an opportunity to expand our business if we open stores in the Midwestern U.S. over the next year.”

Third, clarify by asking questions. For example, you might say “correct me if I’m not hearing you right but I think you are saying …”

Finally, solicit feedback by asking how you are doing as a listener. For example, you could say, “do you get the sense that I’m listening to you and hearing what you have to say.” (These practices reflect the connection culture elements of Value and Voice.)

This is the third post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others. Although the attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

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This post begins our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others.  Although the attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

#1 Develop the Courage to Connect – It requires courage to make the effort to connect because not everyone will reciprocate.  You may hold out your fist to invite a “fist bump” only find you are left hanging or you may say “hi” to a passerby and receive no response.  When our efforts to connect are spurned it triggers “social pain” in our brains (the part of the brain that feels physical pain becomes active when we are left out of a group or our efforts to connect with someone are turned down).  That’s why it’s necessary to be prepared by knowing that not all people will connect with us.  In such cases, we need to recognize that we made the effort and had the courage to do so.  Of the three core elements of a connection culture, this practice reflects “Value,” which is also known as “human value.”

Update: It’s been a busy beginning to the summer.  I just returned from speaking at conferences and teaching workshops in Chicago, Dallas and New Orleans.  People in attendance at the workshops represented a wide variety of organizations including Allstate, AAA, Blue Cross Blue Shield, FINRA, the U.S. Government Services Administration, Leo Burnett, Liberty Mutual, Northern Trust, and United Airlines. Recently, I also spoke with Jim Blasingame on his radio program entitled The Small Business Advocate.  You can hear recordings of topics we covered during the conversation at the links below:

Who feels the most stress in the workplace?

Is there such a thing as good stress?

Practice the three V’s to reduce stress in the workplace?

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