Category Archives: Human Value

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Truth, Beauty and Goodness Increase Employee Engagement

Here is the draft of an article I’m working on. What do you think about it?  If you have any comments or suggestions, please email me at mstallard@epluribuspartners.  

Values of Great Leaders Connect with Employees 

 

By Michael Lee Stallard

When people feel emotionally connected, they put more effort in their work. Research bears this out. A 2004 Corporate Leadership Council study of 50,000 employees worldwide concluded that emotional factors were four times as important as rational factors when it came to employee effort.

Great leaders connect on an emotional level with the people they are responsible for leading.   When employees follow their leader’s example, they become more connected with one another, boosting trust, cooperation and esprit de corps throughout the organization. What I have discovered as a leader and as an advisor to leaders over the years is that the emotional connections leaders develop with people are ultimately grounded in the leader’s own values.  The values that foster connection among people come in clusters that I refer to as Truth Values, Beauty Values and Goodness Values.

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Webcast with Charles W. “Willy” Moore, Jr. of Lockheed Martin

Please join me as I host a webcast with Charles W. “Willy” Moore Jr. on January 14, at 11:00 AM Eastern. When I spoke to a group of leaders at Lockheed Martin last year I heard Willy share his thoughts on leadership. He impressed me with his wisdom and extensive experience as a Vice President responsible for a major group at Lockheed and as a Vice Admiral during a distinguished 36-year career in the United States Navy. During his Navy career, Vice Admiral Moore served as a Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Fleet Readiness and Logistics, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and Commander, U.S. Fifth Fleet (1998-2002). In this role VADM Moore commanded all U.S. Naval Forces throughout the Middle East and the Horn of Africa during a time of nearly constant combat. VADM Moore led his forces in combat operations including Infinite Reach after the 1998 Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, Operation Desert Fox in Iraq and subsequent combat in the no-fly zone, Operation Southern Watch, Operation Determined Response after the terrorist bombing of USS Cole and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan fighting the global war on terrorism.

This is a webcast you don’t want to miss. To sign up for the live webcast or to hear a recording, click here.

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Webcast with Tim Sanders, Author of “Saving the World at Work”


On Friday, January 23 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time, I hosted a 30 minute webcast with Tim Sanders, Author of the newly released book Saving the World at Work. Tim also wrote two other outstanding books entitled The Likability Factor and Love is the Killer App. Tim has deep experience in cutting-edge businesses and marketing. He was the Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo! and later their Leadership Coach. Prior to his senior positions at Yahoo!, Tim created and led the Yahoo! ValueLab, an in-house “think tank” which delivered futuristic insight to the company’s partners and clients. To hear the webcast click here.

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Q&A from My AMA Webcast on Employee Engagement

During the recent webcast I did for the American Management Association, participants submitted more questions than we were able to answer in the allotted 15 minutes for Q&A. The AMA sent me the questions so that I could answer them on my blog. Although I am not able to answer them all at once, I will continue to chip away at the list and post all the answers below.

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My AMA Podcast on Employee Engagement (now on iTunes)

Today the American Management Association posted a podcast I did with the AMA’s Dave Summers. The topic of the podcast is how to create Connection Cultures that increase employee engagement. You can hear the podcast and even download it on an iPod or iPhone by clicking on employee engagement.

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Presidential Leadership: Civility Amidst Stress and the Forces of Incivility

On Thursday John McCain demonstrated the character strength of valor which is defined as speaking up for what is right. As stated in an article that appeared in this morning’sThe New York Times:

When a man told [McCain] he was “scared” of an Obama presidency, Mr. McCain replied, “I want to be president of the United States and obviously I do not want Senator Obama to be, but I have to tell you — I have to tell you — he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared” of “as president of the United States.” The crowd booed loudly at Mr. McCain’s response.

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Book Review: Why is Everyone Smiling?

Paul Spiegelman, CEO of the Beryl Companies, has written a wonderful book about Beryl Companies and its extraordinary culture.  Rather than write a review of Paul’s book, I’m posting the review written by the business maven and book reviewer extraordinaire Robert Morris (see below).  On Monday at 11:00 AM Eastern, I will be hosting a webcast with Paul Spiegelman and you can sign up for it by clicking on employee engagement.

Robert Morris review of Why Is Everyone Smiling?

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Great News Today From Katie’s Oncologist

katie-on-swing.jpg Forgive me for this self indulgent post but I feel like shouting to the world what my wife Katie’s oncologist just told us today:  Katie is not likely to have a recurrence of ovarian cancer after being in remission for nearly five years now.  We celebrated the good news with Dr. Hensley, our oncologist, and Nick the doorman (and now receptionist) at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who I’ve written about.  

In honor of the occasion, I’m posting an essay I wrote about our experience, how our family members and friends helped us through a difficult season, and how the experience changed my life.  Feeling that people really cared for Katie and our family helped me see how important relationships are in life and to employee engagement in the workplace. Here’s the essay:

Many inspiring articles have been written about cancer survivors and how the experience of facing cancer and overcoming it changed their lives.  Fewer are the stories of those who walk beside them. Just as a stone tossed into still waters sends ripples to every shore, the impact of a cancer diagnosis stirs up the lives of more than just the patient. This is my story of walking beside my wife Katie during her battle against first one cancer and then a second a year later, a journey that has changed my life in expected and unexpected ways.

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Will You Surf The Perfect Storm Ahead…or Be Drowned By It?

Following is a sneak peak of an article I wrote for the American Management Association’s Journal.  It’s about the necessity for organizations to increase employee engagement (including leadership development, team building and  talent management) as the forces of globalization and demographics collide. 

A perfect storm is brewing that will threaten many a firm’s survival in the decades ahead. Market forces, like storm fronts, are colliding to produce volatile conditions.  Companies that anticipate and prepare for these threats can convert them into major opportunities to leap ahead of their competitors.  There’s plenty of evidence that savvy companies are already moving to gain a competitive edge.   Rather than being crushed by the massive waves, these companies are effectively surfing them and will leave competitors in their wake.