In June of 2000, the combative Durk Jager resigned as CEO of Procter & Gamble after a tenure that had lasted only seventeen months. When he left P&G, its stock had declined 50 percent, it had lost $320 million in the most recent quarter, half of its brands were losing market share, and the firm was struggling with morale problems.
The prevalence and extreme nature of star systems in organizations today contribute to widespread employee disconnection and disengagement, particularly among core employees.
Employees can be regarded as stars, core employees, or strugglers. Stars are superior performers. They are either a part of senior management or on track to move up the organization’s hierarchy. Core employees are valuable contributors but not stars. Strugglers perform poorly, some for temporary reasons and others because they may not fit well in their roles or with the organization.
Don’t miss Dr. Todd Hall’s webinar tomorrow titled “How to Beat Stress and Elevate Engagement.” See details and signup here.
It’s encouraging to see more leaders identify connection as a primary factor contributing to their organization’s sustained success. Fortune magazine recently recognized Theo Epstein, President, Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball and the Cubs organization, as #1 on its world’s greatest leaders list. Last year the Cubs won the World Series and broke the franchise’s 108-year World Series title drought, the longest in professional sports.
I had the privilege of contributing a guest column to a recent issue of Business Standard, a leading business publication in India. The article tells the story of how Admiral Vern Clark used the principles of Connection Culture to lead a turnaround of the U.S. Navy. Read the article.
| Date: | March 16, 2017 |
|---|---|
| Appearance: | Guest Column in Business Standard |
| Outlet: | Business Standard |
| Location: | Mumbai, India |
| Format: | Newspaper |
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Jim Blasingame, host of the The Small Business Advocate radio program, about the increasingly popular “brutal honesty” management practice and why “tough love” is a more productive alternative. Listen to our conversation.
| Date: | March 14, 2017 |
|---|---|
| Appearance: | Interview with Jim Blasingame: The Difference Between Brutal Honesty and Tough Love |
| Outlet: | The Small Business Advocate |
| Format: | Radio |
On Christmas day in 1984, Carol Grieder, Ph.D., then a graduate student in the University of California, Berkley lab of Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D., stopped by the lab, curious to see the results of an experiment that had taken place several days earlier. Eight months of research and variations of experiments had led her to this point. There, in an image on x-ray film, was evidence that an enzyme existed that helped protect people from premature cellular aging. Ecstatic, Greider went home and danced around her living room. Fifteen years later, Blackburn, Grieder, and another scientist, Jack Szostak, Ph.D. were awarded a Nobel Prize for discovering the enzyme they named “telomerase.”
An old fad is making a comeback: the “brutally honest workplace.” From my vantage point, interacting with your colleagues using “radical candor” or “radical transparency” is a subtle—and sometimes not so subtle—form of verbal assault that seems to be spreading, given the success of firms like Bridgewater Associates, and contributing to the rise of incivility and insensitivity today. Proponents of this approach sometimes say that offering constructive criticism should come from a caring mindset but, from what I’ve seen, it merely gives the arrogant and the bullies permission to verbally attack others in the name of honesty. Fortunately, research shows the foolishness of this approach (in fact, even mild expressions of rudeness have been shown to impair team performance).
Wally Bock, a frequent contributor to ConnectionCulture.com and a leadership coach, recently published a new book titled Become a Better Boss One Tip at a Time. Wally’s practical, effective advice always resonates with readers and his book addresses common leadership challenges.
Here’s what Wally had to say about his new book and favorite leadership tips: