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TED: Brene Brown on Connection





Thanks to my friend David Zinger, head of the Employee Engagement Network, for bringing this outstanding TED presentation to my attention.  It features Dr. Brene Brown speaking about her research on the importance of connection to joy and flourishing in life.  Over the course of her remarks, Dr. Brown touches on issues of shame, authenticity, courage, worthiness and numbing our emotions to cope with pain.   It’s a thought-provoking presentation that I highly recommend. It’s relevant to leaders and individual contributors, and it applies to both work and life outside of work.

If you would like to hear more about Dr. Brene Brown and her work. Check out this excellent interview on public radio. Additional information can be found at Dr. Brown’s website.

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Free Linkage Leadership Webinars

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Jason Pankau and I spoke on a webinar for Linkage about maximizing employee engagement and alignment.  You can see the 60-minute webinar at this link.  You may also be interested in other free webinars offered by Linkage at this link.

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Mrs. Hesselbein: “To Serve is to Live”

Frances Hesselbein, To Serve Is To Live. from Leader to Leader on Vimeo.

In Fired Up or Burned Out, we wrote about Frances Hesselbein, the former CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA and current chairman of the Leader to Leader Institute As we were about to part following lunch, I’ll never forget Mrs. Hesselbein looking me directly in the eyes and saying “just remember, to serve is to live.” Here is an outstanding video about Mrs. Hesselbein’s life entitled “To Serve is to Live.” Check it out.

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Talent May Get You to the Top, But…

…it takes character to keep you there.  John Wooden, the late legendary UCLA men’s basketball coach once stated this in so many words.

Wooden’s observation came to mind when I read a New York Times‘ article today entitled “The Day the Patriots Empire Began to Crumble.”  The article argued that the Patriot’s lost their lustre when its coach, Bill Belichick, was caught cheating.

Over the years, the leaders of the Patriots, Coach Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, did so many things right.   I wrote about many of them in a chapter Fired Up or Burned Out.  Belichick’s cheating, however, diminished one of the three elements of a Connection Culture: the element of “Vision.”  The element of Vision exists when everyone in an organization is motivated by the mission, united by the values and proud of the reputation.   Belichick’s cheating was not in keeping with the Patriot’s core values.  It also tarnished the organization’s reputation.  the cheating caused players and fans lost some of their respect for Belichick and the Patriots.  They were not longer felt as proud to say they were members of the Patriots’ organization. Pride in one’s identity is emotional in nature and research shows that emotional connections are 4X as important as rational factors when it comes to the amount of effort people put in their work.  The Patriots lost some of that emotional connection and as a result their players have not been as fired up as they once were.

Hopefully, Belichick learned a lesson and in time can gain back the connection, respect and trust he once had.

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Maximize Employee Engagement, Alignment and Productivity

Jason Pankau and I are speaking about maximizing employee engagement, alignment and productivity on several upcoming webinars. The webinars are based on ideas in our book Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity and Productivity (Thomas Nelson).

Here are the names of the organizations hosting the webinars along with the respectives dates and links to sign up:

December 7, 1:00 PM EST for Linkage

December 7, 3:00 PM EST for the Human Capital Institute sponsored by the ITAGroup

December 15, 12:00 PM EST for the New Talent Management Network

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Strengthen Your “Critical Connections”

Research has shown that people perform better if they take time to create checklists that break their work down into necessary tasks. Here is an approach we recommend. Make a list of those individuals whom you count on you in order to do your work well and the individuals who count on you in order to do their work well. Think of these people as your “Critical Connections.” Strengthening your relationship with them is, in addition to making checklists, another key to achieving excellence in your work.

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Cartoon Boosts “Voice” in U.S. Military

Doctrin Man“Doctrine Man,” a popular cartoon on facebook, has, in essence, become a means to boost the Connection Culture element of Voice in the U.S. Military.  It’s odd, I know, but it’s working.  To learn more, read this New York Times article entitled “Masked Military Man is Superhero for Troops.”

Earlier, Jason, Carolyn and I wrote an article about the element of Voice (also know as “Knowledge Flow”) for the award-winning Perdido magazine that you can read at this link.  Voice exists in an organization when everyone seeks the ideas and opinions of other, shares their opinions honestly and safeguards relational connections. Voice reflects a culture that values humility, open-mindedness, curiosity, continuous learning and experimentation.

Voice strengthens organizations in three ways.  First, it boosts employee engagement when people are informed and have their ideas and opinions considered. Second, decision makers make better decisions when they learn from the ideas and opinions of others.  Third, a culture that has a high degree of sharing opinions and ideas creates a marketplace of ideas that fuels innovation.

With those benefits in mind, I say to Doctrine Man, whoever he may be, live long and prosper!

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Gamification in Everything?

Every once in a while I come across an article or blog post that jumps out at me for its sheer brilliance or insight. Deb Mills-Scofield’s blog post entitled “Gamification in Everything” is a recent example. I encourage you to check it out and post your thoughts on Deb’s blog. I’m headed there right now to post some thoughts. I hope to see you there!

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Employee Engagement: 2010 Research Insights

Employee engagement research this year produced several insights about serious problems we presently face in America.  Now this may sound bleak to some but for wise leaders and organizations it presents a huge opportunity. Below, I’ll explain.

In January, our friends at The Conference Board published a report entitled “I Can’t Get No … Job Satisfaction, That Is.”  The report’s subtitle, “America’s Unhappy Workers,” captured the essence of The Conference Board’s message. Consistent with the report’s tone, its cover featured a picture of an impending storm.  The report stated that job satisfaction and employee engagement had fallen to the lowest levels since The Conference Board began surveying more than 20 years ago. The report explained that the decline in employee satisfaction and employee engagement began long before the Great Recession and should therefore not be viewed as cyclical in nature. Looking forward, The Conference Board expressed concern about the impact of declining employee engagement on American competitiveness.

In July, Hewitt released a report showing that for the quarter ending June 2010, 46 percent of the 900 organizations it tracks experienced declines in employee engagement versus 30 percent of the organizations that experienced improved employee engagement.  Hewitt noted that this was the largest quarterly decline in employee engagement it has witnessed in the more than 15 years Hewitt has been researching employee engagement.

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Serving a Cause Greater than Self

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Recently when Jason Pankau and I spoke at an internal meeting of the ITA Group, we learned that one afternoon their employees split up into teams and went out  into their community to serve non-profit organizations.  One group of employees went to help a food pantry, others went to serve the Boys and Girls Club, etc.  Some teams painted walls or performed other much maintenance-type projects while others just spent time with children or adults who longed to connect.

By doing this, ITA Group employees were serving a cause greater than self.  They were exercising compassion, kindness, empathy and other emotional muscles of the heart that make them better connectors and will help them develop a Connection Culture. I’m encouraged to see that more companies are doing these types of service projects.

Later this week at the United Nations, several organizations are gathering to talk about serving a cause greater than self.  The conference is organized by the Foundation for Social Change, a group that is lead by super connector Louise Guido.  I encourage you to learn more about the Foundation and its conference entitled “Global Conference for Social Change: How Profitability Can Change the World.”  In addition to the many fine organizations participating at this conference, there are certain to be a lot of movers and shakers, including this year’s honorees, Sir Richard Branson and Shakira.