Michael Lee Stallard

Years ago when I attended a large church in Wheaton, Illinois, I remember the Asgedom family who came from a refugee camp in Sudan.  They were ever present members of our church community.  Mawi Asgedom was a young boy at that time.  I recently learned that Mawi went on to graduate cum laude from Harvard in 1999 and was voted by his fellow students to be one of the Harvard’s four commencement speakers.  

Standing before an audience of 30,000 Mawi gave a remarkable speech entitled  ”Of Snakes, Butterfies and Small Acts of Kindness.”  Read more »

Nelson Mandela recently celebrated his 90th birthday. I’m grateful for this man and the wisdom of his example. When he entered Robben Island Prison he was known for confronting his enemies. When he was released 27 years later, Mandela stunned South Africans with his magnanimous behavior toward former adversaries.  Read more »

Over the course of my career I’ve had the good fortune to have been involved in several mergers. At first, I was fascinated by the process of identifying a compelling rationale for combining companies, negotiating the deal, planning the integration of people and systems and then executing the plan. The dizzying array of tasks that must be accomplished to complete a merger is challenging to say the least. In time, however, I learned that even greater challenges arose after the investment bankers and lawyers had packed up their briefcases and moved on to the next deal. Read more »

Thus far it appears that the Disney acquisition of Pixar has worked well.  Brooks Barnes wrote an excellent article about it in today’s The New York Times entitled, “Disney and Pixar - The Power of the Prenup. “There is an insightful quote in the article made by Disney’s CEO Bob Iger. He says “There is an assumption in the corporate world that you need to integrate swiftly…my philosophy is exactly the opposite. You need to be respectful and patient.” Iger’s view reflects his recognition of one of the Post-Merger Traps that companies frequently fall into. We call it the “Urgency Trap.” Read more »

Years ago when I was chief marketing officer for a business unit at Charles Schwab, I met David Bradley for lunch in New York City. David is an extremely successful entrepreneur. He founded the Corporate Executive Board and is the owner of The Atlantic magazine. David wanted to pick my brain about how to make his magazine more attractive to advertisers. To my surprise, early in our conversation David asked me to tell him about my personal story…where I was born and grew up, what events influenced my beliefs, who were the individuals I most admired, etc. As I began to recount my journey in life, David asked question after question and was genuinely interested in me.

After a long lunch conversation, I felt like David cared about me as a person and not just as a potential source of revenue. His example taught me a powerful lesson: intentionally connecting with people is wise. I believe being what we refer to as an “Intentional Connector” is one of the factors that has contributed to David’s success.

Many of our clients at E Pluribus Partners have committed to become Intentional Connectors in 2008. As our work shows, great leaders are Intentional Connectors. By their words and deeds, they create Connection Cultures that improve employee engagement, productivity and innovation. Why don’t you commit to becoming an Intentional Connector too? The personal benefits include improved physical and mental health and superior productivity and creativity.

Empathy and understanding provide the foundation to establish human connections. Would the people who work alongside you say that you think of them as human doings or human beings? Do you know their stories? We encourage you to devote some time early this year to getting to know the people around you. When you do you’ll find that, in addition to enriching your life at work, your colleagues will become more trusting and cooperative. One-on-one time during an occasional coffee break or lunch together is a great opportunity to get to know your colleagues. This simple step is common sense… yet in our day and age it is surprisingly uncommon in practice. Task excellence is a must to thrive in business but it is unsustainable if not accompanied by the relationship excellence that comes from a Connection Culture.