The New York Times recently had an article entitled “What Makes a Hospital Great” that described new research concluding a hospital’s culture and the quality of relationships were the most important factors determining patient outcomes. This finding is consistent with our research that concluded leaders must be intentional about developing both “task excellence” and “relationship excellence” in order to achieve sustainable superior performance. If leaders focus on task alone the eventual failure of relationships will sabotage excellence.
Tag Archives: employee motivation
Employee Engagement Webinar: The Power of Connection
David Zinger and I will be doing a 45 minute webcast on the power of connection to boost employee engagement. David is host of the Employee Engagement Network. During the webinar, we will include:
- a five minute presentation on connection;
- 3 poll questions for participants;
- dialogue between David and your’s truly;
- invited text questions from the audience; and,
- 3 tips for connection action.
The session has limited enrollment but will be taped for future viewing. Sign up for the webinar at this link. Better move quickly though. Half of the webinar capacity was filled in the first day it was posted on the Employee Engagement Network website!
Video Interview: Employee Engagement = Connections
George Washington, Worthy of Praise?
Today is Presidents’ Day in the U.S., a day in which we primarily celebrate our first president, George Washington. After reading the article “George Washington’s Tear Jerker” in The New York Times, one might ask, was Washington really the great leader he has been made out to be? I asked myself that question during the summer of 2002 and began a journey to unpack truth from myth. I went as far as contacting and speaking with Edward Lengel, the foremost historian on Washington’s generalship. After doing my own research I wrote the following which became one of the chapters on 20 leaders in Fired Up or Burned Out.
First in Their Hearts
Richard Neustadt, Presidential Scholar at Harvard University, observed the following about George Washington: “It wasn’t his generalship that made him stand out . . . It was the way he attended to and stuck by his men. His soldiers knew that he respected and cared for them, and that he would share their severe hardships.”
Alter+Care: Happiness at Work Podcast
Jason Pankau and I recently recorded a podcast interview on happiness at work for Alter+Care, the healthcare real estate company. You can hear the podcast at this link.
To Achieve Excellence
Michael Lee Stallard and Jason Pankau
K. Anders Ericsson and his colleagues famously concluded that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice are required to achieve excellence and expert status. Malcolm Gladwell popularized Ericsson’s 10,000 hour rule in his book Outliers. What many forget is that Ericsson’s research also concluded the experts benefitted from coaching and mentoring by people who told them the truth, even when it was painful to hear.
The point here is that no one becomes great at anything without coaching and mentoring. Do you have coaches and mentors in your life who help you learn, grow and develop into the person you want to become? Do you want to be better at exercising and eating healthy? Why not ask someone you know who is good in those areas to mentor you. Do you want to be a better listener? Ask a good listener you know to give you suggestions about how to improve. Want to be a better parent and spouse? Ask your children and spouse how you can improve.
Michael Lee Stallard is president of E Pluribus Partners. Jason Pankau is the president of Life Spring Network, a Christian ministry. They write, speak and teach workshops on leadership and employee engagement. Michael and Jason are co-authors of the bestselling book Fired Up or Burned Out.
Leaders Can Learn From College RAs
Most leaders can learn an important lesson from the RAs at TCU who are creating a sense of community in the residence halls on campus. You can read about it in this excellent article entitled “Culture of Caring.” The article makes an important point that creating a sense of community requires intentionality. Daniel Terry, TCU’s director of Community Renewal, puts it this way:
“We’re trying to create whole people here at TCU. [TCU has always had an emphasis on personal attention and mentoring relationships.] We’re implementing Community Renewal at TCU because, like all communities, there needs to be some intentionality around relating to the people around you. Where there is no intentionality, people tend to take relationships for granted.”
So true.
It’s More Than Business. It’s Personal.
This week I participated in an interview about Connection Cultures, productivity and innovation with Dean Homer Erekson at a business breakfast sponsored by TCU’s Neeley Business School in Fort Worth, Texas. (Read the Fort Worth Business Press article about the event entitled “Speaker Promotes Emotional Connection for Business“).
The motto of the Neeley School is “It’s More Than Business. It’s Personal.” This phrase expresses what we found in research that’s described in our book Fired Up or Burned Out, i.e. sustainable superior performance requires achieving task excellence (the “business” part) and relationship excellence (the “personal” part). In addition to speaking at the business breakfast I spoke to students in leadership programs and met with Neeley MBA students.
From all I observed, the Neeley Business School delivers its brand promise. It hires teacher-scholars who spend time with and mentor students. In addition, the Neeley School has first class facilities and diverse, energetic, enthusiastic and collaborative students. It’s a powerful mix that has propelled Neeley to be ranked as the #30 B-School in American and an entrepreneurship program that’s ranked #1. Neeley is on the move and I expect that it will continue to grow in national reputation and popularity with the best prospective business school students.
Personal Connections are the New Currency
Many thanks to Deborah Mills-Scofield for complementing my book Fired Up or Burned Out in her Forbes.com blog post entitled “Personal Connections are the New Currency.”
Has SAS Institute’s Goodnight Cracked the Code on Corporate Culture?
Congratulations to SAS Institute for being recognized the second year in a row as #1 on Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Places to Work list. Last year I met with Jim Goodnight, SAS Institute’s founder and CEO, to learn more about his leadership and SAS Institute’s culture. You can read the article I wrote at The Economic Times‘ website or below.