My mind must have been on something else as I began to edge out a bit from a side street to make a left-hand turn onto a main thoroughfare. At the same time, another driver was turning left onto the street I was on. I slammed on my brakes in time. Admittedly, the near miss was my fault and the driver I almost pulled in front of had every right to be upset. What surprised me, however, was the intensity of his reaction. He came unglued, turned blood red, repeatedly flipped me off and began spewing expletives and spittle. The rage on his face is burned in my memory. I kept an eye on him in my rear view mirror to make sure he wasn’t turning around to come after me. Fortunately he didn’t.
Tag Archives: fired up or burned out
Emotional Connections Essential to Employee Engagement
Here is a video from YouTube of a conversation I had earlier this year about leadership, employee engagement, productivity and innovation with Dr. Homer Erekson, Dean of TCU’s Neeley School of Business. Our conversation occurred as part of the Tandy Executive Speakers Series that featured CEOs of outstanding companies such as Nieman Marcus, Southwest Airlines and The Container Store.
During our conversation we discussed how most leaders don’t understand the importance of emotional connections to the success of the their organization. Learn more about the “Connection Cultures” that great leaders create by reading Fired Up or Burned Out.
Should Leaders Care About Employee Happiness?
Should leaders care about employee happiness or is employee engagement a passing fad? Let me frame this debate in a slightly different way that I believe provides the best answer.
As part of creating value, leaders need to be intentional about achieving both task excellence and relationship excellence because our research found that both are necessary to achieve sustainable superior performance i.e. Task Excellence + Relationship Excellence = Sustainable Superior Performance. Both are also necessary if most employees are to experience a sense of satisfaction for the many hours they spend working. If employees feel unsatisfied, they will not perform tasks at a level that reflects excellence for a sustained period of time. They will likely be able to perform with excellence for a short period of time but eventually their lack of emotional energy will drag them down.
We are human beings, not machines. Emotion matters, even in business.
When Beauty Breaks Through Life’s Daily Drone
Airports can be dull, uninspiring places where it’s easy to drift into a numb, trans-like state of mind. But what if a group of people decided to break through the cacophony of sounds and sights at one of the world’s busiest airports by orchestrating a beautiful symphony of human voices. Thanks to a stunning T-Moble advertisement, we don’t have to imagine what it might look like. Check it out in the wonderful video above.
Watching the video reminded me of the joy people experience when they become engaged in and feel connected to their work. They move from the drone of daily work to a life-giving state where work is like making beautiful music. This only happens when one’s work brings truth, beauty and/or goodness into the world. It is one aspect of the first element in a Connection Culture that we call “Inspiring Identity.” Learn more about Connection Cultures and Inspiring Identity in Fired Up or Burned Out.
Over-Connected, Are You?
Check out this thought-provoking presentation by MIT Professor Sherry Turkle. It’s about the topic of her book entitled Alone Together. She does an outstanding job of articulating the risks of becoming addicted to virtual connections.
As human beings we need to feel connected to other people in order to thrive. I’ve written extensively about this in the Connection Culture Manifesto and in Fired Up or Burned Out. We are human beings not machines. We need to develop intimacy, trust and affection with our family members, friends and colleagues at work. Absent meeting the need for feeling connected to others, we dysfunction. The subtle allure of feeling connected online can develop into addiction so we must guard against allowing virtual connections to crowd out time for face-to-face connection. Striking the right balance is key.
In her presentation, Professor Turkle points out that virtual connection represents another threat in that it can crowd out time to be alone with ourselves. I couldn’t agree more. We need time to reflect on our lives and who we aspire to be. This is essential to develop strength of character and moral confidence. Nelson Mandela, in a letter he wrote in 1975 while incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, expressed this so well:
World Vision Connects!
One of the relief organizations my wife and I support is World Vision. These people are AMAZING and they do remarkable work that Nicholas Kristoff of The New York Times raved about in a recent column he wrote.
What I love about World Vision is that they are a force for connection. They connect their employees, volunteers and donors with people in desperate need around the world. The result is a fired up organization that is making a difference.
The last two evenings I served as a volunteer to help out with the World Vision AIDS Experience that is presently in Greenwich, Connecticut through next Sunday. The experience takes you on a journey to see the lives of four African children affected by aids. The stories are both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Everyone attending said they were moved and inspired. Many become child sponsors or purchase a kit or bycycle to help one of the 77,000 World Vision Caregivers in 20 countries. (You can learn more about attending at no cost, which I very highly recommend, by clicking here.)
While volunteering, I met Kristin, an enthusiastic, motivated, bright young World Vision employee. Speaking with Kristen made me see how well World Vision connects its workers and donors with those who are in need, not only financially to meet their needs for clean water, health care and education, but also relationally. Here’s an example. At the end of the World Vision AIDS Experience, donors can sit down in an area where materials are available to write a letter (or, for very young donors, to color a picture) that is sent to the donor’s newly sponsored child. Notice in the picture at top, above the young girl writing a letter to her sponsored child is a sign that says “Connect with Your Child.” How great is that! Our family has connected with our child in Rwanda by periodically writing and sending gifts to her, and we’ve received letters in return.
As you may know, my blog is primarily about the power of connection in organizations and in life as part of what I refer to as a “Connection Culture” that I wrote about in Fired Up or Burned Out. World Vision’s ways are relevant to all organizations, including for-profit corporations. World Vision is more effective because they are intentional about connecting people to a cause greater than self and in doing so the people who are part of World Vision want to give their best efforts and align their behavior with the organization’s goals. Just to mention it, another benefit from connection that accrues to philanthropic organizations was identified in recent research conducted by Indiana University. The research identified the #1 reason people stop giving to a philanthropic organization is they no longer felt connected.
How is your organization doing connecting your employees and customers to a cause greater than self? If you don’t know, get some of your most fired up employees together and ask them “when have you felt proud about your organization” and after they tell you ask them to explain “why they felt proud?”. You will hear stories that will help you identify ways you can fire up people by connecting them to a cause greater than self.
Google’s Project Oxygen Confirms Importance of Connection
New Research: Relationships Make Hospitals Great
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.
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!
Attend (Virtually) HCI’s National Human Capital Summit
This afternoon I’ll be speaking at the National Human Capital Summit in Atlanta. You can attend the event online at no cost by registering at the link below. Online attendees will be able to see my presentation as well as those of consultant and author Gary Hamel, Liane Hornsey of Google, Dr. John Fleming of Gallup, author Dan Pink, Vineet Nayar CEO of HCL Technologies and Suzanne Gordon of SAS Institute.
To sign up for this special complimentary pass into the live streaming conference, click on this link.
- If it’s your first time visiting the HCI conference registration site, click “register” and create a new account by entering your information in the required fields and choosing a password (again, there is no cost to do this).
- Please take the time to click the “Test Your System” icon and install Silverlight if you haven’t previously. If you need any help you may click “Live Chat Now” for instant, live support.
- When you exit the virtual conference, re-enter by following the same link but click “login” instead of “register” when you return and enter your username and password.
And because it is a live streaming event, you then will come back at the time of the talks that you want to see. Click on this link to see the virtual conference agenda. There are MANY great talks to choose from. All times listed are Eastern Time.
Tomorrow night I will attend the awards ceremony for the Management Innovation Exchange’s HCI Human Capital M-Prize. Congratulations to the ten semifinalists, three of whom are friends of mine: Lisa Haneberg, Steve Todd and Drew Williams, my pastor at Trinity Church in Greenwich, Connecticut.