Tag Archives: fired up or burned out

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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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We Need More “Heart and Soul” in the Age of “Mind and Strength”

Wise organizations distinguish themselves from competitors by developing their heart and soul. Organizations that have heart and soul enrich their owners, customers and communities in both economic and non-economic ways.

What do I mean by heart and soul?  Let me explain.

While out running errands one day when we were relatively new to town, my wife stopped in at one of several jewelry stores on the main shopping street.  The cases were filled with beautiful pieces, new and heirloom.  The salespeople, however, were more than aloof.  They ignored her.  No eye contact.  No smile.  No “hello, my name is X, may I help you?”  This lack of connection made her feel as if they thought she was unworthy of their attention.  Not surprisingly, she has never gone back. These salespeople lacked the qualities I describe as heart and soul.

The absence of heart and soul in the workplace is not unusual.  This is the age of mind and strength. So often we focus on the tasks of our work and neglect the relational aspects.  As human beings we have emotions, hopes and dreams, a conscience, and deeply felt human needs.  Research from a variety of fields has shown that when we recognize these realities and treat others in ways consistent with them, we thrive. When we don’t, it is damaging to our mental and physical health and to the health of those around us.

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Get to Know Colleagues’ and Customers’ Stories





Here’s a stirring video from Chick-fil-A to remind us that every human being has a story. In our endeavors to develop Connection Cultures we encourage people who work together to get to know one another’s stories and to reach out and learn customers’ stories, if at all possible. Learning the stories of the people in your life is just one aspect of Human Value, the second element of a Connection Culture. When you know a person’s story, it helps you empathize and connect with them. It’s also more difficult to grow extremely disconnected with someone when you know their story.

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Speaking at the New Canaan Society

Here’s an article entitled “Worker Engagement Holds Key to Success” that appeared this morning in The Connecticut Post, The Greenwich Time, The Stamford Advocate and The Danbury News Times.  The article briefly describes the “Connection Cultures” we wrote about in our book, Fired Up or Burned Out, and mentions that on Friday morning, November 5, I’ll be speaking about how Christians can help improve the workplace at the New Canaan Society’s Darien Connecticut Chapter.  Breakfast begins at 6:30 AM and my talk will start at 7:00 AM.  For details, click here.

logo_ncs The New Canaan Society is a group of men who meet to encourage one another to live out Biblical values. It was founded in 1995 by Jim Lane, a partner at Goldman Sachs, and has grown to 30 chapters across the United States.

On a related topic, Jason Pankau will be speaking at the New Canaan Society’s New York City Chapter in Manhattan on January 19th and at NCS’s Annual Retreat at the Homestead in Virginia on March 4-6.  You might also be interested to know that in the coming weeks, Jason and I are doing a series of webinars on leadership, employee engagement, productivity and innovation for Linkage, the Human Capital Institute, the DNA Global Network and the New Talent Management Network.  The webinars are free to the public.  Details and sign-up information will be posted in the upcoming engagements section on the left-hand side of the front page of our book website at this link.

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Vince Lombardi on Broadway?

Lombardi













It takes guts to bring a drama to Broadway these days without a megastar playing the lead.  To top it off, the producers of the show Lombardi promise to reveal why the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers football team was so successful.  Lots of luck with that, I thought, when I first read about the show.  My curiosity got the best of me, however, once I learned that Lombardi was based on one of my favorite sports biographies, David Maraniss’ When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi.

To my great surprise, Lombardi was enthralling and inspiring.  My wife and I were among the many enthusiastic audience members who expressed our appreciation with a standing ovation at the show’s conclusion.

What first stood out to me about the show was its supurb acting. Dan Lauria who played the dad on the Emmy award-winning television series, The Wonder Years, portrayed Vince Lombardi flawlessly.  Deconstructing Lauria’s performance doesn’t capture what he pulled off but suffice it to say that Lauria’s walk, talk, facial expressions and sheer dominating presence were pure Lombardi.

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Do Women Bring More Happiness to Families, Greater Effectiveness to Organizations?

A participant in a recent session Jason Pankau and I were teaching on Connection Cultures and employee engagement shared that she connects with her sons by talking about sports. She follows sports, not out of a love for it, but because it  gives her a language to connect with her boys. By contrast, her conversations with women tend to be about what happens in their day-to-day lives.

Her comments reminded me of a recent article in The New York Times entitled “Why Sisterly Chats Make People Happier.” The article noted research has concluded families with sisters are happier.   The article’s author believes this is true because women initiate and sustain conversations more than men.

This is consistent with my own personal observations.  

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Servant Leaders Outperform Because They Connect

Servant leaders connect with the people they lead and create Connection Cultures that are essential to achieve sustainable superior performance. Connection is defined as a bond that exists among a group of people based on shared identity, empathy and understanding that moves self–centered individuals toward group-centered membership.  Here’s an example of a servant leader that brings the force of connection to life.

Retired CNO Admiral Vern Clark was formerly the chief of the U.S. Navy from 2000 until 2005. When Admiral Clark became the chief, first term re-enlistment didn’t meet the Navy’s goal of 38 percent. Within a little more than a year, it soared from under 38 percent to 56.7 percent and the Navy had more sailors that it needed.  Although I don’t have space in this article to tell you all of what Admiral Clark did, his actions can be summarized in three words: Vision, Value and Voice.

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Podcasts, Webcasts, Articles on Employee Engagement and Connection

Tomorrow I will be doing a podcast interview with Rena Reese on her Soul Salon program.  We will be talking about Connection Cultures, employee engagement, employee motivation and other ideas in Fired Up or Burned Out.  You can listen live and call in to participate at 1:00 PM Eastern.  Here’s the link.

We have podcasts and webcasts scheduled with organizations including Giant Impact (TBD), the New Talent Management Network (11/16) and the Corporate Executive Board’s Toolbox for HR (10/20).  Soon we expect to announce podcasts or webcasts with the Human Capital Institute and HSM.

Just to mention it, several articles on Connection Cultures were published are now available in online versions.

Outlook Business for Decision Makers (India) “Connect with Them”

The Economic Times (India) “Has SAS Institute’s Chairman Jim Goodnight Cracked the Code of Corporate Culture?”

Leader to Leader Journal (U.S.) “To Boost Performance, Connect with the Core.”

Hiring Smart (Canada) “The Case for Connection at Work“

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At Times, Trust = Connection + Contract

Research has shown that insisting on a written contract reduces trust.  There are times when it’s best to avoid a written contract.  After all, it takes time to work through a written agreement and if you hire a lawyer, it can get expensive.

At other times, however, it’s wise to reduce the terms of an agreement to writing.  A written agreement encourages greater clarity and reduces the risk of misunderstanding.  You would be surprised how often people assume there is a meeting of minds when in fact substantial differences exist.  This is especially true when it comes to more complex agreements and agreements that are executed over longer periods of time.

Another benefit of a written agreement is that it makes it easier for successors to step in to execute the terms of the agreement if one of the parties changes roles in their company, leaves their company or gets hit by a bus.

Personally, I like to get most agreements in writing while taking time to develop a connection with the individuals I’m entering into the agreement with.  I get to know them as people by asking questions about where they grew up and what their interests are outside of work.  I try to find shared interests, values and experiences that develop a connection and trust.

The “Connection + Contract” approach applies to “internal contracts” inside your organization too.  When you send someone an email or memo the summarizes what each of you agreed to do and when you will do it, you are creating a written internal contract.

Connection + Contract has the benefit of building trust that comes from developing a connection while also bringing greater clarity of terms that will maximize a meeting of the minds and expectations.