Last week I attended the 2010 Business Innovation Factory Collaborative Innovation Summit in Providence, Rhode Island (referred to as BIF-6). There were so many thoughtful presentations that I hesitate to merely highlight a few. After taking a couple days to mull it over I’ve decided to select a few presentations that will be most relevant to the themes I typically write and speak about i.e. leadership, connection, employee engagement, productivity and innovation. Below are brief descriptions of several presentations from the conference. For those who want to hear these or other presentations, you can access them at this link.
Tag Archives: teams
To Impart Your Values
How do you impart values to the people you are responsible for leading, including your children? Recently I had the opportunity to watch a leader who does this well. I’d like to share three critical actions that I believe are necessary to impart your values and I think you will be inspired by and learn from his example.
1. Communicate Your Values, Upfront and Often
Leaders need to lead courageously by telling people what they believe. Ted (not his real name) has developed a small, pocket-sized, laminated card that describes his values and has given the card to all of the employees of his company. The contents on the card define what behavior Ted expects of himself and of the people he is responsible for leading. Each morning a one-page sheet entitled “Connect” is circulated throughout Ted’s company that includes a story about employees living out one of the values. Work groups meet briefly each morning to review the Connect sheet.
One morning I attended a session that Ted holds each week with his leadership team and a select number of potential leaders. There were about 30 people in attendance. Ted stood upfront where he spoke and facilitated the session. During the time the group discussed one chapter in a leadership book they were reading together. About one-third of the 60-90 minutes session is set aside for small group deliberations. The material they covered the day of my visit was on the value that is most important to Ted: caring about people. Studying great books is an ideal way to learn and grow, and to bring the team together. This shared practice also helps maintain awareness of and reinforce the importance of Ted’s values.
2. Live Your Values Daily
It is said that values are caught not taught. I don’t agree. Values are taught and caught. Both are critical.
Human Capital Institute’s Employee Engagement Conference
On October 6, I’ll be speaking about leadership, employee motivation, productivity and innovation at the Human Capital Institute’s Employee Engagement and Retention Conference in Boston. The conference has scheduled a book signing for Fired Up or Burned Out. You can learn more about the employee engagement conference at this link.
We recently committed to other public speaking engagements. In January I will be speaking at Texas Christian University as part of its Tandy Executive Leadership Series. In May, Jason Pankau will be speaking at the HR Summit in Singapore. The summit is Asia’s largest leadership and HR conference with more than three thousand attendees.
Real Dysfunction Today, Hidden in Plain Sight
Many individuals and organizations today are in a funk.
Employee engagement is at a low point and the slide down began long before the Great Recession. Research generally shows that 90 percent of employees don’t feel connected to their supervisor or colleagues at work and are either not engaged and giving their best efforts or not aligning their behavior with organizational goals. Is it any wonder that our economy is struggling?
Research shows that many individuals today are lonely, anxious and depressed. Depression medication is now a 10 billion dollar business. Even more children report feeling anxious and depressed. They sense that something is wrong although though they don’t understand why.
The problem today is hidden in plain sight. We are sorely deficient of what I refer to as connection (also known as community, social capital, belonging or meaningful relationships). How did we get to this state? Over the last century we grew myopic and obsessed with increasing efficiency and productivity and forgot that human beings need time for relationships too.
If you’re skeptical, I invite you to take a look at The Connection Culture Manifesto, the Hardwired to Connect report by the Committee for Children at Risk, and The Lonely Society report by the Mental Health Foundation in the UK. Several excellent books also address the issue of declining connection in society including Bowling Alone, The American Paradox and The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies.
What can you do? Although it’s simple, it isn’t easy. Take time to connect. Reach out to the people in your life, set up times to meet for coffee a walk or a meal and then slow down and focus on being present with those you spend time with. Find out what’s going on in their lives at work and outside of work. Do this daily, if at all possible.
It used to be said that an apple a day keeps the doctor away but research from a variety of fields makes it clear that connection with others and with meaning in life is the real daily requirement that helps human beings survive and thrive.
So what are you waiting for? Just connect.
Burnout Results From Living in Conflict with Values
The New York Times recently had an article on rising burnout among clergy entitled “Taking a Break from the Lord’s Work.” The article was followed by a thoughtful op-ed entitled “Congregations Gone Wild.”
Effective leadership, employee engagement and employee motivation are closely linked to the alignment of behavior with personal values. In the case of clergy, putting a muzzle on pastors so they are unable to preach in a way that is consistent with their values is a sure path to burnout.
This is a very important issue that everyone should spend time thinking about. Set aside time this month to list your values. Ask yourself, “what do I believe in and what’s important to me in the way I live my life?” Then compare what you wrote down with how you presently live. During the Depression, a young financial analyst working in London did this exercise. Years later reflecting on it he wrote that “people, I realized, is what I value and I had no desire to be the richest man in the cemetery.” That young man, Peter Drucker, left his well-paying job and went on to become the father of management consulting. In “How Peter Drucker Changed My Life” I wrote about how Drucker’s writings affected my own career decisions.
What if you discover there are differences in your values and how you are presently living? My advice is to invite 2-3 people you trust and respect to meet with you, discuss your analysis and thoughts about how you might take action to close the values gaps. You may find all that is necessary is to speak with your supervisor about making changes to your present job or something more may be required such as moving to a different job or business unit in your organization, or, in the the most extreme instances, changing careers altogether. Whatever the case, ignoring the present stressful state is never wise because if affects your mental and physical heath, your relationships and your job performance. Having conversations with people you trust will help reduce the stress you feel and also help clarify your thinking so that you can develop a clear plan to move forward to a better state of work and a better life.
Employee Engagement: Federal News Radio Interview
Chris Dorobek, the well-respected talk show host of Federal News Radio in Washington, D.C, recently interviewed Jason Pankau and yours truly about employee engagement and strategic alignment based on an article Jason and I wrote for the award-winning Leader to Leader Journal entitled “To Boost Performance, Connect with the Core.” You can listen to the unedited radio interview at this link.
Video Training: Connection Cultures in Churches
Some of you know that in addition to speaking and teaching leadership at organizations such at Google, NASA, Johnson & Johnson and the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business, Jason Pankau and I frequently speak in churches about how Judaeo-Christian values lived out create what we refer to as a “Connection Culture.” To learn more, watch the following video series of Jason Pankau teaching a workshop on Connection Cultures for Churches.
Session 1 – The Case for Connection
Session 2 – Creating a Connection Culture
Session 3 – Inspiring Identity
Session 4 – Knowledge Flow
Session 5 – Committed Members and Servant Leaders
US Navy and U2: What Connection?
The US Navy and U2 in the same article! Huh?
That’s right. It’s true. Check it out for yourself.
The Leader to Leader Institute just posted an article on its website that Jason Pankau and I wrote for the Summer edition of the Leader to Leader Journal. The article features the stories of the US Navy’s former Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Vern Clark, and Bono, the lead singer of the rock band U2. The article is about the topic of connecting with “core employees” to boost strategic alignment, employee engagement, productivity and innovation. Here is a link to the article entitled “To Boost Performance, Connect with the Core.”
Best Practice Institute Employee Engagement Webinar
On July 14, 2010 at 12:00 pm EDT, Michael and Jason Pankau will join the Best Practice Institute to present a 45 minute webinar on creating a work environment to maximize employee engagement and strategic alignment. Following the webinar there will be a 15 minute period for Q&A.
During the session, Michael and Jason will cover:
- Six universal human needs to thrive at work
- Three core elements of a culture that motivates employees to give their all
- Best practices of leaders who energize the people they lead
- Why task and relationship excellence are necessary to achieve sustainable superior performance.
You can register for the webinar at this link.
The Need to Respect Legitimate Authority and One’s Colleagues
With the recent firing of General McChrystal as commander of American forces in Afghanistan over his insubordination, I thought it would be an ideal time to reproduce here what I wrote in Fired Up or Burned Out about one of the greatest military leaders in history, America’s Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall.
Marshall created a culture that stands in stark contrast to the culture created by General McChrystal as reported in a Rolling Stone magazine article entitled “The Runaway General.” Defenders of McChrystal argue he was speaking truth to power. General Marshall was known for speaking truth to power but, unlike McChrystal, he recognized the need to respect legitimate authority and to always be respectful in dealing with the people he interacted with whether they were fellow soldiers, diplomats or representatives of foreign governments.
Because Marshall possessed humility of character, he knew that he was not always right and had to defer to the decisions of his superior in the chain-of-command then put extra effort into executing such decisions. As a result, Marshall had the complete confidence of the leaders he reported to such as General John “Blackjack” Pershing and President Franklin Deleno Roosevelt.
Marshall should be one of the role models all leaders strive to emulate. The title of the chapter I wrote about General Marshall was “Soldier of Peace.” You can read it below.