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Category Archives: Intentional Connectors
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.
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.
Leadership, Employee Engagement and Innovation at BIF-6 Summit
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.
Individuals, Organizations That Survive Life’s Inevitable Storms
Everyone experiences difficult seasons in life. Although storms come to our lives in many different forms including health problems, death of a loved one, divorce or job loss, one thing is certain: it’s difficult, if not impossible, to get through the stormy seasons in life alone. We need family and friends who “have our backs.” Unfortunately, as this thoughtful article that recently appeared in USA Today suggests, true friendship may be dying.
In a video interview I filmed for the Leader to Leader Institute’s Leadership Dialogues website, I speak with leadership experts Mark Thompson and Bonita Buell-Thompson about what I learned from my wife Katie’s successful battles with breast and advanced ovarian cancer. You can read about it and watch the video at this link.
The lesson I learned is about the importance of connection and relationships. It applies to organizations as much as it does to individuals and families. When difficult seasons arrive, an organization’s culture often makes a difference to whether the organization survives or doesn’t. Dog-eat-dog or cultures that are indifferent to people and relationships often spiral down into relational isolation, anxiety, distrust, blame and finger pointing. On the other hand, Connection Cultures that value human beings and relationships tend to pull together and work through the challenges.
My question for you is, who has your back in life and at work? Are you intentional about taking the time to build strong relationships with individuals who you trust and who trust you? If you lead an organization, do you invest time to develop relationship excellence in your organization?
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.”
Adams Family Character
This weekend, my wife Katie and I went for a rare getaway to Boston, about a three hour drive from our home in Connecticut. Our primary interest was to see the home of the Adams family, not of the television sitcom fame, however. We were interested in seeing the other Adams family, John and Abigail Adams, and their son John Quincy Adams. Katie and I much admire the Adams’s for their character, their faith and the positive impact they had America.
As it turned out, Sunday was the birthday of John Quincy Adams. When we visited the tombs of the Adams’s we saw a wreath on John Quincy Adam’s tomb sent from President Obama.
The highlight of the trip for me was seeing the Mendi Bible that was given by the Mendi men to John Quincy Adams in thanks for representing them in their successful case to win their freedom, a case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Mendi Bible is kept in a safe except on the weekend of John Quincy Adams’s birthday when it is on display in the Adams’s library adjacent to their home in Quincy, Massachusetts.
The tour guide let me read a copy of the letter the Mendi Men presented to John Quincy Adams at the time they gave him the Bible. The letter expressed their gratitude to President Adams, how much the Bible meant to them during their time in prison and how they continue reading it now that they are free. President Adams wrote back to the Mendi that “it was from that book that I learnt to espouse your cause when you were in trouble.”
The story of the Mendi men was captured in Stephen Spielberg’s highly acclaimed movie “Amistad,” which I encourage you to see. In 2007, Deval Patrick, Massachusett’s first African-American governor, was sworn in using the Mendi Bible (you can read about it in this Boston Globe article.)
Near the church where the Adams’s are entombed, there is a statue of young John Quincy at around nine years old holding the hand of his mother Abigail. She was a remarkable woman of faith, wisdom and courage. Knowing the stories of John and Abigail Adams it should come as no surprise that their son went on to become America’s sixth president and later a defender of liberty and justice in the case of the Mendi’s. As historian David McCullough wrote,
“While there are indeed great, often unfathomable forces in history before which even the most exceptional of individuals seem insignificant, the wonder is how often events turn upon a single personality, or the quality we call character.”
The Adams’ family was a tremendous example of strength of character in action. I was encouraged learning more about them.
Learning about and celebrating the stories of individuals who have good character is one way we can be encouraged to live up to their example. By developing habits that reflect strength of character in our lives and teaching the stories of role models such as the Adams’s to our children we help them develop good character too.
LeaderLab Podcast Interview
Jason Pankau and I were recently guests on LeaderLab’s podcast interviews available online or at iTunes. LeaderLab’s podcasts are hosted by David Burkus. David’s past guests on LeaderLab’s podcasts have included Marshall Goldsmith, Daniel Pink and Steve Farber. Check it out.
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.