Category Archives: Leadership

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Connect Through a Greater Vision

The Body Shop Logo#16 Develop a Vision That Serves a Cause Greater Than Self

Leaders who view themselves as serving a cause greater than self connect with people who share their desire to serve that particular cause. A shared cause connects people to one another by bringing greater beauty, goodness and/or truth to the world, and, by doing so, helps people.

Here is an example. Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, started a company to help women-owned businesses in developing countries market their natural personal care products to consumers in wealthy nations. Roddick was passionate about it, employees and customers of The Body Shop loved it, and the company grew rapidly to become a global success story.

Research by Wharton’s Adam Grant has shown that connecting to a Vision of serving others (pro-social, as Grant calls it) boosts employee productivity. Research by UCLA’s Stephen W. Cole, et al., has shown that people who feel connected to their work because it has a higher purpose or service to others exhibited gene-expression profiles that were associated with a lower risk of cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

This is the sixteenth post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights language, attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others. Although the language, attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

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3 Practices CEOs Should Adopt from this Rock Star

U2's Bono

As seen on Fox Business

One of the great success stories of our time is the rock band U2.  When the band began in 1976, its musical skills left much to be desired. More than three decades later, U2 has received a remarkable 22 Grammy awards, more than any band in history.  In addition, the band surpassed the Rolling Stones’ record for the highest revenue grossing concert tour. How did this transformation happen?

Like all great groups, leadership makes the difference.  Bono is U2’s leader, lead singer and lyricist. His leadership approach can be described in one sentence: Bono communicates an inspiring vision and lives it, values people, and gives them a voice.  CEOs would be wise to follow Bono’s example. 

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Determining Your Top 5 Priorities for 2014

Goals and PrioritiesA mistake many leaders make is being overly ambitious in setting annual priorities. Going beyond five annual priorities diminishes focus and jeopardizes effective execution by tending to overwhelm those responsible for implementation.  (Neuroscientists have discovered that when people feel overwhelmed, brain function shifts from the frontal lobes of the brain, where rational decisions are made, to the mid-brain region, where rash decisions are more likely.)

One extremely successful leader who understands the importance of this best practice is Admiral Vern Clark, the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) from 2000 until his retirement in 2005.  As head of the U.S. Navy, the CNO is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and serves as the principal naval adviser to the President of the United States on the conduct of war. The Navy achieved impressive gains during Clark’s tenure.

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Connect with the Core

Leader with employees testing new management theory

#11 Connect with the Organization’s Core

Remember to make an effort to connect with people who have less power, control and influence because they are the ones who do most of the work when it comes to executing the tasks of your organization. Research has shown that higher status employees pay less attention to those with lower status and they are unaware of it. The famous “Whitehall Studies” in the UK established that workers who are lower in an organization’s hierarchy have less sense of control and suffer from greater stress and this contributes to ill health and higher mortality. The antidote to help people cope with stress is to connect with them and to delegate greater control to them.

This is the eleventh post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights language, attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others. Although the language, attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

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Affirm People in Introductions

Business Lunch to Stop Burnout

#10 Introduce People with Affirming Statements

When you make introductions, get in the habit of making a positive comment about the person. The positive comment must be genuine, however. As they say in the southern U.S., “it can’t be Saccharine… it has to be real sugar.” For example, you might introduce Tom by saying “I’d like you to meet Tom. He’s an outstanding engineer.” or “He’s one of the smartest people I know.” or “He’s an avid runner.”

This is the tenth post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights language, attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others. Although the language, attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

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Motivate with a Memorable “Vision Phrase” that Matters

Vision Road Sign

When you communicate a memorable vision phrase that matters, the people you lead will be more motivated to help achieve it.

Recently I was helping run workshops on leadership at Texas Christian University (TCU), a university of just under 10,000 students based in Fort Worth, Texas. TCU is one of the hottest schools in America. It receives around 20,000 applications a year for 1,800 freshman openings.

At TCU, people are motivated by a vision phrase TCU uses as a tagline: “Learning to Change the World.” Although they know the gist of TCU’s official and more formal sounding vision, mission and values, it’s the vision phrase that all can recite.

At TCU, the vision phrase is reinforced by the stories of graduates who are helping to change the world in ways that are consistent with TCU’s values.

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A Lesson in Valuing People

Oftentimes how a leader reacts in a crisis shines a light on his or her values.  Ratan Tata, head of the Tata Group of companies, showed he valued employees and their families as human beings following a terrorist attack on the Tata-owned Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel in Mumbai, India on November 26, 2008, six years ago this week.  Mr. Tata had dependents of those employees who were affected flown to Mumbai and housed for three weeks.  He personally visited the families of all 80 employees who were affected.  He attended the funerals of those who died. Counseling was provided for both employees and their families. Loans outstanding to the affected employees were forgiven, arrangements were made and a trust fund was established so that dependents of those who died would continue to receive their deceased loved one’s salary for life, the education of their children and dependents would be paid for, and the families would receive healthcare and have access to counseling for the remainder of their lives.

Valuing people as individuals, rather than for what they produce, is the heart of a Connection Culture.  As we remember the events on that horrific day six years ago, let us remember the courageous employees of the Taj who lost their lives trying to protect the lives of their guests.  Let us also remember the heart of a leader, Ratan Tata, who shared in the tears of the families and who led not only with skillful hands, but foremost with a true heart.

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Leaders: Use stories to help achieve sustainable superior performance

Franklin D. Roosevelt TIME Man of the Year 1933 Color PhotoDuring World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt traveled to Seattle, Wash., to meet with 18,000 aircraft workers at Boeing Corporation. FDR brought with him a young airplane pilot named Hewitt Wheless from Texas.

The pilot had escaped death, thanks to the resilience of the bullet-riddled B-17 plane he flew out of harm’s way. His plane had been built at that very Boeing plant.

Do you think seeing and hearing that young pilot thank them for saving his life connected them to a common cause? You bet it did.

Although the work required for America to catch up to the output of the Nazi military-industrial complex was daunting, Americans rose to the challenge by persevering through long, hard hours of menial factory work.

FDR’s visits helped transform welders and riveters into freedom fighters. From 1941 until 1945 American aircraft companies out-produced the Nazis three to one and built nearly 300,000 airplanes.

People remember stories. Effective leaders like FDR identify and communicate stories to inspire people. Here are three key points to consider when using stories to enthuse, engage and energize people.

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Your career will soar if you avoid leaders’ #1 blind spot

Many leaders unknowingly sabotage their careers by wrongly assuming their employees are actively engaged in their work.

This lack of understanding about engagement — enthusiasm, effort and enjoyment at work — will eventually affect the bottom line and make the leader look ineffective.

Here are the facts: The average leader engages only three out of every 10 employees. The best leaders engage six or more out of every 10 employees.

Your customers clearly see whether your employees are engaged or not. Engagement affects the quality of their work, their productivity and responsiveness, all of which affect your customers’ experience.  They feel employees’ enthusiasm and energy — or lack thereof — and recognize the bad results of an organization with overall morale problems. Employee engagement matters. 

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Neutralize “Killer Stress” to Boost the Bottom Line

Who experiences greater levels of stress: management or employees? Managers seem to think they do, but hard research data makes it clear: Employees experience greater stress, and that affects the company’s bottom line.

It doesn’t have to be that way: Effective leaders can create an organizational culture that reduces “killer stress” and encourages “challenge stress,” which produces gains in productivity and performance.

Despite its reputation, all stress is not bad. What we call “challenge stress,” actually stimulates people to perform at their best.

“Killer stress,” is the kind that comes from feeling like you don’t have control over your work. Killer stress is unhealthy and in many individuals triggers fight, flight, freeze or stalking behavior — not what good leaders want to find in their organizations.

Here are three actions you can take to reduce killer stress, increase challenge stress and boost your company’s bottom line.