I’m encouraged to see more leaders recognize that individuals and organizations need connection to thrive. Here’s a video of Polly LaBarre at MIX interviewing Ivy Ross, Gap’s Chief Innovation Officer, about the need for connection to innovate. To learn more about “Connection Cultures” download the Connection Culture Manifesto published by changethis.com. You can go even deeper into Connection Cultures by signing up for my new quarterly email newsletter after which you will receive an email that contains a link to a free download of Fired Up or Burned Out, the book that introduced Connection Cultures.
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Character Strengths of Your Business
“…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.”
— Historian David McCullough
“Ability may get you to the top but it takes character to keep you there.”
— Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
— Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This morning I’ll be a guest on my friend Jim Blasingame’s Small Business Advocate radio show. Jim and I will talk about developing character strengths in your business such as passion for excellence and beauty, kindness, persistence, creativity and citizenship. Strength of character makes us better leaders in business, government, education and the social sector. It also makes us better human beings.
On the show I will mention downloads available on my blog. Here they are below:
List of the Character Strengths and Virtues
Character > Connection> Thrive Chain
Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity and Productivity.
How Solitude Shapes Great Leaders
Take time to read this thoughtful speech entitled Solitude and Leadership by William Deresiewicz given to this year’s plebe class at West Point. He describes how great leaders develop the courage of their convictions, which includes moral courage. Reflection, time alone with one’s thoughts, interactions with trusted friends and reading great books, as Deresiewicz says, are part of the mix. What he didn’t adequately include is the impact of one’s experiences in life including one’s family of origin and periods of adversity and suffering that breed humility. Despite its shortcomings, it’s a fine speech and well worth taking time to read.
Many thanks to David Books of The New York Times for bringing this thoughtful speech to my attention. Brook’s recognized Deresiewicz’s speech as one of the best pieces of long journalism written in 2010.
Talent May Get You to the Top, But…
…it takes character to keep you there. John Wooden, the late legendary UCLA men’s basketball coach once stated this in so many words.
Wooden’s observation came to mind when I read a New York Times‘ article today entitled “The Day the Patriots Empire Began to Crumble.” The article argued that the Patriot’s lost their lustre when its coach, Bill Belichick, was caught cheating.
Over the years, the leaders of the Patriots, Coach Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, did so many things right. I wrote about many of them in a chapter Fired Up or Burned Out. Belichick’s cheating, however, diminished one of the three elements of a Connection Culture: the element of “Vision.” The element of Vision exists when everyone in an organization is motivated by the mission, united by the values and proud of the reputation. Belichick’s cheating was not in keeping with the Patriot’s core values. It also tarnished the organization’s reputation. the cheating caused players and fans lost some of their respect for Belichick and the Patriots. They were not longer felt as proud to say they were members of the Patriots’ organization. Pride in one’s identity is emotional in nature and research shows that emotional connections are 4X as important as rational factors when it comes to the amount of effort people put in their work. The Patriots lost some of that emotional connection and as a result their players have not been as fired up as they once were.
Hopefully, Belichick learned a lesson and in time can gain back the connection, respect and trust he once had.
Cartoon Boosts “Voice” in U.S. Military
“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!
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.
MichaelLeeStallard.com on Newstex
Newstex just added MichaelLeeStallard.com to its sources of authoritative content. The organization provides real-time news and commentary collected from the world’s best online and offline sources to customers who need information but don’t have time to gather it from a myriad of places. Today, Newstex offers aggregated news and full-text feeds from thousands of premium blogs as well as Twitter, audio and video content from editorially-selected, authoritative news, corporate, and independent publishers.
Employee Engagement on Triple Bottom Line Radio
David Zinger’s “Zengage”
Congratulations and happy birthday to my friend David Zinger, founder of the Employee Engagement Network. David’s book entitled Zengage is off to a great start and he’s already donating profits of $2,160 to flood relief and a women’s shelter. Here’s what I wrote earlier about the book:
Our Book Now in Korean + New Video Interview
A couple news items to report.
Our publisher, Thomas Nelson, just informed me that the Korean language version of Fired Up or Burned Out is now available (see cover above). Author, speaker Mark Thompson recently emailed me a video of an interview I did with Mark and his wife Bonita for the Leader to Leader Institute’s Leadership Dialogues series. You can view the video on Facebook at this link.