Michael Lee Stallard's Blog, page 21

TCU’s Humility Improves Odds of Success

TCU is on a roll! The university of 8,900 undergraduate students in Fort Worth, Texas is all over the national sports pages these days. 

The TCU Horned Frog football team keeps winning games and remains near the top of the college football rankings. Josh Doctson and Aaron Green are frequently mentioned as likely NFL draft picks, along with quarterback Trevone Boykin whose remarkable performances have the press buzzing that he is a frontrunner to win the Heisman Trophy. A photo of Boykin kneeling down to talk with 7-year old Abby Faber, Iowa State’s “Kid Captain” of the day who suffers from spastic diplegia cerebral palsy, recently went viral.

In the NFL, former TCU quarterback Andy Dalton is leading the Cincinnati Bengals football team to what looks like another playoff-bound year as the Bengals remain one of a handful of undefeated teams.

Jake Arrieta, the Chicago Cubs ace pitcher and contender for the Cy Young Award, helped his team defeat his former Horned Frog teammate and star second baseman Matt Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals to advance to Major League Baseball’s National League Championship Series.  TCU baseball has become a national powerhouse, making its second straight appearance earlier this year in the College World Series.

With TCU’s athletic success, one might expect hubris to surface. In my four years of involvement at TCU, even as national athletics successes mounted, I have been intrigued to observe quite the opposite.  The small school with big spirit — and unusual mascot — is anything but resting on its laurels.

Recently I participated in a meeting of the Chancellor’s Advisory Council (CAC) to provide feedback on how TCU might further strengthen its athletic program to prepare student-athletes to be successful in the classroom, in competition and in life beyond college. The CAC consists of approximately 60 individuals with diverse backgrounds from across the U.S. who come together on campus twice each year. Members tapped for a three-year term are either alumni, current or past parents, or community friends. (I have one daughter who graduated from TCU and another who is a senior). Each season the CAC focuses on a specific program or aspect of university life and provides candid feedback. Past topics have included discussions on the role of graduate education, the best ways for students to live lives that matter, the importance of freshman retention, and the advantages of a connection culture.

The CAC is one forum in which TCU has effectively operationalized humility in a way that contributes to the university’s success. TCU’s process can be summarized in three steps that every leader can implement with members of his or her organization.

Put your cards on the table

High quality feedback requires knowledge. Operationalizing humility begins by informing others in a way that reflects transparency and openness. At TCU’s CAC meetings, two half-day sessions are designed to equip CAC members with relevant facts, data and knowledge so they can ask pertinent questions and provide informed opinions. This includes interaction with students and relevant staff and faculty members.

Leaders can follow TCU’s example by being intentional about keeping people in the loop. Share financial and operational data with the people you lead. Share the issues you’re considering and your thoughts about each so people know where you stand.  Some might argue that you should begin by asking others to share their thoughts.  I’ve found that people hold back until they know where the leader stands. If the leader shares openly, and genuinely believes that honest feedback is valuable (even if it’s not what he or she wants to hear), people will be more forthcoming and say what they believe. Even though it will take time for people to be candid because it requires building trust first, I’ve found this to be the most effective approach.

Ask participants to stress test your thinking

Tell the people you lead that you have been wrong before, that you know from experience you don’t have a monopoly on good ideas and the best ideas will surface when everyone is contributing their knowledge to the conversation. Ask them to share “what’s right?, what’s wrong?, and what’s missing?” from your thinking. Don’t be critical of the feedback you receive. Listen to what they say and thank each contributor for sharing.  Have a note taker write it all down. This approach effectively stress tests your thinking.

Near the end of the CAC meetings, Ann Louden, Chancellor’s Associate for Strategic Partnerships who organizes and leads the CAC, presents the key question that the Chancellor would like the group to weigh in on and provide recommendations on how TCU can improve. Participants are assigned to groups of approximately 10 individuals each and the teams get to work on brainstorming and evaluating options. Each group reports its recommendations back to the entire CAC with TCU Chancellor Victor Boschini in attendance to hear the feedback firsthand.

Consider then implement the best

Finally, leaders at TCU consider the CAC’s feedback and implement the best ideas.  This is especially important to maintain credibility. Leaders who don’t follow-up on feedback and implement the good ideas lose credibility. They’ll find that future requests for feedback will not be taken seriously.

Seeking the ideas and opinions of others reflects humility. It says that you don’t believe you have a monopoly on good ideas and you need to hear the perspectives of others in order to make the best decisions. The 3-step process is wisdom in action because it captures the thinking of individuals who have diverse experiences, thinking styles and ideas. Armed with this valuable feedback, leaders are more likely to make optimal decisions that contribute to and sustain their organization’s success.

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4 Ways Millennials Can Boost Productivity and Fulfillment at Work

Kate Otto Speaking

Kate Otto has a message for fellow Millennials. Her work experience at an HIV/AIDS clinic in Indonesia inspired her to research the power of personal relationships. She saw that practicing certain attitudes contributed to developing meaningful relationships at work. These relationships made her more productive and increased her feelings of satisfaction and fulfillment.

Otto went on to found Everyday Ambassador, a network of individuals and organizations that promotes putting down cell phones and tablets, and being intentional about developing meaningful relationships through in-person, face-to-face interactions. Although Everyday Ambassador began as like-minded people wanting to create social change, today it has grown into a movement and a lifestyle praised by activists like pop artist Alicia Keys. The number of Everyday Ambassador’s “partner” organizations is rapidly expanding.

Otto describes people who develop meaningful relationships as practicing “ambassadorship.” Her recent book, Everyday Ambassador: Make a Difference by Connecting in a Disconnected World, weaves in stories of people living out the ambassadorship vision.

We’re not surprised that Otto’s message resonates with Millennials. While popular belief holds that Millennials can’t get enough of technology, when global marketing firm McCann WorldGroup surveyed 7,000 Millennials in 2010, it found that 90 percent of respondents rated meaningful relationships as their greatest need.

Research supports Kate Otto’s view about the link between personal relationships at work and job satisfaction.  The Gallup Organization’s research found that 30 percent of employees have a best friend at work and these employees are seven times as likely to be engaged, they are better at engaging customers, they produce higher quality work, and they have higher levels of wellbeing.  People who don’t have a best friend at work have just a one-in-twelve chance of being engaged.

Below we summarize four practices Kate Otto recommends that can help Millennials boost productivity and fulfillment at work.

Focus

To build meaningful relationships, Otto recommends being present and attentive, and not being distracted by trying to multitask on smart phones or tablets. She makes the case that scattering our attention, in terms of projects, is less effective than focusing our efforts on fewer projects and in a more specific direction. “Think about your strengths and talents,” writes Otto. “Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, focus on one thing you do well, and do it.”

Empathy

Otto expresses concern about “digital divisiveness” and incivility online that polarizes people, making them less considerate, and works against empathy.  She advocates being intentional about considering diverse views and perspectives, as well as being sensitive to the feelings of others when communicating online.

We would add that empathy strengthens relationships because of its effect on the recipient. When we feel someone’s joy, it enhances the joy he or she feels; and when we feel someone’s pain, it biologically diminishes his or her pain.  These effects of empathy develop more caring relationships that bring people together.

Humility

Being a “know it all” who tries to “one up others” works against developing meaningful relationships.  Otto says this is especially an issue today because having easy access to knowledge at our fingertips temps us to become “pocket experts.” She prefers being open to ask others for advice and help, and admitting shortcomings, both of which reflect humility.

Ms. Otto writes about other matters related to humility, including the importance of recognizing the contributions of others, maintaining an attitude that you can always learn more, and that at times silence may be the best response because it is a way of admitting that we don’t know how someone feels but that we care enough about him or her to listen.

Patience

High speed does not equate to high impact.  Ms. Otto observes that our fast-paced, instant gratification-oriented world is at odds with taking sufficient time required to develop meaningful relationships. “Technology might work quickly and simply, but human beings notoriously do not,” she writes. America has become a “survival of the fastest” culture. Internationally, however, patience and thoughtfulness are still viewed as virtues possessed by the wise.

Everyday Ambassador is an engaging book that provides wise advice for more than just Millennials.  In the rapidly changing, hyper-competitive connected world we live in today, Kate Otto reminds us that relationships are what matter most in life and that it’s still people working together, rather than the lone ranger, who advance the human race.

Elizabeth P. Stallard, an intern at E Pluribus Partners, co-authored this article.

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Work and Life Interview About Connection Culture

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking on Work and Life, a radio program hosted by Stew Friedman, director of the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project, on Sirius XM’s Channel 111, Business Radio Powered by Wharton. Below is a transcript of our conversation. 

Stew Friedman:  Mike, you have a background in marketing and degrees in both business and law. How did you get from there to the human side of business – the connections between employees and between employees and employers?

Mike Stallard: It is an unusual career shift. I saw, working on Wall Street, that so often mergers didn’t work. And I became interested in how work cultures were different. And I wondered, is there a best culture? That curiosity led me to eventually leave Wall Street, spend several years doing research, and start a firm that focuses on that. My first book came out in 2007.

SF: Was there a critical episode that led you to saying “I have got to go and figure this thing out for myself and then help other people to figure it out”?

MS: There were several. It was a confluence of events. One, was seeing financial services mergers.   The Morgan Stanley-Dean Witter merger, Charles Schwab and U.S. Trust — that merger influenced me, Morgan Stanley and Van Kampen American Capital. Then, also the deals over the course of my career. I saw cultures that were different. Finally, I had a very unusual situation happen where my wife, Katie, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, and ovarian cancer in 2004.  She’s healthy and thriving today.  But she had three episodes of cancer over the last decade. There was a time when we were going to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and we were walking towards the entrance, and there was a doorman named Nick Medley, who’s now a concierge. Nick locked his eyes on Katie and greeted her like a returning friend. And it really caught me by surprise.  People don’t typically make eye contact in New York City. Then, the receptionist was calling everyone ‘honey’, and the security people and administrative people were helpful and friendly in this particular part of Sloan Kettering. And her oncologist spent an hour with us.  She was upbeat, and optimistic, and answered our questions, and educated us about treatment options. And at the end of the day I had two reactions. One was I had done research and I knew that this was the best – one of the best – teams worldwide to treat advanced ovarian cancer. And the second, I knew they cared.  I observed a culture when I was there. It was such a contrast from what I experienced on Wall Street. And I decided I really wanted more of that culture. A culture where people felt connected to the work they were doing, that it was helping others, they felt connected to one another and to people they serve, their patients and their families.

SF: So that connection was inspiring to you?

MS: It really was.  I was just seeing the importance of connection. Matthew Lieberman, a neuroscientist at UCLA, has described human connection as a super power, that it makes us more productive, happier, and healthier. And I was seeing that in research after research. And then having that personal experience where I really felt a sense of connection and could observe that among the workers, doctors, and professionals; everyone in this gynecological oncology group really influenced me.

SF: That is a healthcare providing service and that is their purpose. It’s different than the rough-and-tumble world of Wall Street where the game is a lot of different. So, you expect a different culture right?

MS: Well, you do. On the other hand, Wall Street, because it does bring a lot of money, power, and fame to people who work there, attracts a lot of people who long for that. So, it’s focused on task excellence and results, and not so much on relationships. Relationships with clients have been more for the purpose of landing deals and generating revenue. And truly building strong personal relationships with clients doesn’t have to be that way. Because if you think about the purpose of Wall Street, the allocation of capital in our society has huge ramifications for people world-wide. And so it’s work that ultimately benefits individuals, but few people in Wall Street really bring that mindset. There’s a Manfred Kets de Vries article that described it. Everyone kind of has their number. Kets de Vries calls it the “F you” number, which, when you hit that number you can take off and you don’t have to work at Wall Street anymore. And I found it was the predominant attitude. A lot of people wanted to reach a certain wealth level and get the heck out because it’s just not a very healthy culture.

Read the rest of the interview on the Work and Life website. 

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Addressing Workplace Incivility

Creating a workplace culture where people feel valued involves more than actively showing appreciation. It also involves eliminating behaviors that make people feel devalued.

One of the worst culprits for making people feel devalued is disrespectful, condescending and rude behavior. Obviously, physical aggression is wrong. Less obvious is verbal abuse, especially if it is not clear that the instigator intended to harm the target. Remember the childhood phrase “sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me?” The truth is, words can and do hurt.

Most of us have witnessed managers berating the views of lower-ranking employees during meetings. These senior managers may reject others’ ideas without explaining their reasons why. Likewise, they may assert that their views are obviously superior without allowing a dialogue on the pros and cons of their position or on the alternatives. This approach is just one example of incivility in an organizational culture.

Uncivil behavior can take many forms. Here are a few:

Angry outbursts, tantrums, yelling, screaming, and cursing at someone
Giving someone the silent treatment, ignoring or excluding him
Constantly interrupting someone
Violating someone’s personal space to intimidate him
Publicly ridiculing someone
Intensely cross-examining someone to belittle him
Putting down or being condescending toward someone

Generally, any actions meant to humiliate, intimidate, undermine, or destroy a colleague in the workplace must be forbidden. These include acts of omission such as withholding resources (time, information, supplies, support, etc.) for the purpose of sabotaging another person’s efforts.

Disrespectful, condescending, and rude behavior must be eliminated from the corporate culture if we are to engage and energize people. When a leader exhibits uncivil behavior or allows someone else in his chain of command to perpetrate it, he needs to let that person know that it damages connection and is unacceptable. It should be made clear that continuing such behavior will bring about the perpetrator’s removal, regardless of the person’s “importance” to the company.

Unfortunately, patronizing behavior at work is too common. The American Psychological Association Center for Organizational Excellence reports that 98% of Americans polled in a 2013 study reported experiencing incivility on the job, and 26% of workers have quit a job because of an “uncivil workplace culture.”

Unchecked, uncivil behavior in the workplace spreads. Second-in-command leaders tend to adopt the leadership practices of their bosses, whether they are civil or uncivil. The only way to eliminate this corrosive behavior is for leaders to model civil behavior and take action to remove people who have proven themselves incapable of reform.

Is uncivil behavior a problem in your workplace? Be part of the answer rather than part of the problem.

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Pfizer’s Straight Talk on Culture

Pfizer, the multinational pharmaceutical giant, has become increasingly intentional about shaping its culture. You can see evidence of Pfizer’s commitment in Ian Read’s letter to stakeholders the year after he became CEO:

In 2011, we thoroughly explored what our culture is and how it needs to evolve. We engaged with leaders across the business and sought the candid input of approximately 11,000 colleagues globally. We concluded that we need a culture where colleagues behave like they are owners of the business, are not afraid to take thoughtful risks, deliver on their commitments, treat each other with trust and respect and work with integrity each and every day. Developing this ownership culture will be key to our success. I am personally proud of Pfizer’s colleagues. Pfizer people care. They embody our humanity and innovative spirit, and are determined to tackle some of the most pressing health care challenges of our time. We are committed to creating an ownership culture that unleashes the creativity of our colleagues around the world.

One way to grasp an organization’s culture is to look at the language, attitudes and behaviors that predominate throughout, from leaders to those on the frontlines with clients and those in supporting roles.

Did you notice the word Read used to describe people who work at Pfizer? When Pfizer acquired Warner Lambert in 2000, it adopted Warner Lambert’s practice of referring to employees as colleagues. The word “colleagues” conveys a greater level of respect for people. In comparison, the word “employees” makes people sound more like a means to an end in order to achieve business results rather than unique individuals worthy of respect in and of themselves.

Pfizer explicitly uses the provocative phrase “no jerks” when it comes to behavior. This clearly communicates that disrespectful, patronizing, condescending or passive-aggressive behavior is not welcome. To make this cultural value of “no jerks” real, several years ago Pfizer launched and trained up to 80,000 colleagues worldwide on “Straight Talk,” an approach to giving and receiving feedback, and holding what might be a difficult conversation in a way that safeguards relationships and trust while bringing information forward.

Pfizer colleagues were given Straight Talk coins they can pull out and place on a table during a discussion when speaking up is necessary. The simple object is a tangible reminder to all present of the why and how behind the initiative. Although the coins are not used as much these days, according to John Young, president of Pfizer’s Global Established Pharma business, he hears colleagues around the world use the phrase “in the spirit of Straight Talk” before they speak up. Straight Talk has given Pfizer colleagues worldwide a common language to use and reinforces that it is okay, and actually encouraged, to speak up for the good of the organization. This is especially important in Asian cultures in which the deeply embedded value of respect for elders and people in authority might otherwise hold people back.

In addition to encouraging Straight Talk, Pfizer seeks the opinions of its colleagues through its annual PfizerVoice survey. Pfizer colleagues rate various aspects of the organization, including Pfizer’s strategy, the division/business unit’s strategy, organization system and structure, the CEO and executive leadership team, division/business unit leadership, the respondent’s direct manager, colleagues with whom the respondent works, and climate/engagement. Feedback from the survey helps hold managers and leaders accountable.

Pfizer leaders cite “winning the right way” and “performance with integrity” that is the “shared responsibility” of all Pfizer colleagues. Leaders encourage taking responsibility, holding each other accountable, raising concerns and asking questions, “saying no when it is the right thing to do, regardless of the business impact,” and “maintaining Pfizer’s high standards in everything we do and everywhere we operate.” Leading a global business means managing operations in some nations where meeting high ethical standards is more challenging given the prevalence of corruption in the local culture. In some countries, leaders spend as much time thinking about compliance issues as they do strategy issues. People are more committed and loyal to an organization that is ethical.

Absent intentional efforts to develop healthy cultures that bring out the best in people, organizations drift toward unhealthy cultures that are either indifferent to employees or may mistreat employees and breach ethical norms. Pfizer is an excellent example of an organization that is intentional about shaping its culture. Leaders have clearly focused on identifying Pfizer’s cultural values and articulating them in a way that informs and guides behavior and serves to connect the large global workforce.

Has your organization thoroughly explored its culture and identified how it needs to evolve? If so, is your organization being sufficiently intentional about strengthening its culture?

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How Joe Torre Gained the Trust of His Players

Joe Torre, Hall of Fame former manager of the New York Yankees, really knew how to build trust, commitment and loyalty with his players.

When players experienced slumps in performance, Torre had their backs. His approach grew out of personal experiences with the frustration that came during disappointing times in his career as a ballplayer. “I hit .360 one season and I hit .240 another year, and I felt I played equally hard both years,” Torre once said.

Former Yankees superstar Paul O’Neill commented about Torre: “Joe doesn’t put added pressure on you or act differently toward you because you’re not hitting well or playing well. Players pick up on these things.” Yankees pitcher Mike Stanton added, “With Joe you really don’t have to look over your shoulder, because you’ll lose confidence in yourself long before Joe loses confidence in you. He’ll say, ‘I remember what you did for me. I remember what you did for this organization.’”

In workshops and seminars I teach, I ask participants to think about leaders they followed by giving their best effort and to share what it was about that leader that made them engaged. Many of the stories I hear are about times of adversity when a leader went out of his or her way to act in the interest of the individual. In an age that places such an emphasis on production and task excellence, time and again these stories reinforce that it is the relational side of work that engenders trust, commitment and loyalty, and drives individual effort and organizational success.

Echoing the Yankees players’ observations of their manager, one woman recently shared how during a time when she was giving her best effort but not seeing results, her manager told her he noticed how hard she was working, expressed confidence that she would be successful and then surprised her by paying for her and her husband to go on a weekend trip. She went on to become a top revenue-producer at her company and appeared to have a fierce loyalty to the leader who had her back.

I also hear stories of leaders who had the backs of people who were experiencing health issues (whether their own or a loved one’s), divorce or other situations outside of work that were stressful and found ways to help people navigate the difficult season. Some leaders even become confidants to help people think through the challenges they were facing.

Stories of leaders who have the backs of their people during challenging times reflect leaders who care about people. They ultimately reflect a leader’s character – something that can’t be faked. It’s not unusual to find someone who tries to show he cares because he feels it will engage the people he leads. This never works for long. Over time, people can tell whether their leaders are manipulating them or they truly care about them because it’s a part of who they are.

Great leaders understand that caring about performance excellence and caring about relationship excellence go hand-in-hand. It is one thing to follow a leader because you have to; it is an entirely different thing to follow a leader because you want to. It is recorded of King David, Israel’s most beloved king, that he cared for people with a true heart and led them with skillful hands. That could be said about Joe Torre, too.

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Image Credit: Photo courtesy of Flickr user Keith Allison under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license. Image has been cropped. 

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Wisdom on Mentoring from the Wizard of Westwood

Recently I spoke with Don Yeager, former Sports Illustrated writer turned corporate speaker. Don co-authored a fantastic book on mentoring with the legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden (aka the wizard of Westwood) titled A Game Plan for Life. Don was mentored by Coach Wooden for more than 12 years.

Here are four takeaways from our conversation.

Just Ask

After sitting in on an extraordinary meeting where coach Wooden mentored Shaquille O’Neal, Don asked the coach what it took to be mentored by him. Wooden replied, “just ask.” Don learned that fewer people asked Wooden to be mentored than you would expect and all Don had to do in order to be mentored by the extraordinary coach, teacher and human being was “just ask.” The point is that if you’re interested in being mentored by someone, don’t hesitate to ask.

Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail

Coach Wooden was known for focusing on preparation. He told Don that his job as mentee would require coming prepared with a list of things he wanted to learn. As a result, Don would spend two to three days preparing to meet with Coach Wooden. If you’re asking someone to mentor you, be sure to spend sufficient time preparing in advance of each meeting and developing an agenda that lists what you would like to learn. Another way to say this is that you, the mentee, are responsible for driving the agenda.

For a Season

Don told me that he had mentors who were seasonal. This type of mentor focuses on sharing his or her wisdom in a particular area. For example, one of Don’s seasonal mentors is John Maxwell, the leadership writer and speaker. Like Don, you may have a very specific area you would like to be mentored on for a season in which case a seasonal mentor would fit the bill.

Don’t Forget Less Than Obvious Mentors

While writing A Game Plan for Life, Coach Wooden told Don what he learned from various mentors he’d had throughout his life. There were obvious mentors such as Wooden’s father and his former basketball coaches. Less obvious were individuals Wooden considered mentors such as Abraham Lincoln, Mother Theresa, and Wooden’s beloved wife, Nell.

Coach Wooden was a voracious reader. His father, Joshua, had taught him the value of reading great books. And read he did. Abraham Lincoln, probably the most written about American president, was a Coach Wooden favorite. Wooden was also inspired by Mother Teresa, especially her commitment to serving others based on the belief that a life not lived for others is a life not lived. Think about the mentors you might learn from by reading their books then order one to get started.

Wooden also described his wife Nell as a mentor. Don told me that Coach Wooden felt Nell kept him grounded. In A Game Plan for Life, Coach Wooden describes how Nell taught him that trusting others and being trustworthy were both essential to every meaningful relationship.  Take a few moments to consider the people in your life whom you might learn from then set up a time to meet one of them.

Each of us needs mentors and coaches over the course of our lives to continue learning and growing. Hopefully you will find the advice from Coach Wooden and Don Yaeger to be as helpful as I did. To learn more, I encourage you to read A Game Plan for Life.

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How Queen Elizabeth I Used Connection to Restore a Nation

One of the greatest turnaround stories in all of history is also one of the most unlikely. It is the story of Queen Elizabeth I, a twenty-five-year-old woman who inherited the throne of England in 1558 having no leadership experience, faced prejudice in a time when women were considered grossly inferior to men, and lived with frequent threats of death. Despite these obstacles, she overcame the odds and led her country from near financial ruin to one of the most powerful kingdoms on earth. She is a timeless example of how a leader can connect with people and bring out the best in them.

Challenging Leadership Position

When Elizabeth became queen, England was unstable, and her chances of success, or even survival, looked dim. First, England was in a state of severe internal strife between Protestants and Catholics following the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Second, its treasury was nearly empty. Finally, Pope Pius V had declared that “whoever sends [Queen Elizabeth] out of this world . . . not only does not sin but gains merit in the eyes of God.” With the pope’s blessing, plans to kill Elizabeth were hatched by groups in Rome, France, and Spain.

Despite the dire situation, Queen Elizabeth rose to the occasion. When word arrived that she had inherited the throne after her stepsister Queen Mary’s death, Elizabeth slipped the queen’s ring on her finger, kneeled, and stated a passage from the book of Psalms: “the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Ps. 118:23). With a sense of divine appointment, she set out on her long road to restoring England’s glory.

Declaring Her Commitment

What stands out about Elizabeth’s reign is the strength of her commitment to her mission and her people. One sign of that commitment was her rejection of marriage to the love of her life, Robert Dudley. It was rumored that his terminally ill wife died from a fall that occurred when Dudley pushed her. If Elizabeth married Dudley, her leadership would have been compromised. She chose instead to declare herself “bound unto a husband which is the Kingdom of England . . . [and she would be pleased if she] lived and died a virgin.”

Elizabeth met a military challenge in 1588. King Philip II of Spain had assembled the Great Armada of 130 ships and 30,000 men to attack England and restore it to Catholicism. According to historian Winston Graham, when it became known that the Armada was en route, the English people rushed to support their queen. Elizabeth, intent upon leading her soldiers, personally went to Tilbury near the English Channel to join them and await the Spanish. Her soldiers were mesmerized, to say the least, as she circulated among them.

Although many of her subjects had come to adore her for her steadfast determination to make England great, it was at Tilbury, according to historian Simon Schama, that Elizabeth became a national icon.

Increasing Connection

In addition to Elizabeth’s strong commitment to her people, England also benefited from the elements of a connection culture – inspiring identity, human value, and knowledge flow.

Inspiring identity was restored to England under Queen Elizabeth. Many historians agree that she was admired by her subjects, many of whom affectionately referred to her as “Good Queen Bess.” Because the identity of the kingdom was so closely linked to the ruler’s identity, the English people’s affection for Queen Elizabeth and her growing stature in the world made them proud to be her subjects.

Elizabeth increased human value by demonstrating that she cared for people. When her advisers encouraged her to persecute Catholics, she refused. She chose to dedicate herself wholly to her people rather than marry the man she loved, and she showed she was willing to fight alongside her soldiers. At a time when monarchs ruled with an iron hand, her actions showed compassion and a sense of obligation to her subjects.

Although knowledge flow was limited at this point in history, there is evidence that Queen Elizabeth listened to the advice of her closest advisers and carefully considered what she learned before making decisions. Because she was not as quick to rule on matters before her, or at least not as quick as past rulers, her critics decried her slower, more measured approach as evidence that she was a poor leader.

The increased connection among the English contributed to a revival of England’s commercial and cultural activity. So successful was Queen Elizabeth’s forty-four-year reign that it became known as England’s Golden Age.

Is your organization in need of a turnaround? By showing commitment to the organization and taking steps to increase connection, you can boost morale and inspire the teamwork needed to restore your organization to greatness.

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Why You May Not Be Connecting with Others

We connect with some people and not with others. Great leaders master how to connect with just about everyone and that’s one reason why people want to follow them.

There are many facets to connection. Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram have written an excellent book titled 5 Gears: How to Be Present and Productive When There is Never Enough Time that provides insight into an important aspect of connection.

The idea is simple. There are five gears that people operate in and when you fail to recognize the gear others are in and shift into that gear, you will fail to connect. Consider the following examples:

You are focused and deep into working on a project when someone walks into your office and begins chit chatting. They fail to see that they’ve interrupted you and that you would like to get back to work. Result = Disconnect.
You are in social mode at a party and someone is monopolizing your time by trying to get deep into a topic that they just won’t let go of. Result = Disconnect.
You are at home watching a great football game that you’ve been looking forward to when you get a call on your cellphone from a friend. You try to drop some hints that it would be better to talk later but he doesn’t pick up on them and keeps talking. Result = Disconnection.

Although the foregoing are examples of people failing to connect with you, there may be times that you are failing to connect with others because you are communicating in the wrong gear.

Kubicek and Cockram and identified five “gears” that people go into. The gears are focus mode, task mode, social mode, connect mode, recharge mode, responsive mode (backing up or apologizing when necessary).

In addition to identifying the five gears and describing each in detail, the book has other insights you’ll find valuable. One piece of advice related to recharge mode is to begin slowly in the morning. Although very unlike me, when I tried starting slowly in the morning, I found that I felt better, had more energy and was more productive. Now I’m trying to make it a habit.

5 Gears will be released on September 8. The 5 Gears masterclass training program is closing tonight at midnight. You can learn more about here.

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How Lafayette, an “Outsider,” Won the Allegiance of His Team

If you’ve ever been hired into a leadership role, you know how difficult it can be to lead when you are viewed as an “outsider.” It’s crucial to establish trust and connection with your new colleagues quickly, but how?

Leaders who find themselves in this challenging position can look to a widely unknown example from the American Revolution for inspiration and guidance: Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, more commonly known as the Marquis de Lafayette.

An Unlikely Leadership Candidate

Lafayette was one of the wealthiest young men in France, but in his late teens, he became enamored with the cause of American independence. At nineteen Lafayette purchased a ship, named it the Victoire, and persuaded several French army officers to join him in helping the Americans. After he arrived in America, Lafayette approached John Hancock, head of the Continental Congress, and volunteered his services.

Lafayette was commissioned as a major general and eventually became an aide-de-camp to George Washington. Perhaps most important, when Lafayette went back to France to secure resources for the Americans, he returned with an army of four thousand soldiers and a fleet of ships commanded by Count de Rochambeau. Before Lafayette’s return, the American effort had been losing steam after suffering several defeats. Lafayette’s presence, his infectious optimism, and the resources he brought revitalized the American effort.

Connecting With New Colleagues

Although he came to the American military as an “outsider,” Lafayette had a profound effect on the American military’s culture during the Revolutionary War. He did this by emphasizing vision, value and voice – elements that are crucial for connecting with others.

Lafayette cast an inspiring vision to encourage everyone around him by reiterating how important the war was for the future of humankind. Later in life he would comment: “To have participated in the toils and perils of the unspotted struggle for independence . . . the foundation of the American era of a new social order . . . has been the pride, the encouragement, the support of [my] long and eventful life.”

Lafayette increased human value in many ways. He spent considerable personal wealth to purchase shoes and clothes for the men in his command. Although he could afford to buy a house to stay warm, he chose to remain with the soldiers at Valley Forge during the freezing winter of 1778. He fought alongside the infantrymen, even dismounting his horse if necessary to be closer to them. Lafayette treated soldiers with respect.

Lafayette gave soldiers a voice by seeking their opinions about what worked and what didn’t work in the battles they had fought. He later claimed that the common soldiers were his greatest teachers. The soldiers were so fond of Lafayette that they referred to him as “Our Marquis.”

Winning Their Allegiance

The unlikely story of the French aristocrat fighting with dedication for their behalf endeared Lafayette to Americans everywhere. Author Harlow Giles Unger described it well when he said, “[Lafayette] fled from incomparable luxury . . . to wade through the South Carolina swamps, freeze at Valley Forge, and ride through the stifling summer heat of Virginia—as an unpaid volunteer, fighting and bleeding for liberty, in a land not his own, for a people not his own.”

For the Marquis de Lafayette’s extraordinary commitment to America’s cause, America passed a law on January 23, 2002, posthumously bestowing him with honorary citizenship. Only five other individuals in America’s history have been honored in this way. This coming Sunday, September 6th, is the anniversary of Lafayette’s birth.

If you are facing with the challenge of overcoming an “outsider” stigma, follow Lafayette’s example. By casting an inspiring vision, showing your colleagues that you value them, and giving others a voice in decisions, you will establish connection and win their allegiance.

Adapted from Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy and Understanding at Work. Read free sample chapters here.

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Image courtesy of Wikipedia user Bava Alcide57 under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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