Michael Lee Stallard's Blog, page 4

With a Little Help from My Friends

On Good Friday this year, I found myself in an operating room with my arms literally stretched out like Jesus on the cross as ten medical professionals prepared me for surgery. To my surprise, as a mask was placed over my nose and mouth to administer general anesthesia, I felt grateful rather than scared.

A few days earlier, while my wife, Katie, and I were visiting our daughter Elizabeth in Madrid, Spain, I had fallen down a few stairs at a restaurant, fracturing my left ankle and rupturing the tendon that connects my right knee cap to the quadricep muscles in my thigh. I did not know the extent of my injuries at the time but I knew I could not get up on either leg. An ambulance was called and EMTs strapped me into a special wheelchair to pull me back up to the ground floor before transporting me to a public hospital. After examining the X-rays, the doctors put split casts on both of my legs and recommended that I have surgery as soon as possible. I decided to fly back to the U.S. for surgery for a number of reasons, including the language barrier.

We Couldn’t Do It Alone: How Supportive Relationships Helped Us Through

From my years immersed in studying the benefits of human connection to individuals and groups, I was also keenly aware that being home and in the midst of our support network of family and friends would impact my recovery too. In the 2nd edition of Connection Culture, I wrote, “Although many factors are involved, the human connection that provides emotional support is one factor research has found to be associated with positive patient outcomes. … Regardless of the medical outcome, there’s no denying the comfort and strength connection can provide to those who suffer and to their caregivers.”

The injuries were painful. It was strange to suddenly not be able to walk or bear weight on either leg. We were only a few days into our vacation and we still had activities and side trips we were looking forward to. I wasn’t ready to end our time with our daughter but, thanks to the candor and adamant tone of a friend of mine who is a retired orthopedic surgeon, I realized it was important to have surgery ASAP because complications arise the longer the period between the accident and surgery. It would have been easy to slip into a state of negative emotions.

To stay positive, I kept thinking of all the people who showed us kindness in Madrid, including Elizabeth and her friends, the hotel staff and the United Airlines reservation agent who found a flight for us and seats that would have the room I needed. On our travel day, I thought about the kindness of the staff at Madrid Airport, the flight attendants on the United Airlines flight home, the people at Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey and at Bridgeport Hospital in Connecticut. I thought about how friends sprang into action. One person picked us up at the airport and drove us the 80 miles to the hospital while two others retrieved our car parked at JFK Airport in New York, bringing it to our home in a different town in Connecticut so Katie wouldn’t have to do that. I knew family and friends were praying for us and Katie had several people helping her think through possible next steps.

My heart was grateful for all the individuals who helped us in such practical ways, but what really caught my attention in those first few days was the surge of positive emotions I experienced and how it helped put me in a positive state of mind going into surgery. What is especially surprising to me is that the positive emotions have been more like joy than mere happiness.

Thank God the surgery on both the left ankle and knee area on my right leg went well. Now I’m quickly recovering thanks to all the physicians, physician assistants, nurses, techs, physical therapists, environmental service workers and meal services staff who took care of me around the clock at the hospital in the initial days post-surgery. Katie and I made a point to befriend them and learn a little about them as individuals as well as regularly express our appreciation. Having been transferred to a rehab facility closer to home, I am grateful for all those who are coming alongside me during this next phase on my journey to recovery and being back on my feet. We’re making new friends here too.

This experience has impressed upon me just how important it is to develop a supportive community, particularly where one lives — to support and serve others when they go through inevitable difficult seasons in life and to let them support and serve you when you face hardships. The emotional uplift from the kindness and support we are receiving is helping me and Katie so that we are doing well through a difficult time.

Supportive Relationships Matter at Work Too

Why share this personal story with you? This dynamic of having supportive relationships is relevant at work too. When teams, units or organizations go through difficult times, do people turn to each other or do they turn on each other?

When people pull together in times of stress and challenge, they are capable of accomplishing great things. One example that comes to mind was captured in one of my favorite movies, Apollo 13. The Apollo 13 spacecraft was hurtling through space on its way to a planned landing on the Moon in April 1970 when a cryogenic oxygen tank exploded and compromised the generation of electrical power, oxygen for breathing and water for drinking. Back on Earth, the NASA “family” pulled together to figure out how to get the three astronauts safely home, which included figuring out how to remove dangerous levels of carbon dioxide that would build up inside the spacecraft. NASA engineers solved the problem by jerry-rigging a device they called “The Mailbox” then guiding the astronauts on how to collect materials onboard and build one. The ordeal ended well when The Mailbox worked and Apollo 13 splashed down in the South Pacific Ocean on April 17, with millions of people around the world watching on television who had pulled for and prayed for the safe return of the men onboard. NASA refers to the mission as a “successful failure.”

We do not know what a day may bring – a triumph or a tragedy, or, in my case, a slip down a few stairs that lands you in the hospital. By intentionally developing collegiality and cultures of connection, we can prepare in advance to respond when challenges arise. Don’t wait for another day or a more convenient time to establish and nurture supportive working relationships with your colleagues and people in your community.

Photo by Andrew Moca on Unsplash

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Rekindling the Inner Flame in Others, and in Ourselves

Do you feel like the inner flame that motivates you in your personal and professional life has dimmed? Answering a few questions will provide insight into how you can rekindle your inner light. Before we pose the questions, though, let us share a story that illuminates why contemplating them is so valuable.

Doug Conant’s Story: Being Honored and Honoring Others

Doug Conant is the leader who turned around Campbell Soup Company when he served as President and CEO (2001-2011). We’ve previously written about how Conant held senior leaders accountable for improving employee engagement at Campbell’s and the tremendous difference it made.

We had a long conversation with Conant recently and came away very encouraged by how his views on leadership are aligned with what we advocate about connection and fostering connection cultures. In particular, we wanted to know more about him as a person and how he developed into a leader who cares about people. Who had influenced him? We learned that his journey to the top of the corporate ladder hadn’t come without obstacles.

Albert Schweitzer once wrote: “In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” At a tough juncture in Doug Conant’s career that person was Neil MacKenna.

Conant was a 32-year-old director of marketing at Parker Brothers Toy and Game Company near Boston when he was stunned to hear the VP of marketing tell him, “Your job has been eliminated. Clear out your desk by noon.” He was hard-working and competent, and now fired. How could this be happening? Hurt, angry, crushed, humiliated, self-pity, dread are words he uses to capture his reaction to the place he now found himself in. (How many workers cut loose in the wave of recent lay-offs can relate?)

The exit package included outplacement counseling and that is how Conant met the man who would greatly shape him as a leader. Conant describes Neil MacKenna as a wonderful, tough-as-nails, crusty New Englander. He was a decorated veteran of World War II and graduate of Harvard Business School who “didn’t suffer whining or a victim-y ’poor me’ attitude.” Throughout the outplacement process, Conant was struck by how MacKenna was fully present, listened intently and earnestly, and genuinely wanted to be of help. He felt honored by MacKenna. A bond of connection formed between them that would last until MacKenna passed away almost 20 years later.

At their second meeting, MacKenna gave Conant the take-home assignment to write out his life story, by hand, and with as much detail as he could. That kind of thorough self-reflection was not something Conant had done before. When they were back together to talk it over, MacKenna called Conant out on the disconnect between the man coming through on paper and the man Conant presented to others. As Conant recounts in The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights, MacKenna told him, “What you’re showing to the world is a modest guy who goes with the flow. But the Doug who wrote this story is a leader and a fighter.”

Working with MacKenna, Conant came to realize that in trying to be the person that others wanted him to be or expected him to be, whether it was his parents, teachers, coaches or bosses, he was not being true to himself. Talking with us about this, Conant paraphrased a quote from Brene Brown that resonates with him: “You can either walk inside your story and own it, or you stand outside of your story and hustle for your worthiness every day.” Going on, he said, “I needed to write my own story. I needed to figure out what matters most to me and how I want to show up with passion and enthusiasm, and bring my best self to work every day.”

Secondly, MacKenna had him think about the people who had honored him along his life’s journey. Then he challenged Conant to be more like them in honoring others.

The positive emotions Conant experienced from connecting with MacKenna made him more aware of how fully connecting with others affects them in positive ways. He wanted to have that kind of positive effect on people in his life and began being more intentional about connecting. Going forward, he would connect with, support, honor and serve the people in his life in ways that reflected excellence, including his family and friends, and the people with whom he worked.

One practice he embraced as a result of his newfound insights was to actively look for ways to praise and encourage others, and to celebrate their contributions. Not only did he praise people verbally, but he became the most prolific writer of handwritten notes we’ve ever known (which we will share more about in a future article).

In our conversation, he shared: “When I look back on the people who had a profound influence on me – and that’s what leadership is all about, having a profound influence on people to move them in a particular direction that’s good for the enterprise and good for them – they had two characteristics that really jumped out. They had very high standards for me and they loved me to death. They cared.” He noted, “I dealt with a lot of people who had high standards who didn’t care and I dealt with a lot of people who cared a lot but really didn’t lift me up and challenge me. The people who had the most profound impact were, in my language, tough-minded and tender-hearted.” High on his list, Conant told us, are his grandparents and… Neil MacKenna.

“The learning that came out of losing my job was enormous,” Conant declared. It ultimately reframed his view of leadership and prepared him for bigger roles.

Conant would go on to hold a number of senior leader positions, including president of the Nabisco Foods Company, president and CEO of Campbell Soup Company, and chairman of Avon Products. He is now an author, speaker, teacher and executive coach at Conant Leadership.

Your Story: Connecting through Honoring and Serving One Another

Being in environments rich with human connections in which colleagues, friends and family members are honoring and serving one another can be life-changing and rekindle your inner flame.

We can’t give what we don’t have so we need people in our lives who honor, serve and connect with us to support us through the inevitable ups and downs of life, including our time at work. We need people who help us learn, grow and achieve our potential so we can make our contribution to the greater good.

So, as you reflect on your life story up until this point, ask yourself:

Who are the people in my life that I have strong connections with and who support me so that I achieve my potential?What is it about them that makes me feel so connected?Do I need to develop more supportive relationships that give me the connections I need to be my best self, do my best work and make my greatest contributions?

After thinking about the supportive relationships in your life, consider how you are supporting others. Ask yourself:

Who am I connecting with, honoring and supporting so they will achieve their potential?Through my words and behaviors, can they tell that I care about them as individuals and I believe in them?Am I encouraging them to become an even better person by expecting the best of them and holding them to high standards?

As Conant reminds us in The Blueprint: “[Y]ou can be more like the people who have helped you become the person you are today; you can be that person for the people with whom you live and work. You already know what it looks like. You’ve lived it. And you know, from your memories of these people, that the way they behaved toward you is the way other people also deserve to be treated.”

Creating and fostering a culture of connection in which people are honoring and serving one another will lead to healthier individuals, communities, organizations, and a stronger and better society, something that’s very much in need today.

This article was coauthored by Katharine P. Stallard. 

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Cultivating a Culture of Connection at Home

Our focus is on the importance of human connection and cultivating a culture of connection in the workplace, but what we’ve learned about connection applies beyond the realm of our work lives. The principles are relevant for individuals, community groups, sports teams, nations and even families. Knowing that a connection deficit negatively affects our own health and well-being, the health of groups and the health of society, we’ve become concerned observing how the pace and stress of life threaten to squeeze out time for supportive, lifegiving relationships and endeavors. Improving connection in the home can lead toward a more fulfilling life and healthier communities, organizations and nations.

As humans, we are hardwired to connect. Matthew Lieberman, a prominent neuroscientist, refers to human connection as a superpower because it makes us smarter, happier and more productive. It also makes us more resilient to cope with stress.

A growing body of research establishes that connection improves wellness, well-being and performance throughout our lifetime. Here are a few of the findings:

Babies and infants who feel connected are healthier.Primary and secondary students who feel connected to their teachers and classmates perform better academically.College students who feel connected are less likely to experience anxiety, depression, addiction and suicide ideation, and they perform better academically. Seniors who feel connected are mentally and physically healthier and live longer. 

Child psychology research describes love in a family in terms of forming “secure attachments,” a synonym for human connections. In Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work, we wrote: 

When John Bowlby studied homeless and orphaned children following World War II, he found that children who experienced little or no connection developed emotional and behavioral problems. … Mary Ainsworth, Bowlby’s onetime student and eventual colleague, went on to conduct research on infants that identified patterns of connection that are formed in early childhood. The attachment patterns she identified were shown to affect the development of social skills, confidence, curiosity and exploratory behavior, enthusiasm, persistence in problem solving, and the ability to cope with ambiguity, change, and stress. Children with secure attachments developed well, whereas children with insecure attachments developed poorly.

Children who form secure attachments feel loved and safe and, as a result, are more likely to set out to explore the world knowing that they can return to their parents for comfort and protection if they feel unsafe or threatened. In contrast, children who develop insecure attachments are constantly on alert and they are less likely to wander around exploring their world. They are also more likely to cling to objects that provide comfort as a substitute attachment figure, often a favorite toy or blanket. (Some clinging to objects is natural but too much clinging to objects may be a sign that they are substituting it for human connection that they would typically get from a parent or caregiver.) Absent a secure attachment pattern that is formed in the human brain, children will develop one of several insecure attachment patterns that make it more difficult for them to regulate their emotions when they feel threatened or unsafe.

When children feel connected to their family, they are more confident that they are lovable and it is easier for them to love others rather than self-protect by withholding their love. It also makes them feel confident to take risks and more likely to have high aspirations. Stated another way, the love and human connection children receive at home and in their community gives them courage, which, interestingly, is derived from the French word coeur, meaning heart. 

Relational cultures either connect or disconnect people

In our research, we identified three types of relational cultures: cultures of connection, cultures of control and cultures of indifference. With cultures of control, those with power rule over the rest. It breeds an environment in which people fear to make mistakes or take risks. In some cases, the dominant person uses means that result in emotional or physical abuse. In cultures of indifference, people are so busy with tasks they don’t take time to connect which results in neglect. Cultures of control and indifference are disconnecting and can leave people feeling marginalized, lonely, underappreciated or uncertain. In cultures of connection, people humbly love and serve one another so that everyone feels a bond of connection that helps them thrive, individually and collectively.

We teach that cultures of connection exist when leaders communicate an inspiring vision to serve the greater good, they value people rather than think of and treat them as mere means to an end and they have the humility to give people a voice by seeking people’s ideas and opinions then considering them when possible before making decisions. Cultures of connection are cultivated when leaders attend to the three elements of Vision, Value and Voice. 

The word “culture” is derived from Latin and French words that refer to care and tilling the ground for agricultural purposes. It’s helpful to think of culture creation as being cultivated as we would cultivate a garden. For flowers to bloom their best, a gardener must attend to the garden’s need for water, sun and nutrients in the soil as well as any necessary weeding, pruning and protection from predators. Are the conditions conducive for healthy growth so the plants will flourish and be all they were created to be? Are there any conditions that are inhibiting growth? Are there any external factors that may harm the plants?

Cultivating a culture of connection in a family

What might cultivating a culture of connection look like in the context of a family? What attitudes, uses of language or behaviors that work in an organizational setting could you use that will foster connection at home, whether your role is a leader (i.e., parent) or a colleague (i.e., a family member)?

Vision is about identity. Chances are you don’t have vision, mission and values statements for your family carefully word-smithed the way a business organization would (though we know a few families who have thoughtfully done this). It’s worth taking the time to have conversations that explore these questions: “Who are we as a family?,” “What do we believe in?” and “What character qualities are important to us?” 

The family of Alan Mulally, one of the greatest business leaders of all time, provides a helpful example when it comes to cultivating connection through Vision. Alan’s parents taught him maxims that communicated the importance of forming human connections through humility, love and service. Before he headed off to school, his mother or father would often say, “remember, honey, the purpose of life is to love and be loved, with the first of those being the most important” or “Alan, remember, ‘to serve is to live.’” Other maxims he regularly heard included, “respect everyone; we are all creatures of God and worthy to be loved,” “it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice,” “seek to understand, before seeking to be understood,” and “by working together with others, you can make the most positive contributions to the most people.” Nearly every one of the maxims Mulally was taught had the effect of drawing people closer to one another (i.e., connecting them) as opposed to pushing them apart from one another (i.e., disconnecting them).

The love Alan felt in his family had a huge impact on him and it informed the kind of leader he became. Alan applied “humility, love and service leadership” to lead complex projects to impressive results at Boeing Commercial Airplanes and save Ford Motor Company when he was their CEOs. The year he retired from Ford, Fortune magazine named him one of the three best leaders in the world. 

Value is about recognizing the inherent value of each individual and treating them with dignity and respect; it is loving each other as individuals and not thinking of or treating others as mere means to an end. When we take time to serve one another out of love, it connects us. 

There are a multitude of ways to demonstrate Value at home through actions we take that serve the other person and show we care. This may mean intentionally arranging your work calendar to prioritize attending a child’s concert or sporting event, making your spouse’s coffee in the morning or taking a turn to clean up the kitchen after a meal. It’s also the words we use (and the volume and tone of voice). When we see our child doing something right, it’s affirming them for what it says about them and not just what they did. And when we see them doing something wrong, it’s correcting them in a measured way that reflects our love for them rather than lashing out in anger or frustration.

As a family, Value is having meals together and using that time gathered around the table to ask each family member about what happened throughout the day. It’s less about checking up on them (what they did) and more about checking in with them (how they are doing). Listen closely and ask follow-up questions to draw out more of the story.

As a parent, look for opportunities that show your child how serving others is a way to express love and enhance connection. Giving children chores teaches them to do their part as a member of the family. As they get older, having jobs such as mowing a neighbor’s lawn, babysitting or bagging groceries gives them the experience of serving others in the community. We know families who volunteer at a local soup kitchen together or choose to spend a school vacation serving for a week at an orphanage in a poorer area.

Voice is about having the humility to seek the opinions and ideas of others. It is about bringing people “into the loop” and including them so they feel informed. At home, this might look like asking family members what they want to do on a family trip being planned. It might be steering conversations toward topics they are interested in. As children notice that you are factoring in what you learn about a family member’s interests and preferences, it makes them feel more connected. Encouraging children to “seek to understand before seeking to be understood,” as Alan Mulally’s parents taught him, will remind them to give others a voice too. 

Here’s a best practice that combines all three elements: have a weekly family meeting on Sunday. What you cover will depend on the ages and attention spans of the participants. At a minimum, use it as an opportunity for each family member to share what is coming up in the week ahead and how they feel about it. This gives you a chance to get relevant details in the calendar as well as anticipate issues and make plans to address them. (Are all the sports uniforms clean, permission slips signed, birthday gifts purchased, etc.? How is the essay for English or the important business proposal coming along? Try-outs are Thursday so let’s keep Wednesday as stress-free as possible.) More importantly, it gets everyone “on the same page” so they can go into the week from a “we” rather than “me” standpoint and be supportive of one another.

Connection’s positive role in moving us forward 

Today, people are longing for connection. America was suffering from an epidemic of loneliness before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the social isolation we experienced during the pandemic made it worse. Human connection is essential for our health, happiness and flourishing in life. Because technology is ubiquitous today, meeting our need for connection can be challenging. It requires putting down our smartphones, tablets and PCs then engaging with others to develop meaningful connections with the people around us. We’re optimistic and believe that re-connecting in our homes, workplaces and communities will lead to a bright future. 

This article was coauthored by Katharine P. Stallard. 

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Frances Hesselbein: A Leader of Leaders, Who Cared For People First

Sitting in the historic St. Bartholomew’s Church in Manhattan before the start of the memorial service for Frances Hesselbein, my thoughts turned to one of the last days I spent time with the remarkable woman who had led the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. back from decline decades earlier and transformed it into what Peter Drucker described as “the best-managed organization around.”

Frances and I liked to get together periodically for long lunches at Peacock Alley, a restaurant in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel near her office on Park Avenue. Arriving early to pick her up that day, I found her meeting with two women and a Girl Scout. Frances’ attention was entirely on the girl. They had this marvelous connection — the girl who looked to be in elementary school and the woman who, at that time, was over 100 years of age. It was my good fortune to witness how Frances, one of the world’s most respected leaders, used her inestimable powers of human connection and personal warmth to love this young girl to the point that she was visibly beaming with joy and wonder that this famous woman was focused on her.

I wasn’t surprised by the girl’s reaction. When Frances spoke with you, you felt like you were the only person in the room. She was optimistic (“My blood type is B positive,” she would often say), and she expected the best in others. Frances had a positive life force about her and her radiance lit up the people in her orbit.

Frances took my arm when it was time to head to lunch. During our brief walk across Park Avenue, she reminded me of her philosophy (and Twitter handle), “to serve is to live.” I knew that these were words she lived by. Frances served girls and women through her work with the Girl Scouts, from the time she agreed to be an interim Scout leader in the late 1940s through her retirement after 14 years as CEO in 1990, and beyond. She served leaders of not-for-profit organizations through the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute. She served military leaders and their families through her work at The U.S. Military Academy, where she taught and lectured on leadership, and the Military Child and Education Coalition.

We talked about a variety of issues over that nearly two-hour lunch. One that I clearly remember was her point of view on a matter of faith. Frances explained that she focused on people’s character rather than their religious beliefs. If they were serving others and the common good, she embraced them. As a result, she helped and worked with a wide variety of people all around the world who professed different beliefs in God or no belief at all. Their character was what mattered most to her.

Near the end of our lunch I told Frances that I had come across a translation of a Bible verse that reminded me of her. The Old Testament verse described King David’s leadership of the people of Israel. David, as you may recall, was the shepherd boy who defeated Goliath, the seemingly undefeatable Philistine giant who was taunting the Israelite troops, and went on to become Israel’s king. I shared with Frances how verse 72 of Psalm 78 in the New Living Translation captured King David this way:

He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands.

Frances thought about it for a minute, then, in dramatic fashion, leaned forward toward me, saying, “He cared for people first.”

This could be said about Frances too. As an effective leader, she excelled at management tasks such as communicating an inspiring vision and mission, and setting goals and aligning people and tasks to accomplish them. In addition, she excelled in developing strong, supportive relationships that connected with people and, as a result, they trusted her and wanted to follow her. That is what made her a truly great leader.

It wasn’t just who she served through her life’s work but how she served that reflected Frances cared about people first. She believed in the inherent value of every human being and that they deserved to feel connected and included, irrespective of any differences. To her, valuing all people and giving them a voice in matters that were important to them was the right thing to do. She also understood that it was the wise thing to do because people who feel they belong are spiritually and emotionally empowered to do their best work. And work they did! People gave their best efforts for Frances because she helped them feel they were part of a worthy mission and showed them she cared about them.

As one of the best examples of a leader who connected with people and cultivated a culture of connection, Frances is profiled in both of my books, Connection Culture and Fired Up or Burned Out. In leading the Girls Scouts, the way Frances cared about people was evident through her attitudes, words and actions. Here are a few:

She kept up with what was going on in the lives of those around her and personally reached out to anyone when congratulations or consolation were in order.She invested in training to help people learn and grow.Frances approached communication in an inclusive way, believing that it was imperative to listen and respond to one another and to expand information out in ever-larger circles across the organization. Rather than lecturing, her style was to ask insightful questions to draw out relevant issues.In planning and allocating resources, she introduced a circular management process that involved nearly everyone within the organization.

Frances encouraged leaders to listen to the people they served and the people they were responsible for leading. When writing about the art of listening, she gave this advice: “Banish the ‘but.’” This is especially important when you are giving feedback. “‘But’ is nobody’s friend — listener or speaker. ‘And’ provides the graceful transition, the non-threatening bridge to mutual appreciation, the communication that builds effective relationships.”

Frances was able to continue spreading her leadership legacy when Peter Drucker recruited her to be the head of the Drucker Foundation (which was renamed the Leader to Leader Institute, and then the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute in 2012). Through its activities, including publication of the award-winning Leader to Leader journal, the institute is dedicated to carrying out the passion that both of them shared for strengthening leadership in the social sector. That dedication was further recognized in 1998 when Frances was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton for her work as “a pioneer for women, volunteerism, diversity, and opportunity.”

During the memorial service and at the reception that followed, my heart was full as I listened to others tell their stories of how Frances touched their lives. Frances frequently encouraged others to “shine a light” and that was a recurring theme as we shared our remembrances. It was the light of her life that shined brightly and left a radiant glow on those she met.

Michael and Frances

Frances had a big impact on me by encouraging me to continue advocating for the importance of human connection in organizational cultures and the connection culture leadership model I developed. I will always be grateful that Leader to Leader published several of my articles over the years. Her friendship and example as a leader inspire me to “shine a light” through my work and in how I interact with others.

There are many things I will remember about Frances: her tremendous personal warmth, her wisdom and intelligence, her belief that our purpose on earth is “to love and be loved, in that order,” her “to serve is to live” mantra, and her powerful “defining moment” story about how her grandmother taught her to respect all people. But it is those words she said in a serious tone with unwavering conviction while leaning forward and looking directly into my eyes — he cared for people first — that are burned into my memory of who Frances was at her core as a human being and leader. How fortunate was I to know Frances for a few of her 107 years on this earth.

Portions of this article were excerpted from the 2nd edition of Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work.

Lead Photo Credit: Girl Scouts of the USA

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7 Connection Killers to Avoid

If you are seeking to develop a Connection Culture in your workplace, then you need to not only proactively take actions that build connection, but also avoid actions that destroy it. Sometimes, we have blind spots that make it difficult to identify “connection killer” habits.

Are any of these common issues getting in the way of your efforts to infuse connection into your work environment or feel meaningfully connected with your colleagues? While different, each hinders or kills connection as it puts a wedge between leaders and those being led. Some shake the confidence of employees, some convey an “us versus them” mentality, some have the effect of communicating that an employee is only needed to do what he or she is told to do. They separate people rather than drawing them together. While you may not be in a role that allows you to tackle each head on, it’s good to be aware of the damage they may be doing.

1. Layoffs

Granted, sometimes layoffs are unavoidable so that a trimmed-down version of the organization can survive. In the case of several large organizations that recently publicly announced they are laying off people, the rationale provided was an anticipation of declining demand and an economic recession. Layoffs are to be avoided if at all possible because they diminish the connection people feel to the organization and its leaders. Layoffs communicate that the leadership team doesn’t value people and valuing people is the heart of a connection culture. For those who remain, fear and insecurity can creep in. If that department can be shut down or a significant number of people let go across the board, how secure are the rest of us? Should I start looking for a different job? Rather than laying people off, it’s preferable to find other ways to reduce costs, including temporarily reducing the pay of leaders in order to save jobs. (See example of FCB New Zealand.)

2. Unrealistic expectations

Today, we see many organizations where leaders have unrealistic expectations in terms of what they expect people to accomplish. Overwhelmed employees who are burning out and/or results that reflect mediocrity are inevitable when there is a lack of focus and a lack of understanding what the team can reasonably accomplish with the time and resources available. Rather than trying to do too much, leaders and managers should identify their top 3-5 priorities, communicate them as broadly as possible, and focus on accomplishing them with excellence.

3. Employees who are not in the loop on strategic vision

People need to know where their team is going, why it’s important to get there, how they are going to get there, what the team’s values are, and what their individual role is. Absent clarity about these things, people often assume the worst. Knowing the “the big picture” and having context for the work they are doing is motivating and helps people feel like they are a valued part of the whole.

4. Employees who have no voice in matters that are important to them

People need to be able to express their opinions and ideas on matters that are important to them, and to know their feedback is considered when possible. When people don’t have the opportunity to contribute, it can leave them feeling disrespected, not valued, expendable, even invisible. Having no voice undermines employee engagement and human connection.

5. Supervisors who don’t show they care about the people they are responsible for leading

Supervisors need to get to know the people they are responsible for leading. This includes knowing about them as individuals outside of work and asking about their career aspirations. They can then articulate how the work an employee is doing and the skills they are developing will help them achieve their career aspirations. Having a supervisor who shows no interest in you as a person or superficial interest at best is disconnecting.

6. Bullies

Allowing someone to bully and harass coworkers is a sure way to diminish engagement and connection. It’s best to hold bullies accountable. If they can’t be respectful after being given the opportunity to change, show them the door. Pfizer explicitly uses the phrase “no jerks” when it comes to behavior. This makes it clear to all employees that disrespectful, patronizing, condescending or passive-aggressive behavior is not welcome.

7. Inflexible work arrangements

With the rapid rise of remote work brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, more people now value flexibility in their work schedule and location. Finding the right balance for the organization is key. To get the greatest support for bringing employees back for more work days in a physical office, it will be necessary to cultivate a culture of connection that brings about a spiraling up of positive emotions. If the workplace is permeated by negative emotions, people will seek employment elsewhere.

Consistently high levels of connection lead to a higher level of productivity, tighter strategic alignment, greater innovation, improved quality of decisions and greater agility. These benefits add up to a powerful performance and competitive advantage.

Being intentional about adding in attitudes, language and behaviors that improve connection should be a priority. However, unless you also identify and eliminate connection killers, your efforts to improve the esprit de corps of the team and organization will be in vain.

This article was coauthored by Katharine P. Stallard. 

Photo by Elisa Ventur on Unsplash

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You May Be the Most Important Person in Your Co-worker’s Life

Yes, it’s true. You may be the most important person in your co-worker’s life.

Recent research shows Americans are spending more time alone following the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. To make up for the time we needed to stay apart during 2020 and 2021, you might think that the pendulum would swing to the other side and we would see people spending even more time together than before. That’s not happening for everyone.

This tendency, along with research that found 58% of American adults tested out as lonely, men are experiencing a friendship recession, and more people live alone and have fewer friends and acquaintances, is cause for concern. Loneliness and social isolation contribute to diminished physical and mental health, suicide ideation, and displacement aggression that could escalate to physical violence.

A co-worker who is lonely and feels isolated will not be able to give their best effort and function well as part of the team. It’s the people who feel invisible and left out who experience the most pain (which researchers describe as “social pain”). Being in that state may lead an individual to “act out” and even sabotage work performance.

Human connection is necessary for people to thrive in life. Given the continued loneliness epidemic, interactions at work may be a primary source of potential connection for your co-workers. That’s where you come in. Helping the people you work with meet their need for connection will not only improve their lives and help them do their best work but it will also improve the work culture and social environment of your team, department, and organization.

Now, we’re not saying you need to be best friends. We realize that some people are difficult to be around. That said, treating people with respect and doing what you can to promote a sense of belonging are important elements when it comes to fostering connection at work.

Here are three actions you can take:

1.  Acknowledge each individual.

It can be as simple as making eye contact and saying “Hi, [name]” when you first see the person that day. If a co-worker is holding back on participating in a meeting, consider drawing them into the conversation by asking a broad question such as,  “[Name], what do you make of this?”

2. Gain personal knowledge.

We bring this up frequently because it’s so important. Getting to know about your co-workers’ lives outside of work and sharing details about your life outside of work humanizes the other. Research by Professor Ashley Hardin shows that with more personal knowledge, people are more responsive to each other and less likely to back-stab or socially undermine the other person. Mike’s favorite question to gain more personal knowledge is “What are your interests outside of work?”. He then asks follow-up questions. You could ask someone who likes to read what their favorite genre is (historical fiction, mystery, self-help, etc.) or if they learned to  play an instrument as a child or played sports in their teens.

3. Act with kindness.

Look for small ways to show kindness to your co-workers. If you are going to get coffee, consider asking if you can bring them back a cup too. If you are going out for lunch, ask if they care to join you. Hold the door open for someone whose arms are full. Give a sincere compliment. Empathize with someone who is facing a challenge.

The holidays are a time of year when people are expected to spend time with family and friends. For those who are lonely or are experiencing disconnection, it can be an especially painful period. Through your attitudes, words, and behaviors at work that boost connection and convey positive interest in them, you can help ease their pain and give them hope for the future.

This article was co-authored by Katharine P. Stallard.

Photo by Zest Tea on Unsplash

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Employ Mindfulness to Give the Gifts of Connection and Contentment

My mind is full. These days there is so much information coming at us around the clock, from so many sources. Plus, I love to learn and assimilate new research findings, stories, and perspectives into the work we are doing on connection and organizational culture. Being an integrative thinker has its strengths. It’s certainly stimulating (and sometimes exhausting). I recognize that a downside, especially for someone consistently advocating for the importance of connection in our work lives and personal lives, is that my natural bent to be in my head can be a source of disconnection.

My family will tell you I have a rich inner thought life. My family will also tell you that while I may be physically present, I am not always mentally present in the conversation at-hand. This holiday season, I’m going to work on that!

I recently had the privilege of delivering keynote speeches about cultivating cultures of connection to 500 leaders at Leadership Development Institute meetings of CHRISTUS Health in Corpus Christi and San Antonio, Texas. While there, I heard a thoughtful presentation on mindfulness given by Amy Cunningham, Program Manager for Leadership Development at CHRISTUS Health. What Amy shared helped me better understand the link between mindfulness, connection, and contentment. As I listened, it struck me that relating some of the highlights to insights from neuroscience and endocrinology would be a helpful topic for readers of our blog and monthly newsletter.

Connection and mindfulness

Paying attention on purpose, non-judgmentally, with awareness in the present moment is how Amy defined mindfulness. She used an analogy that speaks to our time to describe what we are up against: Like our smartphones, we have “apps” constantly running on autopilot, draining our battery, and distracting us from being present in the moment. They might be questions that pop up in the chatting that goes on inside of our minds, such as “I wonder what I should have for lunch?,” “Is my daughter prepared for her math test today?,” “What should I write about for my next article?”, “Did my elderly mother make it to her doctor’s appointment this morning?, “Will the weather be nice this evening so I can go outside for a walk?,” “Did I pay that bill that was due today?,” or “Is that so-and-so across the room? I need to get his attention and speak with him before he leaves.”

The ability to be mindful when we are in the presence of others will enable us to be better connectors. To disrupt our automatic tendency to constantly think about ourselves, mindfulness would have us slow down, pay attention, and notice something new about another person. As an exercise, Amy had everyone stand up, find an acquaintance or friend, converse with them for a minute, and intentionally notice something new about the person. She made the point that this type of mindfulness is essential for leaders. I agree. Being distracted or conveying indifference is disconnecting; being present and showing interest connects us.

Amy’s presentation resonated with me because mindfulness and being present have not been strengths of mine. Far too often I am thinking about something I need to do or about a problem I’m trying to solve rather than channeling my full attention on what’s going on in the present. If I don’t keep that in check while interacting with others, it’s bound to break connection. Developing the habit of noticing something new is a helpful “hack” that will boost connection during conversations. Amy also mentioned other practices that promote mindfulness, including paying attention to one’s breathing, progressive relaxation, mindful movement, journaling, and small grounding moments (including wiggling one’s toes).

Here’s a simple mindfulness action she recommended that would be appropriate to take on this month: While you are washing your hands, think of things you are grateful for. When I am stressed, pausing to name several things I am grateful for has helped me shift my mood back to the positive and optimistic. The way our brains work, you cannot feel anxious and grateful at the same time. Practicing gratitude has other benefits too. Over the past two decades, studies have consistently found that people who practice gratitude report fewer symptoms of illness (including depression), more optimism and happiness, stronger relationships, and more generous behavior.

Connection, mindfulness, and contentment

There is another reason I believe mindfulness is a useful tool and it has to do with what goes on at the molecular level of our bodies. I’m often thinking about the future things I want to get done. This future orientation increases the neurotransmitter dopamine in our brain. Dopamine is associated with the pleasure and reward pathways, and the positive emotion that makes us desire what we don’t have and motivates us to go after the things we desire. Noticing the present, savoring the good moments, boosts the positive emotion of contentment and calls on the neurotransmitter serotonin.

Both of these natural chemicals have important and different roles to play. When it comes to being an intentional connector, however, dopamine is the one we should keep our eye on. While it is a good and useful thing to have an internal spark to pursue a goal and persevere on your quest to attain it, too much dopamine is a cause for concern.

In their book The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, authors Daniel Z. Lieberman and Michael E. Long give this interesting insight: “Dopamine has no standard for good, and seeks no finish line. The dopamine circuits in the brain can be stimulated only by the possibility of whatever is shiny and new, never mind how perfect things are at the moment. The dopamine motto is ‘More’”.

Here’s another characteristic to be aware of: Like certain addictive substances, a person needs more dopamine to produce the same positive emotion over time. In organizations, leaders who have dopaminergic personalities are never satisfied. They continuously push people to achieve unrealistic goals in pursuit of boosting their own personal wealth, power, or status. This obsessive pursuit can overwhelm people working for dopaminergic leaders and create high levels of anxiety, incivility, stress, declining employee engagement, and rising burnout (and may push them toward an addiction of their own as they try to cope). Failing to feed the dopamine habit triggers pains of withdrawal. An individual who is overly reliant on dopamine may be headed for a crash.

In addition to drawing on normal levels of dopamine, the most effective leaders benefit from other sources of positive emotion in the brain that make them more stable and in touch with the people they lead. Lieberman and Long contrast the “future-oriented dopamine” with “present-oriented chemicals, a collection of neurotransmitters we call the Here and Now molecules . . . [which] include serotonin and oxytocin, endorphins and endocannabinoids. . . . As opposed to the pleasure of anticipation via dopamine, these chemicals give us pleasure from sensation and emotion.”

Describing the interplay of these neurotransmitters, the authors explain that “though dopamine and [Here and Now] (‘H&N’) circuits can work together, under most circumstances they counter each other. When H&N circuits are activated, we are prompted to experience the real world around us, and dopamine is suppressed; when dopamine circuits are activated, we move into a future of possibilities and H&Ns are suppressed.”

In his book The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains, Robert H. Lustig sets out the differences between reward (driven by dopamine) and contentment (driven by serotonin). In the table below, I’ve summarized his observations.

Lustig writes, “Reward, when unchecked, can lead us into misery, like addiction. Too much substance use (food, drugs, nicotine, alcohol) or compulsive behaviors (gambling, shopping, surfing the Internet, sex) will overload the reward pathway and lead not just to dejection, destitution, and disease but not uncommonly death as well”.

Keeping reward-seeking behavior in balance clearly matters to our wellbeing, and that’s where serotonin and the other Here and Now sources of positive emotion play a role. These counter-balancing emotions primarily come from healthy relationships at home and work. That’s good news for people who have an abundance of connection in their lives, and yet another reason why using mindfulness techniques to focus on the present is so important.

Will you join me?

As we approach the holiday season here in the U.S., I’m going to intentionally look for something new in each conversation I have while at work and while interacting with my family and friends. My hope is that this practice will help me develop the habit of being more mindful in conversations and ultimately better connect with others.

Will you consider joining me in trying out this practice? By being truly present we will be giving others and ourselves valuable gifts that cannot be bought: the gifts of connection and contentment.

Portions of this article are excepted from the 2nd edition of Connection Culture.

Photo by Kelsey Chance on Unsplash

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Resilience Is Rooted in Human Connection

The image of trees being whipped back and forth during a storm is an appropriate analogy for humans weathering especially stressful seasons in life. It was on my mind as I followed the coverage of Hurricane Ian and the destruction it left in its wake at the same time I was reading new research that came out on rising burnout among physicians. I thought of how those in healthcare have been battered by a fierce hurricane called the Covid-19 pandemic. They faced a powerful and unpredictable foe, one that shifted and adapted as it went along, one that was fatal to some it encountered and left others unscathed. Shaken and tested by what must have felt like an unrelenting storm in the first year, some in healthcare were able to persevere and remain standing strong and some fell. Still others are upright, but for how much longer?

Hurricane Ian toppled many sturdy-looking trees, exposing their roots. Because their root systems were insufficiently deep and wide to anchor the trees, they were vulnerable to wind bursts, especially if the ground was overly-saturated with water. Trees with shallow and tight root systems tended to blow over; trees with deep and wide root systems were more likely to stay standing because their well-developed root systems made them resilient to cope with the stress.

The strongest and most resilient trees have roots that are interconnected with roots of other trees around them. I’ve learned that trees with interconnected root systems have been shown to support one another, not only providing a strong anchor of support against hurricane-force winds, but also through moving nutrients from strong trees to trees that are struggling.

I am in awe of healthcare professionals who have remained in the profession through the pandemic. Many are weary yet they remain standing and doing the important work of serving the health needs of people in their communities. Still, I am concerned for them.

After studying clinician wellbeing and resilience, the National Academy of Medicine recommended six essential elements to support clinician wellbeing, one of which is cultivating a culture of connection and support. Although these elements came out of the context of healthcare, they are relevant to every organization that recognizes the seriousness of burnout and wants to take steps to improve employee engagement and well-being. Because my expertise is in cultivating a culture of connection, and I believe it is presently the most urgent need, I will focus my comments on that element.

Seeing your organization as a living and relational organism

There is a flipside to an article I wrote about how cultivating a culture of connection provides an extraordinary opportunity to win the war for talent and it is this: If leaders don’t take action to help reduce stress and improve workplace social environments, people are going to break down. The current high levels of stress and disconnection (loneliness and social isolation) in our society are going to have a catastrophic human cost.

We need to change our view of organizations. The people who make up our organizations are not cogs in a machine, replaceable and expendable parts churning out whatever the product may be. If they are treated in a way that makes them feel controlled, unimportant, underappreciated or invisible, many will struggle because of a lack of connection. Their attitude, energy and productivity will suffer.

In my mind’s eye, I’m seeing the human cost of less-than-healthy work cultures as a forest with many fallen trees. Like a tree, we need to be in a healthy environment in which our roots can grow deep and wide so we can flourish and blossom. To be truly engaged, we must feel connected to and supported by the “trees” around us as well.

Research over recent decades clearly shows that the social environment we are in has a profound effect on us. From a biological standpoint, connection improves the cardiovascular, endocrine and immune systems’ performance. Matthew Lieberman, a leading neuroscientist, refers to connection as a “superpower” because it makes humans smarter, happier and more productive.

In contrast, research has found that disconnection is unhealthy for individuals. Loneliness is associated with poorer cognitive performance. Loneliness may impair executive control and self-regulation so that we are more impulsive. Loneliness is associated with substance abuse, depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Given these findings, it follows that researchers found greater loneliness leads to poorer task, team role and relational performance.

Allowing others to see into you

In our American culture that prizes individualism, we are reluctant to show what might be perceived as weakness or burden others with our problems so we often push on alone. I used to think that way earlier in my career but now I know better. Fixing our broken workplace cultures may require a change in our own mindset. We need to be intentional about developing supportive relationships that go beyond a surface level.

There are many ways to go about this. I would recommend beginning by having someone or a group of people with whom you can share some of the positives and negatives you experience each week. The simple act of sharing our positives and negative experiences calms our nervous systems and shifts brain activity to the cortex where we make rational decisions. In other words, if we allow others to see what we are thinking and feeling, we feel better and we make better decisions.

As I explained in Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding, mutual empathy is a powerful connector that is made possible by mirror neurons in our brains. When we attune to the emotions of others, it makes them feel connected to us. When we attune to their positive emotion, it enhances the positive emotion they feel. When we attune to their pain, it diminishes the pain they feel. In other words, the “highs” feel higher when others join you in your joy or excitement and the “lows” feel less low when others are with you in times of pain or loss.

Jason Pankau, a friend of mine, once told me that he thought of intimacy as in-to-me-see. That’s what we must do on a regular basis: allow others to see inside of us. Those close friendships are the ones in which you feel a level of trust that allows you to be even more open.

My hope is that these thoughts I’ve shared will encourage you to think about your own “root system” and how you will strengthen your connections with your colleagues at work and also with your family and friends in your community.

Why not take the first step and reach out to a few people and ask them to meet you for coffee or to go on a walk? As you get to know them, ask them about their highs and lows over the last week and share yours. Listen closely. Here’s an important tip: Don’t try to solve their problems unless they ask for your advice. By engaging in the simple act of conversation, you will be developing and deepening the unseen root system that will make you and those you connect with smarter, happier, more productive and more resilient.

Photo by Arnaud Mesureur on Unsplash

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Extraordinary Opportunity to Win the War for Talent

An opportunity exists for leaders and organizations to gain a performance and competitive advantage if they can win the war for talent. A recent conversation I had with Jon Clifton, CEO of The Gallup Organization, reinforced my long-held position that the x-factor in talent acquisition, employee engagement, and employee retention is connection. Fostering an environment in which workers feel connected to the organization, their supervisor, their colleagues, and the work they are doing will enable those organizations to pull further ahead of organizations that lack great jobs.

What constitutes a great job? Having a paycheck and steady work of at least 30 hours a week is a “good” job, Clifton explains in his new book, Blind Spot: The Global Rise of Unhappiness and How Leaders Missed It. To be considered “great,” it also needs to be a job in which you are engaged and thriving. In a great job, “[workers] can use their strengths, their opinions count, and they have a manager who cares about their development.”

What struck me anew is that it is the leaders and organizations that are cultivating great jobs that have these clear and considerable advantages:

They are winning the war for talent at a time when talent is in short supply.They are engaging people to do their best work at a time when more workers are losing their motivation to give their best efforts.They are retaining talented employees at a time when many people are seeking to leave their current employer.

And here’s sobering news that Clifton shared with me: only 10% of the jobs in America (and 9% of the jobs globally) are great jobs.

According to Gallup’s research, 70% of employees are “struggling or suffering” from chronic negative emotions including stress, worry, sadness, and/or anger. Those negative emotions infect not just the workplace. Gallup has found that “fifty-nine percent of miserable workers say that in the past months they had three or more days when the stress of work caused them to behave poorly with their family and friends.”

It’s no wonder then that over recent years we have seen large numbers of Americans quit their jobs. Add to that the number of people who are “quiet quitting,” a relatively new term for staying on the job but adopting an attitude of doing the bare minimum to get by.

The current state of work culture is contributing to negative attitudes toward corporations and capitalism. Earlier this year, Gallup found that 74% of Americans are dissatisfied with the size and influence of U.S. corporations, 64% think corruption is widespread in U.S. business today, and 43% think some form of socialism would be a good thing.

What can be done

Given this current state, leaders and organizations that account for the 90% of not-great jobs would be wise to take the following actions or they will continue to lag behind.

1. Listen to employees.

According to Gallup, 25% of employees report being totally ignored at work. Clifton recommends that organizations systematically listen to all stakeholders by surveying them. When surveying employees in particular, I advise leaders to use a scientifically-validated employee engagement survey that allows respondents to add comments. These surveys are one way to give workers a “voice” and for leaders to listen to their concerns.

Employee engagement survey results also serve as an important tool to help an organization identify which leaders and managers are creating and maintaining healthy work subcultures that engage people and which leaders and managers are consciously or unconsciously causing disengagement and need help in order to change. An example of a leader who took this seriously is Doug Conant. As president and CEO of Campbell’s Soup Company from 2001-2011, Conant strategically used Gallup’s employee engagement survey to help turnaround Campbell’s performance.

2. Train leaders and managers to develop relationship excellence and encourage friendships at work.

According to Gallup, “70% of what determines an employee’s emotional attachment to their job depends on their manager,” including whether the manager cares about an employee as a person. The Gallup research clearly points to the need for organizations to train managers on how to effectively connect with employees and develop relationship excellence among the people they lead. Clifton contends that the best bosses function more like coaches and they make listening a priority.

In addition, Clifton cites compelling research that workplace friendships improve employee wellbeing, employee engagement, and productivity. Yet, only 15% of people report having a “real friend” at work. Clifton points out that many organizations wrongly believe friendships don’t belong in the workplace. A shift in attitude is needed.

These two data points really stood out to me about the value of friendships: 1) having a friend to talk to once every two weeks increases your chance of thriving by 50%, and 2) six hours of social time a day with friends doubles your chances of thriving and reduces your chances of suffering by 50%. Given the amount of hours we spend working, it’s not reasonable to think those social needs are going to be totally met outside of the job.

3. Care about employee wellbeing.

According to Clifton, “Workers who strongly agree their organization cares about their wellbeing are 69% less likely to actively search for a new job, five times more likely to strongly advocate for their company as a place to work, and 71% less likely to report experiencing a lot of burnout.” Despite these significant advantages, Gallup has found that only 24% of American workers felt their employers cared about their wellbeing.

Conclusion

The wealth of data and insightful analysis in Blind Spot on global unhappiness and the subjective feelings of work wellbeing, financial wellbeing, community wellbeing, physical wellbeing, and social wellbeing help clarify the reasons for concern that many people have today for the future. Clifton observes, “One of the most significant sources of global misery comes from work.”

In treating one another in ways that strengthen positive connection, we can each play our part in reducing misery at work and moving more jobs into the category of great. Listening to one another, training leaders and managers to develop relationship excellence and promote friendships at work, and caring about employee wellbeing are actions that will give organizations an edge in getting and keeping the best people for the work they do, bringing out the best in them, and maximizing the organization’s performance.

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Campbell’s Turnaround Recipe: Measure Work Culture and Hold Leaders Accountable

Campbell Soup Company was not in good shape when Doug Conant was named President and CEO in 2001. Sales were declining. The stock price was falling and it was underperforming the S&P 500. I’ve long held that it takes a commitment to pursuing both task excellence and relationship excellence in order to achieve sustainable superior performance. Pushing the task side alone won’t do it and will cause more harm. Brought in to effect a turnaround, Conant knew it would be essential for leaders across the organization to combine the two elements. He told leaders, “When you are both tough-minded [on issues] and tender-hearted [toward people], you can deliver ever-higher levels of performance.” People at Campbell’s would come to realize that he was serious about the relationship side of the equation.

As he recounted in his book TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments, he made it clear on his first day at Campbell’s that “leaders must show they cared about the employees’ agenda before they could expect employees to care about the company’s agenda.”

One important step Conant took as part of the multifaceted effort to improve the work environment and the employee experience was to implement Gallup’s 12-question employee engagement survey (commonly referred to as the Q12). It was a very smart move because it clearly communicated to Campbell’s leaders not only what Conant expected of them, but also that he was measuring for it and would hold them accountable.

Measuring Connection at Work: What the Q12 Reveals

If you are not familiar with Gallup’s Q12, the employee engagement survey asks questions to assess an employee’s level of connection with their organization’s mission and purpose as well as with their supervisor and colleagues. More specifically, the survey asks whether their supervisor or a colleague cares about them as an individual and encourages their development, if expectations are clear, and if they feel their opinions are considered. It also assesses whether they feel connected to their work by asking whether their job is a good fit with their strengths and if they are learning and growing. The survey even asks if they have a best friend at work—a question that certainly affects connection but is one that many leaders struggle with because they believe it isn’t reasonable to hold a leader accountable for delivering best friends at work.

Gallup’s research bears out the critical role that engagement plays in performance and the bottom line. In 2016, Gallup performed a meta-analysis of 339 research studies comprising 82,248 business or work units and 1.8 million employees within 230 organizations across 73 countries. The research concluded that top quartile units with higher Q12 scores (in other words, higher connection) outperform bottom quartile units. Comparing the two ends of the spectrum, the units with higher connection and engagement had:

20 percent higher sales levels17 percent higher productivity21 percent higher profitability10 percent higher customer metrics40 percent fewer quality defects70 percent fewer employee safety incidents24 percent lower employee turnover in higher-turnover organizations and 59 percent lower employee turnover in low-turnover organizations (low-turnover organizations were defined as those organizations with 40 percent or lower annualized turnover).

Skeptics may argue that favorable organizational outcomes affect employee engagement more than employee engagement affects organizational outcomes. Gallup chief scientist James Harter teamed up with Frank Schmidt, the Gary C. Fethke chair in leadership and professor of management and organizations at the University of Iowa, to put this theory to the test. They and a group of researchers completed a meta-analysis on longitudinal research from 2,178 business units within 10 large organizations working in diverse industries. The research established causation by measuring across three time periods, finding conclusive evidence that engaged employees caused higher employee retention rates, better customer loyalty, and superior financial performance. The evidence for causality in the reverse direction—from performance to employee engagement—was, according to Schmidt, “pretty weak in comparison.”

Holding Leaders Accountable at Campbell’s

Gallup’s gold standard for employee engagement/connection is a ratio of 12:1 (i.e., twelve engaged employees for every employee who is either not engaged or is actively disengaged). In 2001, Conant’s first year at Campbell’s, he had a Q12 survey done that would serve as a baseline going forward. The result was dismal; the ratio was less than 2:1. (Imagine what it would be like to work in an organization in which one-third of your colleagues are not engaged.)

For the next two years, Conant invested time and resources in “training, coaching, and cajoling” 350 global-level leaders to improve their work environments in order to raise the engagement level. In 2003, the ratio had improved, but only slightly. For Conant, the new ratio of 4:1 was not acceptable and it indicated that not all of the leaders were on board with this effort. He let leaders know, in no uncertain terms, that he was serious about employee engagement and if they weren’t, they should leave.

Conant began to really hold leaders accountable. By the end of that year, 300 of the 350 leaders (86%) had parted ways with the organization. New leaders were put in place who, like Conant, were people- and results-oriented.

Conant believes, “To build relationships, you need to take the time to talk to people. Get to know them. Learn their stories. Listen for what drives them, what they care about, what they take pride in, and what concerns them.” Rather than view people through a lens of hierarchy, leaders should see them as individuals “with their own priorities, anxieties, hopes, and dreams.” He believes that leaders should be transparent about who they are and “lead with your head and your heart.” He advises leaders to use the “four magic words” of “How can I help?”

The engaged-to-not-engaged ratio continued to improve. In 2006, it had moved up to 6:1. A year later it was 9:1. In 2008, seven years into Conant’s tenure, it hit the gold standard level of 12:1. But it didn’t stop there. In 2010, the ratio measured 17:1.

And as the work cultures throughout Campbell’s improved, so did the organization’s performance on many fronts. Here was the picture in 2009: “The company was outperforming both the S&P Food Group and the S&P 500. Sales and earnings were growing, the core businesses were thriving, the employees were highly engaged in their work, the company was increasingly being recognized for its progress with workforce diversity and inclusion, and Campbell was ranked as one of the ten most socially responsible U.S. companies.”

Acting on the Survey Results

Plenty of leaders give lip service to improving employee engagement. Not Doug Conant. He firmly believes that “to win the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace.” He took action and he kept at it. It was not a “one and done” attempt to boost morale and then move on to the next issue. Consistently measuring engagement demonstrated to employees at all levels of the organization that he was serious about the kind of work experience they were having. That he followed through on holding leaders accountable to improve the everyday experience of those they were responsible for leading was a clear testament to his commitment. Strengthening connection and engagement at Campbell’s accelerated an improvement in the bottom line.

I’m an advocate of measuring engagement. Most leaders who rely on their own “take” of the situation are mistaken in their assessment of the connection levels of people they lead. As a result, they don’t recognize there is a problem until they feel the pain from underperformance in the form of poor operating and financial results, incidents of managerial failure (including accidents and product failures), or high employee turnover.

Once you have survey results, identify the leaders who are cultivating an engaging work environment and those who need help. Consider creating peer mentorships between the leaders who have achieved high engagement and those who have not. If you don’t want to go the mentoring route, provide coaches to support your leaders. In addition, it is critical to provide training to all of your managers so they share a common language and framework about how to improve employee engagement. For example, in the training we provide, we teach a simple, memorable, and actionable 3 V model that employee engagement is rooted in a work culture of connection where leaders communicate an inspiring vision, value people, and give them a voice to share their ideas and opinions. In other words, Vision + Value + Voice.

By communicating clear expectations about employee engagement and supporting your leaders with training and mentors (or coaches), you will see improvement in employee engagement survey metrics as well as operational and financial results.

Note: Portions of the article were adapted from the 2nd edition of Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work.

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