S. Chris Edmonds's Blog, page 6

Culture Leadership Charge – “In Tune” with the Employee Experience

How do leaders in your organization keep their “fingers on the pulse” of the employee experience?

To stay in tune with employee perceptions and with the employee experience, leaders must make “being attuned” a priority. They must invest time and energy regularly to ask, learn, and modify.

First, ask. There are a number of effective ways to gain reliable, valid insights from employees. Use a variety of different methods regularly – from one-on-ones to informal meetups with senior leaders to town hall meetings, etc. In addition, conduct formal employee surveys at least once each year.

Employee surveys typically focus on engagement or on values alignment. Both of these angles are equally important – which is why I coach clients to do both, every year.

Employee engagement surveys provide insights into work relationships, practices, and policies.

Values alignment surveys are specific to your company’s values and behaviors. These surveys provide employees the opportunity to rate their bosses (and the company’s senior leaders) on the degree to which those leaders model your company’s formalized valued behaviors every day.

Check out today’s three-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series for details about the learn and modify steps in this approach.

This is episode sixty-seven of my Culture Leadership Charge series. Each episode is a short (two-to-three-minute) video that describes proven culture leadership and servant leadership practices that boost engagement, service, and results across your work teams, departments, regions, companies – and even homes and neighborhoods.

You’ll find my Culture Leadership Charge episodes and more on my YouTube and my iTunes channels. If you like what you see or hear, please subscribe!

Create a purposeful, positive, productive work culture with @scedmonds' #Culture #Leadership Charge videos & podcasts. #WorkPlaceInspiration #PurposefulCulture http://drtc.me/ytube http://drtc.me/pcast
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How do your organization’s leaders stay attuned to the employee experience? Share your insights or questions on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The post Culture Leadership Charge – “In Tune” with the Employee Experience appeared first on Purposeful Culture Group.

Culture Leadership Charge – Work Culture is in the Leader’s Hands

I am working on my next book, which I’m writing with the brilliant Mark Babbitt. It’s in the proposal stage and you’ll hear much more about our book in the months to come.

In our research and interviews, two consistent themes are apparent:

* first, the failure of leaders to improve employee engagement or the employee experience over the past 30 years, and

* second, the failure of leaders in the past 10 years to adapt workplace assumptions, practices, and structure to accommodate younger generations entering the workforce.

These failures have, not surprisingly, led to increases in workplace stress.

A 2018 study by Korn Ferry found that 76% of respondents reported that stress at work had a negative impact on personal relationships. 66% report they’ve lost sleep due to work stress. 16% quit their jobs due to stress.

Leaders have a huge impact on workplace stress. 35% of respondents say that their boss is their biggest source of job stress. 80% say a change in leadership (a new direct boss, for example) negatively impacts their stress levels.

Senior leaders – business owners, CEO’s, presidents, vice presidents, general managers, and division heads – have a huge impact on work culture. Top leaders set the tone. Players in organizations embrace behaviors – consciously or unconsciously – that are modeled by and reinforced by company leaders.

In today’s three-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series, I share the incredible power of senior leaders’ modeling of behavior and treatment of others, which creates their organization’s culture, for better or worse.

This is episode sixty-six of my Culture Leadership Charge series. Each episode is a short (two-to-three-minute) video that describes proven culture leadership and servant leadership practices that boost engagement, service, and results across your work teams, departments, regions, companies – and even homes and neighborhoods.

You’ll find my Culture Leadership Charge episodes and more on my YouTube and my iTunes channels. If you like what you see or hear, please subscribe!

Create a purposeful, positive, productive work culture with @scedmonds' #Culture #Leadership Charge videos & podcasts. #WorkPlaceInspiration #PurposefulCulture http://drtc.me/ytube http://drtc.me/pcast
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How well do team building activities your company offers actually translate to better teamwork on the job? Share your insights or questions on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The post Culture Leadership Charge – Work Culture is in the Leader’s Hands appeared first on Purposeful Culture Group.

Culture Leadership Charge – A Better Way to Build a Team

How many of you have done team building activities with work groups? We’ve all done events like bowling or tower building or trust falls.

How often, though, have those activities translated into sustained healthier work relationships?

Not very often.

Does that mean team building is a worthless endeavor? Not at all. Effective teamwork lies at the heart of most good things that happen in workplaces.

Teams with purposeful, positive, productive work cultures accomplish things that separate individuals cannot consistently deliver.

So, how can we create effective team building that contributes to sustained healthy relationships? By engaging with others in meaningful, cooperative activities away from the workplace and then leveraging insights gathered there into positive and productive work relationships.

The most compelling team building experiences use cooperative interaction.

I learned about cooperative interaction back in the ’80’s from Dr. Bill Michaelis, an educator, facilitator, speaker, author, play advocate, and good friend.

Cooperative interaction requires players to collaborate to solve challenges. Creativity and skills combined with cooperation are powerful! Together, those three generate great results, great respect, and great teams.

In today’s three-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series, I describe how Ken Blanchard modified a common team building activity – a team golf scramble – into a powerful learning experience by using cooperative interaction.

This is episode sixty-five of my Culture Leadership Charge series. Each episode is a short (two-to-three-minute) video that describes proven culture leadership and servant leadership practices that boost engagement, service, and results across your work teams, departments, regions, companies – and even homes and neighborhoods.

You’ll find my Culture Leadership Charge episodes and more on my YouTube and my iTunes channels. If you like what you see or hear, please subscribe!

Create a purposeful, positive, productive work culture with @scedmonds' #Culture #Leadership Charge videos & podcasts! #WorkPlaceInspiration #PurposefulCulture http://drtc.me/ytube http://drtc.me/pcast
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How well do team building activities your company offers actually translate to better teamwork on the job? Share your insights or questions on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The post Culture Leadership Charge – A Better Way to Build a Team appeared first on Purposeful Culture Group.

Culture Leadership Charge – Insights into a Healthy Work Culture

I’m fascinated to learn how companies with purposeful, positive, productive work cultures make that happen – and make sure it keeps happening every day.

We got a wonderful “behind the scenes” look recently at one of Glassdoor’s 2019 Employee’s Choice Best Places to Work – Trader Joe’s.

Last month, a Trader Joe’s employee opened a discussion on Reddit, inviting questions about the unique work culture there, why employees are so happy there, and more.

In response to “why are employees so happy there?,” this employee said, in short, “we’re treated very well.” This employee described five characteristics of their culture:

* No bureaucracy

* Be yourself

* Act with integrity (which is one of their company values)

* Great environment

* Great coworkers

None of these characteristics surprise us Trader Joe’s shoppers. We can see employees’ joy and are wow’ed by the service we enjoy and by the store’s terrific products.

What is shocking is that so few organizations embrace these characteristics. Despite the knowledge that integrity and respect build great workplaces, too many organizations are lousy places to work in.

In today’s three-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series, I share details about how Trader Joe’s leverages those five characteristics to create incredible employee happiness.

This is episode sixty-four of my Culture Leadership Charge series. Each episode is a short (two-to-three-minute) video that describes proven culture leadership and servant leadership practices that boost engagement, service, and results across your work teams, departments, regions, companies – and even homes and neighborhoods.

You’ll find my Culture Leadership Charge episodes and more on my YouTube and my iTunes channels. If you like what you see, please subscribe!

Create a purposeful, positive, productive work culture with @scedmonds' #Culture #Leadership Charge video episodes! #WorkPlaceInspiration #PurposefulCulture http://drtc.me/ytube
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To what degree does your company model these five healthy culture characteristics? Share your insights or questions on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The post Culture Leadership Charge – Insights into a Healthy Work Culture appeared first on Purposeful Culture Group.

Culture Leadership Charge – Protect Your Integrity

There are no small lies.

Your integrity is built and maintained when you do what you say you will do, in service to others.

Your integrity is eroded when you behave in ways that are self-serving or demeaning to others around you.

Why do people lie? Some do so to get their kids in an elite university. Some do so to take credit for others’ work. Some do so to make themselves look good. Some do so to win arguments.

Some lie because they don’t want to disappoint others. The truth may reveal they’ve fallen short or made mistakes.

Sometimes our lies are subtle – little “white lies.” It doesn’t matter; every lie erodes our integrity.

If a social media meme you “like” or share is not factual, you are promoting an un-truth. Your integrity takes a hit.

If you blame one political party or the other for conspiracies, for example, you’re missing the mark – and you’re promoting lies. That chips away at your integrity.

If any of your plans, decisions, or actions demean, discount, or dismiss others, that erodes your integrity.

In today’s three-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series, I share a story about being asked to lie – by my boss – and how I handled that challenging scenario.

This is episode sixty-three of my Culture Leadership Charge series. Each episode is a short (two-to-three-minute) video that describes proven culture leadership and servant leadership practices that boost engagement, service, and results across your work teams, departments, regions, companies – and even homes and neighborhoods.

You’ll find my Culture Leadership Charge episodes and more on my YouTube and my iTunes channels. If you like what you see, please subscribe!

Create a purposeful, positive, productive work culture with @scedmonds' #Culture #Leadership Charge video episodes! #WorkPlaceInspiration #PurposefulCulture http://drtc.me/ytube
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How do you protect your integrity? How do you ensure that your plans, decisions, and actions, are based on facts – not conjecture? Share your insights or questions on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The post Culture Leadership Charge – Protect Your Integrity appeared first on Purposeful Culture Group.

Culture Leadership Charge – The Recognition Factor

One of the executives I coach shared an article he’d read recently that described the benefits of praising people for effort – not for innate skills.

He posed this question: “Why should I recognize effort if it doesn’t lead to results?”

This is not an unusual mindset for business leaders. Their exclusive focus is on results. Praising results makes sense (though most leaders don’t do enough of that).

The benefit of praising efforts and ideas is that it makes people feel valued and trusted.

When people feel valued and trusted, they invest time and energy in solving problems at work, creating new ways to get things done, and more, increasing their contributions to the organization’s strategies and goals.

If leaders only praise accomplishments, they miss the opportunity to create greater engagement and deeper commitment by their team members in the organization’s success!

TinyPulse’s 2019 Employee Engagement Report provides powerful insights into the importance of recognition. They found that high performers are 15% more valued by their organization than low performers are. However, the study also found that high performers rated the recognition they receive as only 2% higher than the recognition low performers receive.

The good news is that this study of over 200,000 respondents found that high performers do feel valued by their leaders and companies. The bad news – they’re recognized just slightly more often than low performers.

In fact, less than one third of respondents had received ANY recognition in the past two weeks. One third also reported they were not recognized the last time they went “above and beyond” at work.

In today’s three-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series, I share a simple, effective two-step process for ensuring leaders recognize good things happening on their team.

This is episode sixty-two of my Culture Leadership Charge series. Each episode is a short (two-to-three-minute) video that describes proven culture leadership and servant leadership practices that boost engagement, service, and results across your work teams, departments, regions, companies – and even homes and neighborhoods.

You’ll find my Culture Leadership Charge episodes and more on my YouTube and my iTunes channels. If you like what you see, please subscribe!

Create a purposeful, positive, productive work culture with @scedmonds' #Culture #Leadership Charge video episodes! #WorkPlaceInspiration #PurposefulCulture http://drtc.me/ytube
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How well do your company’s leaders recognize efforts and ideas as well as results? Share your insights or questions on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The post Culture Leadership Charge – The Recognition Factor appeared first on Purposeful Culture Group.

Culture Leadership Charge – Those Pesky Facts

I’ve noticed that the older I get, the more readily I attribute “stories” to others’ behavior.

Whether someone is driving aggressively or having a disagreement in a busy restaurant, my stories try to make sense of what I’m seeing. My stories explain the cause and effect based on my observations and assumptions. The problem is that my stories are founded on maybe 5% reality and 95% pure invention!

If my stories are mostly invented, they are not beneficial. They’re not based on facts – they’re based on my assumptions.

I might think that my stories don’t cause anyone any harm. They’re usually happening entirely in my brain. I might sometimes share my explanation to others, but mostly it’s entirely internal.

The reality is that my stories might well cause harm. You see, I trust my stories. I make decisions based on my stories.

The problem is that my flawed logic leads me to – and act upon – inaccurate conclusions. I’m not consistently basing my plans, decisions, and actions on proven facts.

In today’s three-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series, I share how to make certain that you’re basing your plans, decisions, and actions – at home or at work or in your community – on proven facts and truth.

If facts and truth are difficult to attain, I must toss that story, that assumption, that belief.

This is episode 61 of my Culture Leadership Charge series. Each episode is a short (two-to-three-minute) video that describes proven culture leadership and servant leadership practices that boost engagement, service, and results across your work teams, departments, regions, companies – and even homes and neighborhoods.

You’ll find my Culture Leadership Charge episodes and more on my YouTube and my iTunes channels. If you like what you see, please subscribe!

Create a purposeful, positive, productive work culture with @scedmonds' #Culture #Leadership Charge video episodes! #WorkPlaceInspiration #PurposefulCulture http://drtc.me/ytube
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How careful are you to ensure you base your plans, decisions, and actions on proven facts – as best as possible? Share your insights or questions on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The post Culture Leadership Charge – Those Pesky Facts appeared first on Purposeful Culture Group.

Culture Leadership Charge – Build Your “A” Team

Here is episode 60 of my Culture Leadership Charge video series.

How strong is your business team today? Do you have leaders and team members who perform well, solve problems well, and treat others with respect at all times? If so, you’ve got an “A” team.

Sometimes, however, players in your organization lose their effectiveness. It might be that their skills no longer serve your needs or their disrespectful treatment of others becomes such a huge issue that you can’t ignore it anymore.

Discovering that an employee – be they a leader or front line or anyone in between – is not a good fit for the business today means you must act.

You must either find a good fit for them – where they genuinely contribute to the organization’s results while behaving respectfully – or you must help them out of the organization.

In today’s three-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series, I describe effective ways to address performance issues and respect issues – directly and fairly.

My Culture Leadership Charge series features short (two-to-three-minute) videos that describe proven culture leadership and servant leadership practices that boost engagement, service, and results across your work teams, departments, regions, and even your entire company.

Each episode’s “charge” is a challenge for everyone in your organization – not just leaders – to refine their behaviors and ensure everyone is treated respectfully at all times.

You’ll find my Culture Leadership Charge episodes and more on my YouTube channel. If you like what you see, please subscribe!

Create a purposeful, positive, productive work culture with @scedmonds' #Culture #Leadership Charge video episodes! #WorkPlaceInspiration #PurposefulCulture http://drtc.me/ytube
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Is your work team an “A” team – they perform well, cooperate well, and treat others with respect in every interaction? Or, not quite so? Share your insights or questions on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The post Culture Leadership Charge – Build Your “A” Team appeared first on Purposeful Culture Group.

Culture Leadership Charge – Perceptions of the Boss Matter

Here is episode 59 of my Culture Leadership Charge video series.

How leaders treat team members is critically important in your organization.

If leaders treat employees with respect and fairness, great things happen. Employees solve problems, proactively. They treat their peers and their customers respectfully. They share information so everyone succeeds.

That’s a thriving team.

However, if leaders treat employees with distain, dismissing and discounting their ideas, efforts, and accomplishments, lousy things happen. Employees disengage. They watch and wait. They withhold information.

That’s a struggling team.

How employees perceive their bosses directly impacts results and respect.

I coach leaders of organizations large and small to not make any assumptions about what their employees think. Leaders must ask, measure, listen, and learn – and then refine leader’s behaviors to ensure both results and respect happen daily.

In today’s three-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series, I share how to measure the quality of leaders’ treatment of others – and share ratings of two sample valued behaviors by attendees of a recent keynote.

My Culture Leadership Charge series features short (two-to-three-minute) videos that describe proven culture leadership and servant leadership practices that boost engagement, service, and results across your work teams, departments, regions, and even your entire company.

Each episode’s “charge” is a challenge for everyone in your organization – not just leaders – to refine their behaviors and ensure everyone is treated respectfully at all times.

You’ll find my Culture Leadership Charge episodes and more on my YouTube channel. If you like what you see, please subscribe!

Don't miss a single one of @scedmonds' 50+ episodes of his #Culture #Leadership Charge video series - short, rich, and relevant! #WorkPlaceInspiration #PurposefulCulture http://drtc.me/ytube
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Photo © Adobe Stock – ivanko80. All rights reserved.

How do your great bosses keep their “fingers on the pulse” to know employee perceptions of their leaders? Share your insights or questions on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The post Culture Leadership Charge – Perceptions of the Boss Matter appeared first on Purposeful Culture Group.

Culture Leadership Charge, Episode 59 – Perceptions of the Boss Matter

Here is episode 59 of my Culture Leadership Charge video series.

How leaders treat team members is critically important in your organization.

If leaders treat employees with respect and fairness, great things happen. Employees solve problems, proactively. They treat their peers and their customers respectfully. They share information so everyone succeeds.

That’s a thriving team.

However, if leaders treat employees with distain, dismissing and discounting their ideas, efforts, and accomplishments, lousy things happen. Employees disengage. They watch and wait. They withhold information.

That’s a struggling team.

How employees perceive their bosses directly impacts results and respect.

I coach leaders of organizations large and small to not make any assumptions about what their employees think. Leaders must ask, measure, listen, and learn – and then refine leader’s behaviors to ensure both results and respect happen daily.

In today’s three-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series, I share how to measure the quality of leaders’ treatment of others – and share ratings of two sample valued behaviors by attendees of a recent keynote.

My Culture Leadership Charge series features short (two-to-three-minute) videos that describe proven culture leadership and servant leadership practices that boost engagement, service, and results across your work teams, departments, regions, and even your entire company.

Each episode’s “charge” is a challenge for everyone in your organization – not just leaders – to refine their behaviors and ensure everyone is treated respectfully at all times.

You’ll find my Culture Leadership Charge episodes and more on my YouTube channel. If you like what you see, please subscribe!

Don't miss a single one of @scedmonds' 50+ episodes of his #Culture #Leadership Charge video series - short, rich, and relevant! #WorkPlaceInspiration #PurposefulCulture http://drtc.me/ytube
Click To Tweet

Photo © Adobe Stock – ivanko80. All rights reserved.

How do your great bosses keep their “fingers on the pulse” to know employee perceptions of their leaders? Share your insights or questions on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The post Culture Leadership Charge, Episode 59 – Perceptions of the Boss Matter appeared first on Purposeful Culture Group.