Connecting Employees to a Noble Purpose

In today’s business environment, it is more important than ever before to have a noble company purpose. Beyond simply making a profit and satisfying consumers, the companies that stick out and succeed today largely have a mission to do something good for the world. Hubert Joly, former CEO of Best Buy and senior lecturer at Harvard Business School has recently published an article on HBR.org detailing how best to connect every employee with your company’s purpose.

Joly believes that to find a company’s noble purpose, leadership must look to the intersection of the following four criteria:

• The human needs the company would like to address

• The company’s unique capabilities

• What the company’s employees are passionate about

• How the company can create economic value

Exploring these four areas isn’t as simple as a quick survey of the C-suite. Input and analysis must be gathered from every level of employee and and engage the broadest range to be effective and inspirational. For instance, when the Ralph Lauren Corporation was seeking to define their purpose, they conducted a year-long study in stores around the world from team members, customers, long-term employees, and of course, Ralph Lauren himself. The purpose that they were able to put into words after that year was “Inspiring the dream of a better life through authenticity and timeless style.”

Joly goes on to lay out a few points of advice for those in leadership looking to dive deeper into their own company’s inspirational purpose. First, he says, take it slow. Make sure the prerequisites to finding your purpose are in place before the process of discovery begins. If the foundation of the company is in tatters, fix those obstacles to success. Once the fundamentals are in place, only then should a company move forward on evaluating its goals.

Second, the company’s culture must support the purpose. Remember that actions speak louder than words and that every level of the company must reflect this inspiration. Here Joly uses the example of Microsoft since Satya Nadella has been at the helm. Transforming what was once a cut throat environment into a supportive and empathetic one has been a massive shift and didn’t happen overnight. Now meeting leaders end each session by asking the question: “was this a growth mindset meeting?” to get to the root of this mission.

The third and fourth points are intrinsically tied together. Joly suggests that leaders must translate the purpose from the abstract to the practical, while also keeping it simple. Spell it out in a few short sentences that really get to the heart of the issue. Starbucks has communicated their purpose by laying out each and every group they aim to support in their mission. From stakeholders to employees (called partners within their corporation), to customers, and perhaps most importantly, to the farmers who supply the coffee beans themselves. Starbucks has practical ways of connecting and uplifting each group.

And lastly, have human conversations. Joly describes the importance of what he calls “human magic”; when that purpose gets put to work in every employee. Everyone, regardless of rank, must have an emotional connection with their company’s purpose in order to put it into practice. When Joly was leading Best Buy, he used human stories as a connecting point for all team members. Employees were asked when they encountered an inspiring friend, and what it meant to them. Under the leadership of Joly’s predecessor, Corie Barry, some Best Buy employees were asked to share their experiences with their aging parents to highlight the company’s mission of supporting seniors using tech in their homes.

Narrowing in on a purpose can be a daunting task, and as Joly points out, the research on the subject is still relatively new. With his advice, however, leadership can begin the bottom up and inside out task of identifying what is great for their employees, their communities, and the global market beyond. Give this insightful article a read here for a deeper dive from Joly, and many more examples of what this process looks like in practice.

Turn up the Volume on Post-Pandemic Leadership

If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that no matter who we are or where we come from, all of us struggling with something (or many somethings). Many times (especially in the past few years) our struggles apparent - on the surface and ready for us to digest. Just as often, however, they lie just beneath a facade of infallibility. It behooves us to remember that no matter how successful, wealthy, famous, or influential a person gets, there’s a struggle in there somewhere.

This, of course, includes those in leadership. Leaders are generally under enormous amounts of stress, and it is imperative that support networks are there to be relied upon. In a new article from Kellogg Insight, Clinical Professor of Leadership Harry Kraemer intends to provide that support. He recognizes that it is difficult to lead at this present moment, and offers some tips on how to adapt to this new climate. No changes are necessary, he says, just “turn up the volume” on what any good leader already knows. Read up and watch the companion video to turn the leadership game up a notch.

3 Tools to Help Your Team During a Transition

We all have to navigate times of uncertainty and change at some point in our lives. Whether these changes are professional, personal, or societal, they can be eased by using what developmental psychologist D. W. Winnicott termed “transitional objects”. This could be something physical (such as a literal security blanket), or something more abstract (an idea, a routine, or agreement). These things can help someone feel grounded when the world around them is spinning. Research shows that not only can these transitional objects help employees during times of upheaval, but there are things that leaders can do to ease the process. Specifically, those in leadership need to consider three important attributes that help people process transitions:

• choice,

• a connection to a purpose,

• and using something new as a bridge toward the new goal or situation.

Now that more and more of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID and companies are able to return to work in various capacities, we are once again in a transitional period. As we make our way back into physical office space, resume travel, and are otherwise becoming used to the “new normal”, take a look at HBR’s article on how leaders are best able to help their teams through this next period of change.

Leadership and Neuroscience

Have you ever wondered what makes a leader’s brain different? What makes it tic? What makes team-building, decision-making, and inspiration easier for some than others? How does one maximize this potential? Well, thanks to today’s advances in neuroscience, we are beginning to see answers to those questions. Recently, Professor Michael Platt, Director of the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, sat down for the new Meet-the-Author interview series, highlighting exciting research coming out of the Wharton School.

Platt’s new book, The Leader’s Brain, begins to explain how certain genetic traits in our neuro-physiology may predispose some to be more talented leaders. It can also explain why two different leaders will make drastically different decisions when presented with the same problem, and why even the most charismatic and talented leaders can sometimes make disastrous mistakes.

Check out Wharton marketing Professor Peter Fader’s interview with Platt (originally live streamed on Wharton’s LinkedIn page) to get a great introduction to the new book, and even pick up a few tips on how to maximize the parts of your own brain that make a great leader.

Morale: How Leaders Can Tackle Their Biggest Challenge

Covid Fatigue has officially set in. Nearly one year after the first shelter-in-place orders came down, we are still dealing with social distancing, Zoom headaches, masks, and distance learning. And that’s if we are fortunate enough to have avoided contact with the virus, lost jobs, or at worst, lost loved ones to the pandemic. Add to this Texas ice storms, power outages, and the return of toilet paper hoarding, and you’ve got yourself the perfect recipe for a sharp decline in employee morale.

Those in leadership roles are faced with keeping up not only their own morale, but that of their respective teams as well. The results of a Vistage CEO Confidence Survey for the 4th quarter of 2020 showed that morale was a major concern for C-suite executives. To shed some insight on these challenges and how best to overcome them, Vistage has assembled a renown group of experts: Dr. Eve Meceda, Valerie Alexander, and David Friedman.

Check out the recent Vistage blog post on how leaders can address a historic decline in employee morale. Afterwards, check out the video on Managing Morale for Yourself and Your Team to cover all your bases.

Diversity on Your Board

As the founder of one of the country’s oldest minority-led investment firms, John W. Rogers Jr. has spent his career pushing for greater diversity across a variety of different industries. Yet despite his work (and that of many others) and despite diversity and inclusion being at the forefront of recent corporate conversation, the wealth gap between racial groups is growing, not shrinking.

“People have just no idea how much worse off we are. We’re losing out on the key economic opportunities and the parts of the economy where the wealth is being created today, primarily Wall Street and Silicon Valley,” Rogers said. “We are still continuing to try to work in yesterday’s industries. And in tomorrow’s industries, where the real opportunity is, we continue to be locked out. It almost reminds me of baseball in 1940.”

Recently Stephanie Creary of the Wharton School, interviewed Rogers on her podcast (older episodes here), as well as co-authored an article for Strategy & Business with him. In both, the two discuss ideas and practical frameworks for boards to actively advance racial justice and increase diversity within their organizations. For those who have made a commitment to fighting systemic racism, the message is clear: put your money where your mouth is. This should be required reading for any C-suite or board members who would like to authenically increase diversity among their colleagues.

Five Questions for CEOs

Just in case there was any doubt, these last few weeks have set the record straight on whether Covid is going away any time soon. No doubt the recent spikes we’ve seen will send many of your employees back into work-from-home (WFH) status (if they ever returned to the office in the first place, that is). And although a few promising vaccines are providing a light at the end of the tunnel, the workplace is not slated to return to normal anytime soon. On the brightside, this winter could provide a time for C-Suite leadership to reflect on the long-term nature of who goes remote, who doesn’t, and other considerations that will spring from those decisions.

Chief Executive magazine recently published a short article reviewing some of these considerations, not the least of which will be equity among those with different work agreements. These considerations include:

• Will your workers’ compensation change, if anyone goes remote?

• What restrictions will you apply to remote workers?

• What is your long-term strategy?

• How will you manage and measure productivity remotely?

• What kind of culture are you creating?

Click on the link above to go into a deep dive of these five questions, and read how some CEOs are addressing these issues. Then take a moment to ponder your own answers.

The Leader and The Spiral

We’ve all been in group situations when it’s uncomfortable to speak up about one’s opinion.  Much of this is due to group dynamics (i.e. being separated from a group we value, the perceived risk of losing a job or other forms of risk).  A recap of research on this phenomenon suggest that “The only time someone will feel safe to voice a divergent opinion is if they think the group will share it or be accepting of divergence, or if they view the consequences of rejection as low.” But this biological drive doesn’t just dictate how individuals behave—it ends up shaping communities.   It’s almost impossible for us to step outside of that need for acceptance. Scientists call it the “Spiral of Silence.” 

Teamwork in all its forms requires a willingness and ability for team members to share thoughts, opinions and abilities.  The job of a C-suite a leader is to make doing so a safe experience, even if it’s not always a comfortable one.  Unless you can recognize the Spiral of Silence and its implications,  your effectiveness as a leader will be less than it could be, and needs to be.  The short article linked above is enlightening on the nature and implications of the Spiral, an aspect of leadership you didn’t even know was missing… or have been avoiding.   

Leadership: Empathy and Inspiration

In 2009 Simon Sinek rocked the business world with his TEDx talk entitled "How Great Leaders Inspire Action".  With over 50 million views (yes, you read that right), his simple talk (which later spawned his best selling book "Start With Why") inspired us all to rethink how we approached our customers, employees, vendors, bankes, lawyers, families, and friends.

Three years ago, Mr. Sinek again shared his thoughts.  During this period of social unrest, they could not be more important.  Watch Mr. Sinek explain why a leader's real job is not as much about being in charge, as much as it is about taking care of those in their charge.