In our Facing the Leadership Chasm article, we cited multiple key points from Cornell University ILS School’s study “Recognizing Creative Leadership: Can Creative Idea Expression Negatively Relate to Perceptions of Leadership Potential?”, including:

• Creative employees who are perceived as being charismatic ‘have a leg up’ on creative employees who are not perceived as being charismatic; and  
• Being creative but not charismatic is a promotional liability.

Let’s first take a step back and define ‘charisma’. According to Wikipedia, charisma is a “…compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others.” The term is derived from a Greek word meaning ‘favor given’ or ‘gift of grace.’ Charisma can arise from two opposing foundations:

• Honorable, collaborative and authentic
• Dishonorable, manipulative and disingenuous (e.g., narcassism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy)

Our context is the former vs. latter.

In today’s society, charisma is referred to as the ‘it’ factor — either you have ‘it’ or you don’t. But what is ‘it’? According to Psychology Today’s contributing author Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D., charisma is “…a constellation of complex and sophisticated social and emotional skills” that includes the following six key ingredients:

According to research, charisma is shaped by one part temperament and personality (innate qualities) plus two parts life experiences (developed qualities over time). Per Dr. Riggio, charisma “…is deeply rooted in [one's] ability to communicate emotionally (related to the notion of ‘emotional intelligence’ and relationship skills that allow charismatic individuals to make deep connections with others. Oratorical skills being positive and optimistic, and being emotionally expressive are also part of the building blocks of charisma.”  

What does charisma look like? According to Dr. Alex “Sandy” Pentland, MIT Human Dynamics Lab Director and Harvard Business Review contributing author, charismatic people:

• Are positive and energetic
• Exude self-confidence
• Talk more but are also great listeners
• Spend more face-to-face time with others
• Pick up cues from others, draw people out and get them to be more outgoing
• Appear to know what they’re talking about in the short term
• Prove they know what they’re talking about in the long term

Mr. Pentland and his colleague, Mr. Daniel Olguin, have drawn these conclusions based on quantitative data. They’ve developed charismatic measuring devices that, when affixed to business executives in competitive situations, record ‘social signals’ or ‘social cues’  that analyze the executives’ tone of voice, gesticulation, proximity to others and more. The collected data is used to successfully predict who will succeed in competitive business situations without the data analyzers being privy to the business executives’ pitches. The results — those business executives who convey the above attributes consistently succeed in selling their ideas, products and services. Although that outcome may be jaw-dropping for individuals who are not charismatic and/or who don’t genuinely value the importance of connecting with people both emotionally and socially, the results are far from surprising to those who are charasmatic.

Charisma is, no doubt, a highly powerful and influential tool when built upon an honorable, collaborative and authentic foundation. The good news…if you have a ‘charisma conducive’ personality and temperament, which is one-third of the equation, you can develop your abilities to emotionally and socially connect with others. Like any behavioral change, your transformation will not occur over night and will require a targeted plan, dedicated time investment, focused energy, a positive attitude plus practice, practice and more practice!

Check out this article plus more in A-CHIEVE! (June 2011).

In our February professional development newsletter A-CHIEVE! , our feature article addressed The Disengagement Epidemic – a pervasive problem impacting approximately 33%+ (or 25 million) of the U.S. workforce resulting in a $416 billion productivity drain (per Gallup). In fact several of you, our newsletter subscribers, reached out to let us know that YOU’RE part of the 33% — either ‘disengaged’ or ‘actively disengaged’. Overwhelmingly our readership asked us “Why doesn’t leadership ‘get it’ and why aren’t they doing anything about it?” One of our readers, let’s call him ‘Jeff’, agreed to be interviewed so we could better understand how an employee could arrive at a place of being ‘actively disengaged’ — which is where Jeff is at. His story is all too familiar.

Jeff was excited to join XYZ Company. The possibilities seemed endless. He was looking forward to being a part of a highly engaged, agile, innovative, collaborative and customer-centric team where he could certainly contribute toward the bottom line in a meaningful and measurable way. Like most employees, for Jeff, it was about feeling that he was a part of the team, feeling respected and valued and feeling that he was learning and growing as he was advancing organizational goals. At first, all was going well because Jeff was in accelerated learning mode. He was hungry to acquire as much knowledge as he could, develop strong team and internal customer relationships where he could, and deliver quality results when he could. He knew that being perceived as highly responsive, competent, confident, credible and consistent by his manager, peers, co-workers and internal customers, would translate into ‘value-add.’

Then an organization change came down the road. Actually, the change had been in the works previously, however the leadership team had managed to botch several attempts at successfully planning and implementing ‘the change’. We can’t share the exact nature of the change or the particulars around the change in order to protect Jeff’s identity. So what happened next? The short version — the organization’s leadership team focused so exclusively on ‘their ideas’ as to how to proceed with the organizational change, that they totally lost sight of their people. Even worse, the leadership team didn’t engage the staff in the organizational change — the very staff who had the know-how to move the organization forward in an effective, seamless and customer-centric manner — from their Current State to their Desired Future State. The leadership team also (and probably inadvertently) kept the staff ‘in the dark’ plus made false promises to the staff without realizing the gravity of trust erosion — which happens when there is a communication void compounded by the leadership team saying X but doing Y.

Fast forward to today…Jeff is actively disengaged and is about ready to gear up for a full throttle job search. The ‘take note’ part — even though Jeff isn’t actively marketing himself as of yet, he already has several job opportunities in the pipeline (he is actively interviewing) because Jeff has a great reputation, he knows how to genuinely and effectively leverage business relationships and his talents are in high demand — even in this economy. A word of warning to leaders who think that their employees can’t find new jobs — that’s a myth. Successful people can easily open up new opportunity doors because talent will always be in high demand. Back to Jeff’ workplace, his immediate manager has no clue that Jeff is dissatisfied and is looking for other opportunities. The irony — Jeff would tell his manager if his manager would even do the bare minimum as a leader — care about his/her people and simply ask Jeff “What is your commitment level and what can I do to help you strengthen your organizational commitment?” The manager, who Jeff thinks is passively engaged, has wrongfully assumed that all is well (picture the ostrich with its head in the sand). So while Jeff is doing just enough to ‘get by’ (and stay below the radar screen), the same can’t be said about all of Jeff’s team mates.  One person in particular is actively disengaged to a degree where he is just ‘this side’ of sabotaging the organization. The person is intentionally creating much more complexity than needed as a way of ‘getting even.’ And again, the manager is clueless with what’s occurring right under his/her nose because the manager is emotionally not in tune with and is actually disconnected from the employees. The same holds true for the two levels of leadership above the manager. They have no idea what’s really going on in the trenches. 

Now one could assume that this particular leadership team consists of ‘duds’, but the reality is, all three have strong leadership, background and educational credentials — on paper — which just goes to show that even those leaders that appear to be the ‘best and the brightest’ may be missing key capabilities, preventing them from being truly effective leaders who:

What are they missing in spades? At a minimum — their ability to emotionally connect with their people. Could the leadership team, if they wanted to, turn around the situation? For Jeff — probably not. Jeff’s trust in the leadership team’s capabilities has been irreparably damaged. But it’s never too late to start anew. The first step is to heighten your awareness that 33%+ of the workforce is disengaged and, rather than going to a place of denial (that can never happen to my organization or my team), accept the likelihood that your workforce is also being impacted by this widespread epidemic. The second step is to commit to do something constructive about it. The third step is to take action! We’ve offered some ‘getting started’ tips in our Disengagement Epidemic blog and can offer more assistance if desired. The time to stop your high caliber employees from ‘checking out’ (both mentally and physically) and plug the $416 billion productivity drain is now!

How Engaged are You, Your Team and Your Organization?

Did you know that we’re in the midst of a Disengagement Epidemic? According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2010 data, 33% of the workforce is highly disengaged as compared to 20% in 2008 and 10% pre 2008. And they’re not the only ones presenting alarming statistics. Gallup 2010 reports that 33% of employees in world-class organizations are either not engaged or actively disengaged and 67% of employees in average organizations are either not engaged or actively disengaged – which equates to a 1.83:1 ratio of disengaged to engaged employees. Gallup further reports that “more than 25 million people are actively disengaged with their jobs and workplace at a cost to U.S. employers of $416 billion in lost productivity.” But the picture is even worse than that. Gallup 2010 research statistics show that organizations comprised of not engaged or actively disengaged employees additionally experience the following:

What does the epidemic look like at the employee level? According to the Society for Human Resource Management, non engaged employees:

 Actively disengaged employees:

If you’re in a formal leadership role, the question of the day becomes “How do you keep your team members engaged?” The “net/net” answer…you must genuinely create mutually beneficial relationships that embrace sharing, belonging and professional intimacy (aka “human connectedness”) between and among you and your team members where your employees feel that they’re a part of the team, feel that they’re respected and valued, and feel that they’re learning and growing. What does “human connectedness” look like? Your employees: 

But what if you’re not serving in a formal leadership role – what then? If you’re an informal leader, you can increase your and your team’s engagement by strengthening your own “human connectedness” capabilities. Where do you start? We recommend the following, which, by the way, mirror collaborative behaviors:

If you’d like to receive more information regarding how to assess employee engagement, develop “human connectedness” and instill a sustainable collaborative culture that positions you, your team and your organization for success, just let us know!

Check out this article plus more in A-CHIEVE! (February 2011).

Want to catch up with us? View TechEdge’s Human Connectedness Presentation.pdf presented at NEO IT Think Tank’s 09/22/2010 event (http://www.linkedin.com/in/gwenwalsh) then follow along!

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OK, it’s been 2 weeks since we discussed the 8 compelling business reasons to “up” our Human Connectedness savvy, e.g., helping colleagues:

• Feel part of the team
• Feel respected & valued
• Feel that they’re learning and growing

The question is…how many of us are actually doing the work required to get the results desired?

Between NEO IT Think Tank’s & my statistics, over 180 of us have reviewed the Human Connectedness (HC) slide deck…over 25 of us have downloaded it…so most of us “get” HC’s importance. But be honest & ask yourself…are you taking the right next steps?

I know some are because you’ve reached out to me, we’ve talked, you’ve taken away “homework assignments” & now you’re sharing positive “evidence” with me ~ which tells me that you’re committed! Excellent! One person is applying HC techniques to day-to-day interactions with internal customers as she effectively sets expectations & constructively manages conflicts. Before HC, she would “fight” or “flee” when facing tough discussions, but today’s a different day! Several folks are applying HC techniques to enterprise-wide application & system implementations because they realize sweeping changes cause uncertainty & distress (best case scenarios) & oftentimes lead to destructive behaviors (apathy or passive aggression) plus poor business outcomes, relationships & results when we lose sight of Human Connectedness. These are just a few of several success stories that are already in the works! Keep it up!

Several of you have asked me if the Human Connectedness program can be presented to your organization to raise awareness & gain commitment across a broader audience (beyond just you). That answer is “yes”. It’s available in two flavors — a 2-hour event plus 1-day, in-depth workshop that includes an expanded agenda, more interactive exercises, table-top break-outs, role playing, tips & technique sheets & Action Plans that reinforce HC Key Learnings. You can also host the 2-hour event or workshop & invite your internal customers, business partners and suppliers to participate ~ so you are all on the same HC page & moving forward in the same HC direction. Details are posted to my LinkedIn profile along with additional human behavior & organizational change and transformation items that may be of interest.

Have more HC questions? Let me know! And once again, to those who are pushing themselves to become the “best versions” that they can be ~ stick with it ~ create a future that you can be proud of! Charles Kettering said it best…”My interest is in the future because I’m going to spend the rest of my life there!”

It’s tough enough getting people to collaborate effectively within/across teams because of this little sticking point called “people behaviors” that’s oftentimes overlooked, but now we’re facing yet another collaboration challenge playing out before us ~ the Baby Boomer, Gen X and Millennial “Great Divide”. And let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that the Great Divide doesn’t exist because the facts and anecdotal data prove otherwise. 

If you’re a Baby Boomer (born 1946-1964), just take 10 minutes and have a heart-to-heart talk with a Gen X’er (born 1965-1979) or Millennial (born 1980-1999) who you have a trusted relationship with, and REALLY LISTEN to what they have to say. Based on my work with clients as we’re proactively tackling the Great Divide… 

Gen X’ers are irritated that Baby Boomers are blocking their way to advancement. Baby Boomers aren’t retiring for a variety of reasons. They’re maintaining their key leadership position stronghold. To further exacerbate the situation, a portion of the Baby Boomers in key leadership positions are behaving as “lame ducks”, to put it bluntly. That bad behavior would aggravate any top performer regardless of when he/she was born. 

Millennials on the other hand, are irritated with Baby Boomers because they’re not effectively engaging Millennials in key areas: 

• Connecting on a human-to-human basis
• Understanding what motivates Millennials
• Providing 1×1 value-add, real-time mentoring, coaching and feedback
• Working with Millennials to create career paths
• Communicating with Millennials using engaging technologies (e.g., social networks, IM, Twitter, Smart Phones)
• Supporting Millennials’ work/life balance needs  
• Creating sustainable virtual teams (which, by the way, save companies HUGE quantifiable dollars plus increase productivity if thoughtfully planned and implemented)

And what do Gen X’ers and Millennials have in common? First, both groups are loyal to people but not to organizations, which means…Baby Boomers, you must genuinely connect with both groups in order to engage and optimize their potential AND retain them! Second, both groups are turned off by Baby Boomers who place monetary-driven (greed-driven) personal, company and shareholder agendas before “the good of humanity.” Baby Boomers, you’re still holding key leadership positions and you’re highly influential, so you can start setting a different tone within your organizations and teams by actively weaving in meaningful opportunities that support “the greater good”.    

So what’s the business case that would compel organizations and teams to address the Great Divide? First, some statistics. Although estimates vary by source, roughly 70 million and 48 million comprise the Millennial and Gen X U.S. workforces respectively, or 118 million collectively, compared to 70+ million Baby Boomers. It’s official ~ Baby Boomers, you’re in the cultural minority. It’s no longer about “you”. I can say this because I too, am a Baby Boomer. But reasons to tackle the Great Divide go beyond that:  

• Baby Boomers owe it to the next generation of leaders and to society to position Gen X’ers and Millennials for success. That’s what genuine leaders do. They take action based on the big picture and the greater good.

• For every Millennial that quits, and they will quit if their key needs are not being met, expect turnover costs to soar. For a company that employs 5,000 with a $50K average annual salary and annual turnover rate of 10% and cost of 50% (turnover costs can range from 50%-150%), reducing turnover by just 3% can save the company $3.75 million annually ($8.75 million vs. $12.5 million).

• For every Millennial and Gen X’er that doesn’t feel engaged, the person is operating at some percent less than 100%. Using the previous example and assuming 2,080 planned annual hours per employee, if 20% of the workforce is operating at 80%, the productivity drain is roughly 416K hours or $10+ million annually, which means that 200 FTE’s (full time equivalents) are showing up for work, are on your payroll and contributing a BIG ZERO to the bottom line. And let’s not forget that unproductive employees slow down productive employees, so the productivity drain will grow vs. shrink if ignored.          

One last tip – don’t refer to a Gen X’er or Millennial by these two or other common generational names. Although Baby Boomers aren’t typically offended by their generational title, the same is not true for those generations that follow. Another cultural difference!   

How are you tackling the Great Divide? Please share your comments with us!

Why would I decide to share such a private, painful slice of my life with a complete stranger at that particular moment in time? Because I thought that by offering a glimpse into my world to a person affiliated with a worthy charity would be a respectful, considerate, thoughtful and patient way to help him understand that now was not the time to engage me in a “Can I 100% count on you to volunteer?” discussion. Admittedly, what occurred next was completely unexpected.

Without skipping a beat, the young man retorted “Well that’s why we give you 30 days to send out the donation cards!” Did I actually just hear him say that? Did he really just say “OK, I hear that your mom is dying, but with the 30-day clock running, you should still have some time after that to send out our postcards?” As I quickly replayed the tape in my head, I immediately concluded that he inadvertently didn’t hear the part about my mother. So I reiterated “My mother’s health is failing. Now is not a good time for me.” Being quick on the uptake yet again, my phone partner leapt to his Call to Action: Plan B script — “OK — you can always request our postcards at a future date by calling us at 877-###-####. “ 

Thought Provoker: Wikipedia describes “lost art” as “original pieces of art that credible sources indicate once existed, but cannot be accounted for in museums, private collections or are known to have been destroyed or neglected through ignorance and lack of connoisseurship.” Have some of us lost the art of empathy – the art of being sensitive to another person’s experiences and feelings? We know that it once existed, but are we finding that we can’t account for it in our day-to-day interactions with others? Has our ability to empathize been destroyed or neglected through ignorance and lack of connoisseurship? Is revitalizing our empathetic spirit one more opportunity to rekindle our emotional connection with those we come in contact with on a daily basis (Emotional Connection: A Universal Motivator & Change Accelerator)?

Please share your comments with us!

Several weeks ago I stumbled upon yet another “aha” moment. I was at a client site interviewing front-line employees of a highly successful, several thousand-strong organization that is renown for its high customer retention rate plus great customer service experience — and has the stats plus “word on the street” reputation to back it up. This was the second set of interviews that I was conducting, and in each case, I heard the same consistent message…

“I love my employer because…they care about us, they’ve been great to us, I’m not just a number, we’re family.”

“I’m…angry, resentful, hurt, empty, frustrated and ambivalent about my job. I used to love coming to work, but now I’m just here to collect my paycheck.”

How can a cross-section of people shower their employer with the most genuine of compliments in one breath then choose words that scream “morale has tanked” in the next? Then I met an insightful employee who I’ll call “Joe”. He was a very considerate, thoughtful and soft spoken person who helped me sort through what was really happening when he offered these words of wisdom — “We must honor the past.”

For years and well before Six Sigma, lean automation, instant messaging, social media and you-name-it-technologies took hold, this particular employer counted on each employee to go the extra mile every day – and each employee did so because they knew that they made a difference. If they had an idea that seemed reasonable, they ran with it. If they saw a decision that needed to be made, they acted upon it. If they saw a change that needed to be introduced, they implemented it. If they saw a problem that needed to be corrected, they fixed it. And with this, the business grew, the owners/employees prospered, the employer/employee relationship thrived and the customers kept coming back for more – and life was good.

Enter…a changing marketplace…process and automation…and new managers experienced in and excited about implementing large-scale safety, efficiency and cost reduction solutions. What happened next? The employees reported to new managers that they didn’t really know. There was no history. There was no trust. There was no emotional connection. The managers, looking forward to making a positive difference, introduced new ideas, rendered decisions, initiated wide-sweeping changes and resolved pesky problems – but in a perceived vacuum. And then there were the communication issues. As ideas, changes and new technologies were introduced, the first unintended message heard by the employees was “We, the new managers, are here to fix all of the mistakes of the past – the past that you, the employees, created and totally messed up.” As change pushback occurred, the next unintended message heard was “You, the employees, are being resistant to change. Just do it!” Meanwhile the employees were thinking “We helped the company grow to where it is today. We made the company successful. We consistently went the extra mile. Why are these changes being made? Why aren’t you asking us for our ideas and recommendations? Why are you minimizing and de-valuing us?” The employees’ attitudes drastically changed from being highly engaged to significantly detached. In their words, they were “brushed to the curb.” From the employee’s perspective, their ideas were no longer solicited or valued and they no longer shared a voice in decisions, changes and problem solutions.  Their enthusiasm for tackling the most difficult of situations – their passion for getting things done — their strong sense of ownership — the very essence of who they once were – had been unintentionally diminished.

What caused the great manager/employee divide? Let’s refer back to Joe’s comment “We must honor the past.” As a proponent of Active Listening, what does that phrase really tell me? What’s the “not so obvious” meaning? My conclusion — before we can collectively move forward, we must intentionally stop and recognize our people and their significant contributions that successfully paved the way for the next wave of work and accomplishments that lie ahead. We must genuinely connect with our people on an emotional level – where we can respectfully acknowledge who they are and express our gratitude to them for having created a positive imprint. We must openly discuss how the great foundation that our people have laid has become the perfect launch point for the next step in our organizational evolution. We must be compassionate in our messaging as we discuss “the why’s” behind doing things differently and encourage rich dialogue. But our responsibilities don’t stop there. We must actively engage all of our people as we plan, execute and celebrate organizational achievements. We must continue to nurture the emotional connection because the very essence of who we are as human beings and whether or not we’re appreciated by others directly influences our attitudes, beliefs and actions. How can we draw upon our people’s inner strength or self motivation that is so pivotal to accelerating organizational change when our people don’t feel genuinely appreciated by and/or emotionally connected with those introducing, directing or championing the change?

Thought Provoker: Do you see emotional connectedness as a universal motivator and change accelerator? Please share your comments with us!