When I took over Lucent’s Government Operations, I was confident in our ability to turn around the unit in part based on many great suggestions made by a group of strong, vocal employees in Washington, DC and Greensboro, NC. By and large, these employees were visible and forceful in sharing their views of what it would take to regain customer trust.

But it was also a third group of employees located in Whippany, NJ who quietly played a big role in our comeback. This team worked for Bell Labs.

Today, people marvel at the innovation coming out of Silicon Valley from firms like Google and Apple, companies that top the most admired lists. Not long ago, the hallmark for innovation resided on the opposite coast, in Murray Hill, NJ at the headquarters of Bell Laboratories. Born out of the original American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) company in 1925, researchers working at Bell Labs are credited with the development of the transistor, the laser, the UNIX operating system, and information theory itself. Eight Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work completed at Bell Labs.

The good news for me was Bell Labs had a long history, and a dedicated unit, focused on providing advanced technology to the US government.

Walking into my new assignment, I had clear ideas about how to increase the productivity of my sales force. Having “grown up” in a sales environment I was accustomed to working with a gregarious peer group of people who made a living by talking. For example, I was an early adopter of an “open office” approach years earlier at AT&T that was highlighted in the Harvard Business Review. Creating space that increased conversations was one of the goals. It worked well.

But the first time I walked into Bell Labs, I knew I was in a different space. This was a place optimized for introverts.

I immediately noticed the large number of small offices lined up off the main corridors. And I noticed the silence. I learned about the many different ways Bell Labs employees created and reinforced viral engagement, helping these brilliant thinkers bring out their very best. I saw that big team meetings were few and far between and that email was often the preferred communication tool, even between colleagues in adjoining offices. Many chose to enjoy lunch breaks without leaving their offices, or when the weather permitted, by taking walks around the building grounds, alone. Perhaps my biggest lesson was that viral engagement among introverts is more subtle, but just as impactful, as viral engagement among extroverts.

How can you bring out the very best from the third to half of your team who are introverts?
Here are my top takeaways:

Lead time – can create better quality
Small groups – can enable more contribution than large groups
Written communication – allows for thoughtful responses
Directed questions – clearly identify expectations
Team building – needs to be structured so it works for everyone
Office space – can be configured to support creativity
Technology –improves communication, via social media and on-line chat tools
Diversity – of approach can be important
Individual challenges – sometimes work best
Anonymity – can be a good thing

Chiefs at all levels in Bell Labs connected what they did to who they were, and management understood what it took to support a primarily introverted culture. The results were amazing. Our government unit’s dramatic growth was fueled by Bell Labs innovations.

Subsequent to my government assignment, I came to read Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. It is a must-read for anyone committed to engaging any team.

In addition to a deep dive into the world of introverts, Susan offers the following central insight “[We] would be better off if we appreciated that not everyone aspires to be a leader in the conventional sense of the word—that some people wish to fit harmoniously into the group, and others to be independent of it. Often the most highly creative people are in the latter category.”

With introvert estimates as high as 50% of some groups, it’s high time we all learn how to better engage the quiet Chiefs. Sustainable growth depends on it.

 

 

Conventional wisdom about Chiefs is all wrong. It says Chiefs are special. Chiefs are chosen. Chiefs have titles. And only those with the power and influence at the top can truly be Chief. Fresh out of business school, I aspired to be Chief. I worked hard to move up the ladder in the hope that I could eventually earn a job as a Chief Executive Officer.

For years, I trusted that wisdom. It guided me into and through bigger and bigger roles where I was responsible for generating results for companies in many difficult situations, developing plans for success that focused on a clear vision and a winning strategy to meet customer needs. Those plans often required raising capital, controlling costs, beating competition, and building positive community relationships in order to succeed.

But as I worked my way up through these assignments, and I had the privilege of working with many strong individuals at all levels who possessed a power and influence that had nothing to do with their title or position, my views shifted. I came to understand that real Chiefs are people who connect what they do to who they are. Their power and influence comes from inside and includes any number of attributes. Here is a starter set. What would you add?

1. Be alive
2. Be authentic
3. Be creative
4. Be all-in
5. Be a winner
6. Be your hardest critic
7. Be loving
8. Be peaceful
9. Be curious
10. Be thoughtful
11. Be deliberate
12. Be sincere
13. Be considerate
14. Be interested
15. Be resourceful
16. Be respectful
17. Be awake
18. Be smart
19. Be focused
20. Be mindful
21. Be honest
22. Be kind
23. Be generous
24. Be grateful
25. Be present
26. Be still
27. Be accepting
28. Be calm
29. Be loud
30. Be enthusiastic
31. Be courageous
32. Be diligent
33. Be yourself
34. Be strong
35. Be quiet
36. Be the fullest manifestation of who you are

Be Chief

Companies are not getting the best returns possible. They are leaving money on the table. But the problem is not with returns on financial capital—it’s human capital that’s left behind.

Estimates go as high as $370 million in lost profits annually in the United States.

Specifically, the lack of employee engagement is resulting in huge productivity losses for businesses. Estimates go as high as $370 million in lost profits annually in the United States. While many companies are relying primarily on annual employee engagement surveys to address the problem, results show more action is needed.

In my experience, a more comprehensive approach can deliver huge returns. Research supports what I have experienced personally—the key is to create the conditions for what I call viral engagement. It starts with the understanding that any employee can impact the engagement of every employee in a group.

Research has found that positive emotions spread from person to person in a work environment.

Research has found that positive emotions spread from person to person in a work environment. One study by Yale researcher Sigal Barsage found that this spread of emotion is associated with improved cooperation, decreased conflict, and increased task performance in the workplace. Another study by James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis out of the University of California and Harvard, respectively, found that cooperation also spreads, even among people who are not acquainted. These researchers found that cooperation spreads not only from person to person, but from person to person to person to person—up to three degrees of separation. That’s an impressive cascade. I call that viral engagement.

Engaged employees feel great about giving their all at work. They are disciplined and creative in their chosen craft and team well with others. Their high level of satisfaction comes from working in an environment where they can connect what they do to who they are. I refer to these individuals as Chiefs.

Engagement is contagious and can start from anyone, anywhere in an organization.

Consider these 10 opportunities to create the conditions for improving employee engagement with the understanding that engagement is contagious and can start from anyone, anywhere in an organization.

Selection: Do you hire good team players and hold an expectation that every addition to your team can have an immediate impact on the engagement of current employees?

Education: Does your company invest in the soft skills that will enable your employees to be more effective in engaging others?

Communication: Do you reinforce verbal and written communication as equally important in engaging others?

Compensation: Could you pay a small team bonus for improving engagement scores?

Recognition: How could you recognize individuals and teams when new practices are adopted that are generated “bottoms up?”

Promotion: Do team members know that engagement success is part of the path to promotion?

Retention: When people do leave, do you look ask about engagement in exit interviews?

Performance management: Is engagement a part of performance management discussions?

Values: Could engagement language be added to define your organizations values?

Assessment: Do you assess for engagement skill sets?

When you understand that viral engagement is possible, you have the power to unleash a whole new paradigm in your organization. Are you ready for next-level growth? The opportunities discussed here will help you get there.

My dad once said that any baseball player can have a good season, but it takes a different kind of focus to be great throughout his entire career. The goal of any athlete should be sustained excellence, Dad said. He also taught me that in business, the same rule applied. As a career HR professional, Dad taught me that focusing on employees is the key to sustainable success and growth for a business.

When markets shift and customers’ needs change while technology enables new solutions, it’s a company’s employees who design, develop, and deliver the services and products that keep customers happy and attract new ones. I learned the key was to create cultures where employees would bring their best to work each day. Employees who fully engage enable companies to thrive, year after year.

When I went to business school, professors helped me expand my notion of sustainable success. They indicated the focus for sustainability should include the shareowner. I learned it’s a company’s shareowners that provide the capital necessary to run and build a business. Shareowners who can count on consistent, long-term growth will likely see improving stock prices and increases in dividends. In turn, capital will continue to flow to the company to fuel growth over time.

During my first job at Sperry Corporation, my notion of sustainable success expanded yet again. In sales, it became crystal clear that a company’s focus should always be the customer. It’s a customer who decides if a company is successful by making a buying decision. Companies must work hard to earn customer loyalty. While a satisfied customer might seek a slightly better product feature or better price from a competitor, loyal customers won’t. Building loyal customer relationships enables a company to enjoy sustained success, quarter after quarter.

More recently, my understanding of what sustainable success truly means expanded again when I learned about the four questions former CEO Sam Palmisano used when he ran IBM. The first three were in line with what I had learned about employees, shareowners, and customers: 1. Why would someone work for you? 2. Why would someone invest their money with you? 3. Why would someone spend their money with you—what is unique about you?

But the fourth question caused me to expand my thinking again: 4. Why would society allow you to operate in their region? This last question caused me to shift my thinking in two ways. First, it expanded my recognition of the impact of an organization and got me thinking about what measurable outcomes are required to claim success within a specific community.

We had employee engagement surveys, customer satisfaction analyses, and enough financial reporting to choke a horse. But being a good corporate citizen in the community includes more than an occasional philanthropic donation for social good or caring for the environment beyond simply not polluting. Sam’s fourth question requires more than a “do no immediate harm” approach; it requires a “make it better” solution.

Second, this new question also shifted my perspective about time. Unlike the first three questions that had an unspoken time frame of “quarter to quarter” or “year to year,” this question shifted my thinking from the short term to the truly long term. Thinking in terms of “decade to decade” or “century to century,” such that it could continue indefinitely, is clearly a new bar.

Taken together, this expanded view of inclusion along with a completely new view of accountability over time forms a new definition of sustainable success. Those companies that deliver truly sustainable growth are focused on all constituencies and a true long-term perspective. Companies that earn employee engagement, deliver shareowner value, create customer loyalty, and operate as conscious members of the community are accountable for the sustainable prosperity for this and future generations.

We are currently facing some of the most difficult global challenges in a generation: inclusion, recession, and depletion.

Inclusion: nearly three billion people will enter the global middle class in the next 20 years. Recession: the global economy is still feeling the effects of the 2008 financial meltdown. Depletion: the climate is warming, which is straining our resources and depleting nearly two-thirds of our ecosystems (e.g. soil, fish and forests).

But there is good news.

While these problems are escalating worldwide, there has been a growing movement in the business community toward “triple bottom line” solutions—those that focus on people, profit, and the planet. Triple bottom line solutions actually enable companies to solve customer problems while driving increased profitably and improving society.

Sound too good to be true?

There is an increasing body of research to support this claim. For example, R. Paul Herman’s Human Impact + Profit (HIP) methodology tracks, rates, and ranks companies’ quantifiable impact on society, connecting “doing well” with “doing good.” The research from Paul’s 8-year old company shows consistent improvements in results with triple bottom-line strategies. While Paul’s ground-breaking book The HIP Investor is targeted at current or prospective business owners, the HIP Scorecard is also a management system that shows how business leaders can benefit from doing the right thing, the right way.

Simplification is almost always a good idea, particularly when you are attempting to focus a large group to act on complex global challenges. Since research supports exponential returns with this approach, I offer this equation as the new measure of business success: Responsibility3 = people + profit + planet Want even better news?

There is a dramatic increase in the number of business leaders who are working together and taking a Responsibility3 focus. Networks of these enlightened leaders are quickly growing around the world, and they include small to medium sized companies (the American Sustainable Business Council has over 200,000 members) as well as some of the world’s largest companies (the World Business Council for Sustainable Development has over 170 multinational members).

These networks also include more established groups that are adding Responsibility3 to their existing charters (the Young Presidents’ Organization has over 21,000 members worldwide). These groups are all focused on exponential vs. incremental change. Building on this momentum, several of these powerful networks recently chose to align.

As a result, the Business Alliance for the Future was formed. And while work is underway to determine how best to measure progress in all three areas, this alliance of networks has chosen as its motto: “The future of business is making the future its business.” The bottom line: Business is increasingly taking responsibility for a truly sustainable future. That’s really good news.

Employee engagement is a constant struggle that seems to be getting worse. The New York Times described the problem, yet again, just last month in an opinion article on employee burnout. The article reports that Harvard Medical School psychiatrist and assistant clinical professor Srinivasan S. Pillay surveyed a random sample of 72 senior leaders and found that almost every one reported some signs of burnout. As workers worldwide are reporting that they “lack a fulfilling workplace,” companies have an opportunity to get a better return for their investment in human capital and drive growth.

As it turns out, employees are more satisfied and productive when four of their core needs are met: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. According to the Times article, the more effectively leaders support employees in meeting these needs, the more likely employees will be to engage, be loyal and satisfied, and exhibit positive energy, increased productivity, and less stress at work.

The answer is right in front of you. Or more specifically, within you. When you take a mindful approach to business—that is, when you engage in mindfulness meditation practices that develop your ability to remain attentive to the present moment—your performance at work improves. Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention to the present. It involves observing current experiences without judgment. Mindfulness allows you to more fully participate in the moment in which you find yourself. When you are in a mindful state, you are ready for anything. You respond rather than react. And you create more space in your mind for insight—where your best ideas come from.

Although mindfulness is a hot topic these days, it’s hardly new. Harvard Business School professor Bill George reports that the company he led as Chief (Medtronic) had a meditation room almost forty years ago, thanks to the vision of founder Earl Bakken. A major proponent of mindfulness meditation, George has been meditating himself since 1975. Two years ago we learned about the wildly successful Search Inside Yourself (S.I.Y.) mindfulness meditation course held at Google and taught by Chade-Meng Tan, Google’s 107th employee. Tan teaches emotional intelligence via a practical, real-world meditation that can be used anywhere. This practice encourages participants to be aware of feelings without acting on them as a way to more accurately understand one’s circumstances. Google clearly sees this investment as a valuable part of their growth strategy.

Jon Kabat-Zinn is responsible for much of the popularization of the secular practice of mindfulness through his mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program initiated in 1979. MBSR is the most widely studied mindfulness practice, although some would point even farther back to the groundbreaking work of Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking back in 1952. Since that time, clinical studies have documented the physical and mental health benefits of mindfulness in general, and MBSR in particular. Programs based on MBSR and similar models have been widely adapted in schools, prisons, hospitals, veterans’ centers, and other environments. As relates to business, mindfulness meditation practices have been found to increase productivity and creativity as well as reduce burnout and increase growth.

In short, more businesses need to support mindfulness practices by employees. I view it as an effective investment in human capital that consistently delivers great returns. Chiefs at every level stand to benefit from this simple, yet profound practice.

Rick Miller describes how Chief titles are widely used today for people with power, but don’t accurately reflect what it means to be a Real Chief. He asserts that Being Chief is about making a choice rather than gaining a title. Watch Rick speak here to learn how to unlock your power and be a Real Chief.