Driving Results Through Culture

Most business leaders see their job as managing results. Results are important, but they’re only half the leaders’ job. The other half? Managing respect. Our experience and research lead us to this core truth of business leadership: Employes of all generations desire and deserve a work culture where they are respected and validated for their aligned ideas, efforts, and contributions, every day. When employees experience respect and validation, they bring their best. They proactively solve problems, work cooperatively, and wow customers. They feel a part of something positive and powerful - and they love working for you. So, they stay. When employees are discounted, dismissed, and demeaned, they disengage. They invest little. They spot problems but don’t fix them. They do the minimum - and look for ways out of the organization. Many quit and leave. Some quit and stay. Respected employees build your business. Disrespected employees have no compelling reason to do that - so they don’t. How can you build a cultur

We’re not yet over the “Great Resignation.” The latest job report indicates that another 4.2 million US workers voluntarily quit in August 2022. LinkedIn’s 2022 Workforce Confidence Index found that nearly 25 percent of Gen-Z respondents and Millennials plan to change jobs in the next six months. This study found that Gen-Zs and Millennials deliberately seek careers that offer: Better alignment with their interests and values Opportunities to learn and practice new skills Better compensation and benefits A new industry or job function Opportunities to move up or increase responsibilities If your business doesn’t address these needs, you’ll lose talented people and have a tough time attracting younger generations. Here are three things business leaders must do to create a great place to work for Millennials and Gen-Z’s. Pay equity. Close gender and racial pay gaps. Pay at the top of the range. How will people know where they are in the ranges? Be fully transparent with ranges and with your compensation strat

A month ago, the term “quiet quitting” hadn’t made much of a mark. A social media post on the concept went viral – and now everyone is talking about it. I was delighted to join BBC News’ The Context broadcast and speak to host Nuala McGovern about quiet quitting – and how business leaders can address it. This podcast includes the audio from the live broadcast on August 25, 2022. What is quiet quitting? It means employees are no longer going “above and beyond” – they’re doing exactly what their job description says they should do. They’re not taking on extra work; they’re doing what they’re paid to do. The pandemic – across the globe – has put tremendous stress upon employees, no matter the industry. People have been asked to do way above normal because of staffing shortages, people quitting, etc. Employees are emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted. We used to talk in the HR industry about people “quit and leave” and people who “quit and stay.” Quiet quitting isn’t the same as “quit and stay.” It is

Companies around the globe are short-staffed. Leaders have tried to boost hiring through higher wages and even bonuses, but staffing shortages continue. The problem? Many business leaders want to return to the “old normal” but employees and candidates don’t want “old normal.” A new Deloitte study found the top four things Gen-Y and Gen-Z workers want include work/life balance, development opportunities, higher salaries, and a positive culture.  Money isn’t their primary driver. What must leaders do? They must build and sustain a work culture where employees of all generations are respected and validated for their ideas, efforts, and accomplishments. Let’s examine a shining beacon. Radio Flyer is a 100+ year old company famous for their original red wagons. For the last decade, they’ve been rated as one of the best companies to work for by Glassdoor,  Crain’s, The Inc. 5000 list, and many others. Glassdoor tracks employee ratings in seven critical categories. Radio Flyer’s scores average a 4.9 on a 5-point sca

About that title? We’ll get to Bruno in a minute. The foundational principle of our book, Good Comes First, is that today’s leaders must make RESPECT as important as RESULTS, every day. My colleague and co-author, Mark Babbitt, and I were keynoting a conference. In our presentation, we share this fundamental model - the Performance-Values Matrix. Once you formalize performance expectations AND values expectations, players categorize themselves into one of four quadrants. The upper right is where you want all players to operate. You want them to exceed performance expectations while demonstrating your positive values. You must recognize and retain folks in that quadrant. The bottom left is not a good place for people to operate. They’re missing performance standards and don’t model your values. You must give them a chance to align to both. If they do, great. If they don’t, they can’t stay in your organization. You must lovingly set them free. The bottom right is a slightly better place for people to be. These

Most of you know me as a speaker, writer, and consultant. Some of you know that I’m a working musician on the side. I grew up in California in the ’50’s and ’60’s. I watched great artists playing cool guitars - and I fell in love with stringed instruments. I’ve been collecting them since college. To stay healthy, stringed instruments need one thing every minute of every day: proper humidity. These instruments are made of wood - wood that reacts to the environment they’re in. Acoustic instruments have a sweet spot: they are healthiest when they exist in an environment with 45-55% humidity. If the air is too dry? The wood will shrink, split and crack. String tension will likely cause a significant break. If the air is too wet? The glue holding the instrument together will fail - and the string tension will cause an impressive implosion! In the California coastal towns where we lived for 30 years, the humidity was perfect for those instruments. In the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, that’s not the case. It’s dry he

In our new book, Good Comes First, co-author Mark Babbitt and I propose four culture cornerstones that are the foundation of an uncompromising work culture. These cornerstones help align people and practices to your ideal work culture. Our first cornerstone, “Live Our Servant Purpose,” enables leaders, employees, contractors, and even customers to see that your company serves a purpose other than just making money. What is a “servant purpose”? A servant purpose describes how or what your company does and how it improves the quality of life for employees, customers, and the communities served. Essentially, your servant purpose is your company’s present-day reason for being—other than making a profit. That higher purpose shifts your organization’s primary focus from making money (or making red wagons, circuit boards, or sandwiches—none of which are innately inspiring to employees) to serving others: generating tangible benefit to your customers and your communities. When a leader lives her servant purpose, she

Business leaders today have a lot on their minds – and on their plates. They juggle hiring challenges. Mask mandates. Retaining talented players. Vaccine guidelines. Supply chain issues. Generating revenue. All these tasks are demanding, requiring attention and intention every minute. Yes, these are important considerations in today’s business environment. However, they are not the ONLY important considerations. Leaders may have a preconceived notion about these considerations: “This is my sole job: managing results.” When leaders are immersed in tasks like these, they may ignore reports that things aren’t going well in their work culture. If leaders learn about bosses behaving badly, most don’t want to deal with it. Another preconceived notion takes over: a perception that “managing results is more important” or “it can’t be that bad” or “HR will handle it.” Such preconceived notions are deeply flawed. The reality is that there is NOTHING more important for leaders to pay attention to than disrespect in thei

I’m old. Over the years, back and neck pain caused me to hold my neck & shoulders & back very tightly – so moving wouldn’t hurt. Those tight muscles learned to be inflexible and immovable – so I wouldn’t hurt. Muscles are incredibly powerful. If they learn to be inflexible and immovable, they act like bones – firm and solid. That firmness causes muscles to adhere to other muscles (for greater inflexibility) which compresses nerves. The result was a pinched nerve in my neck. Two surgeries in the last two years helped reduce the pain but my hands still didn’t work right. My neurosurgeon said to find a good chiropractor. I found Dr. Eric. He’s been working on getting my neck and shoulder and back muscles to let go. He’s working to release those adhesions for greater strength and flexibility. His efforts have made my hands work better! The thing is – he couldn’t fix my muscles in one visit. It’s taken 27 weekly visits so far – and we’re not done yet. So, Dr. Eric makes changes a little at a time. He’s rel

I’m reflecting on an anniversary this month. Twenty-eight years ago this month I had a heart attack. It was not how I planned to spend the day. Thanks to exceptional health professionals, dedicated family, and the grace of God, I survived. Like many others who have experienced a significant health issue, my heart attack caused me to reflect on my life. I knew my job at the time was not a great fit for me. I was not using my talents to proactively serve others. So, I left that role and started on the culture educator and consultant path. I am grateful to help leaders build and sustain workplaces where everyone is respected and validated for their ideas, efforts, and contributions every day. I pray you never have a myocardial infarction. Maybe my story can inspire reflection and action in the coming months. The world is going through a “heart attack” today. The pandemic has caused employees to reflect – and many have come to the conclusion that their workplaces are not healthy. So, they resign. Since April, mor

If you’re trying to hire staff right now, you’re not having fun. The US Federal Reserve Bank in September estimated that the average time required to fill an open job rose from 20 days to 50 days over the previous four months. And a new global McKinsey study found that 40% of respondents are somewhat likely to quit in the next three to six months. 18% of those said their intentions to quit ranged from likely to almost certain. This study also revealed why so many employees are ready to walk out your door. The three driving factors were 1) employees didn’t feel valued by their organization (54% said this), 2) employees didn’t feel valued by their managers (stated by 52%), and 3) employees didn’t feel a sense of belonging at work (stated by 51%). The pandemic has changed what people expect of their workplaces, colleagues, and bosses. Leaders don’t know how to meet those changing expectations. Leaders want to go back to “the way it was” because that’s the only way they know how to manage. Employees have learned

Years ago, a friend received some brilliant leadership advice from a mentor. The mentor said, “How you treat people today becomes conversation around their dinner table tonight.” Today, it’s not just dinner table conversations that leaders need to be aware of. It’s Glassdoor.com and social media platforms where examples of great or lousy leadership efforts go viral with just a click! As a culture geek, I’m constantly asking people what their company’s work culture is like. People are surprised that I’m interested – and they tell me their perceptions. Last week I asked a member of a health and wellness company what their work culture is like. She responded immediately. She said: “Our company rocks! I have worked here since the fall of 2019. We are an awesome team of friends. Everyone truly cares about everyone else. We all put our heart and soul into our work each day. We do what it takes each day because we believe in the products, our customers’ experiences all matter, and we enjoy helping others help themse

Today’s video features Good Comes First book co-authors Mark Babbitt and Chris Edmonds discussing a core foundation of a purposeful, positive, productive work culture. Here’s an excerpt. Mark: “I often say, Chris, that most of what I learned about leadership was on the baseball field as a coach for three decades now. On the diamond, I learned that if you set rules and then you don’t follow those rules yourself – for instance, if you say showing up late to practice is unacceptable, but then you show up late – you’ve not only destroyed the values. You’ve not only destroyed the culture. You destroyed integrity, trust, respect.” Chris: “How do they know what to believe?” Mark: “In writing this book and in our work together, we got to learn from good bosses, the great bosses, and those that weren’t so great. It’s been interesting and in a couple of places within Good Comes First, we compare good comes first cultures with not so good cultures and good leaders with not so good leaders. And it’s been very interesting

Today’s podcast features Good Comes First book co-authors Mark Babbitt and Chris Edmonds discussing a core foundation of uncompromising work cultures - making values measurable AND socially relevant. Here’s an excerpt. Chris: “What I find when I, you and I both experienced that as we work with leaders to help them define what values mean, what does respect mean? What are the two or three behaviors that you want? Teamwork? To demonstrate with each other, with their bosses. You want bosses to demonstrate with current staff, potential hires, customers, etc. You have to get very, very specific in essence, create measurable behaviors that define what your values are. And then most leaders would say, “Cool. Let’s announce those. And then everyone will magically embrace them.” Well, that’s not what happens. So just as leaders have been taught and trained and incented over decades, maybe centuries to formalize performance expectations and monitor the tar out of them and then don’t celebrate much, but redirect a lot,

Today’s video features Good Comes First book co-authors Mark Babbitt and yours truly discussing what it takes to build and sustain an uncompromising work culture. Here’s an excerpt. Chris: Once leaders get to a stage where they realize “This is not sustainable. We’re not going to be able to attract the kind of talent we need. We’re not going to be able to manage using, you know, everybody around the conference room table so I can yell at you!” A toxic work culture doesn’t translate to global remote digital nomads, which, which in a lot of cases is what employees are able to do. We want leaders who understand that it could be better – who understand it could be different – to be able to look at our process. In essence, the process is three pieces. It’s define the culture you want. then align practices, people, behaviors, decisions to that defined uncompromising culture and third, refine it over time. The idea of, as you say, if leaders promote good comes first, they must make respect as important as results. W

Today’s video features Good Comes First book co-authors Mark Babbitt and Chris Edmonds discussing what it takes to build and sustain an uncompromising work culture. Here’s an excerpt. Mark: Chris, in the book we talk about not just what it takes for leaders to become change champions, but how to build a team that will support, live, model a good comes first work culture. And the reality is this is not always an easy process. It takes months and years to actually execute. One of the criteria that we talk about is that attrition is your best friend. Not everybody’s going to thrive within a good comes first culture. There will be players that you must lovingly set free. Let them go work somewhere else where it’s okay just to collect a paycheck. Where integrity doesn’t matter. Where values aren’t monitored and measured, and certainly where respect isn’t on the same pedestal as results. That’s not what you want in a good comes first culture. The premise of a good comes first culture is good people doing good work

Today’s video features Good Comes First book co-authors Mark Babbitt and Chris Edmonds (yours truly) discussing what it takes to build and sustain an uncompromising work culture. Here’s an excerpt. Mark: “Let’s talk about this ‘old normal, new normal.’ What we’re doing with Good Comes First is creating a new normal or creating a means by which to generate a new normal. We don’t have to go back to a toxic work culture. One of the things we’re seeing in the news as we talk today is this concept of a labor shortage. There is no labor shortage. There’s a respect shortage, and people don’t need to go back to work. Why go back to work if all you’re going to get is disrespect? If you’re going to have to work with a toxic colleague or worse, a toxic boss – the government has set it up now and eventually those benefits will run out. Why go back to work if you’re less happy than you are sitting at home watching Netflix?” Chris: “I think people can afford to be choosy. Some are in a different position with that, Some ha

Today’s video features Good Comes First book co-authors Mark Babbitt and me discussing what it takes to build and sustain an uncompromising work culture. Here’s an excerpt. Mark: Chris, a question I get often is not so much why this book, but why now? We’re coming out of this strange phase of business with a pandemic. And so, what does why now mean to you? Chris: The idea of having leaders be interested in doing better, doing different . . . they can see the flaws of their operation, but often their focus is so exclusive to results and productivity and performance that the way people treat each other doesn’t appear on their radar screens at all. And yet, as we think of our best bosses and the great bosses that we’ve studied for 30 years, they’re very much in tune with the way people are treated in the workplace. And so relationships are critical. And yet we don’t necessarily define what we mean by respect or integrity or honesty. We don’t measure it. There’s this belief that if we announce it, then it’s going

I’m grateful to tell you about my upcoming book, Good Comes First. Written with the amazing Mark Babbitt, Good Comes First is a practical, step-by-step guide to creating a work culture that’s better for morale and for your bottom line. For decades, business leaders around the globe have spent billions of dollars and countless hours attempting to improve employee engagement, decrease burnout, increase retention, and improve productivity. Yet most workplaces still suck: employees don’t feel valued, workplaces aren’t fun or compassionate, and performance is often lagging. You’ve probably run into these issues in your organization, but like so many professionals today, you don’t have a clear understanding of how to fix them. In Good Comes First,  Mark and I go beyond theory, offering proven tools and actionable insights for achieving a work culture that treats employees with respect while inspiring amazing results.  Here are two of the key takeaways from the book. You'll learn to: * Appreciate why a good com

If you’ve been following my thinking over the past 20+ years, you know I coach senior leaders to define their desired culture, align their desired culture, and refine their desired culture. Defining your desired culture is the easy part. Aligning and refining demands that leaders lean on the accountability lever, holding leaders and team members throughout their organization accountable for both respect and results, every day. Workplace accountability means that 1) people understand what is expected of them—expectations for performance and values are clear, 2) people agree to those expectations, and 3) people deliver upon those expectations. The leader’s role is critical in each of these three steps—clarifying and formalizing expectations for respect and results, securing agreement by all parties, and ensuring all parties do what they promised they would do. The reality is we don’t hold people accountable either consistently or effectively. In today’s three-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video