Gut + Science - Real Talk With Ceos On Culture, Data, And Decision-making

Truth You Can Act On: Teams need safety and trust to truly enable and empower people to speak up. Inspire curiosity of your team members and be a curious leader. Consider different perspectives and embrace diversity. Have a mindset that embraces conflict. Challenge yourself: do you really believe it’s a powerful thing to fail forward? Have a framework for feedback. Give feedback on behaviors coming from a place of care inspiring change.   Full Notes https://gutplusscience.com/sebastien-meyer Nikki’s Book Recommendations: The Art of Facilitation by Dale Hunter Free eBook from The Zone: Who’s Polluting Your Water? Sponsors: The Zone – The Zone is the space where happiness and high performance coexist. We believe in making organizations more human and for this to happen we should not have to trade one for the other. We’re offering 10 free coaching sessions to Gut+Science listeners. Visit https://thezone.co/gutscience/coaching to get started.

Truth You Can Act On: Cast a big vision. Keyword–BIG. Get to know and work with others’ pace. Consciously think about how you want to lead: Step back, get out of it, and define how you want to lead, then step back in and implement. Tap in to your people’s strengths to maximize their contributions. Full Notes: https://gutplusscience.com/david-shulkin/ Nikki’s Book Recommendation:    It Shouldn’t Be This Hard To Serve Your Country by David Shulkin Sponsors: Wambi.org – Wambi is about human connections. We view feedback as the fuel for interpersonal growth and are always striving to achieve the highest versions of ourselves and to lift others up along the way.

Truth You Can Act On: Mentoring is a mindset. In order for us to deploy an effective mentoring program, we must be intentional about developing mentors inside of our organization and at the same time making mentoring relationships a norm. The core of a mentoring relationship is trust. What are you doing to equip your people with trust-building exercises and giving them a platform and tools to do this consistently? Relationship building is an essential skill. Are you teaching and encouraging it in your company? All mentor-mentee relationships need goals. Start with the end in mind knowing what you're working to accomplish both on the mentor and mentee side. Many times where mentoring relationships break down is just their way too gray. So stay on track, stay focused and keep your eye on the prize.   Full Notes: https://gutplusscience.com/ron-brumbarger/ Nikki’s Book Recommendation: Atomic Habits by James Clear Sponsors: The Zone - The Zone is the space where happiness and high performance coexist. We b

Truth You Can Act On: Set the foundation. If you don’t set the foundation for engaging with your organization early–like in your onboarding process–people will fill those gaps on their own. Don’t assume you’re in alignment with your team members. Be intentional about communicating goals and objectives so there’s no ambiguity or room for miscommunication. Write it down. If you don’t write down the objectives and key results for you and your team, you won’t have the alignment and clarity that will allow you to communicate effectively and work toward the goal. Embrace video technology as much as possible. When working remotely, recreate the in-person experience as much as you can. Formalize the informal. Take the natural, informal aspects of the in-person work experience – going to lunch, grabbing coffee, friendly banter– and do them on purpose. They won’t happen naturally in a remote environment, so you have to force them if you want to maintain the relational aspect of your work environment. Full Notes  htt

Truth You Can Act On: Start with the end in mind: Define the problem or goal you want to solve then start building the gamification technique. Make the mundane fun: Gamification is a great way to do this but most important is to make life at work fun. Ensure key stakeholders are involved at all levels: Everyone in the organization needs to know the Why, why they’re doing it and how it helps them. Be careful on competition: Don’t let it get too far or it could become unhealthy.   Full Notes: https://gutplusscience.com/rebecca-metter/ Nikki’s Book Recommendation: The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates Sponsors: Emplify – Emplify is hosting a webinar, March 31, from 2-3 pm EST. We've got a great panel of Chief People Officers giving specifics on how to lead your team in this uncertain time. We'll discuss examples of transparent communication, recommendations on meeting frequency, and ideas for fostering culture and engagement. For an invite, email Nicole at nicole@emplify.com. Subscribe to Gut+Science

Truth You Can Act On: Over-communicate: keep the communication going and remember what Cynthia Pizzaro said recently about consider the right channel. Make sure your message is getting to them!  Show gratitude and appreciation: What are the small touches you can do right now to show gratitude and appreciation? Show them you appreciate them and reassure them. You’re their leader! Self-care: For every single person listening, please inspire a self-care plan for your people and first make sure you’re doing self-care well. Remember, you gotta fasten your oxygen mask first.  Innovate! Call the smartest people you know and brainstorm. Come up with new ways of doing things.  Full Notes https://gutplusscience.com/nikki-lewallen-covid19/  

Truth You Can Act On:  Focus on the Result. Lead with the end in mind and help your people see their goals clearly. Paint that picture of what success looks like. Leverage Technology with Video. Encourage both audio and visual aspects for remote meetings to bridge that distance. Treat Your Remote Workforce like Insiders. Take a look at how you interact with both 1099 and remote employees. How can you enhance this to treat them more like a trusted colleague? Constant Gratitude. As a leader, express your thanks in hand-written notes, calls, or texts. Gratitude is another key to relationship building.  Full Shownotes: https://gutplusscience.com/kate-colbert/ Book Recommendation:  Think Like a Marketer by Kate Colbert Sponsors: Emplify – Are you still using pulse surveys? How about annual questionnaires? If your organization relies on either of these, it’s time to discover Emplify. Emplify has created a new way to measure employee engagement. It’s where CEOs who want to know what’s really happening within

Truth You Can Act On: What works today, may not work tomorrow: Be ahead of the game. If you’re not evolving, you’re dying: Get everyone on board with embracing change in your organization. Make it a cultural norm. Execution drives strategy: Don’t wait until perfect to start and don’t be afraid of change. Stack your leadership bench: Always be recruiting your next leaders.   Full Notes https://gutplusscience.com/kevin-gearheart/ Nikki’s Book Recommendation: Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins Sponsor: Emplify - Emplify has created a new way to measure employee engagement. It's where CEOs who want to know what's really happening within a workforce go to get honest feedback and to understand what needs to change for people to love their work. Visit Emplify.com. Subscribe to Gut+Science

In today’s Gut+Science episode, we’re talking about listening more and listening better. There’s power in learning how to listen because it makes people feel seen and empowered to make decisions. Listen in as host Nikki Lewallen talks about the powerful questions that help leaders elicit more than a simple yes/no response from their team members. Some Powerful Questions:  What makes you proud to work for our company? What are the most important resources you have currently to do your job effectively? What makes you feel meaning in the work that you do for this organization? If you’d like more powerful questions from Nikki, email her at nikki@mondayfire.com Quick Links:  Connect with Nikki: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkilewallen/

Truth You Can Act On:   Right message; right people; right channel; right time. Rethink your communications so they're as impactful as they can be.  Set the tone and have ground rules for 2-way communication. How successful are you right now, and how do you intentionally amp that up?  Make the most of your time with your people. How do you make a personal touch with every single one of them in the time you have? Book Recommendation:  The One Thing by Gary Kellar and Jay Papasan

Truth You Can Act On:  Bring Core Values to life in your workplace. Illustrate and teach behaviors that represent the core values and what it looks like to live them out. Create Communication Rituals. Repetition and consistency are vital to getting everyone moving in the same direction. Give A Clear Framework and Empower Your People to Make Decisions. When employees understand the “why,” they can put their own spin on the “how” to accomplish the mission. Full Show Notes: https://gutplusscience.com/blaine-dinwiddie Book Recommendation:  Mindset by Carol S. Dweck

Changes are coming to Gut+Science and we’re so excited to share them with you! But first, a reminder of what’s NOT changing–the WHY of this show: increasing the impact of employee engagement in your organizations.  In this bonus episode, host Nikki Lewallen outlines some of the exciting things coming to Gut+Science along with three questions that we would love to get our listeners’ feedback on.  Listen in to get the full rundown, then send your thoughts and suggestions to Nikki at nikki@mondayfire.com

Truth You Can Act On:  Get Permission to Lead. Don’t assume people are ready. Building trust and building relationships with people take time - this doesn’t happen overnight.  Serve Your People. What can you do for your people? Take time to listen to your employees and follow up on what you heard. People want to follow selfless servant leaders.  Small Deposits Make an Impact. Know your people’s names, write notes, and remember what others share with you. It’s the little things that help people know you care.  Book Recommendation:  The Maxwell Leadership Bible by John C. Maxwell  Quick Links: LinkedIn  Learn More About Valve+Meter  

Truth You Can Act On:  Make Building Real and Meaningful Connections Your Top Priority. Understand what motivates your people and get to know them personally to support them outside of their work role.  Measure Employee Engagement and Share the Findings with Managers. Empower your managers with data that gives them a roadmap to know where to focus on innovating for change. Be sure to encourage curiosity as a trait in this process.  Hiring Right is Critical. Hire great people - but make sure they’re aligned with your company’s culture and core values.  Full Show Notes: https://gutplusscience.com/dave-foellinger Book Recommendation:  The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly

Truth You Can Act On:  Empower Your Employees to Dream Big. Create a safe environment for your people to be themselves, and share their perspectives, strengths, and values. Psychological safety is a flagship driver for employee engagement.  Paint a Vivid Vision. Make sure employees know where the company is going. Illustrate what the company looks like in the future, as clarity of the future helps employees gain confidence in their role. Ask Powerful Questions. It’s easy to tell people what to do, but it doesn’t help your employees know that you trust then. If your employees know you’re listening, you’re empowering them.  Full Show Notes: https://gutplusscience.com/chad-peterman Book Recommendation:  The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink 

You’ll want to listen to this when you have a pen and paper handy, Gut+Science listeners! What are your hopes and goals for 2020? And how can you say ‘no’ to things that don’t fulfill you? Listen in as host Nikki Lewallen dives into a powerful tool that can help you live intentionally in the new year. 

Truth You Can Act On:  Soft Skills Are Essential Skills. These skills are what make engagement and learning stick, and having relationships with coworkers is crucial when it comes to retention.  Make Onboarding a Journey, Not an Event. Everyone has different learning styles. Onboarding is not a check-the-box thing, so it can’t be done in a few days.  Be Intentional About Building Psychological Safety. Set the stage for everyone to share their thoughts and to be heard in meetings. Psychological safety is a key driver of employee engagement.  Relationship Building. Make sure these relationship-building team events occur regularly. Bonus points if you have them offsite!  Full Show Notes: https://gutplusscience.com/deseri-garcia Book Recommendation:  Dare to Lead by Brené Brown Sponsors: Emplify – Are you still using pulse surveys? How about annual questionnaires? If your organization relies on either of these, it’s time to discover Emplify. Emplify has created a new way to measure employee engagement. It

Truth You Can Act On:  Focus on Filling Your Cup First. You can’t give if you’re empty. Remember, if you aren’t leading yourself well, you most likely won’t be leading others well either.  Make Reflection a Habit. Take time to pause and debrief your experiences to learn from them. This is a great way for us to work to get better. Proactively Seek Diverse Perspectives. Get involved with things you’re passionate about with others who are different from you and ask them questions to understand their viewpoint. Find Your Tribe. Have an inner circle that encourages you, and inspires healthy competition. Full Show Notes: https://gutplusscience.com/sarah-andreas Book Recommendation:  The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber Sponsors: Emplify – Are you still using pulse surveys? How about annual questionnaires? If your organization relies on either of these, it’s time to discover Emplify. Emplify has created a new way to measure employee engagement. It’s where CEOs who want to know what’s really happening wi

It’s a saying that comes up often: ‘If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.’ We have spent the course of Season 3 of #Insights talking about our managers. How to help them get the most out of their employees, how to focus on their professional development, and how to build trust throughout an organization. But it’s one thing to know what to do and another thing to actually figure out how to do it. So, what now? In this episode, Emplify CEO and Co-Founder Santiago Jaramillo (@santiagojara), shares the importance of giving our managers data and doing this in a timely fashion. How can you be open about data? And how can you buy into this data as something that can truly improve the lives of our managers and employees?  You’ll also hear from Jennifer Stauffer, a leadership consultant who currently leads the Manager Coaching arm at Emplify, and Angie Redmon, President of striveHR, about what to do next after we have identified areas of opportunity in our organizations around employee engagement.  Spoiler ale

We ask a lot of our managers. But when we flip things around, are we delivering on our end of the deal?  This week on #Insights, Emplify CEO and Co-Founder Santiago Jaramillo (@santiagojara) is digging into feedback. As he says, we often ask the wrong questions of our managers. So, how can we start asking the right ones? You’ll also hear from Haley Aust, Vice President of Human Resources, and Carmen Price, Regional Property Manager, at Birge & Held. They are both keenly aware of how vital managers are to their organization, and you’ll hear why in this episode.  Listening involves being proactive. What do we need to know in order to equip our managers with what they need? And tactically, how do we gather that information and then measure it to know if we are making progress? If you want your people striving to be a ‘next level manager,’ you’ll want to tune in to this episode of #Insights.  Download Emplify’s Manager Report here Connect with Santiago Connect with Nicole Learn more about Emplify  Connect wi