“If a leader can’t get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn’t even matter.” –Gilbert Amelio, former CEO of Apple. Methods, tools, technologies, protocols, and systems do not achieve results. People do. It is with people, then, not with processes, that organizational leaders must form a long-lasting, positive, emotional connection. This connection is what ultimately determines the success or failure of the leader specifically, and the organization as a whole. Gilbert Amelio learned this lesson the hard way in his short-lived tenure at Apple.
It’s a fact — people connect to their leaders before they connect to the organization’s mission, vision, and values. Staff members who feel a positive connection with their leaders are engaged, cooperative, collaborative, participative, accountable, and passionate about their work, as well as supportive of change. They are motivated to behave according to established expectations and to perform to the best of their knowledge, skill and ability. An organization with such a workforce can dominate any market or industry with consistent, high-quality clinical, financial and operational outcomes. Connection – the third domain of the Positive Presence Behaviour competencies – validates and puts into practice the two lower-level domains of Self-awareness and Collaboration.
If you’ve read my book “Corporate Harmony – The Performance Link for Today’s Modern Organization” (see below for a free downloadable version), you will be familiar with the three domains of the Positive Presence Behaviour Competencies – Self-awareness, Collaboration and Connection. You may remember that the four behaviour principles in the Self-awareness Behaviour Domain must be achieved before any type of collaborative behaviour will succeed. You may also remember that the three behaviour principles of the Collaboration Behaviour Domain are necessary for long-lasting, positive, emotional connection.
Self-awareness enables leaders to initiate connections with their employees, while trust and accountability – two of the imperative principles of Collaboration-allow leaders to sustain these connections. In this way, connection is a strategy that enlightened leaders use to demonstrate they care for and understand the needs of their employees. A deep connection between the leader and employees raises everyone’s level of energy, engagement, motivation and performance.
CORPORATE HARMONY is grateful to Dr. Michael E. Frisina for his contributions to this entry.
Catherine is the President and CEO of CORPORATE HARMONY, providing virtual solutions for leadership development and organizational culture change. Her leadership and coaching experience as a Project Manager in an ever-changing, fast moving technological organization with unrelenting demands drove her to the realization that a positive mindset and strength-building behaviors are essential for today’s complex and chaotic organizational systems. CORPORATE HARMONY’s virtual platform of programs, coaching and performance measurement, is an innovative online technology of tested proprietary content. The world-class content of CORPORATE HARMONY’s Positive Presence Program develops the skill of ‘Positive Presence’ and the necessary ‘Positive Presence Behaviour Competencies’ for maintaining a positive and energized mindset and increased performance in today’s complex work environment, and leading to a culture of collaboration and connection. Catherine’s vision for Corporate Harmony is to bring the skill of “Positive Presence” to the corporate world as it becomes more complex, ambiguous and chaotic. Catherine is uniquely positioned to impact organizations’ productivity and long term success, with her powerful vision of eliminating bad stress from every workplace around the globe, bringing purpose into the people equation to promote healthy, productive and meaningful work cultures and turn the tide on the neglect of mental health on a global scale. Catherine is author of the book: “CORPORATE HARMONY – The Performance Link for Today’s Modern Organization” Catherine can be reached at: Catherine.Osborne@corporateharmony.ca or go to ‘contact us’ on our website www.corporateharmony.ca. Catherine is available for consultation, and can be reached by 519-695-3407.