John Baldoni's Blog

“Treat the team and the staff with respect.”

That’s the number one rule that Mike Vrabel, newly installed head coach of the New England Patriots, has established. Vrabel, a former Patriot and head coach of the Tennessee Titans, understands that respect is essential to creating a culture of belonging.

“The training staff, the equipment staff, the kitchen staff. … They are here to help you do your job,” Vrabel said. “They aren’t here to be your valet, to be your housekeeper, to be your maid, to be your butler. We’re going to treat these people with the utmost respect.”

Vrabel, according to reporting by Nick O’Malley of MassLive.com, will tolerate a degree of push-back from players –even angry words – directed at himself. As a former player, Vrabel understands that aspect of coaching goes with the job. Criticizing a superior is one thing; mistreating a “subordinate” – when you, as a player, hold a position of privilege — is unacceptable.

Show respect

Vrabel’s approach to staff echoes what I have heard senior leaders talk about when discussing hiring job candidates. They may ask their administrative staff their opinions of how a candidate treated them. They also watch how a candidate interacts with wait staff at dinner. Condescension or rudeness toward those perceived to be “below” the status of the candidate are signs that the individual is self-aggrandizing and may not be a suitable team player.

The other aspect that Vrabel emphasizes is respect for the team. Creating buy-in for organizational goals is one way to create unity. Team cohesion is fundamental to success. When individuals feel they belong, they will do their best, sometimes going beyond the job description to help fellow employee do their jobs better. This effort can be a form of on-the-job teaching or longer-term peer-to-peer mentoring.

The same human emotions shape respect in the working world. It becomes the leader’s job to make everyone feel welcome, with the understanding that if you contribute, you will be recognized and rewarded. The dignity of work is an essential component of respect.

Demonstrate respect

Respect means treating colleagues as contributors. Listen to them as you would like to be listened to. Understand their fears, and you would like them to understand yours. Find joy in working together. 

Respect is rooted in truth. Speak with candor. Provide constructive feedback. Respect the intelligence of others. Address divisive issues head-on. Sugarcoating problems are a sign of disrespect. It means you think others lack the intelligence or the resilience to deal with challenging problems. Disrespect is corrosive. It gives rise to suspicion, a place where we second-guess others, thinking they are playing one-upmanship on us. Once a team sinks into that kind of paranoia, it cannot cohere. It pulls apart, giving rise to backbiting and even contempt.

When members of a team respect each other, they build a sense of community.

Respect is fundamental to community. People believe in the same cause and are willing to play their role to help everyone succeed.

First posted on Forbes.com 5.03.2025

Hearing is a science; listening is an art.

So goes the opening line to The Third Ear, a new book by Elizabeth Rosner. It so intrigued me that I opened our interview by asking her to explain it: “There’s a difference between looking at something and observing something or tasting something and then trying to really figure out the ingredients of what you’ve just tasted. I think hearing is similar in that there’s more going on than just frequency and vibration entering our ears.” [Rosner attributes the concept of the Third Ear to Theodor Reik, a psychoanalyst who was an early student of Sigmund Freud.]

Rosner adds that considering listening as an art means it requires “filtering, discernment, [and] questioning. There are all the creative practices you do when you hear sound of a certain kind or memory associated with sound.” The challenge is to “Think beyond just the limitations of what [hearing and listening] can do.” When that occurs, the two become “a full-body experience of taking in a sound or a silence for that matter.”

Naturally occurring metaphor

One metaphor—one that is real, too—is a forest. Trees do communicate with one another. Rosner explains, citing the research of forest-ecologist Suzanne Simard, that trees are connected to one another via proximity, of course, but also through their underground root systems, where chemical substances are exchanged. What trees together have is a community, not unlike mammals like dolphins and whales, whose sounds are actually a highly developed language.

There is a wealth of resources on how to listen more effectively, but when you dig more deeply, too often, we look at listening more as a process and less as a connection. The purpose of listening is to connect more fully with others. 

Rosner looks at real listening as the ability to be heard and understood. When so much of daily life is compressed into activity after activity, it cannot be easy to make that true connection. When someone truly listens to us, we show them the respect they deserve. “You’re going to wait before you respond because you were so fully attentive to me that you weren’t just planning what you were going to say in response,” Rosner says. Listening to another is a form of respect that says, “You have something to say and I will give you the time to say it.”

Building community

Rosner’s exploration of hearing and listening is anchored in her upbringing; she is the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Her mother spoke seven languages, and her father three. With their children, they used English, but Rosner recalls a polyphony of languages between her parents and their friends. “And I think I was looking for connection through sound, and some of that was human language, and some of that was the sound of my dog or the sound of the wind or underwater sounds. And so it was all a part of my discovery of how I belonged in the world, not just the human world, but the wide world.”

Community is built upon a network of people all connected through a system of shared wants and needs as well as shared values and goals. “We cannot live only for ourselves,” wrote Herman Melville. “A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.” Those fibers – like tree roots are living – and like optical cables – are connected. How we choose to make use of these connections enables us to create communities that matter. And fundamental to the community is listening, not just hearing but surrendering our attention to one another.

Note: Click here to listen to my LinkedIn Live interview with Elizabeth Rosner.

First posted on Forbes.com 6.21.2025

It was my second visit to the pharmacy. It was busy with patients coming in to pick up prescriptions and get their COVID-19 or flu vaccinations. In other words, it was busy, and during my two visits over the past two weeks, I noticed that some patients had issues related to insurance hiccups or unfilled scripts. 

At the center of the activity was a tall man in his sixties, the head pharmacist. The young pharms and technicians repeatedly came to him for instructions and clarifications. In some instances, he went directly to the patient or called the physician’s office on behalf of the patient. He also dispensed vaccinations. 

And he did it all with a smile. His was an unfailing smile that radiated warmth and care in situations where some patients were feeling the stress of not knowing if their scripts would be filled. He never flinched. He treated everyone — old and young — with courtesy. (Except he spoke more gently and slowly for those older than himself.)

Recognizing others

As I left the second time, I walked to his consultation window and complimented him on his relentless sense of patience and kindness. Before I could finish speaking, he said, “It’s them. My staff,” as he gestured to the young folks around him. “They do the work.” I laughed and said he was demonstrating what authentic leadership is all about — focusing on serving others and recognizing the efforts of those who make it happen.

None of this is new. But novelty is not the point. As Frances Hesselbein, legendary CEO of the Girl Scouts, used to say: “To live is to serve.” The challenge is how. Recent reporting in the Wall Street Journal described how the ranks of middle management are being gutted. Another article in a subsequentJournal article noted that fact leaves the remaining managers with many more direct reports, too many to manage properly.

Action steps

So in these days of cutbacks and the pressure to do more with less, let me offer some suggestions.

Observe. Think about what is happening around you. With many folks looking to you for guidance, what can you do to reach out and help them

Coach. Ensure it’s safe for employees to suggest ways you can support them. Assure them that all ideas are welcome. At the same time, make it known that you cannot act on every request, but you are willing to listen.

Recognize. Make the extra effort to show how much you appreciate your team. Find ways to make them feel wanted. Smile. Listen. Learn. And keep an open door.

Make it real

Sometimes the best thing a manager can do is listen. As Chip Bell, world-renowned best-selling author on customer service, writes, “Listening means actively seeking to understand another person. That’s why we say it’s a contact sport. Listening without contact, listening without a dramatic connection, is like looking without seeing.” In short, be there when you can.

Service to others is timeless, and when we see it in unexpected places, it resonates. It reminds us of our humanity. 

First posted on Forbes.com 10.13.2025

When she first came on the air – as the first female nightly news host – it made news, but not in a good way. “When I first went on the air, there was quite a bit of opposition, not from listeners, but from the managers of our stations, who were worried on behalf of the listeners. A woman’s voice is not authoritative enough, they said. Women will not be taken seriously. A woman cannot do news.”

 Fortunately, her boss, Bill Siemering, did not tell her this 11 years later. Otherwise, Susan Stamberg would not have become what many refer to as the “Founding Mother” of NPR News. Susan hosted the show for decades, shifting later to start the Sunday Morning News and later becoming a culture reporter until the year before she died at age 87.

 Terry Gross, herself an accomplished radio host, interviewed Stamberg several times, and in tribute to Stamberg, Fresh Air ran clips from these interviews. What comes through is a professional who was different from the norm in her early days.

 The art of interviewing

Stamberg graduated from Barnard with a degree in English. She played piano and sketched, and she lacked fundamental training in journalism. What she did have was a keen eye for observation, watching and listening to how those she interviewed acted and spoke. Doing so enabled her to get the story behind the story that she believed her listeners wanted to hear and how it could affect their own lives. 

 For example, when she interviewed John Erhlichman, who went to prison for his role in Watergate, she chose not to be confrontational; instead, she asked about his life. “At the end [of the interview], [he said] let me tell you something about Washington. In this town, there’s one king of the mountain, and everybody else in this town is out to shoot him off that mountain. That’s Washington. That was Watergate in a nutshell, you know? That was all the paranoia of the Nixon White House right there.”

 The power of connection

What we learn from Stamberg’s example is that when you communicate, you first must connect. Stamberg did that with her audiences over the decades because they felt that when she was on the air, they were getting an inside look at people and issues. You only achieve that connection by preparing in advance, putting your interviewee at ease, and then conversing in ways that allow them to say their piece. It is the reporter’s job to lay out the facts and for us to draw our own conclusions from what we see and hear.

 Final word

At the close of one interview with Terry Gross, Stamberg said, “Sure, but I never want to stop asking questions. That’s the real issue. It’s not so much the interviewing. I feel I am blessed that I found microphones in this world because I spend my life talking to people away from the microphone. It’s something that I do naturally as a person. Luckily enough, I found a place where they’ll pay me to do that.”

And luckily, too, NPR listeners were fortunate to have had Susan Stamberg’s questions – quizzical, probing, sometimes funny, and always fair – for these many years.

First posted on Forbes.com 10.26.2025

“Virtuous purpose is worth more than any other person’s conditional and unreliable respect. It is rooted in service and sacrifice, not entitlement.”

So writes David French, the New York Times columnist and political commentator. This statement is from a recent op-ed that noted his service as a military reservist who has served overseas.

Many veterans express such thoughts about purpose because the intensity of their experience was never sharper than when they were a cohesive unit going through an extreme situation such as combat. The virtue emerges from working for a greater goal beyond what an individual can achieve.

Acting with purpose

The challenge becomes, what do we do next? Not long ago, I interviewed sociologist Erin Cech, author of The Trouble with Passion. She argues that purpose is often overemphasized, and as a result, it leaves people disillusioned at work. Cech and many others believe that work itself need not provide purpose. Instead, what you do with the output of work – income, for example – enables purpose, living your life, and taking care of others.

Purpose can evolve. Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times, the author of Independence Day, a book about retirement, argues that when it comes to fulfillment, particularly later in life after work, simple things like walking your dog can offer purpose. It focuses on the day and gets one out of the house and into the fresh air.

David French’s coupling of the word purpose with “virtuous” harkens back to our Founding Fathers. As historian Tom Ricks writes in First Principles, “public virtue” was paramount. Living a life of virtue was a mark of integrity. So much so that some Founders said that if virtue prevailed, there would be no need for a constitutional government because people would do the right thing. Fortunately, more reasoned minds, notably George Washington realized that such aspirations were not feasible. The Constitution therefore created a system of governance rooted in principles of equality and justice. [Shamefully, Black enslaved peoples were ignored for the next century and more.]

Adding virtue

Virtuous purpose, as French writes, is rooted in sacrifice. It ennobles the individual because it serves the common good. Servicemen and women put their time, energy, and often personal safety into keeping the nation safe. Community volunteers at home devote their service to keeping disadvantaged populations, collectively and individually, from despair and disaster.

The purpose is how you define it. For leaders, it becomes the why from which vision and mission spring. So it must be communicated relentlessly. For individuals, it shapes our values. So harkening to the notion of virtue is a good start. Virtue may be as simple as the Golden Rule – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

A higher purpose is often used about faith, but that does not mean that serving fellow men is of “lower purpose” or value—a higher purpose – whether based on religion or community — is living for the greater good. 

Reflecting on the nature of purpose is more than just an exercise in philosophy. Delving into the meaning of life for self and others is an exercise in shaping how you want to live. The challenge for each of us is to act purposefully. Now and in the future.

First posted on Forbes.com 5.17.2025

When Harry Kraemer stepped down as CEO of Baxter, Inc., he was unsure what he would do next. Dean Don Jacobs of Kellogg School of Management knew exactly what he wanted Harry to do—teach.

In 2006, a Kellogg student, Andrew Youn, decided to use his MBA to help the farmers of Kenya increase their crop yields. After meeting Andrew at his 5th class reunion in 2011, Harry partnered with Youn to create The One Acre Fund to assist the farmers in Kenya. The Fund now helps farmers in a total of nine countries in Sub-Sahara Africa, including Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.

What Harry has done—as he documents in his newest book, Your Values-Based Legacy: Making a Difference at Every Phase of Life—is to use his values to create his legacy. As Harry illustrates, legacy is not just what you do upon retirement; it is a sum of contributions you make as you live your life.

Knowing Your Values

Values are the principles you hold dear. As Harry has said, values are not preferences; they are principles. Identifying them comes from many sources, but a critical source that works best for Harry is self-reflection, something he practices daily with simple questions about what you did that day and how you might do better the next.

Harry writes in his new book, “For years in my classes at Kellogg about becoming a values-based leader, I will ask the students whom they expect will deal with all these problems (poverty, hunger, injustice, etc.).” Responses from students are that someone else will. “And everybody refers to these people by the same name, ‘those guys,’ a gender-neutral term for people with money, power and influence.”

Harry’s response to his students and the audiences to whom he speaks is simple: “Guess what? We are those guys!” The problems facing the world do not belong to someone else; they belong to us because what harms some of us harms all of us—maybe not directly but indirectly through affecting global stability, the climate crisis and government spending.

Making A Difference

So what do we do about it? 

In his chapter about “those guys,” Harry offers a series of questions that illustrate how we, as individuals, can make a positive difference.

• What problems or challenges capture our attention – intellectually and emotionally?
• What skills, talents, and experiences do we have that could help others?
• Where in our community (local or global) do we feel drawn to make a difference?
• What organizations or individuals do we know who are doing something similar?
• And finally –the most important question of all: what’s holding us back?

While the questions are straightforward, acting on them is challenging. We—or should I say I—can think of many reasons why I don’t want to become involved: work, family, leisure time, or my favorite—it’s not really me. Can’t I just stroke a check?

Writing a check is a generous offer, and every nonprofit will welcome it, but funding is different from doing.

No Effort Is Too Small

What makes Your Values-Based Legacy so powerful are the many stories of individuals who have taken it upon themselves to become involved in tackling the problems that matter most to them. 

One example is One Hope, a small nonprofit founded by Steve Buss in Eugene, Oregon. As the book states, this foundation “engages local churches, businesses and organizations to work together to positively affect the Eugene/Springfield area, which has a population of 375,00.”

Scott’s wife Patti told Harry, “The significance of small for me is about never underestimating the small idea, the simple gesture.” There is a need for national and global philanthropy, but Patti says, “The act of kindness,  a word of encouragement – these are small things that can have a big impact.”

In short, we all need a helping hand at times, and in return, we can extend that helping hand to others.

It’s our legacy!

First posted on Forbes.com on 11.13.2024

Through the haze of history, we assume that Franklin Roosevelt, the only president to serve more than two terms, breezed into the White House in the election of 1932. Nothing could be further from the truth, not that Franklin as a young man, did not think such a thing was impossible. He modeled his career after his fifth cousin Theodore, also the beloved uncle of his wife, Eleanor.

What interrupted his path was being stricken by polio in 1921. The disease rendered him unable to walk for the remainder of his life. Historian Jonathan Darman argues in his new book, Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis that Made a President, that polio changed his outlook forever. It happened in two ways. First, it made him sympathetic to the underprivileged, particularly fellow polio sufferers. Two, it fueled the dictum Franklin’s father had taught him: “Help all who are suffering. Man is dear to man.” This notion challenged FDR to focus on what government could do for the people. As a result, the patrician became a populist.

Keep a close eye

Elected governor of New York in 1928, Roosevelt did not keep himself locked in Albany; he roamed the backwater byways on inspection tours of state-run facilities. He would go from facility to facility, meeting with administrators. While they would meet with him, Eleanor would do the physical inspections. She was peering into kitchens, clinics, and dormitories to see if what the administrators reported was accurate. Eleanor became Franklin’s legs since he was primarily confined to a wheelchair. [Roosevelt did manage a kind of upright “walk” with his heavy leg braces, but the effort was never unaided and always exhausting.]

The idea of inspections is akin to the kaizen philosophy that employs Gemba, visiting the place where value is added. For senior leaders, meeting with people where they work is essential. I recall working with a senior automotive executive who conducted his weekly staff meetings on the factory floor. It was noisy and sometimes hot in summer and cold in winter, but it sent a message to one, and all that supervision began with the concept of working where the work was being done.

Hold your cards close

We learn that Franklin’s heart was opened by the suffering he had endured, and he was determined to do what he could to improve a lot of others. The lesson for managers is that people need to see you out and about. Roosevelt did not let his disability weaken his ability to meet and mingle with others. He has driven around in an open-top vehicle where people could see him, hear him, and after his speeches, come and speak to him. He listened. 

Darman notes that Roosevelt regarded himself as flexible. He quotes Roosevelt as saying to prior to being sworn in as president and as the Great Depression was worsening, “Let’s concentrate on one thing. Save the people and the nation, an if we have to change our minds twice every day to accomplish that end, we should do it.”

Roosevelt used his bon vivant air to encourage people to speak up and share their truths with him. Knowing where the boss stands may not be desirable but for a president pushed and pulled in multiple directions, a measure of ambiguity may be acceptable. It can indicate that you are open to differing ideas before making a final decision.

Note: Another book about Franklin Roosevelt’s illness is The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency by James Tobin

First posted on Forbes.com 10.23.2024

Picture this. Your company is going down due to the misbehavior of some of your employees. Your stock price is plummeting, and your customers are angry. Along comes an executive who turns around your company, pulling it out of the proverbial ditch. Even better, he turns the bottom line up, the stock price climbs, and customers love you. All over again.

So, how would you reward this executive, this white knight who has rallied the employees of your company and brought the enterprise back into good graces?

Well, if you are the Australian national cricket board, you fire him!

This story is what happened to Justin Langer, coach of the Australian men’s national cricket team. After helping to rebuild the program after a scandal (cheating in a South Africa Test match), he assembles a team and tutors them on winning. And they soar, beating England in the Test Match to win The Ashes, the most significant event in international cricket (outside the Indian sub-continent).

Picking up the pieces

Along the way, however, Langer seems to have alienated the players. To be blunt, he was “old school,” and they chafed under his rigidity. Respect, yes. Love, no.

Langer’s firing after beating England again in 2021 came from their former captain being fired for a sexting scandal. Enter a newbie captain, Pat Cummins. A proven performer in Test cricket as a fast bowler, Cummins is just 31, young to be captaining the national team.

So how does he do it? Not by himself. And that’s the theme of The Test, Season Two (Amazon Prime). Season 1, as a commentator put it, was about rebuilding. The new season focuses on what Cummins can do and how he will lead his team.

Test Cricket is an international competition. The eyes of your country are on you; consider it a mini-Olympics. Surviving and performing under scrutiny is essential. Some good players wilt under pressure. Others rise to the occasion and establish a legacy enshrined in trophies, wallboards, and, most importantly, the hearts of cricket fans. 

As the four-part second series unfolds, we peek at the players’ lives, on and off the pitch. Watching them, you get a feel for Cummins’s leadership style.

Address the issues. Cummins opens his first team meeting by opening the floor to players who want to express their views on the change in management. None do, not because they are intimidated but because they have already made their opinions known to management, and the change was made.

Shine a light on others. Season 2 is packed with stories of individual excellence. Older players are excelling for one final time, and younger players are finding their groove. The players support each other, and much dialogue exists about that support.

Respect the game. In the first Test, the players learn that two cricketers of international renown have died on the same day. The effect on the players is sobering. These are players they knew from boyhood. Their depth of feeling is a recognition that Test cricket is more than a game; it’s a legacy, and current players must do their part to uphold it.

Confront the demons. Playing on the Indian sub-continent, first in Pakistan and next in Sri Lanka, is difficult. Pitch conditions are different and Pakistani and Sri Lankan players are highly skilled and playing before a home crowd. Due to security concerns, the players must be isolated in their hotels, albeit luxury ones. It becomes a bonding experience as players spend so much time together.

Build for the future. The Australian national cricket team is back on solid footing. What the future will bring is uncertain, but the team, as does its captain Pat Cummins, seems upbeat.

Cricket has yet to catch on here in the States or in Europe — and may never do so — but the example of the coaches and players who play the game offer lessons for anyone who works in a time, on a pitch, or in an office.

First posted on Forbes.com on 6.21.2023

“Under the spotlights, they invariably give off the air of people who are there because they desperately want to be there… despite the fact that they’ve been playing stadiums since the early 80s.”

So wrote Alexis Petridis of The Guardian about the opening of Bruce Springsteen’s tour in the UK in May 2023. He added, “As if it’s their solitary chance to grab the limelight rather than a nightly occurrence… It’s infectious.”

Be professional

Another word for that kind of performance is professionalism. The great entertainers – musicians, singers, actors, comedians – lay it all out. They do not sit on their laurels. They make every performance special. And in an era when ego is too often celebrated over talent, Springsteen is a testament to what it means to put your audience first.

Extending the bar band analogy further, we feel that Springsteen and his E-Street bandmates take nothing for granted. Yes, they are acclaimed and wealthy, but like those bands toiling on stages of bars, they are likely to be struck by a beer bottle as often as they receive a standing ovation. It is work. Hard work.

So often, we can become complacent in what we do and how we do it. We may even take things for granted, especially our colleagues. That reaction is very human, but it is something that leaders must guard against. A leader is always in the spotlight; all eyes are on them. 

Some takeaways

So they need to act the part. And here’s how.

Know the mic is always on. Choose your words carefully. 

Invite people on stage with you. Share your story with others. Bring them into your world.

Get off stage and listen, listen, listen. Make it a point to visit people where they work. Go to their workstations. If they work virtually, make time to connect one-on-one. And if you have an office, make it a habit of meeting folks for breakfast or lunch. And listen while you chew. 

Most importantly, understand that the spotlight shines brightest when the heat is on. Stay cool, radiate calm, and speak slowly and calmly when times get tough.

A final thought

The best leaders – as with entertainers – make it look effortless. It never is, of course. But no one wants to hear how hard you work when you are at the top. Show people what you do, but never complain and never brag. It’s your job.

In his memoir Born to Run, Springsteen wrote, “People don’t come to rock shows to learn something. They come to be reminded of something they already know and feel deep down in their gut. That’s when the world is at its best, when we are at our best, when life feels fullest, one and one equals three.”

And that’s the job of a leader. It brings people together to see the vision, work the vision, and feel the values. When this happens, people feel they belong to something greater than themselves.

First posted on Forbes.com 10.01.2024

People like flexibility in their work schedules, but the flexibility to one organization or person may need to be more flexible to another organization or individual.

How we work together in the work environment that has evolved since the pandemic is the subject of a new book, Culture Shock, by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter, both executives with the Gallup Organization. 

Just the facts

Research contained in Culture Shock – and summarized in media materials — states:

·      Globally, eight in 10 employees are not engaged or are actively disengaged at work; in the U.S., it’s seven in 10.

·      90% of U.S. employees with desk and office jobs aren’t longing for the old workplace to return, and nearly 40% of employees say they would change jobs for an option to work full or part-time from a flexible location.

·      70% of the variance in team engagement is determined by just the manager.

·      75% of employees who reported receiving meaningful feedback in the past week were fully engaged regardless of how many days they worked in the office.

“What’s happened is we’re seeing separation or some more distance between employee and employer,” Jim Harter told me in an interview. “People are feeling more distant from their employer.” And when there is this distance, employees also “start to become psychologically separated from the customer. And they’re even telling us now that they feel less responsible for the quality of service customers receive.”

“The manager needs to lead the team and having a discussion about the kind of work they’re trying to get done and really filter those decisions through three criteria,” says Harter. The first is how we work either individually or collaboratively. The second is how to schedule and maintain a cadence of in-person meetings that complement how people want to work. The third factor is how to maximize customer value via interactions. Especially those that occur at the office. 

There is another factor, says Harter working together and having fun. That kind of socialization builds cohesion and ultimately improves team performance. “I think that’s something people often forget.”

Additionally, according to data contained in Culture Shock, “among workers in the U.S., there is a dead-even tie between work-life splitters (who prefer strict hours) and work-life blenders (who might get work done on an evening or weekend). Both can be highly engaged and productive but leaders must identify which is which to prevent burnout.”

Burnout from working remotely may seem counterintuitive. After all, many employees want to avoid commuting and like to be near their children. As Jim Harter told me in an interview, the reason is that work times are not defined. When employees come and go at will, schedules are nonexistent. Cooperation and collaboration are less likely to occur. Therefore, says Harter, management must do a better job of setting schedules that make sense to both businesses and employees. 

“Anyone in a leadership position — whether it’s a frontline manager, a middle manager, or upper management — needs to set the example. People are more likely to come in if they know their manager will be there. If they don’t, it seems like an empty request to them. 

Need for development

A good example is observed, but it can also be taught. Harter believes that when you train managers to be attuned to the needs of their employees, they will be more responsive to their needs. Listening to them is always necessary. Building psychological safety into the workplace – whatever physical form it takes builds upon a sense of respect.

One aspect of instilling and nurturing a more robust culture is peer coaching. It is essential when managers can share their ideas with colleagues in ways that enable them to be open and feel listened to. Peer-to-peer coaching and learning can be virtual, and its results can play out in all work environments.

The pandemic caused a great upheaval in how we work. The challenge now is to learn to work differently in ways that fulfill the needs of the organization, its customers, and its employees. When such changes occur, engagement, retention, and productivity improve.

To watch the full interview with Jim Harter, please click here.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 6.09.2023