In this episode of Transform Your Workplace, host Brandon Laws explores the transformative power of purpose with CEO Coach Brad Zimmerman. Our guest draws insights from his recently-published book, The Great Engagement, delving into topics such as vulnerability, effective leadership coaching, and the crucial role of emotions in the workplace. This episode provides valuable insights into cultivating an exceptional workplace culture by aligning individual aspirations with a shared organizational purpose.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Brad Zimmerman, CEO Coach and Partner at Phoenix Performance Partners, specializes in organizational coaching, guiding businesses and nonprofits to cultivate transformative cultures that foster both individual and organizational growth. He is also the co-author of the recently published book, The Great Engagement: How CEOs Create Exceptional Cultures.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
FINDING PURPOSE
Years ago, guest Brad Zimmerman and Phoenix Performance Partners conducted a workshop with a group of finance clients. At first, they were resistant to exploring their purpose beyond their financial success, but the participants eventually underwent a transformative experience. The workshop encouraged them to consider how their personal goals aligned with their professional roles and to view money as the “byproduct, not the goal.”
Shockingly enough, amidst this introspection, one participant confessed to defrauding his employer of a million dollars. After Brad coached the employee for two weeks, he confessed to the CEO. Of course, this issue shed light on deeper cultural issues within the organization, underscoring a company culture fixated solely on financial gain and lacking alignment on a broader purpose. Ultimately, the organization shifted its focus to a shared purpose, eventually experiencing significant growth and evolving into a regional powerhouse. This evolution no doubt showcases the transformative power of aligning individual and collective purpose in the workplace.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
One for All
“Each individual within a company has to have an aspiration, has to have a purpose of their own, that together adds up to the purpose of the company. Without that kind of personal commitment, you’ve got nothing to energize people in the organization.
You’ve just got one of those meaningless mission statements, which there are a heck of a lot of [those] out there. That’s kind of the state of the art.”
Aspiration and Empowerment
“By purpose, I mean, what’s the value that you’re committed to providing your stakeholders? What are you looking to contribute? How are you looking to help your customers? How are you looking to help your employees? How are you looking to contribute to making their lives better? …Keeping that at the forefront and in every meeting. To get really practical about it, every meeting, every conversation should start off with ‘Here’s how this subject of our meeting, this initiative, this project, this whatever, here’s how it connects to what we’re committed to as an organization. Here’s how it connects to our purpose. Not just the mission of the organization, but even the purpose of my department as it contributes to the purpose of the organization.’ […] And then the empowerment piece is just conceptually giving people authority, letting people use their judgment, letting them use their creativity in order to advance that purpose.”
From Resignation to Engagement
“When people talk about engagement, they talk about the opposite of engagement. They talk about disengagement. But in our work with clients, what we realized over the years is that the root cause of disengagement is resignation. […] It’s this sense that, ‘Okay, I got a job. I’m making a living. But, you know, there’s only so much difference I can make. I’m just here making a living, or I’m here, and the purpose is great, and we have this great social purpose, […] but I’m really constrained. There’s really not much I can do. I just kind of do what I’m told to do. You know, I’m operating within these narrow boundaries.’ So in order to counteract resignation, it goes back to that formula. You need to make sure that you take time to help people develop their own sense of purpose.”
The Two Foundational Emotions
“When we’re focused on fear, who are we focused on? Me. When we’re focused on love, contributing to others, who are we focused on? So great organizations, the value of having a purpose or a mission that’s outwardly focused is it helps people to stay in that emotion or to flip into that emotion of, ‘I get fulfilled by helping other people’ rather than, ‘Oh boy, I got to protect myself, I got to build a fiefdom, I got to keep my information close to the vest to protect myself,’ — all that self-protective stuff — ‘I got to blame other people when things go wrong. I got to gossip about people instead of engaging and talking to them when we have a problem.’ All those things are human things that we all do. We notice it when other people do it, but we all do it. But this whole idea of transformational leadership and a transformational culture is literally being able to flip into that focus on others when we notice that we’re stuck focused on ourselves and our own fears, which, again, sounds really simple, but is really a huge challenge.”
Workplace Vulnerability
“There’s a couple different ways to look at bringing our emotions to work. One of the ways that’s not so productive is when we bring our emotional issues to work and we sort of wallow in them. We look for self-pity. We use it to garner attention from others. […] All that is very counterproductive. Toxic. But being willing to come to work and say, ‘Hey, you know, my fears, my concerns about our ability to get the job done on this project today have really kind of got me by the throat. I’m kind of freaked out and I need some help in getting out of this. I’m focused on the purpose. I’m focused on the goal and I’m having some emotional tension and I need a little bit of support in getting through this.’ Because without that ability to be able to be open about it and ask for support, what we do is stuff the emotion down, and then it results in all kinds of weird behaviors. […] So, it’s learning to productively deal with our fear-based emotions and learning to cultivate our desire to contribute to others and the fulfillment that arises out of that — that’s what we mean by allowing your emotions to come with you to work.”
Growing Your People
“One of the first things that we do when we work with middle managers and with executives too, frankly, is have them see that your job isn’t getting stuff done anymore. […] Your job is to grow your people. Your job is to grow your people’s effectiveness as a manager, and when you grow your people’s effectiveness — which means empowering them to get the stuff done, coaching them to get the stuff done, helping them to commit to accomplishing things within a certain time frame, a certain deliverable in a certain time frame, which is just kind of basic, good basic management that few people do — that helps people grow and that gets things done.”
LEARN MORE
For a more in-depth look at the topics we’ve talked about in this episode, check out The Great Engagement: How CEOs Create Exceptional Cultures, co-authored by our guest, Brad Zimmerman.