On Connection

When we find ourselves in disagreement with another person, it's easy to put our energy into winning the argument. How do I get my point across? How do I get them to see it my way? How do I prove that I'm right? If we treat conversations and conflict like a win-or-lose game, we all lose. If we practice conversational accuracy, we create an opportunity for both sides to learn from the other. In this episode, Mickey, Robin, and Emma Rose share the essential shift to focus on if you want to turn those differences into an opportunity to build something together. It starts with how you listen, and what you're listening for. Resources: The 10 Laws of Collaboration Summary (2004) The Conversation Meter TEDx Boulder: Rediscovering Connection & Belonging | Mickey & Emma Rose Connolly

Conflict resolution and the valuable management of differences are leadership skills that continue to be identified as critical areas of development across organizations and industries. While conflict is something we all tend to avoid or leave unresolved, the way we choose to engage with it can either hurt our goals and working relationships or increase our access to trust and new insights. In this episode, Emma Rose, Mickey, and Robin share practical ways you can engage with conflict to reveal new opportunities for connection and collaboration. Resources: Gartner Future of Work Trends 2024 TEDx Talk: Rediscovering Connection & Belonging | Mickey & Emma Rose Connolly Bioreactive Styles Assessment

Leading others has its challenges, and for the most senior leaders of organizations there are some challenges that weigh heavily. What gets elevated to senior leadership isn't the easy stuff. It's often the complex, messy, challenging things that couldn't be resolved by others. Those leaders, however, are just human beings - people that have personal lives and responsibilities that draw on their emotional bandwidth. Because they have powerful influence, this means they have to be conscious of how their own emotional quality impacts those they lead. Practicing emotional leadership, however, is a tough charge - and an uncommon one. In this episode, Mickey and Robin join Emma Rose to share what they've learned from working with senior executives around the world (and from leading organizations themselves) about why it matters to develop emotional leadership, and how to do it.

A new year brings opportunities for reflecting on our hopes and intentions for the year ahead, both personally and professionally. In organizational life, we set strategic plans and priorities, schedule milestones and deadlines, and put together development plans for ourselves and others. Most know that no matter how great the plan, we often get derailed as circumstances inevitably shift. So how can we align our intentions with reality? And how can we care for that alignment throughout the year so that our efforts lead to successes worth celebrating? Whether you have goals for yourselves or for those you lead, we have some uncommon advice to help you launch a year of valuable achievement.

We know that influence is not limited to those with tenure, title, or hierarchy. Every member of an organization has the capacity to influence those around them, the quality of work, the collective understanding of challenges, and much more. Choosing to develop influence as a skill is a worthwhile investment not only for senior leaders but also for leaders and contributors of all levels. We recently released an episode devoted to that topic, and this one expands on that conversation with a focus on non-executive audiences. Conversant consultants Katie Mingo and Patrick Kennedy join Emma Rose to share what they've learned from their personal experiences and those with other leaders about developing influence and growing your impact without tenure or role-related authority. On Connection: Leadership Influence

A leader’s ability to influence others, the quality and trajectory of work, performance, and results is integral to organizational success, and an indicator of the value that leader provides. What things are made better by their contribution? What do they uniquely contribute that people can count on them for? We are all influencing all the time, whether we’re aware of it or not. Becoming conscious of that influence is the first step in becoming more reliable for influencing purposefully and valuably. Robin and Mickey join Emma Rose to share essential principles for developing influence that impacts personal and organizational success.   The Connected Leader Program: Credibility, Influence & Impact The Art of Conducting, Beshara Magazine

A challenging part of work (and life) is addressing the disappointments and challenges that come up in our relationships with others. It could be performance or collaboration issues, delivering disappointing news or feedback, or anything else that's difficult or uncomfortable to bring into conversation. Being able to step into these conversations emotionally grounded, with a firm sense of purpose, and an openness to listening to and learning from the other person is a highly valuable skillset, and one worth cultivating. Mickey and Robin join Emma Rose to share what makes this so hard, and the key principles that can reliably help you engage with these challenges in ways that lead to stronger relationships and surprising results.

Belonging is the B in DEIJB, one of the initials less understood or talked about, though not any less important. In fact, some consider belonging to be the outcome or indicator that diversity, equity, and inclusion are being addressed successfully. What has us feel like we belong? What value does that experience afford us? As individuals and as a collective. Why should leaders and organizations care about belonging, and how does it help the bottom line? Emma Rose is joined by Robin Anselmi and Michelle Wonsley to talk about belonging – what it means, what it looks like, and how we get there.

Performance reviews and feedback can be some of the most valuable tools in growth and career development, though they can also be some of the most dreaded employee experiences. As of 2022, 95% of managers are dissatisfied with their organization’s review system – a statistic that shows not only is there room for improvement, but managers would likely welcome a change. What makes a feedback conversation valuable and supportive? What makes it so painful? Robin and Mickey join Emma Rose to share their ideas for improving the performance review process that any manager could start practicing today. Show Notes: The Performance Review Problem, HR Magazine 2023 Project Oxygen

There are times we all feel stuck, held back, or inhibited and often we aren’t clear or confident about what we can do to change it. Not only is this a source of frustration, but over time it can devolve from decreasing engagement and motivation to hopelessness, resentment, or despair. How people engage with this experience and what they’re looking for is what leads to stuckness becoming a dead end or an opportunity for new insight and action. Mickey and Robin join Emma Rose to talk about what they've seen are common characteristics and causes of “stuckness” and to share some best practices for turning those experiences into an opportunity to generate value. Show notes: 7 Signs of Waste

Our ability to influence people and the course of events starts with the level of credibility we have. It is a foundational leadership skill, one that we've found is generated, not granted. It’s especially common for us to see credibility as a point of development focus for those looking to elevate their presence and influence within an organization. Over years of working with senior executives from around the world, we've learned what helps and hinders our capacity to gain credibility, and we've found it has more to do with how you listen than what you have to say. In this episode, Emma Rose is joined by Robin Anselmi and Roger Henderson. Both have a long history with our Credibility, Influence, and Impact program, and of engaging with the art and science of credibility.

Practicing Inclusive Leadership - leadership that inspires inclusivity and causes an experience of belonging - is not just soft and emotional work. It is a rigorous commitment that will naturally result in confronts, difficult conversations, and hard decisions. Inclusive Leadership is a call to cause both belonging and disruption, and doing so valuably requires understanding what it means to use power purposefully. In this episode, Robin and Michelle join Emma Rose in our third conversation digging into power and power dynamics in leadership and organizational life.

Emma Rose is joined by guest Lisa Horwitz, who plays a critical role in the digital transformation of a large national healthcare company. Over the past few years, her background in user experience design has helped her support the adoption of new technology across their clinics nationwide, and she’s approached it as a research project with a focus on how to successfully guide behavior change. Lisa's experience is full of lessons for leaders at all levels looking to influence and support successful change initiatives. Her story highlights the importance of curiosity and a commitment to listening, staying connected to the people who are necessary to the execution and sustainability of the new behaviors and processes you want to see.

Growth and development are key parts of our lives at work, and for leaders, this is both a personal undertaking and something to sponsor in others. What best supports successful development? How can we design for growth towards our goals, our vision for ourselves and for our work, and fulfillment that enriches our working experience and contribution?  Carolyn French and Krista Spence join Emma Rose to share what they've learned from coaching leaders and teams, and designing for development.  Show Notes Atomic Habits by James Clear The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin & The Four Tendencies quiz

For the second in our series on Power, we do a deeper dive into what we mean when we talk about power. Michelle and Robin share the different "types" of power (as defined by the American Psychological Association) and how they can help us further investigate our own relationship to power - as leaders, employees, teammates, and as people. Power, Part 1 APA Types of Power The Cycle of Value

Essentiality is a powerful skill that helps you be clear, with yourself and with others, about what is most important. When you practice getting down to the very essence of what you need others to hear from you, or what others need you to hear, that is an act of valuable communication and an act of care. Communication - the quality of conversation we hold ourselves to and our sense of timing - is an absolutely critical piece of leading and working in a way that drives value and vitality. Getting clear on what is most important to bring to a conversation and what is most important to listen for helps improve efficiency, yes, but also builds trust, connection, and accountability. Roger Henderson joins Mickey and Emma Rose to discuss why essentiality matters and how to practice it.

Our current working definition of Power is "the capacity or ability to direct or influence others or the course of events." Power impacts the way organizations are behaving, making decisions, and the conversations they're having. It's also something we aren't often talking about explicitly, and beginning to engage with it consciously can reveal a new understanding of how we cultivate or diminish value, inclusion, and belonging. How is power used or abused in organizational life? How do we each, as leaders and employees, understand our relationship to power? Are we being curious about how our use of power impacts the lived experience of others? Show Notes: Love & Leadership Virtual Event Conversant on LinkedIn On Connection: Love & Leadership On Connection: DEIJB: What does it mean? On Connection: Inclusive Leadership Design

According to Gallup, there has been a steady decline in employee engagement over the last few years, with only 32% of employees in the U.S. falling in the "engaged" category and 18% "actively disengaged." Of the factors contributing to those statistics, most are not new concepts or surprising ideas. So, why is it that organizations still don't know how to address the engagement challenge?  In this episode, Robin, Mickey and Emma Rose talk about what there is to learn from the story this new data tells, and what opportunities there are for inspiring greater employee engagement for the future. Show notes:  U.S. Employee Engagement Needs a Rebound in 2023 – Gallup What Is Employee Engagement and How Do You Improve It? – Gallup How the successful workplace of the future will rely on employee engagement – CEO Magazine Collaborating through Stress, Uncertainty & Complex Challenges – On Connection Expectations, Accountability & Trust – On Connection

On this event preview, we consider what place love has at work and why we think it matters. Love isn’t a passive cultural feature; some would argue it’s a powerful business strategy. Join us as we start a conversation on love and leadership. Learn more & register for the virtual event: https://lnkd.in/g2gSB4wg

Most simply, choice means “an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities.” In an organizational context, however, there’s a lot more to it than that. The opportunity and capacity to make a decision for oneself is an act of agency and autonomy, one that sustains a commitment to contribute to a shared purpose. We believe this opportunity to choose to commit to something is powerful, and an important ingredient in organizational vitality and employee engagement. Robin Anselmi and Kell Delaney join Emma Rose Connolly to talk about why “choice” is an important characteristic of cultures that sustain organizational performance and employee well-being. Show notes: · The Vitality Imperative: How Connected Leaders & Their Teams Achieve More with Less Time, Money & Stress · Autonomy Ain’t Anarchy by Mickey Connolly · What Inspires Engagement for Younger Generations by Emma Rose Connolly · On Connection - Community: Why it Matters & How to Build It