CHAPTER 6

Encourage the Heart

WHEN JENNIFER NUTEFALL AND HER UNIVERSITY LIBRARY STAFF completed their five-year strategic plan in three years, she wanted to showcase the team’s accomplishments for public recognition. The library management group put together an application to the Association of College and Research Libraries, focusing on how they assessed their work, their engagement with the community, and how the organizational structure had transformed. They received an Excellence in Academic Libraries award, and, as Jennifer said, “It was a nice encapsulation of what we were able to achieve. Looking at it put together, it was really amazing.

“What’s great about this award,” Jennifer continued, “beyond a plaque and a modest financial reward for the library, was the opportunity for everyone to really celebrate together.” Her institution planned a large celebration at which Jennifer had the chance to demonstrate just how far the library had come from the stagnant leadership practices of the past: “I wanted the campus to see, This is who we are now. The old library you knew doesn’t exist anymore.” This public recognition was an opportunity to acknowledge how hard her staff had worked over the years to overhaul the library and overcome its challenges. She arranged for her staff members to receive library-branded fleece jackets, and she held a smaller, library-specific commemoration so that everyone could see and hold the actual award. She also assembled bound copies of the application that had won the award so that everyone who worked in the library had a physical symbol of all their hard work over the past three years. Bringing everyone together, Jennifer said, “is a really nice moment to stop and say, ‘Look at what we’ve accomplished.’”

Like so many other leaders with whom we talked, Jennifer understood the importance of recognizing people for who they are and celebrating what they contribute and accomplish. Time and again in their personal-best leadership case studies, people reported working very intensely and for very long hours—and enjoying it. Yet to persist for months at such a pace, people need encouragement, and exemplary leaders are always there to help people find the courage they need to do things that they have never done before.

Leaders give heart to others by recognizing individual contributions and celebrating victories together. Most people rate “having a caring boss” even higher than they value money or fringe benefits. In fact, how long employees stay at a company, and how productive they are there, is determined more by the relationship they have with their immediate supervisor than by any other factor.¹

The most effective leaders in higher education are those who most frequently Encourage the Heart. We asked direct reports how often their leaders engaged in the six behaviors associated with Encourage the Heart on the Leadership Practices Inventory, with assessments ranging from 1 (Almost never) to 10 (Almost always). We also asked them a separate question about the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the statement Overall, this person is an effective leader (1 = Strongly disagree and 5 = Strongly agree). The analysis showed that the effectiveness ratings of leaders by their direct reports increased systematically (p < 0.001) as leaders were observed engaging more and more frequently in the behaviors associated with encouraging the heart. There was a nearly 63 percent bump in effectiveness from the bottom to the top quartile.

FOCUS ON CLEAR STANDARDS

Imagine the frustration of Alice in Alice in Wonderland when she played a croquet match in which the mallets were flamingos, the wickets were playing-card soldiers, and the balls were hedgehogs. Everyone kept moving and the rules kept changing. There was no way to know how to play the game much less win it.

You needn’t go down the rabbit hole to know how Alice felt. Haven’t you, at one time or another, been at a place where you’re not sure where you’re supposed to be going, what the ground rules are that govern how to behave, or how you’re doing along the way? And just when you think you’ve got the hang of it, the organization comes along and changes everything. This is a recipe for maddening frustration and pitiful performance. The antidote is making sure that people know both what they are supposed to do and how they are to do it. The data shows that people are proud to tell others about the organization they work for in direct relationship to the extent that their leaders “make it a point to let people know about his/her confidence in their abilities” (see figure 6.1).

If you want the people in your department to have a strong desire to succeed and make a difference, they must feel “in the flow.” Flow occasions are those times when people experience pure enjoyment and effortlessness in what they do.² This psychological state requires clear standards—in both values and goals—because these help people concentrate their efforts and avoid distractions.

Is it better that people set their own goals, or should leaders set the goals for others? In the best of all worlds, individuals would set their own. Realistically, however, goals are often handed down, and the challenge is to find a middle ground—a path to determine mutually acceptable objectives. People feel best about themselves and what they do when they have had the chance to influence some significant amount of their work responsibilities. Your challenge—and opportunity—is to make sure that people know the end they are serving and that what they are doing is important. With this in mind, they have a context for why they should both care and be willing to exert discretionary efforts to make a difference.

Figure 6.1 The extent that leaders let others know about the confidence they have in people’s abilities increases direct reports’ pride.

Without standards and goals, tasks in organizations often feel like just busywork. Clear standards and goals give work a context, something that individuals believe they can work on together and be recognized for accomplishing. They help people keep their eyes on the target, motivating them to put the phone in do-not-disturb mode, shut out the noise, and focus their time and efforts. Without goals, people won’t know what to do with their own capabilities, as expressed in the old refrain If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.

Standards and goals, however, are not entirely sufficient. People also need to know if they’re making progress toward a goal or just marking time. People’s motivation to increase their productivity on a task goes up only when they have a challenging goal and receive feedback on their progress.³ Goals without feedback, and feedback without goals, have little effect on motivation; however, together they keep people on track. The equivalent in academic advising would be working with a student who doesn’t care about improving his performance (grades) or in the classroom with an instructor who does not provide her students with feedback on their assignments.

With clear goals and detailed feedback, people can become self-correcting, as well as more easily understand their place in the bigger picture. With feedback they can determine whether they are on the right track going forward and what help they need to be most productive. Many staff and faculty leaders echoed to us the sentiment that You might not always like the feedback, but being aware of your shortcomings is essential for improving. From a credibility perspective, how can you know if you are doing what you say you will do if you never get any feedback about your behavior? Feedback offers you a perspective about yourself and how you are doing that only others can provide. It’s the avenue for understanding whether you are properly executing and advancing on your goal.

In one study of the effects of feedback on self-confidence, graduate students were praised, criticized, or received no feedback on their performance in a simulation of creative problem-solving. They had been told that their efforts would be compared with how well hundreds of others had done on the same task. Those who heard nothing about how well they did suffered as great a blow to their self-confidence as those who were criticized.⁴ People hunger for feedback. They prefer to know how they are doing. No news has the same impact as bad news. This is one of the reasons why efforts to abolish grades in schools and colleges almost always fail.

Expect the Best

Exemplary leaders have high expectations, both of themselves and of the people they work with. These expectations are powerful because they are the frames into which people fit reality. People are much more likely to see what they expect to see, even when their perspectives differ from what may actually be occurring. There is ample research evidence that people act in ways that are consistent with the expectations that other people have of them. If you expect others to fail, they probably will. If you expect them to succeed, they probably will.⁵ The expectations you hold as a leader are the frame into which people fit their own realities.

Your expectations shape how you behave toward others. The high expectations that leaders have of others are based in large part on their expectations of themselves. This is one reason why it is so critical for leaders to Model the Way. Your own record of achievement and dedication, and your daily demonstrations of what and how things need to be accomplished, give credibility to the expectations you have of others.

Exemplary leaders treat people in a way that bolsters their self-confidence, making it possible for them to achieve more than they may have initially believed possible of themselves. Feeling appreciated by others increases a person’s sense of self-worth, which in turn precipitates success at work and at home. Research and everyday experience confirm that men and women with high self-esteem “feel unique, competent, secure, empowered, and connected to the people around them.”⁶ This is true across all ages, levels of education, and socioeconomic backgrounds. If you have someone in your life who believes in you, and who continually reinforces that belief through their interactions with you, you are strongly influenced by that support.

Believing in others is an extraordinarily powerful force in propelling performance. If you want the people you work with to have a winning attitude, you must believe that they are already winners. It’s not that they will be winners someday; they are winners right now! If you believe that people are winners, you will treat them that way. Moreover, if you want people to be winners, you have to behave in ways that communicate to them that they are winners. And it’s not just about your words. It’s also about your tone of voice, posture, gestures, and facial expressions. No yelling, frowning, cajoling, making fun of, or putting them down in front of others. Instead it’s about being friendly, positive, supportive, and encouraging. Offer positive reinforcement, share lots of information, listen carefully to people’s input, provide sufficient resources to do their jobs, give increasingly challenging assignments, and lend them your support and assistance.

It’s a virtuous circle: you believe in your constituents’ abilities, your favorable expectations cause you to be more positive in your actions, and those encouraging behaviors produce better results, reinforcing your belief that people can do it. And what’s really powerful about this virtuous circle is that as people see that they are capable of extraordinary performance, they develop that expectation of themselves, and another virtuous circle begins.

If the potential exists within someone, you have to find a way to create the conditions that allow that individual to tap it. The emerging field of positive organizational psychology provides solid evidence of this. For example, leaders who foster an affirmative orientation in organizations, encourage virtuousness among people, and focus on achieving outcomes beyond the norm achieve significantly better results with their staffs.⁷ There’s growing proof that it pays to expect the best and to be positive.

Consider how two managers reacted when an athletic director proposed a new initiative in her division: “To my question ‘Do you think this is a good idea?’” the athletic director reported, “one told me quite briskly, ‘I have no idea if it is a good idea or not.’ End of the conversation, really. When I asked another supervisor this same question, her response was quite different. She said, ‘I don’t have enough information to say if this is a good idea or not. But I do know that one of our most talented people is sharing this idea with me and she’s really excited about it, so why don’t you tell me more?’” Clearly, leaders can find ways, often quite simple ones, to nurture and bring out the best in those around them.

Positive expectations evoke positive images in the mind, where positive futures for self and others are first constructed. According to researchers, “We see what our imaginative horizon allows us to see.”⁸ Unless you and others can see yourselves as being successful, it is tough to produce the behavior that leads to success. Positive images make you more effective, relieving symptoms of illness and enhancing achievement.

For example, people were randomly assigned to different groups and instructed in effective bowling methods. Following these lessons, the bowlers were video-recorded practicing. One group of bowlers saw recordings of only the positive things they did; the other group saw only the negative. Those who saw only their positive moves improved significantly more than any of the other bowlers and were the most interested in continuing with the sport into the future.⁹

Before you can lead, you must believe in others and you must believe in yourself. Consistent with a growing body of research on the importance of growth mind-sets, holding the belief that people can change—that they can develop new skills and abilities—works magic on both the constituents and the leader who holds this expectation. People with a growth mind-set believe that their traits—for example of intelligence, talent, and abilities—can be learned and developed with time and effort, while those adhering to a fixed mind-set believe that such traits are limited in quantity from birth and cannot be substantially changed.¹⁰

During challenging times, especially when experiencing setbacks, people with fixed mind-sets can be expected to shy away from activities that may imply an area of deficit. Appearing “not dumb” drives their actions and decisions. Alternatively, those with a growth mind-set experience life as a journey in which challenges and setbacks are viewed as chances to learn and improve. Our research has found that people with a fixed mind-set are not as inclined to Encourage the Heart because they don’t have very high expectations of what people “could” be capable of accomplishing; they tend to be on the lookout for what’s wrong or not working rather than what’s right and working well.¹¹

Pay Attention

Leaders are out and about. They don’t spend all of their time in an office or behind their desk. They’re attending presentations, joining meetings, touring the campus, canvassing the student union, dropping in on labs, making presentations at alumni association gatherings, holding roundtable discussions, speaking to community groups, and dropping by colleagues’ offices to check in. Being mobile goes with the leader’s territory.

This is not purposeless wandering. Leaders are out there for a reason. One of the central reasons to be out and about is to show that you care. One way of showing you care is to pay attention to people, to what they are doing and how they are feeling. You have to look past the organizational diagrams, job descriptions, and the formal role people play and see the person inside. If you are clear about the standards you’re looking for, and if you believe and expect that people will perform like winners, you’re going to notice lots of examples of people both doing things right and doing the right things.

Paying attention can’t be from a distance—reading reports or hearing secondhand. People you work with want to know who you are, how you feel, and whether you really do care. They want to see you in living color. Because proximity is the single best predictor of whether two people will talk to one another, you have to get close to people if you’re going to communicate and know what is going on with them. On your part, this means regularly walking the hallways, attending various campus events (social, athletic, theatrical, and so on), frequenting the relevant places to hang out informally with others (like the staff lounge, faculty club, student union, and such), and even hitting the road for frequent visits with counterparts on other campuses and in other institutions.

Another benefit of getting out and about is that it increases your own visibility, making you better known to others. Don’t take these actions just to be seen, however; do them because while you’re getting to know other people, they’re getting to know you. Paying attention and actively appreciating others increases their trust in you. And people trust more those they know over those who are strangers to them. With a norm of reciprocity, if people know you genuinely care about them, they’re more likely to care about you.

Develop Friendships

Managerial myth says you shouldn’t get too close to your colleagues, that you can’t be friends with people at work. Well, set that myth aside. Over five years researchers observed groups of friends and groups of acquaintances (people who knew each other only slightly) performing motor-skill and decision-making tasks. The results were unequivocal: The groups composed of friends completed, on average, more than three times as many projects as the groups consisting merely of acquaintances. Regarding decision-making assignments, groups of friends were more than 20 percent more effective than groups of acquaintances.¹²

There is an important caveat, however: friends have to be firmly committed to the group’s goals. If not, friends may not do better than anyone else. This is precisely why it is necessary that you are clear about standards and create conditions of shared vision and values. When it comes to performance, commitment to standards and good relations between people go together.

People are more willing to follow someone they like and trust. Becoming fully trusted, as previously noted, requires that you ante up first by being open yourself: open to others and open with others. Just as an open door is a physical demonstration of a willingness to let others in, an open heart is an emotional demonstration. This means letting others know more about you—what you care about, why you make the choices you do, and so forth. We don’t mean tabloid-style disclosures. We mean talking about your hopes and dreams, your family and friends, your interests and pursuits—the same things you’d like to know about them.

When you’re open, you make yourself vulnerable; this vulnerability is what makes you more human and more trustworthy to others. If neither person in a relationship takes the risk of trusting, at least a little, the relationship remains stalled at a low level of caution and suspicion; there’s no connection. If leaders want the higher levels of performance that come with trust and collaboration, they must demonstrate their trust in others before asking for trust from others.

This is something that Cathy Avila understood and put into practice as a residential learning community director. “As a leader,” Cathy told us, “I am an open book. I share very personal pieces of myself so that the people I lead have a thorough picture of my journey through life up until that point and will better understand how I work and why I work the way I do.” Cathy soon discovered that when she demonstrated her trust in the residence staff by being the first to share personal information, challenges, goals, and fears, it made a big difference. For some staff, “it was the first time an adult (let alone their boss) had been honest and up-front with them.” By opening her heart, Cathy motivated staff members to share their deeper selves with others in the group.

Disclosing information can be risky. You can’t be sure that other people will appreciate your candor, empathize with your experiences, agree with your aspirations, buy in to your plans, or interpret your words and actions in the way you intend. But in demonstrating the willingness to take such risks, as Cathy did, you encourage others to take a similar risk—and thereby the first necessary steps to find common ground for building mutual trust.

Personalize Recognition

A familiar complaint about recognition is that it’s too often highly predictable and impersonal. A one-size-fits-all approach to recognition feels disingenuous, forced, and thoughtless. It’s like how birthday celebrations are done at restaurants: the staff sings to someone, and people at other tables start singing even though they don’t know the person. No matter how well intended, over time these routines can increase cynicism and actually damage credibility. You have to do more than provide drive-by praise, simply walking around the campus, saying, “Thank you, whoever you are, whatever you are doing.” It is essential to pay attention to the likes and dislikes of each person on your team. To make recognition meaningful, you have to get to know your constituents. By personalizing recognition, you send the message that you took the time to notice the achievement, sought out the responsible individual, and delivered the appreciation in a timely manner.

When Karyn Bechtel was transforming what she called a “‘bunch of fellowships’ into a ‘fellowship program,’” she made it a point to make personal connections between people’s contributions to the selection process and the outcomes of their selections. Karyn didn’t just write thank-you notes; she personalized each one. She also shared with them “lists of selected Fellows and showed how particular application materials and their specific recommendations were critical in the decision process.” This personalization and public acknowledgment was a boost for everyone involved. She also provided recognition when she asked someone to explain how he pulled off an extraordinary achievement. Showing interest in the story behind the accomplishment honors both the results as well as the person who reached them.¹³

Recognition that is not personalized will quickly be forgotten and discounted. When we’ve asked people to tell us about their most meaningful recognitions, they consistently report that they are “personal.” They say that it feels special. “A sincere word of thanks from the right person at the right time,” other researchers note, “can mean more to an employee than a raise, a formal award, or a whole wall of certificates and plaques.”¹⁴

The extent to which recognition and rewards are applied to each individual in a personal (rather than an impersonal) manner also explains a lot about how leaders and their organizations get a motivational bang for their buck (or not) from recognizing people’s contributions. Leaders bring out the best in others not by building fires under people but by igniting fires within them. Acknowledging people’s accomplishments makes them feel valued and trusted, reinforces that progress is being made, and inspires that individual, and others, to even greater effort and levels of performance.

What personalized recognition comes down to is thoughtfulness. You need to be authentic and sincerely care about the person. Take those observations you’ve made about an individual and ask, What would really make this special and unique for her? What could I do to make this a memorable experience so that he always remembers how important his contributions are?

Use a Creative Mix of Recognitions and Rewards

Don’t make the mistake of assuming that individuals respond only to monetary rewards. Although salary increases and bonuses are certainly valued, individual needs for and appreciation of rewards and recognition extend much further. And, by the way, studies reveal that most people will use a cash bonus to pay bills, and after a few months they won’t even remember how they spent the money or even how much they had received.¹⁵ The bigger problem with cash, and even raises, is that their supply is limited, especially in higher education, and most often they are not within your direct or timely control.

People respond to all kinds of informal acknowledgments. Verbal recognition of performance in front of one’s peers and visible reminders, such as certificates, plaques, trophies, and mementos, are also powerful commemorations of achievements. For example, after one faculty member received a prestigious writing award for the third time, his department chair presented him with a beat-up hat because winning the award was “old hat” for this person.

There are lots of other ways to show appreciation that are within your scope of influence and ability. For example, you can send a handwritten note (even better than an electronic message), make a comment in a meeting about someone’s good work or achievement, or just stop by their cubicle or office to let them know that you are aware of the great work they are doing. Spontaneous and unexpected rewards, people have told us, are typically more meaningful than the expected formal rewards. And to make it the most effective, be sure that your recognition is highly specific and given in close proximity to the appropriate behavior. Being too general or too late diminishes the positive power of the gesture.

One of the most important benefits of being out and about as a leader is that you can personally observe people doing things right and then recognize and reward them either on the spot or at the next public opportunity. Besides, relying on an organization’s formal reward system typically requires considerably greater effort than making use of intrinsic rewards—those that are built in to the work itself, including such factors as a sense of accomplishment, a chance to be creative, the challenge of the work, and the satisfaction of a job well done. Despite what some might think, studies reveal that intrinsic rewards are far more important than salary and fringe benefits in improving job satisfaction, commitment, retention, and performance.¹⁶

Often it’s the simple, personal gestures that are the most meaningful rewards. Personal congratulations rank at the top of the most powerful nonfinancial motivators identified by employees.¹⁷ Surveys also indicate that 79 percent of employees who quit their jobs cite a lack of appreciation as a key reason.¹⁸ Lisa Millora, senior assistant provost, for example, talks about how important it is to appreciate others, even if it is a simple thank-you for their time, effort, trust, and willingness to come into a conversation. She never takes for granted the amount of work that any of the provost office’s administrative staff do, and she always sends them handwritten thank-you notes. She also always tries to circle back when people send her feedback on an issue, even, she says, “if I’m not going to do anything with it; I want to let them know that I really appreciate their input.” Unlike Lisa, not enough people make sufficient use of that powerful but inexpensive two-word reward: “thank you.”

Jane Binger, responsible for leadership development and education at a medical school, routinely checks in with people about how they would like to be recognized. She has found that most just want a simple gesture acknowledging that their work was appreciated and valued. Ron Siers, as a department chair, told us that he finds it “extremely powerful” to provide time at the beginning of each faculty meeting for people to acknowledge the contributions and efforts of their colleagues. “No one wants to be taken for granted or feel unappreciated,” he says; “moreover, doing this strongly correlates our appreciations with our core values.”

There are few, if any, more basic needs than being noticed, recognized, and appreciated for your efforts. That’s for everyone on campus—academics, engineers, artists, counselors, residence advisers, budget analysts, athletic coaches, facilities staff, and those in the president’s office. Institutions with the greatest volume of appreciation tend to be the most innovative and vibrant organizations.

FOSTER A SPIRIT OF COMMUNITY

All over the world, in every country, in every culture, and on every campus, people stop working on certain days or occasions during the year and take the time to celebrate. Impromptu ceremonies are often convened to rejoice in the acceptance of a colleague’s manuscript for publication, the award of a new contract for a research laboratory, the opening of a new facility or art installation, reaccreditation, and the like. Banquets are organized to acknowledge individuals and groups who’ve accomplished the extraordinary. Colleagues get together with one another at the end of work on an exhausting task force or promotion committee and give each other high-fives for a job well done. Even in tragic times, people come together in remembrance and song to honor those before them and to reaffirm their common humanity.

Why do people take time away from work to gather together, tell stories, and raise their spirits? Sure, everyone needs a break from the pace and intensity of their job, but celebrating is not a frivolous excuse to goof off. Celebrations are among the most significant ways people have to proclaim their respect and gratitude, to renew their sense of community, and to remind themselves of their binding values and traditions. Celebrations serve as important a purpose in the long-term health of campus institutions as does the daily performance of tasks.

What leaders know from practice is confirmed in our research. Performance improves when leaders bring people together to rejoice in their achievements and to reinforce their shared principles. By bringing people together, sharing the lessons from success, and getting personally involved, leaders strengthen in others the courage required to make a difference and make extraordinary things happen in their organizations.

Individual recognition increases the recipient’s sense of worth, and it improves performance. Public celebrations have this effect and more. Every time you can bring the group together is a chance to renew commitment. Exemplary leaders seldom let pass any opportunity to make sure that everyone knows why they’re all there and how they’re going to act in service of that purpose. Whether it’s in honor of an individual, group, or organizational achievement, celebrations offer leaders the perfect opening to explicitly communicate and reinforce the actions and behaviors that are important in realizing shared values and goals.

Celebrations are much more than parties; they’re ceremonies and rituals that create meaning. At such occasions it’s vitally important to be clear about the statements you’re making and the behaviors you’re reinforcing. You should be fully aware that people are going to leave the event remembering and repeating what you say and what they see. You should always be personally prepared with the key messages you want to send. Each time ask yourself, What values do we hold dear, what visions do we aspire to realize, and what behaviors do we want to reinforce? Be prepared for every public opportunity to reinforce the culture and the meaning you want to instill.

Provide Social Support

Supportive relationships at work—relationships characterized by a genuine belief in and advocacy for the interests of others—are critically important to maintaining personal and organizational vitality. Ceremonies and celebrations are opportunities to build healthier groups and to enable members of the organization to get to know and care about one another.

“Life is too short to be miserable,” says Charles Ambelang, vice president for human resources (although he came to the university originally as director of the student union). “You want to have a work experience that allows you to engage with others, share a laugh, see the humor in a situation, and thank people for doing a good job.” Unofficially, Charlie is referred to as HR’s CEO—chief encouragement officer.

When he took the helm, the HR workgroup was demoralized and fearful. The team was used to an environment in which there was little recognition of success and severe consequences for failure. His staff told us, “The HR team needed someone to appreciate our individual and collective efforts. Charlie focused on encouraging everyone to be a contributing member of the team and to work toward a collective commitment to deeply held values and service to the campus community.”

Charlie regularly encourages members of the department by letting them know that he believes in them and has confidence that they will be successful. He also does crazy, spur-of-the-moment things to celebrate the team’s accomplishments, like going to the grocery store and buying boxes of popsicles and ice cream bars. He’ll return to the office with his booty of icy goodness, empty the mail cart, load it up with treats, and then play ice-cream truck music on his smart-phone while cruising through the office, giving everyone their pick of frozen delight.

Charlie sets up celebratory outings for the team, such as an “HR at the movies” night. When a recent blockbuster was released, he bought 40 tickets so that each HR staff member could ask a family member or friend to join them for the film and then dinner afterward to discuss what they saw and how it translated back to their work. He organizes a Friday-night trip to the local Minor League Baseball game for HR staff and their families. “It’s a fun and relaxing way to end the week and spend time getting to know more about our fellow team members as well as their families,” one of his staff members explained.

Charlie’s actions and the experience of the HR department confirm our research. Performance improves when leaders provide social support by publicly honoring those who have excelled and been an example to others. It also goes up when leaders demonstrate that We are all in this together and when they make the work environment a place where people want to be, stay, and work hard. An extensive 10-year study revealed that social support networks are essential for sustaining the motivation to serve. Service-performance shortfalls in organizations are highly correlated with the absence of social support and teamwork.¹⁹ Coworkers who support one another and achieve together can be an antidote to service burnout. Working with others should be rejuvenating, inspirational, and fun.

Researchers have found that social support—more specifically, having friends at work—is good for your health, as well as for productivity. Those who report that they have a “best friend at work” are significantly more engaged, get more done in less time, have a safer workplace with fewer accidents, share ideas, feel informed, are innovative, and indicate having more fun on the job.²⁰ Conversely, there are few things more painful than being shunned at work.

Strong human connections produce spectacular results when leaders and constituents alike get personally involved with the task and with their colleagues. When people feel a strong sense of affiliation and attachment to the people they work with, they are much more likely to have a higher sense of personal well-being, to feel more committed to the organization, and to perform at higher levels. When people feel distant and detached, they’re unlikely to get much of anything significant done at all.

One of the things that make people most miserable is being alone. Celebrations remind people that they aren’t alone in their efforts and that they both need and can count on one another to make things happen and be successful. These reminders build the courage to continue in times of turmoil and stress and reinforce the fact that it takes a group of people working together with a common purpose, in an atmosphere of trust and collaboration, to achieve beyond the ordinary.

The case for social support is further boosted by the fact that information exchange is more likely to be facilitated, whether in formal or informal interactions, when people like one another. Even in the age of the internet and smartphones, people are just more likely to share things when they’re in a gathering with other people than when they’re sitting alone at their workstations. When celebrations cut across functional and hierarchical boundaries, people get a chance to exchange ideas with and be stimulated by people outside their own areas.

Be Personally Involved

Wherever you find a strong culture built around shared values, you’ll also find endless examples of leaders who personally live those values. Leaders make their values tangible by putting them into action. The resident adviser who chooses the less desirable suite because it’s closer to the central hub of the building, the faculty member who works all weekend to get papers returned to students on time, and the academic administrator who continues to teach classes to stay in touch with students—they all show others that living the values is important. It’s the same with Encourage the Heart: whether through individual recognition or group celebration, the leader has to set the example.

The only way to show people that you genuinely care and that you appreciate their efforts is to be out there with them, personally involved. You’ve got to walk the corridors, stroll around the residence halls, eat in the cafeteria, wander through the library, solicit and listen to feedback, and tell stories about accomplishments. Such visibility may make you vulnerable, but most assuredly it makes you more real and more genuine. To your colleagues, you’re not just the graduate programs director but that person who talked with them at the open house. You’re not only the director of public safety but the person who came to the athletic department offices to brainstorm about making players and guests from visiting teams feel more welcomed. Authenticity goes up when you get personally involved. By directly and visibly showing others that you care, that you want them to be successful, that you’ll cheer them along, you’re sending a positive signal. Moreover, you’re more likely to see others take these same actions if you do them. It’s that simple. Those people who most strongly feel that their organizations value their work are also those who most agree that their leaders “get personally involved in recognizing people and celebrating accomplishments,” as shown in figure 6.2.

Figure 6.2 The extent that leaders get personally involved in recognizing people and celebrating accomplishments increases people’s feeling that their work is valued.

Another benefit of being out and about, and getting personally involved in showing you care, is that this experience provides you with an opportunity to find and tell stories that put a human face on values. First-person examples are always more powerful and memorable than third-party examples. It’s that striking difference between I saw for myself and Someone told me about. You should constantly be on the lookout for “catching people doing things right” in your department, and this can’t be done by staying behind a desk, counter, or computer screen.

You need to see and know firsthand what’s being done right, not only so that you can let individuals and teams know to keep up the good work but also so that you can tell others about their actions that make a difference. As a result, you can share up-close-and-personal accounts of what it actually means in a real-time context to put shared values into practice. You make the values more than pronouncements; you make them come alive. You champion role models in your department or institution whom everyone can relate to.

Telling stories about how people on campus demonstrated their commitment to values is one of the quickest and most effective ways of translating information about how people are supposed to act and make decisions.²¹ Through storytelling you can better accomplish the objectives of teaching, mobilizing, and motivating than you can through bullet points in a slide presentation or tweets on a mobile device. Listening to and understanding the stories that leaders tell informs people more about the values and culture of an organization than company policies or the employee manual. The stories communicate what really goes on in the organization. Well-told stories reach inside people and pull them along. They simulate the actual experience of being there and give people an emotionally compelling way to learn what is really important about the experience. Reinforcing the stories through celebrations deepens the connections.

Because leadership is a relationship, people are much more likely to enlist in initiatives led by those with whom they feel a personal affiliation. It’s the human connection between leaders and constituents that ensures more commitment and more support. Lisa, on behalf of herself and the entire provost office, makes every effort to ensure that faculty members know that what they do has an impact that is recognized campuswide. Creating a spirit of community to celebrate victories and hosting celebrations from time to time has characterized her entire career. With student groups, she always puts in the effort to gather them around and distribute certificates or small tokens of appreciation. With faculty and staff, she arranges lunches and dinners to express gratitude for people’s time and efforts. According to Lisa, none of these has to be a grand event; “really it’s a spirit of gathering.” Finding a way to say thank you—and genuinely meaning it—is a very concrete way of showing respect and enhancing personal credibility.

We started the discussion of The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership with Model the Way, and here we are again. If you want others to believe in something and behave according to those beliefs, you have to be personally involved and set the example. You have to practice what you preach. If you want people to stay true to shared values, you have to stay true to them, as well. If you want to build and maintain a culture of excellence and distinction, you have to recognize, reward, reinforce, and celebrate exceptional efforts and successes. You must get personally involved in celebrating the actions that contribute to and sustain the culture. And, if you want people to have the courage to continue the quest in the face of great adversity, you have to encourage them yourself.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: ENCOURAGE THE HEART

Leaders expect to do their best and expect the best of their constituents. With clear standards they help people focus on what needs to be done. By paying attention, offering encouragement, personalizing appreciation, and maintaining a positive outlook, leaders stimulate, rekindle, and focus people’s energies and drive.

You need to recognize individual contributions to vision and values and be creative in demonstrating appreciation. Celebrating values and victories together reinforces the fact that extraordinary performance is the result of many people’s efforts. By celebrating people’s accomplishments visibly, and in group settings, you nourish and sustain a team spirit. Telling stories about individuals who have made exceptional efforts and achieved phenomenal successes provides role models for others to emulate. Social interaction increases people’s commitments to the standards of the group and has a profound effect on people’s well-being. By getting personally involved in recognition and celebrations, you set the example and foster a culture of support and community.

In developing your competence in the leadership practice of Encourage the Heart, spend some time reflecting on the following questions. After you’ve given them sufficient consideration, let others know what you are thinking and willing to do.

How can you be even more conscientious and thoughtful about saying “thank you” to people who are making a difference, even if the outcome is part of their job description?

In recognizing both individual and group accomplishments, how can you more directly link the results achieved to shared values and purpose?

In what creative ways can you get people together to celebrate the accomplishments of the unit, marking the progress that’s been made?

How can you best remind people that achievements are the result of the entire group’s efforts and not just the work of a single individual? What creative strategies can you develop for ensuring that people feel they are “all for one and one for all”?