Engaging Leader: Leadership communication principles with Jesse Lahey

In episode 136, I shared how there are three secrets to effective content as part of a leadership or workforce communication strategy: visual, sticky, and “nudgy.” We discussed the first secret in episode 127, Let’s Get Visual: 6 Engaging Ways to Use Images. We discussed the second secret in episode 136, Sticky — 7 Keys […]

With warm, summer weather arriving in the northern hemisphere, many of us have vacation plans. But what type of vacation will you take? Will it actually refresh you, helping you come back to work with new energy, fresh ideas, and a better perspective to help you deliver results that matter? If you’re like most business leaders in the U.S., your vacation is probably only about a week long — and you’ll spend at least an hour or two every day keeping up with business on your smartphone or laptop. The better vacation is the unplugged vacation, according to author and CEO advisor Mindy Mackenzie. But everyone is afraid to do it. What if you could take a two-week or even three-week vacation, and truly unplug from work — without your absence causing any catastrophes back at the office? Mindy and Jesse discuss how to take an unplugged vacation from work, worry-free. Mindy Mackenzie is a speaker, author, and CEO advisor. Her new book is The Courage Solution: The Power of Truth Telling with Your Boss, Peers, and Team. Previously, Mindy served as Chief Performance Officer and Chief HR Officer of liquor giant Jim Beam. Her career also includes five years at Campbell Soup Co., where she was was VP of Asia Pacific HR & Public Affairs; and nine years at Wal-Mart, where she advanced through various leadership, HR, and Organizational Development roles. Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: The Courage Solution: The Power of Truth Telling with Your Boss, Peers, and Team Website: http://www.mindymackenzie.com Twitter: @mindy_mackenzie Facebook: /themindymackenzie Subscription Links iTunes Stitcher RSS Your Feedback If you like our show, please rate us on iTunes. That makes a huge difference in helping more people discover it. We love to know your thoughts about this episode. Please submit your comments below! You can also email comments to Jesse at jesse@engagingleader.com, subscribe to him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter.

With warm, summer weather arriving in the northern hemisphere, many of us have vacation plans. But what type of vacation will you take? Will it actually refresh you, helping you come back to work with new energy, fresh ideas, and a better perspective to help you deliver results that matter? If you’re like most business […]

In a typical communication strategy, part of the plan involves leadership actions, but also involves communication content — words, images, videos, and so forth. You’ve probably heard the phrase Content Is King. You can do a great job with other aspects of your strategy, but if the content isn’t effective, you’ll fail to meet your objectives. Content is key to grabbing attention and getting people to think or act differently. So if content is king, how do we make it effective — to drive behavior and make a positive difference? There are three secrets to effective content. We need to make it visual, sticky, and “nudgy.”  We discussed the first secret in episode 127, Let’s Get Visual: 6 Engaging Ways to Use Images. Here in episode 136, we’ll discuss the first secret, Sticky. And then we’ll discuss the third secret in episode 138, “Nudgy: How to influence people to make an optimal choice in the ‘moment of truth.’” The best model for sticky communications comes from the book Made to Stick, by a couple of PhDs and brothers named Chip and Dan Heath. It spells out the word SUCCESS. S: Simple – Make the core message clear. (WIIFM) U: Unexpected – Make people notice. (Humor works great.) C: Concrete – Make people understand. C: Credible – Make people believe. E: Emotional – Make people care. S: Stories – Make people act. S: Short – Avoid losing them. (This isn’t in the book, but in the age of social media and smartphones, it’s now a necessary part of the formula.) Resources Mentioned in This Episode * Podcast: Episode 127: Let’s Get Visual – 6 Engaging Ways to Use Images * Podcast: “Episode 138: Nudgy: How to influence people to make an optimal choice in the ‘moment of truth.’” Book: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath Subscription Links iTunes Stitcher RSS Your Feedback If you like our show, please rate us on iTunes. That makes a huge difference in helping more people discover it. We love to know your thoughts about this episode. Please submit your comments below! You can also email comments to Jesse at jesse@engagingleader.com, subscribe to him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter.

In a typical communication strategy, part of the plan involves leadership actions, but also involves communication content — words, images, videos, and so forth. You’ve probably heard the phrase Content Is King. You can do a great job with other aspects of your strategy, but if the content isn’t effective, you’ll fail to meet your […]

We are in the early years of a fundamental demographic shift. The Millennial generation — which is even larger than the massive Baby Boom generation — now makes up a third of the workforce. As younger millennials continue to graduate from college, their powerful mix of values, communication style, and work perspective is driving a work-culture revolution. As you lead a team that’s increasingly made up of millennials, understanding their motivators is essential to your success. This is a challenge that Aaren Terrett knows very well, since his organization is made up almost entirely of millennials. Aaren is director of sales operations at O2E Brands, the parent company of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, Wow 1 Day Painting, You Move Me, and Shack Shine. What’s the secret to his company’s success in producing consistent and sustained motivation in its millennial workforce? “We apply the principles of frequent feedback, recognition of success, and instant communication,” Aaren says. “Some people call it gamification. We call it leadership of our people. It’s the way the millennial workforce likes to be led.” Jesse and Aaren discuss the profile of the millennial at work, and how O2E has used gamification principles to shape a positive culture, improve customer service, and increase productivity. Their discussion includes: Contests, prizes, and instant and visually engaging public recognition, New-hire training that includes interactive video game structures, and Gamification principles incorporated into their recruiting and career advancement processes. Aaren Terrett is the director of sales operations at O2E Brands, headquartered in Vancouver, BC. O2E, which stands for “ordinary to exceptional,” operates four franchise brands with a combined revenue of $150M. Resources Mentioned in This Episode Website: o2ebrands.com LinkedIn: O2E Brands Twitter: @1800gotjunk Facebook: /1-800-GOT-JUNK? Article: Gamifying Your Workforce: How to Make Engagement Fun Article: Peer to peer: What should my business do to effectively engage with millennials? Visual examples Subscription Links iTunes Stitcher RSS Your Feedback If you like our show, please rate us on iTunes. That makes a huge difference in helping more people discover it. We love to know your thoughts about this episode. Please submit your comments below! You can also email comments to Jesse at jesse@engagingleader.com, subscribe to him on Facebook, or follow him on

Horrible meetings are a cliché of the business world, and with good reason. Most meetings are a waste of time and don’t accomplish much, if anything. Everyone leaves frustrated that they could be doing something more productive with their time — and not only do your results suffer, so does your credibility as a leader. Yet even though we all love to hate meetings, you cannot achieve results without bringing people together to make decisions and take action — whether in person, online, or on a conference call. Karin Hurt returns to Engaging Leader, as she and Jesse discuss specific techniques to running meetings that are efficient, productive, and something people want to attend. Their conversation includes: The reason for roughly 90% of the problems managers have with poor performance, The importance of the 28-day rule, The six reasons people hate meetings, The two outcomes every meeting should accomplish, and   The most important five minutes you’ll spend to make your meetings achieve results. Karin Hurt is co-author of the new book Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results — Without Losing Your Soul. Her previous book was Overcoming An Imperfect Boss. Karin is CEO of Let’s Grow Leaders. As a keynote speaker, leadership consultant, and MBA professor, Karin helps leaders improve business results by building deeper trust and connection with their teams. A former Verizon Wireless executive, she has over two decades of experience in sales, marketing, customer service, and human resources. Her award-winning blog, Let’s Grow Leaders, has grown into a highly interactive, international community. Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results–Without Losing Your Soul Book: Overcoming An Imperfect Boss: A Practical Guide to Building a Better Relationship With Your Boss Online course: Results That Last: 7 Roles Every Manager Must Master Website: http://www.letsgrowleaders.com Twitter: @letsgrowleaders Facebook: /letsgrowleaders Engaging Leader 054: Humility and Leadership: How to Teach Confident Humility | with Karin Hurt Video: Winning Well Darth Vader Leadership Interview Subscription Links iTunes Stitcher RSS Your Feedback If you like our show, please rate us on iTunes. That makes a huge difference in helping more people discover it. We love to know your thoughts about this episode. Please submit your comments below! You can also email comments to Jesse at

Horrible meetings are a cliché of the business world, and with good reason. Most meetings are a waste of time and don’t accomplish much, if anything. Everyone leaves frustrated that they could be doing something more productive with their time — and not only do your results suffer, so does your credibility as a leader. […]

The new book, The Power of Fifty Bits: The New Science of Turning Good Intentions into Positive Results, by Bob Nease, PhD, is the first practical guide for business leaders to apply behavioral economics to activate the good intentions of people in their workforce. Behavioral economics has shown that people’s choices and actions often are not based on rational decisions. If you are a benefits manager or the leader of a wellness program, this explains why some of your best efforts at plan design, incentives, and participant education have frustrating results. We often assume (incorrectly) that if we give people the right information and financial carrots and sticks, they will: Adopt healthier behaviors such as saving for retirement and eating healthier, and Make smart-consumer choices such as choosing high-quality, lower-cost medications and providers. A logical structure of plan design, incentives, and participant education seems like it should influence employees appropriately, but too often these components have little — or even a negative — effect. In our frustration, we may conclude that employees lack information or moral strength, or perhaps that they have bad intentions. However, the data shows that’s not the case. Lots of people already believe in the value of the behaviors that are being promoted. Instead, inattention and inertia lead to behaviors that don’t match what they want to do. In this episode, Bob Nease joins Jesse to discuss how to use the science of behavioral economics to activate the good intentions that people have. Bob shares a framework of seven strategies to overcome inattention and inertia in your workforce — strategies that have been proven to measurably improve choices and behaviors. From “The Power of Fifty Bits” (HarperCollins, 2016) Bob Nease, PhD, is the author of The Power of Fifty Bits: The New Science of Turning Good Intentions into Positive Results. Bob served many years as the chief scientist at Express Scripts, a Fortune 25 healthcare company dedicated to making the use of prescription medications safer and more affordable. Bob was also an associate professor of internal medicine at Washington University in St. Louis and an assistant professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. He is the author of more than 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles, and inventor on six US patents. Resources Mentioned in This Episode Website: www.fiftybits.com Book: The Power of Fifty Bits: The New Science of Turning Good Intentions into Positive Results LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobnease Twitter: @bobnease Podcast WHE21: Can Behavioral Economics Solve Your Company’s Health Care Problems? | with Derek Yach from Vitality Institute Subscription Links iTunes Stitcher RSS Your Feedback If you like our show, please

Great leaders don’t innovate products, they innovate the factory. Through most of the 20th century, great leaders focused on reinventing the factory. From Frederick Taylor to Henry Ford, the industrial age was made by people who could envision the best way to design the organization around the product. Today, much of the world has moved from the factory floor to the factory of minds. That calls for a reinvention of the factory and a redesign of the way we do business. The best leaders have already started reinventing the factory once more. In his latest book, Under New Management, David Burkus has collected stories of dozens of companies that make this journey. Drawing on decades of research, he has found that many decades-old management practices have now become counter-productive. In their place, leading organizations are finding new ways to enhance productivity and engagement, including: Outlaw email, Put customers second, Lose the standard vacation policy, Pay people to quit, Make salaries transparent, Ditch performance appraisals, Close open offices, Take sabbaticals, and Fire the managers. David Burkus is a best-selling author, an award-winning podcaster, and management professor. In 2015, he was named one of the emerging thought leaders most likely to shape the future of business by Thinkers50, the world’s premier ranking of management thinkers. David has delivered keynote speeches and workshops for Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Stryker; at in-demand conferences such as SXSW and TEDx events; and to governmental leaders and military leaders at the U.S. Naval Academy and Naval Postgraduate School. Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: Under New Management (click here for a free sample, including the introduction and the entire first chapter of the book) Website and podcast: http://www.davidburkus.com Twitter: @davidburkus Facebook: /drdavidburkus Video of TEDx talk: “Why Do We Keep Our Salaries Secret?“ Engaging Leader 061: The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Leaders Generate Great Ideas | with David Burkus Subscription Links iTunes Stitcher RSS Your Feedback If you like our show, please rate us on iTunes. That makes a huge difference in helping more people discover it. We love to know your thoughts about this episode. Please submit your comments below! You can also email comments to Jesse at jesse@engagingleader.com, subscribe to him on 

Great leaders don’t innovate products, they innovate the factory. Through most of the 20th century, great leaders focused on reinventing the factory. From Frederick Taylor to Henry Ford, the industrial age was made by people who could envision the best way to design the organization around the product. Today, much of the world has moved […]

In honor of April Fool’s Day, a funny guest joins Jesse to discuss a seriously important topic … how to use humor to drive engagement in all of your communication opportunities. David Nihill went from being deathly afraid of public speaking to hosting a business conference, regularly performing stand-up comedy, and winning storytelling competitions in […]

In honor of April Fool’s Day, a funny guest joins Jesse to discuss a seriously important topic … how to use humor to drive engagement in all of your communication opportunities. David Nihill went from being deathly afraid of public speaking to hosting a business conference, regularly performing stand-up comedy, and winning storytelling competitions in front of packed houses. And he did it by learning from some of the best public speakers in the world: stand-up comedians.  David’s new book is Do You Talk Funny?: 7 Comedy Habits to Become a Better (and Funnier) Public Speaker. David shows how the key principles of stand-up comedy can be applied to speaking engagements, presentations, and other business content to make it funnier and more engaging. It offers a step-by-step approach for crafting stories and content that audiences want to hear. David Nihill is the Founder of FunnyBizz, a community writer platform and conference series, where business meets humor to abolish boring content. His work has been featured in Inc., Lifehacker, The Huffington Post, Fast Company, and Forbes. A graduate of the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, he wears a tie, but only to bungee jump. Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: Do You Talk Funny?: 7 Comedy Habits to Become a Better (and Funnier) Public Speaker Free guide: 80 public speaking tips from the book Public speaking website: http://www.7comedyhabits.com/ FunnyBizz website: http://funnybizz.co/ Conference: http://funnybizz.co/funnybizz-conference/ Twitter: @FunnyBizzSF LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidnihill President Obama using joke structure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFcWz9eyovA Ken Robinson example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Yxw67823I Joke structure in TED talks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HB0-s3uK_Y Subscription Links iTunes Stitcher RSS Your Feedback If you like our show, please rate us on iTunes. That makes a huge difference in helping more people discover it. We love to know your thoughts about this episode. Please submit your comments below! You can also email comments to Jesse at jesse@engagingleader.com, subscribe to him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter.

One of the surprising things about workplace burnout is that no one is immune. Even the most engaged, productive, and passionate people can experience burnout — in fact, their dedication may cause them to be even more susceptible than others. In Engaging Leader episode 019, How to Help Your Team Have More Great Days at Work, Chris Rice talked about the risk of high-performing people becoming “Crash and Burners.” It’s one of the challenges of workforce engagement: helping your most engaged people stay engaged. Extended periods of burnout can result in a decline in performance, health problems related to stress and depression, as well as the worst kind of turnover — losing your very best performers. Avoiding burnout, in ourselves and in the people we lead, requires a proactive strategy. To talk to us about avoiding workplace burnout, we decided not to invite a psychologist or university professor. Instead, we invited a person with real-world experience as a leader and a professional, who has been recognized by others for his insights into avoiding burnout. Bill Holston is Executive Director of the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas. In 2012, he left his law practice of 30 years to lead this non-profit organization that provides pro bono legal services for people who come to the United States seeking asylum from political or religious persecution, abusive relationships, or other reasons. Recently, two professional associations invited Bill to speak at their events about avoiding burnout. Based on his wisdom and years of experience, it’s easy to understand why people are finding his insights helpful. After you listen to our conversation, I think you’ll agree. In this episode, Bill and Jesse discuss these topics: Defining burnout Identifying the problem and causes Who does it impact? What is compassion fatigue? Warning signs in ourselves and in those we lead How can we avoid it? Resources Mentioned in This Episode Website: http://www.hrionline.org/ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/human-rights-initiative-of-north-texas-inc- Twitter: @HRIonline Engaging Leader episode 019: How to Help Your Team Have More Great Days at Work with Chris Rice Subscription Links iTunes Stitcher RSS Your Feedback If you like our show, please rate us on iTunes. That makes a huge difference in helping more people discover it. We love to know your thoughts about this episode. Please submit your comments below! You can also email comments to Jesse at jesse@engagingleader.com, subscribe to him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter.

What if coaching could become a regular, informal part of your day so you and your team could work less hard and have more impact? That’s the promise Michael Bungay Stanier makes in his latest book, The Coaching Habit. He has trained more than 10,000 busy managers from around the globe in practical, everyday coaching […]