I will start to see a person through a lens that will only reaffirm my point of view. I will often cease to see them in a larger context of possibility or partnership and my interactions with them become limited…

Is the core values conversation approaching the tipping point on your “give a s**t meter?” Fair enough; let’s talk about a new aspect of them. Three things about core values you may not have considered…

Most people think they are better listeners than they are. We listen at about 25 percent efficiency. And, although most people agree that good listening is essential, very few seek to improve their listening skills.

In fairness, looking inward, introspection, is all scary business. We want to know the source of our particular anguish, yet we are hesitant, fearing confirmation of our worst fears about ourselves.

Jung’s “shadow” describes those aspects of the personality we repress. There are parts of ourselves that we don’t like, — or that we think society won’t like — so we push those parts down into our unconscious psyches.

“People all over the world want a good job with mission, purpose with a living wage. This finding gets you pretty close to the meaning of life in the new millennium.”

We have spent years endeavoring to bring the principle, “decency pays,” to the people we work with, and Wizard has been a great model for us.

There appears to be a genuine shift in recognizing the power of decency in our business structures and models. If the business community is genuine in these efforts rather than playing to an audience, the shift could accelerate quickly.

Often, decency is viewed as at odds with corporate culture and policy, as antithetical to profit and business success. I would asset, though, that not only does decency not hamper corporate success, it promotes it. Some high-profile CEOs agree.

The biggest mistake is resisting the resistance. It’s natural to resist something that thwarts your intentions, but actually, you just have two opposing forces.

Conscious Capitalism is founded on four principles:

1. Conscious leadership

2. Stakeholder orientation

3. Conscious culture

4. Higher purpose

Is suffering overrated, or is it a choice? It brings to mind some choices we make in our learning and listening. Here’s help for breaking the cycle.

This is a common situation in pretty much every organization we have worked within. In our work with executives, we routinely coach them to take the time to check in with their people, and see what they are doing, so they have greater opportunity to acknowledge or appreciate their teams or employees. We find acknowledgement is one of the most powerful and impactful things a leader can do to encourage engagement and higher performance.

We like to think we are open to fresh thinking, but are we really? And what cost do we pay? Can we really listen to another, if what they think violates our own beliefs, especially when the judgments start piling up?

Our whole worldview is shaped by this life-long linear series of learning experiences, as is the reality we live in and think in.  We have now established a whole set of beliefs about how the world is, how people are, and most importantly, how we are.  Our behaviors will follow this structure of a belief-based reality, guided by an internal mental dialogue, advising us on how to respond to our minute by minute interactions with the world.

Tell people how to behave, give them a reason to do so, and they most often will.

The practice, discipline really, of blameless problem solving gives leaders and managers a great tool to accelerate performance, quickly build trust, and pull for greater employee engagement across the organization. When blameless problem solving becomes part of the culture, it’s a powerful lever for high performance.

When we don’t keep promises, it opens up all kinds of portals for mischief.

In work and relationships, clean-ups are essential when there is a negative emotional impact on someone. Acknowledge the wrong doing and work to clean it up.

We have been struggling economically, socially, and culturally in this current environment since the beginning of the year ( ie. the 2020 pandemic quarantine).  Although the shock has yet to wear off, more and more organizations are building plans for dealing with the moment, as well as creatively trying to imagine and plan for their future.  As in all calamities, there are winners. But this time, it is not close to balancing out those on the short end.