Project Brief - Article/Blog Post Project

Write an article/blog post on how transformational leaders focus on the employee experience as a way
to address the challenges organizations are facing related to what is known as the Talent Tsunami or
the Great Resignation. Please also include a title for the article/blog post.

Focuses on these bullets:

 The forces of change, including rapid shifts in culture, a changing workforce, technology
advancements and more, require leaders to rethink how they see and lead employees. They
must begin to think about the whole person, not just the worker.

 Employees who have a positive employee experience are more productive, engaged,
collaborative, innovative, satisfied and are less likely to leave.

 Leading organizations are paying attention to employment trends and business insights related
to the future of leadership and the employee experience.

 Making the employee experience a leadership priority gives organizations the ability to attract
and retain top talent, foster productive and engaged employees and achieve sustainable and
thriving organizations.

 Leading organizations are reshaping the employee experience to attract and retain top talent.

GENERAL RESEARCH
Gallup defines the employee experience as: “The journey an employee takes with your organization.
It includes every interaction that happens along the employee life cycle, plus the experiences that
involve an employee’s role, workspace, manager and wellbeing.” 

Employee wellbeing is the new workplace imperative. Wellbeing and engagement interact with each
other in powerful ways. When employees are engaged and thriving, they experience significantly less
stress, anger and health problems. Unfortunately, most employees remain disengaged at work. In fact,
low engagement alone costs the global economy $7.8 trillion. The relationship between wellbeing and
engagement is vital because how people experience work influences their lives outside work, and
overall wellbeing influences life at work.

"We take care of the future best by taking care of the present now.”  Jon Kabat-Zinn
As a leader, how can you stay focused on what’s important when there are so many demands for your
immediate attention? Ever-changing market conditions, gadget overload, conflicting information and
“emergencies” of all kinds can hurt your ability to think with clarity and precision. Getting to
sustainable excellence requires a different way to lead.

Pull insights from these articles:

  Transformational Leadership - https://www.johnmaxwell.com/blog/your-leadership-can-
transform-the-world/
 The Employee Experience
o https://www.talentmgt.com/articles/2022/04/18/reshaping-the-employee-experience-
to-attract-and-retain-talent/
o https://www.gallup.com/workplace/242252/employee-experience.aspx
o https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/all-things-work/pages/the-employee-
experience.aspx
o https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/human-capital-trends/2017/
improving-the-employee-experience-culture-engagement.html
o https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-
performance/our-insights/this-time-its-personal-shaping-the-new-possible-through-
employee-experience

Example of our Voice and Writing Style

DEVELOPING A CULTURE OF LEADERSHIP: CONNECTING IS A LEADERSHIP
SUPERPOWER

Leadership is the influence you have with others and not a position or title you possess. The fastest
way to increase your influence is by connecting with the people on your team. Great connecters know
that the power in connecting comes when you communicate with someone else about them, not about
you. 

It’s important that leaders understand the importance of being great connectors and learn to focus on
finding common ground with the people they lead. When a leader can stop directing and start
connecting, they increase their team’s engagement and performance.

Curiosity is an often-overlooked leadership competency that great connecters use. When I am curious,
I ask questions. When I ask questions, I listen to the answers. When I listen to the answers, I learn
about you. When I am learning about you, I can search for common ground that will help me to
connect with you on a much deeper level.

When you have a solid connection with the people on your team, you can take your communication
with them to a much higher level. Even when there are difficult conversations that must occur, the
connection you have with people will allow you to execute those conversations positively and
proactively.

DEVELOPING A CULTURE OF LEADERSHIP: EVERYONE COMMUNICATES, BUT

FEW CONNECT
Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once commented, “The single biggest problem in
communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

Leaders who are great communicators do more than communicate; they connect with the people with
whom they are speaking. As author Brian Tracy once said, you must “accept complete responsibility
both for understanding and for being understood.” This is never more true than when having a
difficult conversation.

Clarity is Kind

Leaders must engage in difficult conversations, both with their teams and with individuals on the
team. In every case, you must be clear about the problem, the desired outcome, and the timeline for
closure. The ability to speak in such a way that people understand what you said and why you said it
is the sign of a great communicator. 

If you want to communicate and connect in the difficult conversations you must have, try balancing
care and candor. If you are a strong relationship person, you may tend to communicate with a lot of
care. Unfortunately, this often leaves the problem unaddressed. If you are more of a task-based
person, you may tend to communicate with a lot of candor. Unfortunately, this often destroys the
relationship while addressing a problem. Instead, practice balancing care and candor to clearly address
the problem while preserving the relationship.

DEVELOPING A CULTURE OF LEADERSHIP: HOW LEADERS SUSTAIN EMPLOYEE

ENGAGEMENT

Employee engagement is a critical issue for most organizations. Today’s environment offers many
distractions that can keep your team from fully focusing on the work that is before them.

The level of engagement that an individual on your team exhibits is often tied to how much they feel
valued by their leader. In fact, if a person feels valued, inspired, and empowered, they have everything
they need to be a fully engaged member of the team.

Empowerment is About Trust

When a leader empowers the members of her team, she is telling them she trusts them to do the job
they have been asked to do. How can you tell if someone is worthy of trust? The answer is to
empower them. When you give people the chance to show you what they can do, they will also reveal
their trustworthiness in the process.

A command-and-control leader will simply tell people what to do, and sometimes how to do it. A
leader who has increased their influence beyond their title or position will invest in their people and
give them opportunities to show what they can do. When this happens, you increase the depth and
quality of your team, which increases their engagement and performance.
DEVELOPING A CULTURE OF LEADERSHIP: A LEADER’S GREATEST RETURN

Does your organizational success rest solely on your leadership alone, or are you developing the
leaders around you?

Do you enjoy seeing your organization thrive without you? Many leaders take pride in the
organization thriving because of them. It takes a secure leader and someone who is investing in their
team’s growth to be energized by seeing the organization thrive without them. But this is precisely the
mindset required if you ever hope to sustain your organization’s success after you are gone.

Great leaders work themselves out of a job. A leader’s greatest return is in developing the leadership
potential of those on their team. When you equip someone, you help them do their job better. When
you develop someone, you make them a better person. When you intentionally develop the next
generation of leaders in your organization, you exponentially grow the future success of your
organization. 

Working yourself out of your job so you can move to your next opportunity requires you to prepare
those who could succeed you. Of course, developing the next generation of leaders is a big job and
requires you to develop yourself. You cannot pour into the lives of others if you are not pouring into
your own life daily.  You cannot give what you do not have.

DEVELOPING A CULTURE OF LEADERSHIP: ARE YOU ADDING VALUE TO

OTHERS?

Author and speaker Zig Ziglar once famously said, “You can have anything you want in life if you
will help other people get what they want in life.”

I Value You

Before you can add value to someone, you must value them as a person. To value someone is to see
them and to see their potential. When you genuinely value someone, you will find ways to be present
with them, believe in them, and encourage them.

I Add Value to You

To add value to someone is to make them better. Leaders do this by recognizing what the people on
their team value and the vision they have for themselves, and then they help make that vision a reality.
John Maxwell teaches that every follower is asking three questions about their leader:

First, can my leader help me? Do you genuinely desire to help your people to grow and learn and
succeed?

Second, does my leader show care for me? Do you genuinely care for the people on your team? Do
you offer that care in a way that is meaningful to them?
Third, can I trust my leader? Do you manipulate the people on your team to further your agenda, or do
you motivate the people on your team to benefit the team?

When you add value to the people you value, you establish a culture that multiplies value to others,
including customers and partners.

DEVELOPING A CULTURE OF LEADERSHIP: INFLUENCE MATH

As a leader, you can either add yourself to every task and activity your team is attempting to
accomplish today, or you can multiply by investing in the ability of your teammates to lead. Instead of
adding more of you, you multiply you.

Lifting Your Lid

In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell describes the Law of the Lid by saying,
“Leadership ability is the lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness. The lower an
individual’s ability to lead, the lower the lid on his or her potential.” If you want to increase your
effectiveness, invest in your leadership ability. If you want to increase your organization’s
effectiveness, invest in the leadership ability of the people on your team.

Sustainable Performance

When you add value to your organization’s leaders, they will, in turn, multiply value to others. The
important act of developing others opens the door for them to add value to their teammates,
customers, and you. A Level 1 Leader (from The 5 Levels of Leadership) is a command and control
leader whose only influence is their title or position. When you develop your influence beyond your
position and help those on your team increase their influence, you will see exponential growth in your
organization’s performance and engagement.