Doing (good) Business

Why the heck are Kelly and Lara talking about examples of empathy on a business podcast? Well, for starters, empathy has been called an essential leadership skill. It’s even been called the most important leadership skill and the newest CEO status symbol. More of what CEOs think can be found in the State of Workplace Empathy study and this whitepaper on Empathy in the Workplace from the Center for Creative Leadership.

There are 4 types of empathy (cognitive, affective, compassionate, and somatic), and they all fall under the umbrella of Emotional Intelligence, which is critical in the age of Artificial Intelligence. 

Why would organizations want to cultivate empathy as a strength?

• To build a better culture:  Making Empathy Central to Your Company Culture 
• To create new services or products: Check out the first phase of Design Thinking

And yes, you can become more strategically empathetic, and we wouldn’t be Doing (good) Business if we didn’t give you tools to help you start!

• Tips from relationship builder expert Andrew Sobel
• Three questions to ask from: Behavioral Essentials
• Even more questions from MindTools

In our next episode, you’ll hear empathy in action from Ennie Lim, CEO of HoneyBee, who created an entire service based on empathy.

When you look up the word disruptor in the dictionary, you should see Mary Alice’s picture! Continuing our January theme of disruption, we are SO excited to introduce you to Mary Alice Duff.  Mary Alice is the founder of Alice Alexander Co., an international size inclusive brand that is ethically sourced, created, and manufactured, in Philadelphia, PA.

We talk about everything from pricing strategy to leadership style, to why knowing your mission is so important - especially when you’re a disruptor and hear no a lot!

Learn:

How the quest for a wool pencil skirt started her international, direct to consumer, fashion company 

Her list of disruptions is seemingly endless...and that list is also what has made her company a success 

How disrupting manufacturing by giving her employees flex schedules, even for shift work and manual labor yields 100% retention

When employees ask her why she’s not yelling at them...you know you’re talking to a leader who is disrupting in a positive way

“If you’re not kind to your team members...when sh1t gets hard, they’re not going to show up”

Hashtag #ethicalfashion on instagram - inspires her to disrupt that sameness with size, ethnicity, and body diversity in marketing and branding  - and why Mary Alice still feels like there’s more she needs to do 

Check out the beautiful video on her site and connect with Alice Alexander on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest.

As promised last week, we’re kicking off 2020 with a bang! Disruption is our January theme, and wowie do we have a lot to say on this! As Kelly and Lara reflected on past D(g)B episodes, they realized that most of their guests are disruptors for good. D(g)B has featured: Nolan Painting, Back to Earth Compost Crew, Dr. Kristen Donnelly  as well as consultants helping business leaders transform: LaKita Williams, Katie Wright, Jennifer Brown, Jamila Medley, Mory Fontanez 

This episode notes some other disruptors you may have heard of: Interface Carpet, Cascade Engineering, Seventh Generation as Kelly & Lara realize more and more, that companies not doing good business are being left behind.

Other worthy disruptions:

Kindness as a disruptor 

Responding versus reacting as a leader  - power of the Pause, Tara Brach Radical Acceptance

 Inc. article on innovation with quotes from Jerry Seinfeld (“What am I sick of?”) 

Maddock Douglas (“Embrace the hate to innovate)

Defining a New Leadership Model – Leith Sharp

Kelly & Lara share their end of year reflections and wishes for 2020 - both personal and professional, because the two always overlap. 

End of year reminders:

• Lara Coaching Services help your leaders lead with kindness, and without burning out 
• Kelly’s Strategic Planning tools can help you reframe challenges of the past into positive opportunities for the future. 
• Kelly & Lara love hearing from you! Contact us with podcast thoughts, questions for D(g)B, or to reach Kelly or Lara individually. 

We can't wait to share our amazing 2020 content with you! Topics from disruption to empathy to organizational energy are already being recorded to start your year off with a bang. 

Kelly and Lara welcome Jackie Stavros to D(g)B! Jackie is an expert in appreciation as it relates to business, and spends her life integrating strengths-based, whole system, and sustainability concepts and practices such as Appreciative Inquiry (AI), SOAR, and Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) into her research, teaching, training, and consulting work. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a person’s or system’s capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. Now, if that’s not doing good business, we don’t know what is! Follow Jackie on Twitter or check her out on LinkedIn. 

We hope you appreciate this info!

• The 5 Classic Principles of Appreciative Inquiry 
• Forbes Article on Conversations Worth Having 
• Jackie’s free download: Conversations Worth Having Today

Can you even believe it’s December??? We SO appreciate you being here with us this year. You might even say we’re grateful. Is there a difference? We think so, and that’s what we’re digging into today. Appreciation is the D(g)B theme for December, and as always, Kelly & Lara are starting by dissecting the term. What does it even mean when it comes to work, and why is it part of doing good business? 

What are you appreciating right now? We’d love to hear from you at www.DoingGoodBusiness.com or on Instagram or Twitter!

Some things to appreciate:

• This Adam Grant post on social media caught Lara’s eye: “Dear Managers: pay isn’t a carrot you dangle to motivate people. It’s a symbol of how much you value them. Motivate by designing meaningful jobs where people have freedom, mastery, connection, and impact. Appreciate by paying well.”
• Why Appreciation Matters So Much
• The Gottman’s research on 5:1 appreciation ratio 
• The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace (for those of you who want to apply Love Languages to work!)
• The Carrot Principle
• 7 Ways to Show Your Appreciation to Employees 

Kelly & Lara are thrilled to welcome Mory Fontanez to D(g)B, Founder & CEO of 822 Group, a transformational group focused on healing organizational chaos. Talk about leading with values...which include Real, Connected & Courageous!

Have you taken one of the values assessments we linked to in our last episode? We’d love to hear what you learned - drop us a note at www.DoingGoodBusiness.com 

Mory’s personal values include self-awareness, accountability, empathy, love, deep connections, gratitude - and we can clearly see how she lives by them.

What caught our attention:

• “Healing organizational chaos”
• “Root of chaos is the lack of accountability”
• “Purpose equals profit...and there’s got to be authenticity in there”
• Mory uses the value of empathy to have hard conversations & listen without judgment 
• How does social media impact values and how do the two go together?
• Ways to tell if your organization is living its values, or if they’re just a sign on the wall.
• Yes, anyone can do this work, and hearkening back to the October theme of Openness, that’s the key to being a values based organization 
• Learn from Mory on LinkedIn Learning (her first course is on values!) & follow @822group on Instagram

Values is the November theme on D(g)B, and while we love the usual November topics of gratitude and being thankful, we’re going against the grain a bit and diving into values! Are your company’s values more than just a page on your website? Do you know your personal values? Why are values important in terms of organizational/company benefits and how do you live the company's values to realize the benefits? How the heck do you even get started with this values stuff? Kelly & Lara talk about all that and more.

Topics we value:

• Values from your hiring process to the full life cycle of an organization 
• Values as a competitive advantage
• Traditional values, e.g. integrity, trust, accountability and the emerging values, e.g. humility, ownership, simplicity
• These are our corporate values vs. This is what we value as a company
• Resources to find your personal values: TruValues & PVA

WE VALUE FEEDBACK! How are you liking Season 2? Drop us a line on Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn, or fill out the handy form at www.DoingGoodBusiness.com! We’d love to hear how you like the new format and any show ideas you have. 

Kevin Nolan, founder and president of Nolan Painting, is a leader who truly exemplifies our October theme of Openness. From open book accounting, to how he establishes goals for his team, Kevin has been in business since the 1970s and runs what has become the largest residential painting company in the US! If Kevin sounds familiar, that’s because he was a guest on the Doing (good) Business live podcast panel, in Season 1 and we’re thrilled to have him back for a deep dive into Openness. 

Follow their painting adventures on Facebook and check out Nolan in the Neighborhood to see all of the community causes and outreach they support, like December 14th’s Reindeer Romp 5K in Havertown, PA with pizza & pub crawl right after - they’ve raised $500K for American Cancer Society over the years!

Powerful takeaways from Kevin:

• “Good leaders have to cultivate the things they want in their business”
• Open Book Management - what it is, how Nolan Painting practices it, and why
• “I open myself up to them, and they do the same - I know about my people”
• Pay for performance system built around the company’s monthly KPIs - that are posted on a white wall in the building!
• Focus on the values (theirs include friendliness and accountability)
• The 2 books Kevin used to create the Nolan Painting culture: Ownership Thinking & The Great Game of Business 
• Kevin’s advice to other business owners and leaders who want to adopt similar philosophies? Be a student. Cultivate it. 

October’s theme is Openness and Kelly & Lara talk about why you need it, how leaders do openness well, and of course, how it helps your organization do good business! We've got a special shout-out to Kelly’s dog Bandit about 20 minutes in  :-)

Be open to these good business tips:

• Lara coaches her leaders on what she calls “Appropriate Transparency”
• Growth mindset
• We all make up stories when there’s a lack of info. Openness is a key ingredient to trust and trust positively impacts retention  
• The Real Power of Transparency and Openness 
• How Leaders can build a culture of trust and openness
• Kelly notes openness as one of the Big 5 Personality Traits studies by researchers