On Connection

Practicing Inclusive Leadership - leadership that inspires inclusivity and causes an experience of belonging - is not just soft and emotional work. It is a rigorous commitment that will naturally result in confronts, difficult conversations, and hard decisions. Inclusive Leadership is a call to cause both belonging and disruption, and doing so valuably requires understanding what it means to use power purposefully.

In this episode, Robin and Michelle join Emma Rose in our third conversation digging into power and power dynamics in leadership and organizational life.

Emma Rose is joined by guest Lisa Horwitz, who plays a critical role in the digital transformation of a large national healthcare company. Over the past few years, her background in user experience design has helped her support the adoption of new technology across their clinics nationwide, and she’s approached it as a research project with a focus on how to successfully guide behavior change.

Lisa's experience is full of lessons for leaders at all levels looking to influence and support successful change initiatives. Her story highlights the importance of curiosity and a commitment to listening, staying connected to the people who are necessary to the execution and sustainability of the new behaviors and processes you want to see.

Growth and development are key parts of our lives at work, and for leaders, this is both a personal undertaking and something to sponsor in others. What best supports successful development? How can we design for growth towards our goals, our vision for ourselves and for our work, and fulfillment that enriches our working experience and contribution? 

Carolyn French and Krista Spence join Emma Rose to share what they've learned from coaching leaders and teams, and designing for development. 

Show Notes

For the second in our series on Power, we do a deeper dive into what we mean when we talk about power. Michelle and Robin share the different "types" of power (as defined by the American Psychological Association) and how they can help us further investigate our own relationship to power - as leaders, employees, teammates, and as people.

Power, Part 1

APA Types of Power

The Cycle of Value

Essentiality is a powerful skill that helps you be clear, with yourself and with others, about what is most important. When you practice getting down to the very essence of what you need others to hear from you, or what others need you to hear, that is an act of valuable communication and an act of care.

Communication - the quality of conversation we hold ourselves to and our sense of timing - is an absolutely critical piece of leading and

Roger Henderson joins Mickey and Emma Rose to discuss why essentiality matters and how to practice it.

Our current working definition of Power is "the capacity or ability to direct or influence others or the course of events." Power impacts the way organizations are behaving, making decisions, and the conversations they're having. It's also something we aren't often talking about explicitly, and beginning to engage with it consciously can reveal a new understanding of how we cultivate or diminish value, inclusion, and belonging.

How is power used or abused in organizational life? How do we each, as leaders and employees, understand our relationship to power? Are we being curious about how our use of power impacts the lived experience of others?

Show Notes:

Love & Leadership Virtual Event

Conversant on LinkedIn

On Connection: Love & Leadership

On Connection: DEIJB: What does it mean?

On Connection: Inclusive Leadership Design

According to Gallup, there has been a steady decline in employee engagement over the last few years, with only 32% of employees in the U.S. falling in the "engaged" category and 18% "actively disengaged." Of the factors contributing to those statistics, most are not new concepts or surprising ideas. So, why is it that organizations still don't know how to address the engagement challenge? 

In this episode, Robin, Mickey and Emma Rose talk about what there is to learn from the story this new data tells, and what opportunities there are for inspiring greater employee engagement for the future.

Show notes: 

U.S. Employee Engagement Needs a Rebound in 2023 – Gallup

What Is Employee Engagement and How Do You Improve It? – Gallup

How the successful workplace of the future will rely on employee engagement – CEO Magazine

Collaborating through Stress, Uncertainty & Complex Challenges – On Connection

Expectations, Accountability & Trust – On Connection

On this event preview, we consider what place love has at work and why we think it matters. Love isn’t a passive cultural feature; some would argue it’s a powerful business strategy. Join us as we start a conversation on love and leadership.

Learn more & register for the virtual event: https://lnkd.in/g2gSB4wg

Most simply, choice means “an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities.” In an organizational context, however, there’s a lot more to it than that. The opportunity and capacity to make a decision for oneself is an act of agency and autonomy, one that sustains a commitment to contribute to a shared purpose. We believe this opportunity to choose to commit to something is powerful, and an important ingredient in organizational vitality and employee engagement.

Robin Anselmi and Kell Delaney join Emma Rose Connolly to talk about why “choice” is an important characteristic of cultures that sustain organizational performance and employee well-being.

Show notes:

· The Vitality Imperative: How Connected Leaders & Their Teams Achieve More with Less Time, Money & Stress

· Autonomy Ain’t Anarchy by Mickey Connolly

· What Inspires Engagement for Younger Generations by Emma Rose Connolly

· On Connection - Community: Why it Matters & How to Build It

Decision making is a critical part of moving projects forward and leading success for any team or organization. While there are numerous frameworks, processes, and methods to pick from, the best method is the one that gets you to have the conversations you need to have. The conversations ARE the work of decision making, and it's through those conversations you generate alignment, increase shared understanding, create clarity around roles and contributions, and ultimately build cultures of trust and belonging. 

In this episode, Robin Anselmi and Patrick Kennedy join Emma Rose to share what they've learned from leading, participating in, and supporting the work of decision making.