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After working out this morning at my gym, I walked into the locker room and overheard one of my friends, Joe, tell another exerciser that he\u2019d grown up on a dairy farm.<\/p>\nAfter working out this morning at my gym, I walked into the locker room and overheard one of my friends, Joe, tell another exerciser that he\u2019d grown up on a dairy farm.<\/p>\n
Instinctively recalling a New York Times<\/i> article that reported, \u201cCows, when given names, produce six percent more milk,\u201d I inserted myself into the conversation and asked Joe if he\u2019d been inclined to name all his cows.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I was!\u201d said the seventy-five-year-old urologist.\u00a0 \u201cAs a kid, I had a name for all the animals on the farm, and I tried to make friends with each and every one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut my dad had a different opinion on that,\u201d Joe said in an immediate change of tone.\u00a0 \u201cHe attempted at a very early age to teach me to avoid making emotional connections like that with our animals.\u00a0 One night, he took my pet rabbit, Freddy, and insisted my mother cook it for dinner.\u00a0 Sitting at the dinner table, I had tears coming down my face as my father insisted how delicious Freddy tasted.\u201d<\/p>\n
This brief interchange was startling to me, of course, and it ended as quickly as Joe packed his gear and headed home. \u00a0But there was no question in my mind that Joe\u2019s sudden recollection was nearly as painful today as it had been sixty years ago when the experience originally occurred.<\/p>\n
While this story is indeed horrifying \u2013 and who today wouldn\u2019t judge Joe\u2019s dad as having been an extremely cruel and careless parent? \u2013 the lesson he very purposely sought to instill in his young son is much the same as we\u2019ve all long been taught:\u00a0 Keep your heart out of business.<\/i><\/p>\n
Consider this compelling fact.\u00a0 When researchers recently presented proof to a large group of dairy farmers that they could significantly improve milk production simply by naming their cows, the majority of farmers took a pass.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why.\u00a0 As I wrote originally in Lead From The Heart<\/i>, were any of us to have a small farm, it would be unthinkable to not give all our animals thoughtful and even affectionate names.\u00a0 \u201cBut something unnatural occurs when we expand our farms and make them into a business enterprise.\u00a0 We ignore what we instinctively know, and rationalize with ourselves that caring for our animals is no longer necessary or practical.\u00a0 The operation changes to a business driven by efficiency and we allow ourselves to lose complete sight of what\u2019s important or right.\u201d<\/p>\n
We know today that more people are unhappy in their jobs than ever before.\u00a0 71% of US workers admit to not being engaged at work \u2013 or to being actively dis-<\/i>engaged.\u00a0\u00a0 The reason for all this discontent, not surprisingly, has a direct and irrefutable parallel to cows: \u00a0Leaders aren\u2019t demonstrating in any meaningful, consistent or authentic way that they care, and employees can feel it.\u00a0 Tied to this, employee engagement and productivity have been severely diminished.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s most certainly implied by research that all forms of nurturing positively affect the hearts in cows, it\u2019s undeniable that how people (human beings) are made to feel in the workplace has everything to do with their initiative, commitment, loyalty and production.<\/p>\n
This is information we need to let sink in.<\/p>\n
While we\u2019ve long believed that keeping relationships with employees \u201cbusiness-like\u201d and inherently impersonal would drive greater performance and results, the lack of connection between employee and employer, worker and boss, is having the unintended consequence of killing spirits.\u00a0 The very reason people have become so miserable in their jobs is because they\u2019re not being made to feel valued \u2013 or that their work really matters.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time for a change of heart in leadership.\u00a0 It\u2019s more than clear that the management philosophy and beliefs best represented by Joe\u2019s dad have failed to sustainably motivate and inspire human workers.\u00a0\u00a0 Leaders who will succeed in the 21st<\/sup> Century, therefore, will be the ones who fully embrace the fundamental reality that employees are first and foremost human beings who thrive on things like kindness, thoughtfulness, appreciation and personal development.<\/p>\n The idea of leading with any degree of heart, I\u2019m certain, will continue to raise cynicism amongst many in business.\u00a0 Yet, if a cow, when given a considerate name like Buttercup, will reward you with six percent more milk, how much more potential do you think employees have inside of them in the presence of some genuine care?<\/p>\n As someone who has broad senior manager level leadership experience in large financial services organizations, and who’s successfully managed investment brokers, lending officers and retail bankers, I know for certain that what employees the world over want more than anything is to work for a boss and an organization that genuinely care about them and their well being.<\/p>\n It’s no surprise that at least a third of all people working today would prefer a new boss over a significant pay raise. \u00a0Clearly, there’s no amount of money that can make up for the time spent working for someone who disregards our highest human needs.<\/p>\n Studs Terkel spoke on behalf of workers everywhere when he said, \u201cWork is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.\u201d<\/p>\n