Episodes
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Culture Leadership Charge, Episode 107, December 2022: Build a Culture of Respect
Most business leaders see their job as managing results. Results are important, but they're only half the leaders' job. The other half? Managing respect. Our experience and research lead us to this core truth of business leadership: Employes of all generations desire and deserve a work culture...
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Culture Leadership Charge, Episode 106 - October 2022
We're not yet over the "Great Resignation." The latest job report indicates that another 4.2 million US workers voluntarily quit in August 2022. LinkedIn's 2022 Workforce Confidence Index found that nearly 25 percent of Gen-Z respondents and Millennials plan to change jobs in the next six months....
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Culture Leadership Charge - BBCtv Interview - September 2022
A month ago, the term "quiet quitting" hadn't made much of a mark. A social media post on the concept went viral – and now everyone is talking about it. I was delighted to join BBC News' The Context broadcast and speak to host Nuala McGovern about quiet quitting – and how business leaders can...
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Culture Leadership Charge, Episode 105, July 2022 - How does your culture rate?
Companies around the globe are short-staffed. Leaders have tried to boost hiring through higher wages and even bonuses, but staffing shortages continue. The problem? Many business leaders want to return to the "old normal" but employees and candidates don't want "old normal." A new Deloitte study...
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Culture Leadership Charge, Episode 104 - "No one talks about Bruno."
About that title? We'll get to Bruno in a minute. The foundational principle of our book, Good Comes First, is that today's leaders must make RESPECT as important as RESULTS, every day. My colleague and co-author, Mark Babbitt, and I were keynoting a conference. In our presentation, we share this...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Episode 103: Find Your Culture "Sweet Spot"
Most of you know me as a speaker, writer, and consultant. Some of you know that I'm a working musician on the side. I grew up in California in the '50's and '60's. I watched great artists playing cool guitars - and I fell in love with stringed instruments. I've been collecting them since college....
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Culture Leadership Charge - Define & Align to Servant Purpose
In our new book, Good Comes First, co-author Mark Babbitt and I propose four culture cornerstones that are the foundation of an uncompromising work culture. These cornerstones help align people and practices to your ideal work culture. Our first cornerstone, "Live Our Servant Purpose," enables...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Preconceived Notions May Steer You Wrong
Business leaders today have a lot on their minds – and on their plates. They juggle hiring challenges. Mask mandates. Retaining talented players. Vaccine guidelines. Supply chain issues. Generating revenue. All these tasks are demanding, requiring attention and intention every minute. Yes, these...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Learning from a Chiropractor
I'm old. Over the years, back and neck pain caused me to hold my neck & shoulders & back very tightly – so moving wouldn't hurt. Those tight muscles learned to be inflexible and immovable – so I wouldn't hurt. Muscles are incredibly powerful. If they learn to be inflexible and immovable, they act...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Leaders, Here's Your 2022 Call to Action
I'm reflecting on an anniversary this month. Twenty-eight years ago this month I had a heart attack. It was not how I planned to spend the day. Thanks to exceptional health professionals, dedicated family, and the grace of God, I survived. Like many others who have experienced a significant…
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Culture Leadership Charge - Hiring Issues? Do these 3 things to boost retention.
If you're trying to hire staff right now, you're not having fun. The US Federal Reserve Bank in September estimated that the average time required to fill an open job rose from 20 days to 50 days over the previous four months. And a new global McKinsey study found that 40% of respondents are...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Respect Must Come First
Years ago, a friend received some brilliant leadership advice from a mentor. The mentor said, "How you treat people today becomes conversation around their dinner table tonight." Today, it's not just dinner table conversations that leaders need to be aware of. It's Glassdoor.com and social media...
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Good Comes First - Leaders Model the Culture They Want
Today's video features Good Comes First book co-authors Mark Babbitt and yours truly discussing a core foundation of a purposeful, positive, productive work culture. Here's an excerpt. Mark: "I often say, Chris, that most of what I learned about leadership was on the baseball field as a coach for...
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Good Comes First - Make Values Measurable AND Socially Relevant
Today's podcast features Good Comes First book co-authors Mark Babbitt and Chris Edmonds discussing a core foundation of uncompromising work cultures - making values measurable AND socially relevant. Here's an excerpt. Chris: "What I find when I, you and I both experienced that as we work with...
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Good Comes First - Teaching leaders to make respect as important as results
Today's video features Good Comes First book co-authors Mark Babbitt and yours truly discussing what it takes to build and sustain an uncompromising work culture. Here's an excerpt. Chris: Once leaders get to a stage where they realize "This is not sustainable. We're not going to be able to…
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Good Comes First - Why attrition can be your friend during culture refinement
Today's video features Good Comes First book co-authors Mark Babbitt and Chris Edmonds discussing what it takes to build and sustain an uncompromising work culture. Here's an excerpt. Mark: Chris, in the book we talk about not just what it takes for leaders to become change champions, but how to...
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Good Comes First - There's no labor shortage. There's a respect shortage.
Today's video features Good Comes First book co-authors Mark Babbitt and Chris Edmonds (yours truly) discussing what it takes to build and sustain an uncompromising work culture. Here's an excerpt. Mark: "Let's talk about this 'old normal, new normal.' What we're doing with Good Comes First is...
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Good Comes First - Why focus on work culture now?
Today's video features Good Comes First book co-authors Mark Babbitt and me discussing what it takes to build and sustain an uncompromising work culture. Here's an excerpt. Mark: Chris, a question I get often is not so much why this book, but why now? We're coming out of this strange phase of...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Good Comes First
I'm grateful to tell you about my upcoming book, Good Comes First. Written with the amazing Mark Babbitt, Good Comes First is a practical, step-by-step guide to creating a work culture that's better for morale and for your bottom line. For decades, business leaders around the globe have spent...
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Culture Leadership Charge - The one lever great leaders rely upon
If you've been following my thinking over the past 20+ years, you know I coach senior leaders to define their desired culture, align their desired culture, and refine their desired culture. Defining your desired culture is the easy part. Aligning and refining demands that leaders lean on the...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Build a Good Comes First Work Culture
For decades, talented people have tolerated old-school leaders that put results before respect. Now is the time for leaders to create a work culture where good comes first for every employee—in every interaction – and where the doing of good leads directly to improved productivity, better…
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Culture Leadership Charge - 3 Significant Costs of a Disrespectful Work Culture
What is your stress level? What are your employees' stress levels? The pandemic has placed tremendous burdens on every human—and every company – on the planet. Closed businesses and lost jobs have taken a significant toll on the economy and human wellbeing. Stress is at an all-time high. A 2020...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Measure, Monitor, & Reward RESPECT
You measure results religiously. How often do you measure how well you and your company's formal leaders treat others in your work culture? Just as you measure progress towards desired results regularly, you must measure progress towards desired respect regularly. You must gather objective…
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Culture Leadership Charge - Diversity, Inclusion, and Voting
The 2020 election presents a constitutional opportunity for the USA. Voter turnout - about 65% as of today's counts - is the highest it's been here in over 100 years! And - that high mark here falls short of the voter participation in other developed countries like Belgium (87% in 2014), Sweden...
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Culture Leadership Charge - "What Do You Do?"
Us Westerners have the unfortunate tendency to link our identity to what we do for a living. "I'm a plumber," one says, or "I'm a teacher," another says. When someone asks me what I do – often on an airplane – I might answer, "I'm a speaker," or "I'm an author," or "I'm an executive consultant."...
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Culture Leadership Charge - A Crisis of Culture
In July 2020, results of an investigation reveal multiple current and former employees of The Ellen Degeneres Show reporting racism, bullying, sexual harassment, and intimidation by executive producers and other senior staff. Her show is deep in a crisis of culture. Ellen herself was not the…
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Culture Leadership Charge - Validate Employee Contributions
How often do you receive praise or recognition at work? We've had bosses that expressed gratitude well and bosses that never did it. To understand the impact of expressed gratitude, let's look at three common types: praise, recognition, and validation. By praise, I mean the communication of...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Rise Up
This is an important point in time for our country's republic. Society is bent, if not broken. George Floyd's death has generated international protests - most of them peaceful, calling for an end to racial bias and discrimination from police. Society has a bigger problem, I believe - and the…
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Culture Leadership Charge - Leadership Audit
We're living in unprecedented times. With non-essential businesses closed and many people working from home, the world of work looks very different than it did three months ago. The demands on folks working from home are extensive. Besides experiencing anxiety about the well-being of their…
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Culture Leadership Charge - Instead of Crisis Planning, do this
New data coming out of Wuhan is showing that Covid-19 may be far deadlier than originally thought. Moreover, none of us knows what our economy will look like after the virus has run its course (or, more optimistically, after a vaccine is implemented.) The big, glaring takeaway? As leaders, we can...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Build a Stress-Purging Culture
Does your work culture amp up stress – or does it purge stress? Stress is an emotion that's created by limbo. If team members don't know answers to questions like, "What should I do?" or "What if x, y, or z happens?", they experience greater stress. Greater stress means they can't act. They can't...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Make Culture Change Stick
What is your company's servant purpose – its present day "reason for being"? Most companies do not go to the length required to formalize their servant purpose and then communicate frequently to team members how their work contributes to that higher purpose. Recent research from Gallup notes that...
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Culture Leadership Charge - The Service Advantage
To what degree does your organization demonstrate service to others? As part of my consulting work with senior leadership teams, I help them define their company's servant purpose - a concise statement of what their company does, for whom, and "to what end." The "to what end" piece is critical...
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Culture Leadership Charge - The Cost of Rudeness
To what degree might rudeness impact team performance - and team member performance - in your workplace? Rudeness and incivility is rampant in our organizations. A 2013 study featured in the Harvard Business Review found that 98% of employees reported experiencing incivility at work by bosses and...
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Culture Leadership Charge - A Great Place to Work
Here's a hypothetical situation. One of your good friend's oldest child is looking for a new job. This friend tells you that his daughter is considering applying to a number of organizations, including your company. The friend asks you a vital question: "Is your company a great place to work?"…
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Culture Leadership Charge - The Gender Happiness Gap
Does your workplace treat men differently than women? Your initial reaction might be, "My company pays women less than men." Pay inequity is an issue that is gaining attention, though too few organizations are taking aggressive steps to solve that gap. Our challenge is that women experience…
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Culture Leadership Charge - Do What GREAT Partners Do
Are you a great partner, at work and in life, to those around you? Relationships with our work peers, friends, family, neighbors, or even strangers are not always healthy. Yet numerous research studies provide indisputable evidence that positive relationships lead to greater well-being and longer...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Refine Your Desired Culture
I am often asked about my three-phase culture refinement process. Today I'll share how the third phase – "refine" – ensures the effective evolution of your purposeful, positive, productive work culture. My approach is founded on this hard fact – senior leaders must drive and champion their...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Align Your Desired Culture
I am often asked about my three-phase culture refinement process. Today I'll share how the second phase – "align" – creates commitment for your purposeful, positive, productive work culture. My approach is founded on this hard fact – senior leaders must drive and champion their organization's...
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Culture Leadership Charge, Episode 72 - Define Your Desired Culture
I am often asked about my three-phase culture refinement process. Today I'll share how the first phase – the "define" stage – creates a foundation for your purposeful, positive, productive work culture. My approach is founded on this hard fact – senior leaders must drive and champion their...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Have a culture problem? Don't hesitate to fix it.
When leaders find undeniable data that their work culture is bent or broken, they must address the problem immediately. In recent days, two highly-regarded work cultures have been faced with such undeniable data. In one case, 16 US Marines were arrested on their Southern California base, on...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Learn Your Real Culture
How healthy is your work culture? The reality is that senior leaders can't improve their work culture unless they understand the real condition of their current work culture. Here are three ways to solve that problem. First, ask. This is an informal way of gathering information about cultural...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Create an Inclusive Culture
Creating an inclusive culture requires shifts in thinking, recruiting, hiring, and operating. Our biases are not obvious to us – yet these biases inhibit the creation of truly diverse and productive work cultures. I'm always looking for unique, healthy work cultures. I learned about Five Points...
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Culture Leadership Charge - The Leader's Most Powerful Tool
The leader's most powerful tool boils down to two compelling words: "Thank you." Before you dismiss this idea, let's look at the science behind the expression of gratitude – in our homes, schools, communities, and workplaces. Author, professor, and scientist Robert Emmons shares research that…
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Culture Leadership Charge - "In Tune" with the Employee Experience
How do leaders in your organization keep their "fingers on the pulse" of the employee experience? To stay in tune with employee perceptions and with the employee experience, leaders must make "being attuned" a priority. They must invest time and energy regularly to ask, learn, and modify. First,...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Work Culture is in the Leader's Hands
I am working on my next book, which I'm writing with the brilliant Mark Babbitt. It's in the proposal stage and you'll hear much more about our book in the months to come. In our research and interviews, two consistent themes are apparent: * first, the failure of leaders to improve employee...
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Culture Leadership Charge - A Better Way to Build a Team
How many of you have done team building activities with work groups? We've all done events like bowling or tower building or trust falls. How often, though, have those activities translated into sustained healthier work relationships? Not very often. Does that mean team building is a worthless...
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Culture Leadership Charge - Insights from a Healthy Work Culture
I'm fascinated to learn how companies with purposeful, positive, productive work cultures make that happen – and make sure it keeps happening every day. We got a wonderful "behind the scenes" look recently at one of Glassdoor's 2019 Employee's Choice Best Places to Work – Trader Joe's. Last…
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Culture Leadership Charge - Protect Your Integrity
There are no small lies. Every lie erodes your integrity. In this episode, Chris shares a story about being asked to lie – by his boss – and how he handled that challenging scenario. This is episode sixty-three of Chris' Culture Leadership Charge video & podcast series. In these concise episodes,...
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Culture Leadership Charge, Episode 62 - The Recognition Factor
Here is episode sixty-two of S. Chris Edmonds' Culture Leadership Charge video series. In these concise videos, Chris presents the best practices for creating and maintaining a purposeful, positive, productive culture - at work, at home, and in your community. In this episode, Chris examines...
About this show
Corporate culture geek S. Chris Edmonds helps leaders create purposeful, positive, productive work environments with an organizational constitution.
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S. Chris Edmonds
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