Chester Elton, one of the most influential voices in leadership and culture today, # tells us what he learned about building a high-performance culture from writing his best-selling book, All In. Do You Believe that Your Work Matters?
By Marshall Goldsmith
In high-performing cultures, there is one element that stands out as incredibly important to creating this type of culture. What do you think it is? It’s believing your work matters and that you make a difference.
My great friend, Chester Elton, #1 bestselling author of the books, The Carrot Principle and The Best Team Wins and one of the most influential voices in leadership and culture today tells us what he learned about building a high-performance culture from writing his best-selling book, All In.
Below is an excerpt from our interview.
Marshall: I am here with my wonderful friend, Chester Elton. Chester, one of the world's great thinkers in the area of leadership, culture; recognized by Global Gurus as one of the top voices in the world today on these subject, and five-time New York Times best-selling author.
Chester, I am looking at one of your best-selling books right now called All In: How the Best Manager Create a Culture of Belief and Drive Big Results. Talk to me about belief.
Chester: Sure Marshall. You see, it was interesting when we were working on the book, because we looked at the elements of high-performance cultures. What we came down to is a fairly simple definition. People who work in high-performing cultures believe that what they do matters and that they make a difference.
They know what they what they do, how it’s done, they know why it’s done and most importantly, they believe that what they do will make a difference. No matter where they are in the organization, they can connect what they do to helping make the world a better place.
Marshall: I love this. My daughter, Dr. Kelly Goldsmith, a professor at Vanderbilt, and I have done a lot of research to show the importance of two things: 1) loving what you do and 2) it is meaningful to you. The results matter. That's exactly what you said. What I love about what you're doing is it’s great for the company and even better for the human beings.
Chester: It is – it’s good for you, good for the country, good for your community, and one of my favorite data points is when I'm happy and engaged at work and I'm doing meaningful work, I'm 150% more likely to be happy in my personal life, so one of the most gratifying parts of our work is this is great strategy. It's great data to create great workplaces, but boy, it sure works in your personal life, too. You believe your family matters, that the people around you are important, that you make a difference, and you remember to say thank you.
Marshall: Yes! Thank you, Chester.
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