My wife, Susan is brilliant! I definitely “out kicked my coverage!” She’s a voracious reader and researcher. If you have an unidentified rash (for the record I haven’t had one), she’s going to get online and put Google through its paces until she finds 4-5 possible solutions. She then digs deeper and ultimately finds the best remedy for the rash.

Susan has a background in Psychology with a Masters in Counseling Education. She started in clinical, then decided to utilize her expertise in the corporate world; helping business leaders maximize their effectiveness. Her unique life experience and skill set makes her one of the very best in this role.  Of course I’m biased.  You can ask those she’s counseled and they’ll tell you something similar. She’s helped so many people navigate their way in this wild,crazy, ever-changing world we live in.

I love great quotes. She came up with one of my favorites! “You hire for the position and the whole person comes to work.”

When I am presenting to a group, my desire is to engage the participants at the deepest level possible. I’m constantly focused on improving this skill. In these situations I try to keep another quote top of mind… “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” (Zig Ziglar) The information is important; the people you are sharing it with are just more important.

As it relates to work I believe leaders tend to be superficial in their approach. Typically they do their best to care about the person however they seem more likely to care about the worker. They think it’s okay to separate the two. In actuality that’s impossible. They want to separate the personal from the professional because it can get messy. I understand these leaders are often victimized by their environment. They are dealing with unrealistic demands and some don’t want to spend the time dealing with employees on a more personal level.

When a leader’s mindset is such, it becomes a vicious cycle. The employee feels disengaged and ultimately looks for another job. They leave and the leader has to start over with a new employee.

Alert the media and the business leaders across America, the results are in! The survey says… engaged workers are more productive and they stay longer! It’s undeniable. And that’s not all. It’s a proven fact – there’s a direct correlation between high engagement scores and high profitability!

It’s time for leaders to understand that business success has everything to do with their willingness to engage with their direct reports on a deeper level. It’s time for them to genuinely care about the individual’s personal life in equal proportion to their job performance. The two have been, and always will be, inextricably linked.