Your people are your sacred ground

As former Campbell’s Soup CEO Doug Conant aptly pointed out years ago, “To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace”.

Effective leaders don’t require training in this, because for them “investing in their people” is a no brainer, it is just part of their DNA. The results are REAL AND MEASURABLE. ( I could cite scores of stats here on increased productivity, employee engagement and retention, ROI etc etc, but they are widely known.)

The icing on the cake however ... is the pride in knowing that serving your people is a privilege. Even after much time has passed, and you are no longer their “boss”, they still call you, they still reach out, they still want your career advice, they still want to tell you about big life events — divorce, babies, a new home — whatever. Leadership for me, is a life long privilege and I wouldn’t want it any other way.