A round-up of the best research on executive presence, communication, authenticity, listening, and employee engagement for nonprofits.

1. Communication leadership and
values-centered culture building
Using executive presence, listening, sensitivity,
and employee-centered relationship building for crucial conversations
Jacqueline Lambiase | TCU | May 17, 2019 | j.lambiase@tcu.edu

2. 1984 to present
• Attended UNT, graduated in 1984.
• Worked as a journalist in Texas and as
a spokesperson for an electric utility
in Maryland (+ volunteer for United
Way). Moved back to Texas.
• Had two daughters, while attending
UNT and UT Arlington.
• Taught at UNT and now on faculty at
TCU, since 2009.
• Like to wear cat shirts when least
expected.

3. Overview of the workshop
• Challenges that we face in our
workplace, first step to insights.
• Executive presence,
communication leadership,
and relationship building,
especially inside the organization.
• Listening and establishing strong
internal communication protocols.
• Building a solid communication
culture for success; setting
priorities for building this culture.
• Crucial conversations and
challenging communication;
interpersonal conflict
communication.
• Brainstorm: “How might we ….”
and next steps.

4. Insights & design thinking
Let’s describe some challenges of internal communication, workplace culture,
relationship building, team building, and crucial conversations.

5. No judgment zone! List everything.
• Internal communication
• Workplace culture
• Crucial conversations
• Relationship-building
• Team-building
Choose one area| Compile list of challenges & prioritize

6. Debrief

7. What is executive presence?
Insight | Style + substance + character = Executive Presence
Ability of a leader to engage, align, inspire, and move people to act (Bates, 2016)

8. Three domains
• Character: Our identity as seen through our actions and leadership,
which inspires others’ trust in us.
• Style: Outward patterns of communication (not so much about
appearance) that show energy and passion: 1.) for excellence, 2.) for
getting things done, and 3.) for owning outcomes.
• Substance: Mature leadership with cultivated qualities that help us
chart a course and inspire optimism, so that we can help ourselves
and others find meaning in the work we do.
Source: “All the Leader You Can Be,” 2016.

9. 15 qualities of executive presence (Bates, 2016)
• Character: authenticity, integrity, concern, restraint, humility
• Substance: practical wisdom, confidence, composure, resonance,
vision
• Style: appearance, intentionality, interactivity, inclusiveness,
assertiveness

10. Worksheet definitions
Please read and reflect | Next, let’s discuss definitions and qualities

11. Next worksheet
When have you recently deployed three of these 15 facets of behavior?
Choose one for each of the three areas.

12. Debrief

13. What connections from executive
presence can we make to
communication leadership?

14. Listening
If I could add one quality to the executive presence inventory, if would be this one.

15. Listening = Most overlooked leadership skill
• Both people and organizations
are bad at listening.
• Research shows us that the
average person listens with only
25% efficiency.
• Yet, a study of a large hospital
showed that listening explained
40% of the variance in
perceptions of leadership.
(Scott Williams, Wright State University)

16. From managing to cultivation
• From information push and persuasion (listen to me and then think
like I do) …
• To something better—let’s listen to one another, and then think and
work together to exchange and collaborate.

17. Empathetic listening
• Rogerian discussion

18. Side convo
There is no “them.” There is only “us.” (Mindset: No dividing practices.)

19. How workplace behavior can support
empathetic listening or “we” spaces
• Cognition of common goals;
• Helping others overcome alienation;
• Helping others find security through relations with others;
• Becoming involved in projects advocating community progress;
• Promoting personal friendships;
• Advocating enjoyment of leisure and life.
(SOURCE: Kruckeberg & Starck, 1988; Valentini, Kruckeberg & Starck, 2012)

20. Listening is one feature of responsive leadership
Responsiveness, expressed through
• Empathy;
• Friendliness;
• Compassion;
• Listening; and
• A focus on relational aspect of daily communication.
• It may require you and others to lay down control and power.

21. What does a positive
communication culture sound
and feel like?
Turn and talk

22. Debrief
Then, break.

23. Communication culture is connected
closely with the
employee experience
Let’s begin to make connections between the employee experience and the
organizational experience and culture.

24. IBM calls these types of
attributes a “best-in-class”
employee experience
Employee needs + mission = ability to provide best-in-class stakeholder experience

25. IBM found that its employees ….
• Want to be inspired.
• They want to work with people they admire and respect.
• They want to have fun.
• They want to be whole, authentic people.
• They care about inclusion.
• They care about bringing their whole selves to work
everyday.
(Howard, B., 2018, April 29. Forbes.com. “Michelle Peluso on the need to ‘listen as much as speak,’ in storytelling, plus the
future of marketing.”)

26. They want this.

27. Positive emotional culture matters
• It leads to organizational effectiveness.
• It influences employee supportive behaviors.
• It increases organizational citizenship behavior, meaning employees
go beyond the core job obligations and voluntarily act in such a way
that promotes effective functioning (Organ, 1988).
• It encourages employee advocacy, which is also extra-role behavior
outside of the workplace.

28. Listening and caring are part of
connective culture and authentic
communication
Key takeaway

29. Background questions
• Have social media raised the stakes of internal organizational culture,
since employee actions and opinions about their employer are more
visible to others?
• Have the blurred lines between people’s personal and work lives also
raised the stakes for organizations to address work/life emotion and
connections?
• How can communication as listening, plus executive presence, be
used to increase functionality and enhance internal work culture?

30. What else could be boosted by
the collaboration required to
build an excellent work culture?
Key question

31. Boost
for connection
• Michael Stallard would
say connection among
employees means
everything to an
organization. For him,
healthy knowledge flow—
connection—is essential
to an organization’s
overall health, and the
health of the people
working there.
• Source: “Fired Up or
Burnt Out,” 2007

32. What does good internal communication look
like? Here are some key components:
• Trust
• Credibility
• Openness
• Relationships
• Reciprocity
• Network symmetry
• Horizontal communication
• Feedback
• Adequacy of information
• Employee-centered style
• Tolerance for disagreement
• Negotiation
• Source: J. Grunig, 1992

33. Positive culture uses social skills to build trust
• Relational skills such as responsiveness and listening, plus …
• Communication skills used with warmth and sincerity.
• It takes the combination of the 15 skills or facets of behavior from
executive presence.

34. Positive culture uses supervisors as key
communicators.
• Associated with positive employee outcomes, such as employee
engagement, employee-organization relationships, and employee
satisfaction (Men, 2014).
• Can lead to megaphoning by employees (their external talk), and
scouting (bringing info to the organization); this is a form of employee
advocacy.
• Can lead to employee defense of organization.

35. Culture is a kind of
communication, right?
This is a rhetorical question ;-)

36. What are your outbound
channels to employees?
This is a real question.

37. What are your inbound channels?

38. How might we enhance inbound
channels for communication from
our employees?
Design thinking | Turn and talk

39. Debrief
Channels used

40. Positive communication culture challenges
norms of traditional leadership
• Some may view a role as talking about, listening to, and managing
employee emotions as unprofessional or beyond the scope of duty
(Barsade & O’Neill, 2016).
• Yet, this may be a vital task and key element of effective leadership.

41. Positive communication culture can be heard
in the words and tone we use
• “Engineering and line personnel meetings are meaningful to our
organization.”
• “We together are building it ugly, testing the system, and then
tweaking it.”
• “Labor relations are important because we all are part of the
American Airlines family.”
• “United Way supports Boys & Girls Clubs, and that make our
community stronger for all of us.”
• “Our employees design new solutions everyday, to help us provide
better services.”

42. Six ways
to increase human value in an organization
• Make a human connection with as many people as possible.
• Treat and speak to employees as partners.
• Help employees find the right role.
• Educate, inform, and listen to employees.
• Decentralize decision-making when possible.
• Recognize the human need for work/life balance.

43. How might we think differently about
our words and tone to create space
for empathy and inclusion?
Turn/Talk: How might we explore the language you use to establish “we” culture?

44. Debrief
Content of messages

45. How might we establish strong
internal communication protocols
for our organization?
What are next steps? How might your team set priorities for building this culture?

46. Break

47. Stakeholder experience

48. Who is a typical
employee handling
stakeholders for
your organization?

49. How do you inboard new
employees? What is average
length of service? Age?

50. Let’s quickly sketch inbound and
outbound channels for your
stakeholders.
Group work

51. Debrief

52. How might we improve training
and communication for our
employees?
What are next steps?

53. What are your stories of top-rated service?

54. How might we recognize and
support employees in new ways?
Think, pair, share

55. Difficult conversations
Creating the conditions of dialogue

56. Examples
• Talking to a coworker who behaves offensively
• Giving your boss feedback about her or his behavior
• Approaching a colleague who is breaking his or her own safety policies
• Critiquing a colleague’s work
• Talking to a team member who isn’t keeping commitments
• Confronting someone about substance abuse
• Talking to a colleague who is hoarding information
• Giving an unfavorable performance review
• Talking to a coworker about a personal hygiene problem

57. Employees who speak up
• Respond five times faster to financial downturns;
• Are two-thirds more likely to avoid injury and death due to unsafe
conditions;
• Save more than $1,500 and an eight-hour workday for every crucial
conversation employees hold rather than avoid;
• Increase trust and reduce transactions costs in virtual work teams;
• Influence change in colleagues who are bullying, conniving, dishonest,
or incompetent. (In a survey of 1,000 people, 93% said people like
this were almost “untouchable,” staying in their positions four years
or longer without being held accountable.)

58. Why dialogue is important
These authors found that key performance indicators were dependent on
dialogue, and that silence can
• doom projects,
• hurt cross-functional teams and the people those teams serve, and
• cause accidents and even death.
SOURCE | Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when the Stakes are High, by Patterson, Grenny,
McMillan, & Switzler (2012).

59. Here are your choices
• We can avoid talking (silence, sarcasm, joking, bullying, passive
aggression, gossip, backstabbing). This has negative consequences to
the organization and relationships.
• We can talk, but do it badly. Ditto above.
• We can talk, and do it well. This has positive consequences to the
organization and relationships.
• Why do we choose the first two, and rarely the third action?

60. To start, remember this: Me first, us second
• Work on yourself first (“me” first, since that is all you can control).
• Work on your relationships with colleagues, the “us,” next.

61. Healthy dialogue means
• We are all engaged in a “pool of shared meaning” and we have a
shared or mutual purpose.
• We feel safe.
• We don’t fall for a “fool’s choice,” either I speak the truth and break
the peace, or I hide what I really think. There is a third way …

62. One strategy that works
• Try “I don’t want” and “I do want” statements
• I don’t want to have a strained conversation with you.
• I do want to talk about what happened yesterday, because I care
about you and about our client/other stakeholder. I do want this to be
a safe space to talk about what happened, and then together, we can
work on solutions so that it doesn’t happen again.

63. Another example
• I don’t want to make this about winners and losers.
• I do want to be sure we can complete this project on time. Let’s make
sure that whatever we do, we don’t drive a wedge in our working
relationship.

64. Another strategy: awareness of context
• Be aware of whether a conversation is safe, or feeling unsafe for the
other person.
• Be aware of when a conversation turns into a crucial conversation.

65. This is hard as $#%@
• This method asks that you recode silence/hurtful words from another
person, and see it instead as a sign that a person is feeling unsafe.
• This method asks that you fight your own tendencies to respond in
kind.
• This method asks that you undo years of practice of fight or flight
(really thousands of years of human behavior).

66. Additional resources
• crucialconversations.com/exclusive
• vitalsmarts.com/research

67. Leaders get organizational success wrong
• It is not about policies, structures, supervision.
• It is about employee experiences, well-being, and organizational
culture that is open to dialogue.
• Accountability matters, and dialogue makes that easier to track,
because everyone can agree on and negotiate the work to be done.

68. How might we think about a
group that gets together to talk
about a vision for the future?
How might we think about a group that includes members from across the
organization?

69. Exit ticket