These Three Things: How An Understanding of Basic Human Needs Can Transform Your Leadership.

By Paul Heagen

We make leading people way too difficult. We make culture ever harder.

Most executives today agree with the connection between a great culture and great perfornance. The consulting world is awash with solutions and methods. There are myriad assessments that boast of being the key that will turn the lock of the mystery of what motivates peo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Defining Moments Consulting
• Release date: Mar 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9780578635958

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CONTENTS

Chapter One: What’s at stake

Chapter Two: Beginning at the beginning

Chapter Three: What’s love (and pride and safety) got to do with it?

Chapter Four: Pride

Chapter Five: Safety

Chapter Six: Love

Chapter Seven: The Challenge

Chapter Eight: How should we then lead?

Author Bio

Copyright © 2020 by Paul Heagen | Defining Moments Consulting

All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America by Defining Moments Publishing. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: This publication is designed for entertainment purposes only. It is sold with the understanding that neither the author nor the publisher is engagedt in rendering legal, investment, accounting or other professional services. While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. Neither publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, personal, or other damages.

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FIRST EDITION

The Secret Has Been

There All Along . . .

Chapter One

What’s at stake

We make leading people way too difficult. We make culture even harder.

I’ve lost count of how many of my clients have spoken—wistfully or determinedly—about the need to transform their culture. The consulting world is awash with solutions and methods. There are myriad assessments that boast of being the key that will turn the mysterious lock of what motivates people, what propels them to great performance, what coalesces to forge a culture where people cannot wait to grow and learn and achieve. Some assessments are impressively insightful and practical; other are little more than parlor games.

We keep thinking there is something out there that will crack the code.

Maybe it’s time to look inside.

We make it complicated. We can categorize employees as production or field workers, engineers, managers, accountants, technologist, office staff, all with their own distinct characteristics that demand complex approaches to culture and leadership.

Bewildering.

What we can miss is that they are people, and people only really need a few things as people—as human beings—to respond to leadership and do great things.

Oh, you mean our values? Yes, we have a values statement.

So many companies have that values statement framed on a wall or on desk plaques, and those statements are useful. If nothing else, the exercise of coming up with them invites good discussions and focus on how the business wants to conduct itself inside and out. While most these efforts read about the same (integrity, honesty, quality, excellence) what they also have in common is that they are principled, aspirational statements about the business, but do they speak to the heart of each person? What makes people do great work? What makes people devote their heart and soul and mind to the mission of the enterprise? What makes them want to stretch and venture to new levels of capability and accomplishment? Do they harken to a list of values in the moment to unearth that extra measure of passion, or is there something else in play?

Frankly, I have seen much the same values statements across a wide range of companies over the years. At the same time, I have seen a notable, even striking, difference in the culture of each, the performance of their people, the energy and passion that they have toward greatness. Same values statement on the wall, but a totally different vibe among the people working there. Why is that?

While it has been wrongly attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, we are familiar with the statement: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Driving to simplify something as sophisticated as understanding human performance does not always sate the ego. It’s can’t be that easy. No, it’s not. I never said getting to simplicity is easy; it is damn hard most of the time. Nonetheless, I believe there is a simplicity around this quest that has been there all along.

That’s what this book is about—three basic things that go back to our childhood and never really leave us, no matter our age or station in life.

Drawing the best out of people is complicated only because we don’t believe or trust that it’s that simple. This book might change your mind.

And change your whole notion of great leadership.

Chapter Two

Beginning at the beginning

My earliest childhood memory was when I was three, maybe four years old.

I was sitting cross-legged along with my sister on a braided oval rug in the living room of my parents’ modest, first home in New Jersey. My parents were on the couch to my left. We were all facing the wooden cabinet of the black-and-white Philco television in the corner. It was a Sunday evening ritual familiar to what seemed like nearly