Karin Hurt is a former Verizon Wireless executive, an accomplished author, and an international keynote speaker. She has over 20 years of experience in customer service, sales, and human resources. She inspires transformational change around the world through her leadership training and consulting firm, Let's Grow Leaders, of which she is the CEO and co-founder. Her newest book, Courageous Cultures, is a practical manual to building an open environment in which ideas are cultivated at every level in an organization. She joins Marcel Schwantes to discuss her work.Many leaders believe that they have an open environment where their employees can speak up, feel heard and understood. They are shocked when they learn employees are holding back. [1:13]Karin shares that getting consistent critique has ensured that her book is thorough and practical. [6:06]According to Karin, 49% of people said they don’t share their ideas because no one asks; 50% don’t because they don’t believe anything would come out of it; and 40% said they lack confidence to share an idea. The number one reason why employees don’t share ideas, the research reveals, is that they don’t believe they would get the credit. [12:27]In the long run, the companies that will have high retention and creativity are those who are connecting humanly and empathetically during the current global crisis. [16:30]The three most toxic behaviors some leaders participate in that are being tolerated and even rewarded are shaming, blaming, and intimidation. These behaviors typically occur in dehumanizing cultures of fear, modeled from the top down. [21:30]Karin offers advice for leaders who want to cultivate courageous cultures. Leaders should use tools provided in the book to proactively ask people for ideas, then respond to those ideas with feedback and gratitude, and suggest another area where new ideas are needed. It doesn’t have to be a grand cultural change strategy, Karin points out. Focus first on making things practical, and then you can move on to the strategy. [27:59]Being vulnerable and asking for suggestions from new employees on how to improve allows for trust to be built, because they see you are willing to let your guard down and actually ask for help instead of just pushing your authority down on them and imposing rigid policies and procedures. [32:11]ResourcesKarin Hurt on LinkedIn | TwitterLetsGrowLeaders.comCourageous Cultures by Karin Hurt and David Dye MarcelSchwantes.comMarcel Schwantes on LinkedIn