BLOGS & RESOURCES
Higher Purpose Podcast 93: Bringing HumansFirst Back to the Workplace with Mike Vacanti
How can you make a tangible HumansFirst impact on your business? Returning to the podcast is Mike Vacanti, founder of the HumansFirst Club. We first met Mike and the HumansFirst Club 16 episodes ago, and today we’re talking about what’s new with the HumansFirst Club, what’s next for them, and how to bring these insights and learnings back to your business where the rubber meets the road.
The HumansFirst Club
We’re at an inflection point in business. People aren’t being fulfilled, engagement is low, and mental and physical health ramifications are challenging people and businesses to find their growth rhythm. The old system doesn’t work.
HumansFirst is about actively bringing more humanity into the workplace to elevate people, help them mentally and physically heal, and then advance and evolve the workplace. And HumansFirst is not just about work — it spills into all areas of life, because we bring all areas of life into our work.
At HumansFirst Club Events
Each event is about the participants, so there is no “prepackaged roadshow” that the HumansFirst Club takes on tour. Volunteers come in to share and infuse ideas, topics, and ways forward, and that gets the juices flowing so people can participate. And it’s that participation from the people in the room that makes each event unique.
But though the events aren’t designed the same way every time, some common themes do emerge about what’s broken and what can be repaired, which tells us that experiences are very similar across the country.
On the horizon
The Playground is launching May 21, aligned with a live event taking place in Charlotte, to better serve an audience that is fast becoming global. It’s a virtual place with opportunities for people to come together and continue to experiment and meet other light-hearted people, and start to create what the future looks like.
As for the HumansFirst Club meetings, they will continue, but based on the feedback, people are looking to go deeper on the topics. Extended time will be important, as well as an opportunity to get a larger group of people together, so it may evolve into a one-day event with more time, scope, and scale. Less frequent events but bigger and more engaging.
Where the rubber meets the road
How can you bring the takeaways from the HumansFirst Club experience back to your organization and your daily work life? That’s where it feels like there is a barrier, or no entry point. That’s why Winning Conversations was designed.
This program focuses on open dialogue, very much like during the HumansFirst Club events, and teaches businesses how to have these structured conversations to unleash the brilliance that’s already in your organization. Because it’s interactive and engaging, it drives adoption, accelerates initiatives, and ties multiple initiatives across your company together.
Do we know what’s going on? Do we know what’s going to happen during the day? How do all the pieces fit together? Winning Conversations helps pull all of that into alignment, and builds this whole process into your organizational rhythms. It’s a very different approach to a highly believed and known problem.
When we get people together, stretch them out of their comfort zones, and align to the reality that’s going on, all of a sudden you’ll see the company values come through, the vision becomes clear, and the people attach themselves to it.
We love being busy, but now we can be purposeful. Given the opportunity, people will amaze you.
Resources for Mike Vacanti: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Website | HumansFirst Club
Other resources: X-Factor Consulting | Episode 77: Putting Humans First with Mike Vacanti
Higher Purpose Podcast Episode 86: Being a Brave Leader with Kimberly Davis
What does it mean to be a brave leader? This is our 10th installment in our HumansFirst series of heart-to-heart discussions on what it means to live, love, lead, and work in a
Being your authentic self
For many, authenticity means “I get to be what I want to be and it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks.” But from a leadership perspective, it really does matter what people think and how they experience you. Authenticity is in the eye of the beholder, and the way Kimberly thinks of authenticity is: if we were seated together, would you experience this leader — from your lens — as someone who is genuine and worthy of your trust? Are they someone you can rely upon and believe in? Because that is what is going to allow them to lead and influence others.
How are you truly connecting with the human beings you’re trying to lead?
Leading in a humans first kind of way
Humans first is really about cultivating humanity in the workplace and bringing the whole person to work. So brave leadership is about bringing your best, most authentic and powerful self to every situation that you face, so that you can connect to the hearts of your team members, and be someone they don’t have to follow, but want to follow.
Reframing bravery
The traditional definition of bravery is to face and endure danger or pain. But you can’t work with that mindset. Kimberly reframes bravery as being her best, most authentic, and powerful self: the Kimberly she is when she is being respectful, responsible, and mindful, who pays attention to what other people need from her. It is stepping into your own power, that is, your ability to create change based on how you show up in the world.
We need leaders who are willing to take responsibility for the impact that they make in the situations that they face, and on the lives that they’re leading. We need leaders who are able to connect to the humanity in front of them.
Your best self
Your best self is you at your most positive and your most effective. It’s who you are when you’re at your very best — not who you’re told you should be. Your best self is your best you.
A caveat: many people will say “I’m just being myself” as an excuse for pretty crazy behavior. But if it’s hurtful to someone, it’s not your best self.
Qualities of a leader
One of the most important things a leader can do is see the possibilities in others that they may not even see in themselves. That bridges the confidence in their ability to do things greater than they didn’t even think they were capable of doing, and allows us to lift each other up and rise together.
You have the ability to have an impact in every situation that you face. So the question you should be asking yourself is: what impact do I want to have?
The comparison trap
When you feel yourself comparing yourself to others, remember: you matter simply because you’re you. Not because of anything you’ve done or achieved, but because of how you show up in the world and the impact that you make.
So take one small step toward having the impact that you want to have. One small action. Don’t think about the whole world, think about this moment right now. Who are you with? How can you make an impact on them? How do you want them to feel about their work, or what’s possible?
Heart and soul cannot be commoditized
You can mandate someone to come in to work, but you can’t mandate that they’re going to do it with excellence. You can’t mandate that they’re going to do it with care. You can’t mandate that they’re going to give it everything they’ve got. That’s something they get to choose, and if that’s something you want from people, you can’t treat it like it’s an exchange. It’s a gift they’re giving you, and they have to want to give it. What you can do is create the environment and the opportunity that allows them to flourish.
Want to grow as a HumansFirst leader and connect in meaningful conversations with other HumansFirst leaders?
Join me for the HumansFirst Book Club, where we do a deep dive into a book a month and often engage the authors in conversation.
Resources for Kimberly Davis
#BraveMoment Twitter Chat (8pm Central, Tuesday Nights)
Resources
The Abundance Loop: 8 Steps to Manifest Conscious Wealth (Amazon)
Higher Purpose Podcast Episode 85: How Leadership is Evolving with Sesil Pir
Is there a magic pill to make your team and organization work? Welcome to another installment in what it means to live, love,
Meaningful work for everyone
We all want to be seen. And in the context of organizations, we also want to be heard, cared about, and recognized for our contributions. We are all seeking a sense of belonging, and any workplace has the potential to be meaningful and to honor our humanity: who we are and what we bring to the table.
Finding out what’s important
People are often motivated by external factors like reward systems, upgrades, or even the opinions of others. But more frequently, people are motivated from within.
Sesil brings up the Self-Determination Theory, a broad framework for human motivation, and distills it into its three essential elements: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. There is a bit of self-interest there, but there’s also a need to be part of something meaningful and bigger than ourselves — and that’s where purpose comes in.
The best way for leaders to discover what’s important to the people in their organization? Ask.
Building an environment that allows people to flourish
Sesil helps organizations build environments of inspiration, meaning, safety, and joy, grounded in the core belief that all humans are worthy of dignity, clarity, well-being, and empathy.
There is no formula or magic pill or blueprint. No two organizations are the same, so the key is to translate or adapt these principles in ways that work best for each specific organization. You have to find what uniquely allows your people to show up and contribute. This must come from the organization itself. Sesil shares that they don’t touch anything as much as possible, they just show leaders the way, help them see things from a different perspective, and let them create.
The evolving workplace
Sesil shares a number of trends she’s observed that’s changing the landscape of the way we work now. Two things she highlights:
The world is changing so fast that 65% of our children entering primary school this year will ultimately end up working in jobs that don’t even exist today. How do we prepare them for that?
Leadership is evolving. The traditional notion of a leader is someone who does something well — but we see leadership now as having little to do with authority on a subject, and more to do with being a guide, putting up a mirror, and serving.
A message for you
Lean in and show up. There is a true contagiousness to our energy, mindset, and behavior. When we come in with a genuine smile on our face, consciously or unconsciously, the whole office will be smiling, too.
Final thoughts
When we say humans first, we are saying that we will always put people as the most critical factor in any decision-making process. Under no circumstances will people be secondary.
Cultural transformation is heavily influenced by design. The only time paradigms start to shift is if there is genuine intent and participation behind it.
Wanting to grow as a HumansFirst leader and connect in meaningful conversations with other HumansFirst leaders?
Join me for the HumansFirst Book Club, where we do a deep dive into a book a month and often engage the authors in conversation.
Resources
Get in touch with Kevin
kevin@higherpurposepodcast.com
(678) 744 5111
Higher Purpose Podcast Episode 84: Finding Real Happiness at Work with Brooke Erol
There’s job satisfaction, and then there’s the real happiness that comes from working at a company whose purpose aligns with yours AND where your job has meaning. We continue our HumansFirst series with Brooke Erol, the founder of Purposeful Business, and she shares how we can become more engaged at work, so we can become more engaged in life. Listen to the full episode:
Reflections from a HumansFirst Club meeting
What stays with Brooke the most are the conversations they have with their attendees. They opened up their hearts, called the group their ‘tribe,’ and immediately felt like this was a place they belonged to. Not only is this heartwarming to see, but it verifies what we already know: there’s a lot of hunger for ‘HumansFirst’ workplaces.
The hunger and the thirst for work to be HumansFirst
Our level of consciousness increases over time, and every time it does, the way we lead organizations changes. The concept of purpose is nothing new, but now we’re more aware of it and intrinsically yearn for it. We understand even more now that we can’t separate our work selves and our personal selves. The mindset from the industrial age definitely isn’t working anymore, especially with the new generation. Something’s gotta change.
Brooke’s path to HumansFirst
Brooke applied the formula given to all of us: good grades, good school, good job. She landed a great job at IBM and she was supposed to be happy. Everything looked great on paper. But in her early 20s, she began to question her purpose. Why was she working there? Was it really what she wanted to do for the rest of her life?
With the help of a coach, she realized her purpose was to make people happier at work, and now she has a tribe of amazing people she’s able to talk to about this every day.
On expressing her purpose today
Brooke runs Purposeful Business to help organizations reinvent themselves and grow based on a foundation of purpose. When that’s the case, profit becomes the byproduct, not the end goal, and everyone wins.
Making work more human is the answer — so what’s the problem?
Many workplaces don’t know how to motivate, attract, and retain the new generation. We now value different things than the generation before us, which leads to high turnover at a significant cost.
Many employers are also asking how they can get their employees more engaged. It’s an important question, too: when you’re disengaged at work, you’re disengaged from the rest of your life, and you bring that bad energy wherever you go.
The awakening
This movement is slowly but surely happening on a global scale. It’s getting much more attention than it used to. But many business leaders are trying to make people happy using the old tools: a good compensation plan, bonuses, free coffee, a ping pong table at work. Not that these aren’t great — they are! — but that’s not sustainable happiness.
Real happiness at work comes from more intrinsic things that we need as human beings, like relationships, and whether we find meaning and purpose in what we do. And that’s what helps with things like engagement, creativity, and innovation.
And if you don’t work for a company who’s had the awakening yet, Brooke shares some advice on finding meaning in what you do.
Final thoughts
It all boils down to our belief system. If you believe that it’s possible to treat people with the dignity and respect they deserve, and make them feel like they matter whatever their job is and that what they do contributes to a bigger purpose, that will bring the best results for your organization and for everyone.
Wanting to grow as a HumansFirst leader and connect in meaningful conversations with other HumansFirst leaders?
Join me for HumansFirst Book Club where we do a deep dive into a book a month and often engage the authors in conversation.
Resources
Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family (Amazon)
HPP Episode 33 – Explore, Discover and Transform Work with Gary Adamson
Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success (Amazon)
Higher Purpose Podcast Episode 83: The 7 Simple Superpowers of the HumansFirst Heroes
Today, we’re talking superpowers. We’re midstream in a series of conversations on what it means to live, love, and lead in a HumansFirst kind of way, and for this special solo episode, I want to talk to you about some important simple skills. Now, don’t confuse simple for easy. These skills require us to put someone else ahead of ourselves, which is difficult, and doesn’t come naturally to many of us. I call them: The 7 Simple Superpowers of the HumansFirst Heroes.
X-Ray Vision
This superpower means you’re able to see a person for who they truly are. This has three dimensions:
Seeing beyond the veneer and layers and the mask people put up around themselves.
Seeing into their heart and seeing the real beauty, value, and worth of the individual in front of you — which makes them feel accepted and valued for having been seen.
Seeing into the future, and seeing what this person is capable of becoming and what they’re capable of accomplishing.
Extraordinary Strength
This is the strength it takes to lift your team or organization to extraordinary achievement. These heroes believe in the power of community, and they have the uncanny ability of allowing different people from all around the world to see their part in this bigger vision, and invest their blood, sweat, and tears into making it a reality.
Supernatural Hearing
This is the ability to listen deeply. They value what you have to say more than what they have to say. Here are the three quotes I’ve gathered on listening:
“Many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request.” — Lord Chesterfield
“When people realize they’re being listened to, they tell you things.” — Richard Ford
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” — Stephen R. Covey
The first thing that we have to do is quiet the conversation that's already going on in our minds. Pause, breathe, and make it your intention to listen to the person in front of you.
Claircognizance
This is the amazing ability to gain information through intrinsic means. People with this superpower are able to pull out of themselves or others:
- things that they didn’t even know were there
- things they didn’t realize they were capable of doing
- a person they didn’t realize they were capable of becoming
They do this through asking questions that help cut through the clutter in your mind and your heart, draw you in, and engage you in a way you wouldn’t otherwise engage. They may already see something in you that you don’t yet see, and the gift of the claircognizant is getting you to see this possibility for yourself.
Web Weaving
This ability talks about relational webs: the ability to see people and connect with them. And it’s not just one-on-one. This superpower includes the ability to connect people to other people, whether inside or outside your organization.
Time Suspension
HumansFirst Heroes have an uncanny ability to be present in the moment. They recognize the power in the little things, see the opportunities in the mundane, and are able to stop time and create magic in that moment.
Super-sized Hearts and Enhanced Empathy
HumansFirst Heroes have a heart that oozes love, compassion, and compassionate care. When you interact with one of these heroes, you realize they genuinely care for you — no pretending here. They just operate with high levels of empathy and allow people to feel loved.
What would you add to the list?
This is far from a complete list, and I invite you to help me grow it. Who’s a HumansFirst hero in your work or world? And what’s their superpower? Email me at kevin@higherpurposepodcast.com or call me at (678) 744 5111.
Wanting to grow as a HumansFirst leader and connect in meaningful conversations with other HumansFirst leaders?
Join me for HumansFirst Book Club where we do a deep dive into a book a month and often engage the authors in conversation.
Past HumansFirst Episodes
Higher Purpose Podcast Episode 82: Being a Chief Heart Officer with Claude Silver
Higher Purpose Podcast Episode 81: The Future of Work with Dr. Heather Hanson Wickman
Higher Purpose Podcast Episode 80: Making Work More Human with Renée Smith
Higher Purpose Podcast Episode 78: Creating a ‘Humans First’ Workplace with Marcel Schwantes
Higher Purpose Podcast Episode 77: Putting Humans First with Mike Vacanti
Higher Purpose Podcast Episode 50: Make Work More Human with Renee Smith
Other Resources
Higher Purpose Podcast Episode 69: The Epic Partnership that Created the WD-40 Culture with Garry Ridge and Stan Sewitch
Deep Listening: Impact Beyond Words (Amazon)
Higher Purpose Podcast Episode 57: Becoming a Deep Listener with Oscar Trimboli
The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact (Amazon)