Courageous Conversations Require a Strong Sense of Self

Douglas Conant, CEO & President of Campbell Soup Company, spoke at the White House Workplace Flexibility Conference on Wednesday. Conant was proud to see that his employees felt comfortable enough to have courageous conversations with their manager. These courageous conversations helped them shape an attractive workplace flexibility program.



The Campbell Soup approach to workplace flexibility lives its values and appreciation for its team members. The leadership and team members possess a strong sense of self.

An organization's sense of self blossoms from a solid strategy that has vision, mission, values, and position at its core. This sense of self means that leaders and managers trust workers to do their jobs and get the job done without micromanaging where they work, when they work, or how they work. Workers have more control over their schedules and lives, allowing single moms and dads and sandwich generation employees to achieve work-life fit. Both organizations and workers need a strong sense of self in order to have courageous conversations. They also need the trust in their co-workers to feel safe having open, honest, even difficult conversations to express needs and wants and recommend ways the organization can better compete, improve efficiencies, and save money.

In my post, Workplace Flexibility Begins with a Shameless Workforce, I looked at what workers need to be Shameless and ask for what they need. Organizations also need to have a strong sense of self and trust in their ability to bring out the best in their workers, no matter where, when, or how they work. The Strategy String allows organizations to get beyond what they offer and start looking at why by wearing your values on your sleeve to drive every day performance. When organizations understand why, courageous conversations come naturally. All team members within the organization will have a strong sense of the organization's "self." Every individual, from the CEO to the worker on the manufacturing floor, will have a through understanding of your vision, mission, values, and position. Every one will know how to communicate it and understand how to tie it to the work they do every day.

The Seattle area provides two great examples of organizations with a strong sense of self. If you ever have a chance to visit Seattle University, ask any of the staff about their mission. They can not only recite the mission, but describe in detail how their job educates the whole person and builds leaders for a just and humane society. If you visit any Nordstrom around the world, you immediately experience the best customer service in the world. Of all the luxury retailers, their personable, unpretentious customer service comes through with every interaction you have with a Nordstrom employee.

If your organization needs a better sense of self, order The Strategy String for your leadership team. With Shameless workers and a strong sense of self, you'll be poised to conduct courageous conversations for workplace flexibility -- and beyond.

What is your organization doing to build a strong sense of self and encourage courageous conversations?