The research findings of Frederick Reichheld, founder of Bain & Company’s Loyalty Practice and author of Loyalty Rules! and other loyalty books, showed that a 5% improvement in employee retention translates to a 25%-100% gain in earnings.

For decades I’ve said that people who join a company for money will leave for more money, but those who join for the culture will usually stay as long as the culture is synergistic with their own values.

So when you set out to build a great working environment which comes first, culture or communication?

It’s a good question; one that seems similar to the chicken and the egg.

Without a culture that insists on, and supports, open, honest, complete communication it’s unlikely that people will indulge in it, but it takes that kind of communication to create and implement that kind of culture.

Which really comes first, culture or communications—or is it a conundrum? For that matter, who cares?

The answer is neither.

What does come first is the founder/CEO/department head/etc’s MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™). Because it’s what’s in your head that sets the culture and defines the kind of communications the your organization will have.

The way you communicate is a mindset, grounded in your attitude towards others, which, in turn, is based on your personal philosophy.

MAP is learned, not innate, it changes, either passively, through the influence of those around you, or dynamically, in ways that you consciously choose.

Good MAP, like good culture, is (in no particular order) authentic, positive, open, flexible, honest, secure,  interested, enthusiastic, patient, sincere, trusting, encouraging, caring and loves creativity (its own or others).

MAP is everywhere and affects everything—which is why salespeople who understand their customers’ MAP sell more.

Managers are more successful when they understand their people’s MAP.

It’s to your advantage to understand your colleagues’ MAP, no matter your position or theirs.

Managers and candidates should understand each others’ MAP to be sure, at the least, they are synergistic.

While understanding other people’s MAP is important, it is absolutely vital is to understand your own.

Not only understand, but accept that while you can change your own MAP you cannot change theirs.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/

It’s the first Monday of the month and that means lots of great links to leadership information courtesy of the monthly Leadership Development Carnival, hosted this month by Mary Jo Asmus along with Becky Robinson’s Leadership Roundup.

October Leadership Development Carnival: Autumn Fun Edition

Cheer for your favorite players from the Big Ten:

Our regular referee for the carnival positions himself in the backfield today, but will return for the next game in November. Dan McCarthy of Great Leadership announces a penalty in Individual Development Plans are Worthless….if No Action is Taken.

Steve Roesler at All Things Workplace plays defense to those who think there isn’t a place for emotions in the workplace with Emotions, Work and Engaged Employees.

Jane Perdue of Get Your Leadership Big On! is on Steve’s team as she carries the ball toward the goal line with Do Feelings Have a Place in Business?

Becky Robinson at LeaderTalk inspires us with a rarely seen drop kick in Measuring Results. She deserves a game ball for this beautiful play.

Wally Bock at the Three Star Leadership Blog teaches us that We’ve got Leaders. What We Need is Leadership. Thanks for the wisdom, coach!

Bret Simmons takes us into sudden death overtime as we reflect on the importance of self management in leaders: Prudence: An Undervalued Virtue of Leadership.

Tanveer Nasseer helps leaders’ to protect their blind side with tips on how to ease someone back into the team after an absence in Helping Employees Regain Their Productivity After A Prolonged Absence .

Gwyn Teatro of You’re Not The Boss of Me plays quarterback as she leads discussion of the next play in the huddle with Managing and Leading….Lessons from Gilbert and Sullivan .

Mark Stelzner of Inflexion Advisors reflects on a winning organizational team that made it to the Workplace Super Bowl in The Best Company I’ve Ever Worked For .

Jennifer Miller of The People Equation scores a touchdown by showing us research that dispels a multitasking fantasy in Great Leaders Don’t Multitask. Your fans are cheering you on, Jennifer!

Take a fall color tour:

Jason Seiden of Fail Spectacularly! provides a colorful dialog of how magical our world is and what curiosity can do to foster creativity in Science Discovers Couples Share 6^th Sense.

Miki Saxon of MAPping Company Success reminds us that managers need to mind their unconscious reactions in order to have creativity flourish in its splendor in Fostering Creativity.

Bret Simmons at LeaderLab takes us beyond the blue sky of servant leadership and gives it strong roots by describing research and practical tips for embedding its practice in Servant Leadership in the Workplace.

Steve Boese of Steve Boese’s HR Technology shows how quickly small acorns can grow into the mighty oaks of an ‘A’ Team in Quick – Send in the ‘B’ Team

Michael Lee Stallard entices us to take a break on our tour…er, journey…. and ponder The Pride Paradox.

Thomas Waterhouse on the Lead Change Group blog discusses the many facets and colors of trust in A Trusting Character.

Sylvia Lafair takes us on a tour of boss-bashing, showing us the many shades of how it becomes nasty and public in Bad Boss Revolution.

Paul Knudstrup, of The 8 Essential Skills is driving on tour right behind Sylvia with a nod toward managers who are doing the right things in Employers and Employees.

Kevin Grossman at the Glowan Consulting Group helps us to consider the changing nature of what it takes to make it in the workforce these days in Adaptability, Inc. is hiring. I wish I would have told him that.

Nick McCormick at Joe and Wanda on Management provides us with an auditory bit of fresh autumn air with an interview on Managing Your Boss with Bob Seldon.

Enjoy the Autumn Harvest:

Barry Zweibel at GottaGettaBLOG! harvests some disengagement statistics in A Manager’s Focus Matters.

Benjamin McCall’s thoughts bear fruit at ReThinkHR on Employees Only Have So Much Power.

Tom Magness at Leader Business separates the wheat from the chaff in describing what it really means to be Leading in Chaos.

Michael Cardus at Create Learning cultivates some thought with Goal Setting: Solving Problems in Line with Values and Commitment.

Chris Stowell at the Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness finds fertile ground on Scorecards: Putting for Dough .

Jesse Meijers sows seeds of thought with Intrinsic Motivation vs. Extrinsic Motivation .

Rajesh Setty ‘s ideas flower on Why MANY Smart People Face a Mid-Career Dilemma and How You Can Avoid It.

Lynn Dessert plants some thoughts about leadership development at Elephants at Work on Is Your Organization Teaching the Right Lessons to Build Executive Talent?

Laura Schroeder at Working Girl clears the ground for a comparison between our workplaces and a popular TV show in The Gleeful Workplace.

Gayathri Moosad picks 20 Essential Leadership Skills for us to consider.

September Round-Up: A Leader Achieves Result

First, this post from Wally Bock that asks the questions “Should leaders be humble or flamboyant? Or should they just make a difference?” I love the conclusions he draws. Be sure to read this one as well, just published this week.

Miki Saxon offers some ideas about how to win in her post “Ducks in a Row: How to Guarantee a Winning Team.”

Bret Simmons, posting at the LeaderLab blog, asserts that empowered leaders enable empowered employees, creating solutions to workplace issues.

Leaders need to be consistent to get results. You’ll be inspired to be consistent when you read this post from Art Petty.

Dan Rockwell says leaders can multiply results by delegating. Read more here.

If you want to achieve results, you need to start with the right attitude, according to Kevin Eikenberry. Read his post “Developing the Right Attitude to Support Goal Achievement.”

The last post comes from Mike Myatt, who challenges leaders to focus on performance.

Image credit: Great Leadership

No unifying theme or organized focus today, just an odd lot that I find particularly engaging.

We’ll start with James Cook provides some basic wisdom for living, “Do just once what others say you can’t do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again.”

That advice goes hand in hand with these words from Rosalynn Carter, “If you don’t accept failure as a possibility, you don’t set high goals, you don’t branch out, you don’t try — you don’t take the risk.”

Failure is a passing state unless you’re dead—then it’s permanent. Jim Rohn hits the nail on the head when he says, “It is not what happens that determines the major part of your future. What happens, happens to us all. It is what you do about what happens that counts.”

In the course of daily living we frequently look at our neighbor and wish that we could trade places. When that happens remember what common wisdom tells us, “When the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, it may be that they take better care of it there.”

On a more irreverent level is this from Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, who reminds us, “The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him”

And to round out the irreverent is this pearl from Winston Churchill,“…Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.”

Sad, but true.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scuba04/388774775/

Anyone who reads me knows my answer to the social question—I’m not.

I don’t wear branded clothes or those with images advertising whatever, either, because if I’m going to be someone’s billboard I want to be paid, not to pay for the privilege. While that is more a quirk, I have a much larger problem online with the loss of privacy and the attitude of social companies that they have the right to use my data and that of my connections any way they choose for their profit whether I like it or not.

Obviously, one of the most prolific abusers is Facebook, as described in this in-depth look at its current approach to marketing and what’s coming down the road.

When it comes to social I have to admit that I’ve seen some fun (I’m partial to stupid cats) and educational stuff on YouTube. In fact, my company’s newly launched product is on YouTube, so I thought it was very cool that there are a number of people earning serious money there.

I’m not sure if texting is considered social, but the dark side to it is getting darker, with the darkest being death. Now, along with those who kill while texting and driving—cars, trains, subways—you can add lifeguards.

And what would a post about social be without Twitter (no, I don’t tweet). Actually, I have three links that you may find interesting.

• The first is an interesting look at whether Twitter, or any company, can remain relevant as a “walled garden” as opposed to an open, distributed communications platform.
• Next is a debate that looks at the threats, worms and such, that are using Twitter as their access point.
• The third is a discussion that just started and considers Twitter’s ability activate people politically. Check it out and add your thoughts.

Finally, a look at a different kind of social network and its effect on your health.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedroelcarvalho/2812091311/

Too many managers (of all ages and at all levels) tell me they are using texting, Twitter and email to manage their people. They’re even using them for performance reviews, layoffs and terminations.

When I ask why they use them I’m told some variation of ‘saves time’, ‘more immediate’, ‘modern way to manage’, ‘cool’ or the worst one, ‘lets me focus on what’s important.’

I may be a digital dinosaur, but I’m here to tell them (and you if you are on the receiving end) that that isn’t managing; it’s avoidance pure and simple.

It’s having the title while avoiding every single action required to lead a high-performing organization. It trashes careers and shows enormous disrespect for people.

In short, it’s a total copout; unfair to the team, the company and the investors.

What’s important are the people, because without the people there is no company and if there is no company you have no job.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danzen/4137160631/