But today, I want to examine this topic through a different lens. I’m going to unpack the critical role that communication plays in culture building.

If culture is the key to organization resilience, then communication is its lifeblood.

A solid culture helps an organization persevere when times are tough, but the method by which you build a culture is communication. To build and foster a robust culture in your organization, here are four communication strategies:

1. Create a common language.

‍When your team is reading the same book, listening to the same podcast, or participating in the same training, they are developing a common language around what they are learning. They are processing the same words and the same ideas in the same framework. This allows them to communicate more effectively and connect what they have learned to their work. This happens in sports all the time. When Mark Richt was the head football coach at the University of Georgia, he was famous for saying, “Finish the drill!” While it was birthed out of a mentality to fully finish each component (or drill) during practice, it became a phrase that reminded people to not quit or take a shortcut. When we have a common language, it’s easier for team members to be aligned and communicate effectively.

2. Be clear.

‍Being clear is about simplicity, and it’s also about directness. Brene Brown says that being clear is kind, and being unclear is unkind. Avoiding tough conversations leads to confusion and disunity. However, being clear with feedback and expectations, even when it’s difficult, eliminates confusion.

3. Be compelling.

‍Too many leaders miss this one. When people are bored, they stop paying attention. When they stop paying attention, they stop listening. And if someone doesn’t hear what you’re saying, how in the world will they be inspired to act?  If you need help bringing your communication to life, watch or listen to speakers you admire. What about them engages you? Try applying their methods to your own unique voice (or use their messages that align with your values). Invest energy and effort into making communication compelling.

4. Be consistent.

‍Be consistent with what you are communicating and how you are communicating it. If clarity is about helping people understand, consistency is about reinforcing to drive behavior change. There’s an old saying that “vision leaks.” In other words, people need to be reminded, and reminded often.

If you want to improve your culture, improve your communication.

If you focus on these four strategies, you will lay a firm foundation for a resilient and vibrant culture.

My friend John Coleman and his wife Jackie encourage their kids with this phrase. For those of you who know Alexander Hamilton’s story from the hit musical or just from a love of history, you’ll understand what this means. For the rest of you, let me explain.

Alexander Hamilton was one of our founding fathers who is best known for being the first Secretary of the Treasury and for co-authoring The Federalist papers, defending the then proposed Constitution. Aaron Burr was a political peer of Hamilton’s who served as a senator and eventually as vice president. The two had a rivalry from the start. Burr accused Hamilton of being too loud about his opinions as a young revolutionary, and Hamilton accused Burr of not having strong values or principles. Burr seemed to change his political views to what would put him in the best position of power. In the presidential election of 1800, though Hamilton and Jefferson disagreed greatly politically, he gave his deciding vote to Jefferson over Burr because he believed Jefferson had principles and Burr had none.

To be clear, I don’t agree with everything that Hamilton believed. But, I admire his willingness to stand up for his convictions. How can we be the type of people who are willing to stand up for what’s right? This is what our world, culture, and places of business need most.

We need to stand up when other people are sitting down.

Sadly, our society right now encourages and rewards people for being quiet and just going along. We’re encouraged to validate other peoples’ beliefs and values, even if they are in opposition to our own. Have you ever thought about the meaning of the prefix “en”? En means to put into. What about the prefix “dis”? You guessed it: It means to pull out of.

Encourage means to put courage into someone, and discourage means to take their courage away. Because society puts courage into the people sitting down, we are going to be tempted to keep sitting! Those of us with strong values need to be counter-cultural to this. If we just go along, we are simply being reactive, allowing things to happen to us. We need to be people who initiate and make things better.

Leadership is a word that is thrown around and used so often, but true leaders are those willing to take a stand.

The world desperately needs leaders with strong values who have courage. I hope you’ll commit to being the kind of leader who boldly stands up for what you believe in.

Until recently, I had never considered what the parts of the word “compassion” actually mean together. Let me play English teacher for a few minutes.

When the movie The Passion of the Christ was released, I thought it was strange to use the word “passion” in a movie focused on Christ’s crucifixion, but I soon discovered that, in the context of this movie, passion is another word for suffering.

The prefix com means together. When you combine these two, together and suffering, compassion is a willingness to suffer with another person. It’s the perfect synonym for empathy. It doesn’t just mean that you feel sorry for a person, but that you are ready to enter into suffering with them.

Compassion is a willingness to suffer with another person.

At the start of this blog, I said compassion means we are willing to be disturbed, and I still believe that’s true. But I think you could take it one step further. Compassion is looking someone who is suffering in the eyes and saying, “Please disturb me. Your pain is my pain. Let me bear this burden with you.” This is the kind of compassion our world needs now more than ever.

So what does this look like practically?

Compassion will disturb your life in three areas: your schedule, your wallet, and your emotions.

Compassion disturbs your schedule.

True compassion interrupts your routine, your calendar, and your comfort zone. It’s stopping to help the person pulled over on the side of the road, even though you have somewhere to be. It’s engaging the person who needs to talk for a few minutes, even though you’re late to your next meeting. I’m not saying this is feasible or practical all the time, but compassion will definitely disturb your schedule.

Compassion disturbs your wallet.

Being compassionate means getting involved financially. Sometimes, it requires giving real dollars. It could be giving money away that you had been saving for your next vacation or shifting your budget to intentionally give to a specific person or cause. But other times, compassion is simply doing something less “valuable” with your time (in the business world, we call this opportunity cost).

Compassion disturbs your emotions.

Have you ever heard someone say, “You’ve been cursed with a good heart”? The idea is that because you care, you do more and give more than the average person. Compassion is being willing to have a broken heart; it’s being willing to have your emotional state disturbed to comfort and encourage another person. We have a new ministry at our church called the Stephen Ministry that is dedicated to this kind of compassion. Members of our church can be trained to be Stephen Ministers who meet with individuals to listen, care, encourage, and support them. This is compassion in action. Our world is divided, and people are hurting. Today, I encourage you to choose compassion over comfort and have a willingness to be disturbed.

Not only is the company I co-founded called ADDO—the Latin word for inspire—but I also released a book about it this year called Inspired Every Day. I believe that inspiration leads individuals and teams to pursue and accomplish meaningful work that changes the world. Not everyone agrees with me . . .  even some people I deeply respect!

These individuals would tell me it’s not inspiration that moves people but knowledge. In their eyes, equipping people with knowledge is the best way to move them to action. The more you know, the better you’ll do; right? Wrong. News flash:

An individual can believe something is true and not care a lick about it.

You can believe that a certain animal species is endangered, but not care enough to do something about it.

You can believe that smoking leads to lung cancer, but still enjoy it so much that you keep smoking anyway.

You can believe that eating healthy is good for you, but not care enough to clean up your diet.

You can believe that having a purpose is important, but not care enough to consider how your work connects to one.

Knowledge matters. Learning helps you grow and is the first step toward care. But learning on its own doesn’t move people to action. In fact, it is very possible to increase my knowledge and not change my actions. Knowledge alone isn’t enough.

‍Inspiration matters because it moves someone from belief to care.

Said another way, when someone is inspired, they will care enough to act.

Whenever I’m speaking to a group, I always want to consider three things: the head, the heart, and the hands. The head is the knowledge piece. What do I want the hearer to leave this message knowing? The heart is what I’d call the inspiration piece. How should this message move their heart and shape what they care about? The hands piece is the action. In light of this truth, how should they respond?

This might sound a little silly, but people are not robots. We are whole individuals. Our minds, our hearts, and our actions are all connected in a way that gives us the ability to do meaningful work. I believe that inspiration is the linchpin that holds these parts together.

My advice to you today is to get inspired! Simply acquiring more knowledge will do little to grow you as a leader, teammate, spouse, and friend. But being inspired to do these things will help you apply your knowledge in a way that could change your life.

It’s a compelling mission. It’s others-focused, and it makes sense because of our name—ADDO is the Latin word for inspire. But it serves as a poor marketing tool for a customer who is trying to figure out what we actually do.

Over the years, we have tried multiple approaches to adequately articulate what we do. In the past, we’ve talked a lot about leadership and how we are a “leadership consultancy.” More recently, we have talked a lot about learning, emphasizing how we create tools that help educate leaders and their teams. I don’t think we’ve nailed the messaging yet, and we’ll always work to make it better. Here’s the tension we have to live in: becoming increasingly clear about how we articulate our methods without falling in love with those methods.

Let me explain it this way: The world is constantly evolving, so our methods will likely have to change again down the road. We need to be sharp in our communication, but we can’t allow that clarity to make us rigid in our approaches. Our methods are a means to help us reach a goal that is unchanging.

When you fall more in love with your methods than your mission, you will become extinct.

For those of you who are millennials and older, you’ll remember how Netflix started. When they first came on the scene, their main competitor was Blockbuster—the movie rental store. Netflix’s method was different. You would place an order for a DVD, and Netflix would mail it to your house. When you were finished watching, you would mail it back. It was a simple method to work toward their mission: to entertain the world. But as we now know, they weren’t in love with their methods. They saw a greater opportunity to entertain the world as a streaming platform and dove into this method head first.

On the flip side, Blockbuster was in love with its method and dedicated to remaining a storefront in communities all over the United States. In fact, in Netflix’s early days, Blockbuster had a chance to buy the company for $50 million. At the time, Blockbuster laughed their offer out of the room. They thought mailing DVDs was a silly fad that wouldn’t amount to much, but they didn’t take into account Netflix’s mission and dedication to adapting in a changing world. As of last year, Netflix was worth over $19 billion. As I said earlier, when you fall more in love with your methods than your mission, you will become extinct.

Here’s my challenge to you (and to me) today, be flexible about methods and immovable about mission. We lose when we become more passionate about the method than the mission.

Be flexible about methods and immovable about mission.

Think of it this way. Your purpose is your destination, and your methods are the way you will reach the destination. So far, the journey has been all on the road, so the car you’ve been driving is working fine. But thousands of miles down the road, you hit a raging river right in the middle of your path. There is not a bridge in sight, but there is a boat on the edge of the river. You wouldn’t drive your car into the river to get across. You’d hop in the boat! Methods are tools to get you where you need to go.

Whether it's leadership or learning, or something entirely different, I’m grateful to be a part of a team at ADDO that will employ any method to its fullest extent to accomplish the mission. We are married to our mission and will choose to date the methods.

When I’m looking for advice for graduates, I often think about the lives of some of the most successful people and what this season of their lives looked like. But this year, I noticed that when you go back and look at the most famous person of all time—Jesus—we know very little about his life from ages 12–30. In the entirety of Scripture, there is only one sentence that covers this period of time. It says, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” Even though this short verse is all we have about these 18 years of his life, it still provides a great blueprint for graduates (or any individual) desiring to grow in their present season of life. The word “increased” indicates an intentional growth. For Jesus, this growth was not just automatic; it was intentional. This word in the original language is the same word used for a person on the frontlines of a battlefield, clearing the path for the men behind him. This is strenuous activity, not just passing development.

Growth should not happen by default but by design.

This one sentence said he increased (grew) in 4 ways: wisdom (intellectually), stature (physically), in favor with God (spiritually) and with man (relationally). Whether a recent grad or senior adult, we should all focus on growing in these four areas.

1. Intellectually:

Luke 2:52 says that Jesus grew in wisdom during these years. Wisdom and intellectual growth are valuable, and this takes committed time and effort. It pays to have knowledge. I love the story where Henry Ford asked electrical genius Charlie Steinmetz to build the generators for his famed automobile factory. One day the generators gave out, and the repairmen on hand couldn’t determine what was wrong. So Ford called Steinmetz, who tinkered with the machines for a few hours to get them up and running again. Weeks later, Ford got a bill for $10,000 from Steinmetz. Astonished, the car maker asked why the bill was so high. Steinmetz replied with an itemized bill: “For tinkering with the generators, $10. For knowing where to tinker, $9,990.” Steinmetz knew his knowledge was valuable.

2. Physically:

Jesus increased in stature. This is his physical growth, and it seems like a minor detail until you consider that the verse says he increased in stature intentionally.

Taking care of your body matters at any age, and it can impact every area of your life. Sadly, most of us are more motivated by our physical appearance than our overall health. But I want to encourage you (and myself!) to eat healthy and exercise, so that our bodies will increase in strength to do the good work laid before us each day—in the office, in our homes, and in our communities.

3. Spiritually:

There is a lot that could be unpacked, but it can be boiled down to say that we should be intentional about our spiritual growth. As a Christian, I believe this happens through a commitment to a local church, personal Bible reading, prayer, and deep relationships with other believers. That may look different for you, but spiritual growth is part of holistic development.

4. Relationally:

Jesus also grew in favor with man. He had flourishing relationships with individuals in his life.

As a part of a commencement address, former First Lady Barbara Bush said the following to a group of graduating college students: “As important as your obligations as a doctor, lawyer, or business leader will be, you are a human being first, and those human connections – with spouses, with children, with friends – are the most important investments you will ever make. At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend, or a parent . . . Our success as a society depends not on what happens in the White House but on what happens inside your house.”

How are you growing in each of these areas?

It’s just as important for a retiree as it is for a recent graduate:

Work to increase intellectually, physically, spiritually, and relationally.

The more you grow, the more you’ll experience the joys of each unique season of life.

Recently, I had a conversation with my good friend Larry Grays. He has a friend in the banking industry, and we were discussing how banks make lending decisions for businesses. I found it interesting that, even in financial institutions (where it’s all about the numbers), eligibility to receive a loan is determined by much more than just the amount of money in their bank account or their profit and loss statement. In fact, Larry shared with me that there are five things they evaluate before lending a person money.

In many banking circles, these are referred to as the 5 C’s of credit: character, capacity, capital, collateral, and conditions.

Before loaning money, a lender wants to ensure that the borrower meets the benchmark in all of these areas.

Though the five C’s of credit were created as a metric for financial institutions, I believe that they apply far beyond a person’s eligibility to receive a loan. Below, here is my adaptation of these five C’s when it comes to hiring great talent.

1. Character:

This is the first and most important factor lenders consider before giving a loan. Banks often look at a person’s credit score to determine their character—how a person spends their money says something important about how they view the world around them. Billy Graham used to say, “Give me five minutes with a person's checkbook, and I will tell you where their heart is.” The term checkbook might be outdated, but the principle holds true. Show me where a person spends their money, and I will show you their values. When it comes to hiring, character counts. No amount of competency will compensate for poor character.

No amount of competency will compensate for poor character.

2. Capacity:

In the banking world, capacity is the borrower’s ability to pay the loan based on their debt-to-income ratio. If much of their salary is already going toward paying off other debts, they might not have the capacity to pay off a new loan comfortably. When you’re looking for top talent, you’ve got to see how much capacity they have. Do they have the ability to perform the role you’re hiring for in the short term? Equally important, do they have the capacity to grow in the future?

3. Capital:

This would be the downpayment on a loan—it’s the amount of money an individual has saved over time for this specific purchase. From a hiring perspective, this would be the individual’s work experience and skills they have developed up to this point in their lives. What can they bring to this role right now? We often think of capital in the financial sense, but what emotional and mental capital can someone put into what you’re doing. Capital shows commitment.

4. Collateral:

Collateral is what a person has to offer if they default on a loan. For example, auto loans are secured by cars while mortgages are secured by homes. From a hiring perspective, collateral would be the intangible benefits they have to offer. What do they possess beyond skills required for this role that would benefit this position and your team as a whole? This could be an aspect of their personality or a passion outside the workplace that would be helpful.

5. Conditions:

Conditions are what a person plans to do with the loan and the outside factors at play (i.e. the state of the economy, industry trends, current legislation).

When hiring someone, you need to ask if it’s the right individual for the right role at the right time.

They may be the perfect hire, but it might be the wrong time. In any organization, you need more than just competent people. You need people with integrity, capacity, the right experience, unique skills and talents, and what it takes to fill this gap in your team. To know if it's the right person, look at the whole picture and use these 5 C’s as a guide.

Last week, we talked about employee engagement as a brand problem. Today, I want to take us one step further into the ultimate way to keep people engaged in their work.

Every employer I know desires to create a workplace where their employees are happy and thriving. They want their employees to like their jobs, their coworkers, and their times together as a team. Ultimately, they want to foster a culture where their employees are engaged in the work they are doing.

However, the way companies approach engagement is almost always wrong.

While there are hundreds of tactics, I’ve chosen to highlight three approaches employers take. The first two are the most popular (and completely wrong), and the third approach is essential to keeping people engaged and excited about the work they do.

The first approach is obvious: money. If you pay people more money, they will stay; right? Wrong. To be clear, compensation is critically important, but if money is the primary motivator for the employee’s engagement, they will always be on the search for somebody who will pay them more. When the exchange between employer and employee is all about money, we turn our employees into mercenaries who’d quickly sell their services to the highest bidder. Money alone is not a strong strategy to get (and keep) people engaged.

The second approach is fun. As the co-founder of a company who has spent consecutive years on the “Best Places to Work” in our city, I have to tell you a secret: I believe most of those lists measure the wrong things. The questionnaire asks about ancillary perks each business has to offer. Can you bring your dog to work? Does the company host happy hours? Can you play ping-pong in the middle of the day? Those are fun, but they are all fringe benefits. I’m all for fun at work. We just announced yesterday that we are taking our entire team to New York City for our upcoming retreat. But in isolation, fun will not lead to true fulfillment at work.

The third and only effective way to keep people engaged over the long haul is purpose. Every person needs to connect their individual role with a purpose bigger than themselves. USAA does this well. For those of you unfamiliar with the financial institution, USAA exclusively serves current and former members of the military and their families. The company and its team members take pride in serving our nation’s heroes. In order to help their employees better understand who they are serving, USAA has them go through mock “boot camps,” to feel what it’s like to train as a member of the military. 90% of their employees say they are proud to work at USAA and feel a sense of loyalty to their mission.

Every person needs to connect their individual role with a purpose bigger than themselves.

Purpose engages your workforce, which in turn translates into more positive customer experiences.

Money and fun are not bad things to offer individuals. You should compensate people well for what they do and desire for them to enjoy their workplace. However, these two things are “me-centric.” In isolation, they aren’t effective, and they aren’t fulfilling. Purpose, on the other hand, is others-centric. A purpose-filled life is one focused on others. This is true in a corporate setting, but it’s also true in every profession and every role in a person’s life. It works because it’s not just a tactic, it’s the right approach to life. When the focus is on making the lives of other people better, you will find true satisfaction.

Companies say they want to engage employees and attract new talent, but most put a paltry amount of resources into recruiting and retaining people compared to customer-centric brand-enhancing initiatives. This isn’t surprising. Marketing activities more clearly lead to revenue, while employee engagement doesn’t as clearly correlate to the bottom line. As a business leader, they choose to focus where they have a return on their investment.

But most companies (and their leaders) are missing it. The way their employees see their business impacts their performance, their performance then impacts customer experience, and customer experience assuredly impacts a company’s external brand. In other words,

‍employee engagement IS a brand problem.

And it’s not one you can ignore.

I believe that companies can start with three key areas:

1. Employer Brand

‍What do people think it feels like to work in and for your business? When the name of your company is mentioned, what is their immediate first thought about your workplace? This comes down to their interactions with your team. If your team appears to be focused, engaged, and even excited about what they do, your business will naturally attract more talented individuals who want to work for you. This also comes down to your employees’ true feelings about working at your company. If they enjoy it and you have open positions, they will naturally (and excitedly) help recruit talented individuals they know to come work for you.

2. Employee Engagement

‍The more connected your team is to your company, the more impactful they will be in their work. The best way to do this is to connect your employee’s individual jobs to the overarching mission of the business. If your team members are working together toward a goal greater than themselves, they will be exponentially more happy and motivated to do the work set before them, and your customers will have a much better experience. Starbucks does this well. Their mission is to “inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” You can tell when you’ve encountered a Starbucks team who is living out this mission statement. They are hustling together, gladly serving the full lobby and long drive thru of customers, and seeing that each interaction has a greater purpose beyond themselves. The best businesses connect people to purpose.

3. Employee Retention

‍One of the biggest problems employers are facing now is turnover. The war for talent is making it difficult to keep talented individuals on board. However, when people are engaged in their work and growing in their job, they will stay in their business longer. In turn, this commitment will attract more talented individuals to work for you, and eventually, you will need to hire fewer people. Your talented team is staying, but there are still more talented people knocking on your door and seeking to find a place on your team. This is a good problem to have! The Chick-fil-A Operator selection team has this problem. The joke is that it’s harder to get a job at the CFA than it is to get a job at the CIA. Last year more than 120,000 expressed interest in being a Chick-fil-A Operator, and only around 100 were selected. (Want another staggering statistic? 60% of those chosen were former frontline team members!). The companies who are succeeding both internally and externally understand that investing in employees does have a return.

The way your team sees and experiences your brand may be the most effective tool you have to attract new customers and to keep them coming back.

If you want a better brand and more positive customer experiences, start with your employees first.