Profiles in Connection

Consider the wind. We cannot see it, but we can see its effect on trees when the wind blows through them. Similarly, we see the effect of connection on individuals, teams, and organizations. When connection is present, people are more enthusiastic, cooperative, creative, and productive. When connection is absent, they lack these traits.

Once you begin to truly understand connection, you’ll see it everywhere. When you examine success stories through the lens of the connection culture framework, you’ll be inspired by what leaders are doing in other sectors. The stories featured here are about inspiring leaders from business, government, healthcare, higher education, sports, media and entertainment, and the social sectors.

Restoring Navy Pride

A leader in government and the military who intentionally developed a connection culture is Admiral Vernon Clark, the chief of naval operations (CNO) from 2000 until his retirement in 2005.

The CNO is the head of the U.S. Navy and the principal naval adviser to the U.S. president on the conduct of war. When Admiral Clark assumed the CNO role, the navy was not meeting its sailor retention goals, which is problematic when you consider the navy’s sophisticated surveillance, navigation, and weapons systems, and the importance of maintaining the readiness of national defense. Concerned about how this would affect military preparedness, Clark made winning the war for talent his number 1 priority.

Admiral Clark increased vision by reminding sailors that the navy’s mission is to take the war-fighting readiness of the United States to any corner of the world at a moment’s notice. He said that it was time to build a modern navy that would be “strategically and operationally agile, technologically and organizationally innovative, networked at every level, highly joint [with the other branches of the military], and effectively integrated with allies” (Clark 2002).

Admiral Clark would tell sailors: What we do matters. What we do is hard work. We intentionally put ourselves in harm’s way. We are away from our loved ones for months on end. We do it because it’s important and we are people of service. We are committed to something larger than ourselves: the protection of America’s interests around the world and democracy (U.S. Navy 2005). This made them feel proud and connected to him as their leader. Rear Admiral Frank Thorp, who served on Admiral Clark’s personal staff, recounted an occasion when he spotted a sailor with tear-filled eyes after hearing Clark speak. Thorp approached the young man to see what was wrong. The sailor said he was going to ask his commanding officer to rip up the discharge papers he had recently submitted because for the first time a leader had told him why he should stay in the navy (Herdt et al. 2008–2010).

Admiral Clark strongly supported an increase in pay that was approved by the president and Congress. When navy budget officials proposed cuts related to training and developing people as part of the annual planning cycle, Clark wouldn’t allow it. Instead, he increased the training budget. As part of what he called the revolution in training, Admiral Clark established the Naval Education and Training Command and required everyone in the navy to have a personal development plan. He changed the performance appraisal system to provide constructive feedback for everyone, and added the requirement to leaders’ performance appraisals that they help sailors learn and grow. He valued personal growth and continuous improvement, saying, “If you are not growing, in my view, you are of little value to the institution…. if you are not growing, you’re dead” (Clark 2003).

In the navy, enlisted sailors sometimes feel like second-class citizens compared to the officers. Admiral Clark made it one of his priorities to blur some of the lines between the officers and enlisted sailors while still maintaining the necessary decision-making chain of command. When he traveled to commands and bases around the world, Clark met with commanding officers, as well as the master chiefs, their enlisted counterparts. He intentionally reached out to the master chiefs because he valued them and what they could do for the sailors under their leadership. He told them: These young sailors under our command swear to support and defend the U.S. Constitution from all enemies, and we as leaders need to make promises in return. We need to give them the training and resources to enable them to fulfill their promise. We need to give them an opportunity to prove what they can do (Herdt et al. 2008–2010).

Admiral Clark recognized the importance of the enlisted leaders because of his own experiences as a sailor. He often told a story of his first experience on a ship following officer candidate school.

The advice and encouragement from Master Chief Leedy helped make Clark a better officer. He said that he, and the country, needed the master chiefs to mentor and encourage today’s young sailors in the same way. They listened—Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Jim Herdt once said that master chiefs around the world had the general attitude that “Old Vern is counting on us and we can’t let him down” (Herdt et al. 2008–2010). He made them feel valued, and when they reached out to help those under their command learn and grow, the sailors felt valued too.

Clark also worked to change the legacy systems that devalued sailors, such as the navy’s job assignment process. Under Clark and a program he dubbed “the revolution in personnel distribution,” the system was changed to a job-bidding approach, with incentive compensation for the jobs and locations that were least in demand. As a result, the percentage of sailors forced into positions or locations was reduced from 30 percent to around 1.5 percent.

In group meetings with leaders, Admiral Clark encouraged participants to speak up. His own approachable, conversational style set the tone for others to share their ideas and opinions. He asked everyone to “challenge every assumption,” “be data driven,” and “drill down” into the details. He challenged them to “have a sense of urgency to make the navy better every day” in order to deliver greater efficiencies and readiness for the dollars America invested in the navy (Herdt et al. 2008–2010).

Clark was more concerned about getting it right than being right himself. He had observed over the course of his career that people tended to tell the boss what they believed he wanted to hear rather than what they really thought. Clark wanted to minimize the risk that would happen so he encouraged “constructive friction.” By recognizing and embracing that there will be honest disagreement because people have different perspectives that require talking through to arrive at the best answer, he made it safe for people to disagree and express views that were outside the consensus. As a result, Clark’s leaders felt connected with him and the U.S. Navy, and they emulated his leadership style, which made the sailors under their command feel more connected.

Admiral Clark is quick to say that he’s not perfect. Nonetheless, the navy achieved some impressive gains during his tenure as CNO, and many naval leaders have praised his leadership and positive influence. In a little more than a year after Clark became CNO, first term re-enlistment soared from less than 38 percent to 56.7 percent (Herdt et al. 2008–2010).

As the navy improved sailor retention and developed greater alignment with Admiral Clark’s vision, it became faster and more responsive. Within a matter of hours following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, aircraft carriers, Aegis destroyers, and cruisers were in position to protect America’s shores. This was partially because naval leaders anticipated what had to be done and took action before they received orders. After the Pentagon was attacked, communications and the navy’s decision-making process were quickly re-established, and planning for America’s response began while the embers of the fire still smoldered a short distance away.

Making It Personal

   “Winning the war for talent” was Admiral Clark’s number 1 priority when he took the helm as Chief of Naval Operations. What is your number 1 priority this year? How does it support your organization’s overall vision? What steps in the areas of vision, value, and voice could you take that will aid in achieving the goal?

   Admiral Clark was upfront about the challenges inherent in being a sailor—it’s hard work, they put themselves in harm’s way, they are separated from their loved ones for stretches of time. He reminded sailors of the “why” behind the sacrifices they were making. Think of a time when you were asked to move outside of your comfort zone. Were the challenges or risks acknowledged by others, especially your supervisor? If not, what difference might it have made in your attitude to receive that acknowledgment?

   To increase voice and be sure that any opposing opinions would come up for consideration, Admiral Clark encouraged “constructive friction.” If you were introducing this concept to a team, what ground rules would you put in place?

Connecting on and off the Court

Steph Curry, point guard for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, stands out in many respects. One commentator observed that Curry doesn’t fit the stereotype—he’s slight, has no killer instinct, isn’t alpha—but that Curry is the best player in the world when it comes to ball handling, shooting, and leadership (Cowherd 2019). Fortune magazine declared Curry and Warriors’ Head Coach Steve Kerr together among the 50 best leaders in the world (Ballard 2016).

Curry has been defying expectations throughout his life. As a high school player, the major colleges passed on recruiting him. Yet he has gone on to become a force in pro basketball, being named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player twice, becoming a six-time NBA All Star, and acting as leader of a team that has won three out of the four NBA championships they’ve played in with Curry on the floor. He is arguably the best leader in professional basketball today.

At 5 foot 6 inches and a mere 125 pounds as a high school sophomore, Steph Curry was so small that he had to shoot the basketball from his waist. Eventually, with some physical growth and encouragement from his dad, he changed to a more conventional shooting style of releasing the ball over his head.

Adjusting his style was difficult. Curry’s younger brother, Seth, remembers seeing him in their backyard taking shot after shot and crying from being so discouraged at his lack of progress. Still, he persevered and ended his junior year of high school averaging just under 20 points per game. The major colleges he’d hoped to attend said he was too small to make an impact. “I turned it into motivation and continued to work on my game even more,” he said (Dunkyard 2016).

Curry, who grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, received a basketball scholarship from Davidson College, a small liberal arts school of fewer than 2,000 students located less than a half hour’s drive from his family’s home. A Division 1 school in athletics, the Davidson Wildcats compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference, not in the ACC with Duke or University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Davidson men’s basketball coach Bob McKillop had begun recruiting Curry when he was a freshman in high school. In Curry, McKillop saw what he described as “brilliance” (Dunkyard 2016). Curry said he responded to the confidence Coach McKillop expressed in him and McKillop’s belief that Curry would have an immediate impact on the team. In his second game as a college player that freshman year, Curry lit up the court and scored 32 points in a nonconference game against the University of Michigan on the Wolverines’ home court in Ann Arbor. When McKillop saw Steph’s parents afterward, he predicted their son would go on to a successful career in the NBA. They weren’t so sure. McKillop, it turned out, was right.

Curry had an outstanding college career. In his sophomore year, Davidson made it to the Elite Eight round of the NCAA tournament, beating Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Wisconsin before losing to Kansas, the team that went on to win the tournament. To put that accomplishment in perspective, it had been 39 years since Davidson had won a single game in an NCAA tournament. Of that year’s March Madness, former Davidson teammate Jason Richards said, “People around the basketball world knew how good Steph was, but that put him on the map, because everyone watches the NCAA tournament. We became the darlings of that year, with Steph being our guy, our leader. He took the nation by storm and ran with it” (Lopresti 2018).

In his junior year, he led the nation in scoring. Following that year, he declared for the NBA draft. Once again, the critics said he was too small and not strong enough to make an impact. The Golden State Warriors thought otherwise and drafted him in the first round as the seventh overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.

In 2010, his first year with Golden State, Curry finished second in rookie of the year voting. The following two seasons, however, he missed many games from ankle problems that required two surgeries. After rehabbing at home, with the support and encouragement of his family, he came back in 2012, set a new NBA single season three-point record, and led the Warriors to the playoffs.

Steph Curry has benefited throughout his life from the connection of a loving and supportive family. His father, Dell, played in the NBA for 16 years. His mother, Sonya, was a college athlete at Virginia Tech, where she and Dell met. A tearful Curry thanked them in his acceptance speech after being named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 2015. Specifically, he expressed his gratitude for his mom’s spiritual leadership and discipline, and his father’s example on and off the court. Curry is close to Seth, who is also a player in the NBA. Their sister, Sydel, played volleyball for Elon University and is married to NBA player Damion Lee, who joined the Golden State Warriors and became a teammate of Curry’s in the 2018 season. In 2011, Curry married his wife, Ayesha, whom he had met in high school, and they now have three children.

As a player and leader on the Warriors, Curry uses his skills to connect in ways that lift the performance of his teammates. He’s humble and doesn’t need to be in the spotlight. He had no problem becoming the number 2 scorer when the superstar Kevin Durant joined the Warriors and was named NBA Finals MVP in 2017 and 2018 (Peter 2019). Durant says about Curry: “The stuff you hear about Steph—as far as sacrificing, being selfless, caring about his teammates, caring about other people—is real, it’s not a fake, it’s not a facade…. He really is like that” (Piotrekzprod 2017).

The players around Curry know that he looks out for them and makes sure they feel included, whether it’s welcoming them when they are new to the team, passing the ball to them so they can take shots even when he could have taken the shot himself, or encouraging them. Quinn Cook said, “[Steph’s] happy for you when you do well. He’s always building you up if you’re going through anything.” Alonzo McKinnie observed, “If [Steph] sees us down, he’s coming to uplift us. He cheers up guys and gets guys in that good spirit…. It shows his character and the type of guy he is on and off the court.” Commenting on Curry’s ability to come alongside teammates who may be at odds with each other, Klay Thompson says that he is “a very great voice of reason during times of turbulence.” DeMarcus Cousins, who played for the Warriors from 2018 to 2019, stated “everything about [Steph] is A-plus.” Damion Lee has said, “For any leader, it’s about understanding what someone is going through and trying to help them and empathize as much as you can. [Steph] tries to build that and keep everyone together” (Medina 2019).

Curry’s teammates and coaches praise him for engaging in individual and group conversations about how to make the team better. This includes helping individual players perform better or considering things the team can do together to improve their performance over the season. Coach Steve Kerr observes, “Steph leads with his example, his work ethic, his humility. The players all love him. They love playing with him. They appreciate him so much” (Peter 2019). San Jose Mercury News sportswriter Mark Medina wrote that Curry brings joy to the team, noting “[Steph] will take half-court shots at the end of practice. He will leap out of his seat when a teammate completes a highlight reel. He will say or do things that will make people laugh.”

Looking back at the end of the 2018–2019 season, in which the Warriors lost in the NBA Finals to the Toronto Raptors, Curry shared in a New York Times article that the “regular season was the hardest one we’ve ever had in terms of keeping everything together. Not because of anything more than it’s just mentally challenging to perform at this level every single night.” Injuries aside, he noted that the playoffs were “as fun, if not more, than years past. Because one, we were challenged. Two, there was constant communication in the locker room like, ‘this is what we live for’” (Deb 2019).

Making It Personal

   Have you worked on a team in which colleagues competed with one another rather than connected? How did that make you feel? What drove that behavior?

   In what ways does Steph Curry make his teammates better? What can you implement from Steph Curry’s example that will help your colleagues perform their best?

   Is there one person on your team who gets the most attention? (It might be you!) What can that person do to foster connection?

Principled Pragmatist

Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany since 2005, is recognized as Europe’s most powerful and longest-serving elected leader. Her ascent has been nothing short of remarkable; her longevity as chancellor has been surprising, given the many predictions of her demise. What has led her to be considered among the best leaders in the world?

Merkel grew up in East Germany. On paper, the German Democratic Republic, the official name of the new state created in 1949 after the end of World War II, was democratic, but in reality it was under oppressive Communist rule emanating from the Soviet Union. Her father, Horst Kasner, was a Lutheran minister who had been raised in Berlin and attended university and seminary in western Germany. He was passionate about preaching the Word of God—serving a cause greater than self—and it was this calling that led him to say yes in 1954 to taking the helm of a small Lutheran parish in the new state. At a time when hundreds of thousands of Germans were fleeing the east while they still could, and the number of ministers remaining in the Soviet-occupied zone was dropping, Pastor Kasner stepped forward. Angela Merkel was an infant at the time.

Her father’s occupation made her family outsiders under a government that officially embraced atheism. Her mother, Herlind, whom she is reported to have been very close to, has been described as a woman loved by everyone. She had been a schoolteacher prior to the move but had to give up her occupation because the subjects she taught, Latin and English, “were perceived as counter-revolutionary and bourgeois” (Qvortrup 2016). When Merkel was three years old, her father was promoted to head a newly established seminary for training future Lutheran pastors. The family moved to a larger town and lived in a complex that included a school for children with special needs. The Kasner family worked together, with periodic help from the special needs children, to restore the complex’s buildings that had fallen into disrepair. Merkel’s interactions with special needs children (whom the Soviet state and other children kept their distance from) may have helped shaped her belief in human rights and valuing all human beings.

Merkel joined the communist youth organization so that she could access a university education and job. She earned a doctorate in quantum chemistry and worked as a researcher in that field. In communist East Germany, people learned to keep their opinions to themselves for fear of persecution. Later it was discovered that the Stasi, the East German secret police, had files on her father and a memo on Merkel that stated she privately admired the freedom of the West and resented that she could not access research or interact with researchers there.

Following the Soviet Union’s collapse and German reunification in 1990, Merkel began volunteering in politics. Her quiet, modest, analytical style and work ethic gained the attention of leaders who made her a government minister. Once again, she was an outsider—a woman from East Germany among predominantly male West German political leaders. Male leaders tended to be condescending toward her. For example, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl used to refer to her as his mädchen (little girl). When the press uncovered a secret slush fund Kohl used to reward loyalists, Merkel challenged his leadership. Not long thereafter, Merkel became the first female chancellor of Germany and, at 51 years old, the youngest to serve in that role.

For many years, the German people have referred to Chancellor Merkel as Mutti, which means mom. Many are comforted that she is never rash about making decisions. Instead, she takes the time to gather information and knowledge by seeking the ideas and opinions of others, thinks through possible scenarios and outcomes, then makes a decision when she believes it is the proper time. This measured approach gives people around her a voice and shows she values them, even though it can take more time and be frustrating for some. (Her critics began using “merkel” as a verb to cast her careful, deliberative decision-making style as indecisiveness.)

Unlike many politicians who wear flashy clothing and exude charisma, Merkel doesn’t attract attention. That can be said of her speaking style as well. In private and when the cameras are off, she can be cheerful and personable, with a good sense of humor. When the cameras are on, however, she communicates in the unemotional and rational manner you would expect from a scientist who grew up in a culture in which it was safer to keep your head down and opinions to yourself. When she became chancellor, she refused to move into the chancellor’s opulent penthouse apartment and instead chose to live in an ordinary flat with her husband.

Although Chancellor Merkel has a reputation for taking moderate positions on issues, occasionally she takes a clear stand on principles and her values become evident (one observer described Merkel as a “principled pragmatist”; CFR 2015). Two incidents reveal Merkel’s core values. Following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Japan, she banned nuclear energy in Germany. This created a tangle of litigation, but she did it to protect people from the risk of a nuclear accident on German soil. In 2015, she allowed an influx of hundreds of thousands of immigrant refugees who were being persecuted in other countries, including war-torn Syria. Both were decisions against her political interest, yet they showed that Angela Merkel values human beings and places their protection from harm above her own political interest.

In his book Angela Merkel: Europe’s Most Influential Leader, Matthew Qvortrup (2016) described an incident in August 2015 when the chancellor faced an angry crowd confronting her over her position on allowing in refugees. Rather than ignore them and walk past, or be drawn into angry rhetoric, she took another tack. She put a positive vision in front of them. “Welcoming people who flee tyranny is part of what we are all about, part of our understanding of who we are,” she declared. “There is no tolerance for those who question the worth of other people, no tolerance for those who are not willing to help, when helping is right and humane.” In this statement, “she was not only standing for dignity, she was also upholding Germany’s self-respect; she was personifying the new, open and tolerant country—one that distanced itself from its dark history of genocide, tyranny and the unspeakable horrors of the Nazi concentration camps.”

Although the integration of immigrants has been challenging, the situation is improving. Merkel has continued to defend her decision, saying, “It was right and it was important for us to take these people in during this extraordinary situation” (Hill 2018).

In her commencement speech delivered at Harvard University on May 30, 2019, she gave this exhortation to the graduates and those in attendance:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chancellor Merkel connected with and united the German people. As is typical of her approach, Merkel developed a command of the facts related to COVID-19 then decided on a course of action. On March 18, to unite Germans behind the plan, she gave an address on national television for the first time since becoming chancellor in November 2005, other than her annual New Year’s message (Dempsey 2020). At the outset, Merkel placed the evolving situation in context, stating, “This is serious…. Since German reunification—no, since the Second World War—no challenge to our country in which our acting together in solidarity matters so much” (News Wires 2020). She acknowledged how hard it is to be apart from family and friends in such a time, and asked Germans to be self-disciplined in preserving social distancing practices. Germans listening to this call for self-sacrifice knew that their chancellor valued freedom: “For someone like myself, for whom freedom of travel and movement were hard-won rights,” she said, “such restrictions can only be justified when they are absolutely necessary.” She thanked healthcare workers and first responders, and recognized that “those who sit at supermarket cash registers or restock shelves are doing one of the hardest jobs there is right now” (Davidson 2020).

Observers cited Merkel’s leadership as one reason Germany had one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the world. Her popularity and approval ratings soared (Gallu and Delfs 2020). Nearly 90 percent of Germans thought their government handled the pandemic well (News Wires 2020).

Praising Chancellor Merkel’s leadership, Professor Hans-Georg Kräusslich, head of virology at University Hospital in Heidelberg, one of Germany’s leading research hospitals, concluded, “Maybe our biggest strength in Germany is the rational decision-making at the highest level of government combined with the trust the government enjoys in the population.” (Bennhold 2020). Media worldwide also took note of Merkel’s leadership during the pandemic. As one observer summed it up, Angela Merkel “may someday be remembered [as] … the political leader who executed, celebrated, and personified evidence-based thinking when it mattered most” (Miller 2020).

Making It Personal

   How would you describe your decision-making style? How would your colleagues describe it? When announcing a decision you have made that impacts others, how often do you explain the rationale and welcome questions?

   If you’ve made a decision that was met with criticism, how did you handle it?

   During your formative years, was there a particular person or event that had a profound influence on your values?

The Soul of Starbucks

At the 2018 Seattle Business magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award dinner to honor Howard Behar, Starbucks Executive Chairman Howard Schultz introduced his former colleague of more than two decades, proclaiming that Behar taught the organization guiding principles and values that have been forever imprinted on the organization’s culture. Howard Behar, he explained, “taught us the universality of longing for human connection, for being respected and valued—not for ringing the register or trying to get the money out of a customer’s hand—but by touching [customers’] hearts and celebrating the people who do the work” (Schultz 2018).

Howard Behar began at Starbucks in 1989 when it had 28 stores and was beginning to expand outside of the U.S. Pacific Northwest. During his 21-year tenure, he served as executive vice president of sales and operations, as president of Starbucks North America, as the founding president of Starbucks International, and on the Starbucks Board of Directors. He worked so closely with Howard Schultz and the late Orin Smith, who held several senior positions, that people at Starbucks referred to the three as “H2O” (two Howards and one Orin). They had dinner together most Monday evenings.

Much can be learned about Behar’s leadership philosophy and practices by reading his excellent books, It’s Not About the Coffee: Leadership Principles From a Life at Starbucks and The Magic Cup: A Business Parable About a Leader, a Team, and the Power of Putting People and Values First. Like all great leaders, Howard Behar communicates an inspiring vision about serving others, he values people as human beings and doesn’t think of or treat them as mere means to an end, and he gives people a voice by seeking their ideas and opinions then considering them.

Behar is passionate about serving others; he is a trustee emeritus of The Robert Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. In his acceptance speech for the Lifetime Achievement Award, he gave the credit for the success of Starbucks to all the partners (the term Starbucks uses for employees). The role of H2O, he explained, was to “set the tone, live the values, and knock down the hurdles. In essence, our job was to serve our people on the journey of creating the Starbucks you see today. The better we served, the better the results. It was really that simple.” Driving the point home as he came to the end of his remarks, he told the audience: “Being of service is the key in this life. At the end of the day, the success that Starbucks has had is directly attributable to serving people…. That begins and ends with the commitment of leadership” (Schultz 2018).

Behar has talked about the importance of connecting people who work in business to how they are serving others (in other words, the element of vision). He explains it this way:

Behar says the little things matter too. He tells the story of an elderly Starbucks customer named Big Jim who lived in a nursing home across the street from a Starbucks store. Every day, about the same time in the afternoon, Big Jim came in and ordered a small drip coffee and a blueberry muffin. Big Jim and the Starbucks staff became like family, not a transactional relationship of customer and employee. The Starbucks baristas often wrote little notes to him on the coffee cup or on the bag they put the muffin in. One day, Big Jim didn’t show up. Concerned, they sent a barista across the street with a drip coffee and blueberry muffin to check on him. The receptionist at the nursing home informed him that Big Jim had passed away in his sleep. The next day, one of Big Jim’s children stopped by the store and asked the manager if all the baristas and the manager could possibly attend Big Jim’s funeral because he loved them and it would have meant a lot to him to have them there. The store manager said yes and arranged for others to cover for them. When they walked through the front door of the funeral home, there on display, covering three big tables, were Starbucks cups and bags with the handwritten notes to Big Jim that he had held onto. Behar wondered, “Who would have ever thought a small thing, just saying ‘I love you’ basically every day, would mean so much to another human being? But it does…. How many times do you walk down the hallway in your companies and don’t look up … and say ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ [to the people you are passing]? Get in the habit of doing that” (Schultz 2018).

Rather than drawing attention to himself, Behar likes to tell stories about the times that Howard Schultz demonstrated that he values people. When Behar had been at Starbucks for three months, he received a call from a store manager in Seattle named Jim who wanted to meet with him and Schultz in person. “So, Jim, what can we do for you?” was Howard Behar’s opening question when they got down to business. Jim told them he was dying of AIDS. This was 1989, in the early days of the AIDs epidemic when there was a lot of uncertainty and fear about the disease. “So, Jim, what can we do for you?” was the immediate question of Howard Schultz. Jim told them he would like to continue working for as long as his health permitted. Behar recounts that, without blinking an eye, Schultz promised Jim he could work as long as he was able to and after he could no longer physically work, his salary and benefits would not run out. Schultz’s promise came at a time when Starbucks was still losing money and its future was shaky (Schultz 2018).

Behar also tells the story of receiving a call in the middle of the night at his home in Seattle when he was president of Starbucks North America, alerting him that three Starbucks employees at the Georgetown store in Washington, D.C., had been shot and killed, including an 18-year-old who had just recently begun at Starbucks as his first job. Behar immediately called Howard Schultz, who was in New York City on vacation. Schultz didn’t call Starbucks’ public relations people or lawyers for them to make the initial response or to consult on what the next steps should be. Instead, he chartered a plane and headed straight to Washington, D.C., himself. When he arrived, he spoke with the police then proceeded to the store to get the addresses of the three murdered Starbucks employees. He went to each of their homes, told their families he was sorry, and shared in their tears. He showed courage by expressing the grief he felt. Doing so contributed to helping the victims’ families, friends, and colleagues as they reeled from the shock and began to process what had happened. As awful as grieving the loss of a loved one or friend is, it’s far worse to grieve alone.

Howard Schultz’s empathy and compassion spoke loudly to Behar, a leader who has a huge heart. The message it conveyed to him was that at Starbucks he could “do anything I need to do in service to another human being.” Behar had left his former employer and joined Starbucks in part because the previous CEO he had worked for advised him he “shouldn’t wear his heart on his sleeve.” Schultz was the type of leader Behar wanted to work for, a leader he could respect and admire because of his courageous and compassionate heart, a leader he wanted to give his best efforts to serve.

Howard Behar shows people he values them and gives them a voice by “walking the halls,” which is all about getting out of your office, getting to know the people you are responsible for leading, and listening to them. When traveling to connect with the people he was responsible for leading, he began the practice of holding open forums. In It’s Not About the Coffee, Behar explains, “We use Open Forums to deal with changes or bring up issues where there is conflict or potential conflict.” His approach was to raise the issue and be silent so that people would speak up. If no one responded within the first minute or two, he would ask someone to share their point of view in public then patiently hear the person out. Behar has said that he’s seen how anxiety is reduced by getting people to express their point of view without fear of retaliation or being disrespected. “Those clear channels, that culture of listening and being heard, has made a huge difference in our ability to constantly keep our organization moving forward…. There are no negative thoughts, there are just thoughts. It’s all positive. It’s all feedback. You learn from all of it” (Behar and Goldstein 2007).

Behar was a safe leader for people to speak honestly to. In 1993, Greg Rogers, an assistant manager at a Starbucks store in Santa Monica, California, noticed how well cold drinks were selling at another shop in the area, and he came up with a frozen drink concoction that he thought might spur sales on a warm afternoon. Attempts to share the idea up the chain of command stalled. At the time, Starbucks strictly made hot coffee and espresso beverages. His district manager reached out to Behar, and he traveled to the Santa Monica store to try the new drink for himself. He loved it and advocated for it to Howard Schultz. The Frappuccino was born and became a huge success.

Behar had an enormous impact on Starbucks North America as its president. He went on to become the first president of Starbucks International and led it to spectacular growth. At the time of his retirement, Starbucks had expanded to 15,000 stores across five continents. Behar was loved and respected throughout Starbucks for his heart and passion as well as his work ethic, open-mindedness, and judgment about the retail business.

In 2015, several years after Behar left the company, Starbucks partnered with USA Today on an initiative called Race Together. Howard Schultz was troubled by the racial injustice and growing division evidenced by the protests following the grand jury decision not to indict the white police officer who killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Missouri. Schultz felt he could no longer remain silent. One day in December 2014, he called for an impromptu open forum on race at the Starbucks headquarters and 400 colleagues joined him. Executives shared that “the ensuing dialogue was unexpectedly rich and poignant.” This then led to forums with Starbucks colleagues in other cities. Out of these experiences of giving people a voice, listening to each other, and engaging in dialogue, “Schultz wanted to do more with the idea—to take full advantage of Starbucks’s massive platform and reach” (Carr 2015). Although intended to further cultural connection by engaging people in conversations related to race relations, the practice of writing “race together” on customers’ Starbucks cups was controversial and promptly ended. Despite the criticism, Howard Schultz said other actions would go forward, including publishing special sections on racial issues in USA Today. Laurel Harper, a spokesperson for Starbucks, said the criticisms “have not dented Starbucks’ determination. ‘This is who we are,’ she said. ‘Our mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. We know that we don’t have all the solutions and the answers, but for us, doing nothing makes us part of the problem’” (Somaiya 2015).

Finally, on a personal note, on one occasion when I was on a telephone call with Howard Behar, he casually asked how my wife, Katie, was doing. I shared with him that she had recently been diagnosed with a third type of cancer. After we discussed it for a while, he asked how I was doing in light of this news and whether I had anyone to talk with about it. Then he told me he wanted me to speak with his wife, Lynn, an expert on providing psychosocial support for people with cancer and co-editor of the Handbook on Oncology Social Work. I agreed. Over a series of calls, Lynn Behar was a caring and wise advisor who helped support me with guidance and encouragement. She also arranged for a world-renowned expert in breast cancer oncology social work at Memorial Sloan Kettering to stop in and spend a little time with us during one of Katie’s chemotherapy treatments. Today, I look back at that time with gratitude for Howard and Lynn for the example they are of people who care about others and the difference they made to me during a difficult period.

Making It Personal

   Howard Behar explained how the widget-maker made a difference in the lives of others. How does the work you do serve others?

   Can you recall a time when a small thing you did for someone had a bigger effect on the recipient than you would have imagined? What is a small gesture you can do for a colleague or customer this week?

   Howard Behar liked to tell stories about others living up to Starbucks’ values to shine the light on them and not bring attention to himself. Be on the lookout for colleagues who are living your organization’s values and tell others about their example.

Healing Connections

The best culture in a healthcare organization is a connection culture. Patients and their families benefit from the feeling of connection among healthcare professionals that extends to them and it helps reduce the stress and anxiety that accompany illness.

Chapter 2 shared my family’s experiences during my wife’s battles with cancer. The healthcare workers we met were kind and compassionate and our whole family felt connected to everyone, from doctors and nurses to the environmental services staff and even the cafeteria workers. These connections helped us cope with the stress and anxiety surrounding Katie’s uncertain future and are an important part of a healing healthcare culture.

The MD Anderson Cancer Center has a strong vision that is summarized in the phrase from its logo: “Making cancer history.” In fiscal year 2018, MD Anderson invested more than $860 million in research and made progress in several areas, including inventing an immunotherapy treatment that resulted in the Nobel Prize being awarded to MD Anderson’s chair of immunology, Jim Allison (MD Anderson Cancer Center 2019). Its vision to cure cancer is an enormous sense of pride to its employees.

When he was president and CEO of the not-for-profit New York–Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Herbert Pardes was a great example of a leader who promoted vision and value. A well-respected psychiatrist and former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Pardes (2014) described his vision of healthcare when he stated: “I anthropomorphize disease. I covert it to an evil enemy. I want to slay it before it hurts friends and family. But if anyone is ill—cancer, heart disease, depression, schizophrenia—what we want to do is bring everything we have, the very best, to fix the problem.” Pardes always devoted time to making bedside visits to patients, something that other leaders might dismiss as inefficient, but he was passionate about providing humane healthcare and understood that connection made patients and their families feel better.

Pardes valued the people he was responsible for leading and put practices in place to ensure they were caring and engaged individuals. He advocated for personal and professional mentors, striving to help people balance their personal lives with professional growth. To extend the feeling of connection, he encouraged staff members to memorize and use the names of patients and their family members.

By combining a connection culture with sound management practices, Pardes and his team turned around the hospital system and New York–Presbyterian’s revenue rose from $1.7 billion in 1999 to $3.7 billion in 2011. Whereas most hospitals find it difficult to attract and retain nurses, New York–Presbyterian’s vacancy rate was less than a third of the national average. The New York Times observed that while “most urban hospitals have struggled, New York–Presbyterian has thrived” (Stodghill 2007).

The power of connection is also on full display at Mayo Clinic, America’s top-ranked hospital and arguably the best hospital in the world. From the time of its founding in 1889, Mayo Clinic has been intentional about cultivating connection and community. Dr. Charlie Mayo, one of the earliest leaders, communicated an attitude that valued connection and warned about the dangers of isolation: “Our failures as a profession are the failures of individualism, the result of competitive medicine. It must be done by collective effort” (Burns et al. 2018).

One of the ways this is manifest is in Mayo Clinic’s practice of compensating physicians through paying a salary rather than by an activity-based system. Not only does this promote collaboration for the good of the patient, it also alleviates the financial and time pressure of trying to see too many patients in a day, which often diminishes the physician-patient connection.

On its website, Mayo Clinic’s stated mission and values point to the intent of its founders, the original Mayo physicians and Sisters of St. Francis. Mayo Clinic’s mission is “To inspire hope and contribute to health and well-being by providing the best care to every patient through integrated clinical practice, education, and research” (italics mine). The language used to describe its values includes the following:

Notice that words and phrases that reflect and enhance connection are woven throughout: sensitivity, empathy, treating the whole person (including emotional and spiritual needs), teamwork, blending skills of the team, unsurpassed collaboration, each employee, and every team member.

Mayo Clinic’s belief in the importance of connection goes beyond attitudes and language to practical steps taken to see that connection is infused in the culture. Mayo Clinic’s onboarding process for physicians and scientists includes extensive training in professionalism and communication, and assessments to help them develop emotional intelligence, which is instrumental to connecting with others. Physician leaders are selected, developed, and assessed based on their ability to connect, which includes listening to, engaging, developing, and leading other physicians. Informal opportunities for connection among colleagues are encouraged by providing dedicated meeting areas for physicians to gather.

Mayo Clinic’s intentionality and commitment is evident in a program called COMPASS (Colleagues Meeting to Promote and Sustain Satisfaction). Under this initiative, self-formed groups of six to 10 physicians get together for about an hour every other week, usually over breakfast or lunch, with up to $20 provided to each participant to cover the meal cost. They begin by spending at least 15 minutes discussing assigned issues related to the physician experience. Two examples include “brainstorm ways to promote collegiality in your hallway or work unit” and “choose one stressor that you can control, come up with two concrete ways you can reduce it, and commit to trying one approach within the next week” (Berg 2018). Mayo Clinic’s research has found that participants in COMPASS experience statistically significant improvements in well-being and satisfaction that can help reduce the risk of physician burnout and medical errors.

The COVID-19 pandemic placed a tremendous stress on individuals working in healthcare. Arriving in the United States in early 2020, the highly transmissible novel coronavirus sometimes spread undetected in communities for days and weeks before symptoms required patients to seek medical treatment. In the New York City area and other early COVID-19 hot spots, many hospitals experienced a surge of COVID-19 patients that threatened to surpass their capacity to provide intensive treatments, such as respiratory therapy requiring the use of ventilators. At times the onslaught was so great that patients were dying before they could be taken out of ambulances (Watkins et al. 2020).

The normal stress on individuals working in healthcare was magnified by demanding hours of intense work treating patients, the shortage of personal protective equipment, and the risk of contracting COVID-19 and passing it along to patients or colleagues. They also carried the weight of potentially bringing the virus home with them and infecting their loved ones. As a precautionary measure, some healthcare professionals even secured separate housing for a period of time, which added the potential of social isolation further increasing their stress level.

Recognizing the courage and selflessness of healthcare workers, people worldwide organized ways to express their appreciation. Appearing in front yards and on balconies, people clapped for healthcare workers at an appointed time in the evening. In some towns, police and firefighters ran emergency lights and sirens to show their appreciation, church bells rang, and people banged on pots and pans. The U.S. Air Force’s Thunderbirds and U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels jet fighters came together to do a joint fly-over across several cities in hard-hit areas to honor healthcare workers.

During this especially intense period, many individuals working in healthcare were inspired by their profession’s healing mission; the camaraderie, caring, and kindness of their colleagues; and the appreciation expressed by their communities. At the same time, there is concern that the pandemic’s physical and emotional demands on healthcare workers may contribute to higher rates of burnout (Haskell et al. 2020).

KP Mendoza, a 24-year-old ICU nurse in New York City dedicated to caring for the sick, poignantly articulated what it was like to be in the trenches of caring for critically ill COVID-19 patients. In a long post on social media, he wrote of the physical and psychological toll—some days he felt lucky if he ate or had more than one bathroom break during his 12-hour shift. It was a heavy emotional burden to be the one to tell a concerned relative over the phone that the loved one she could not be with in person was not doing well. Stretched to care for more patients at a time than normal, he felt guilt and shame for not being able to provide the attention to each one that he normally could. The lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) was especially troubling to him:

In an interview on the PBS NewsHour, Mendoza observed that one of the few silver linings of the shared experience going through the pandemic was “that we realize how important it is to reach out to the people we love… that’s the one beautiful part of this, it’s going to make people feel connected” (Brangham 2020).

The COVID-19 pandemic may turn out to be an inflection point. In addition to greater use and acceptance of telemedicine and more remote work, it may also lead to post-traumatic growth that brings about a desire to increase connection in the cultures of healthcare organizations. I’m encouraged by the views of Dr. Robert McLean, past president of the American College of Physicians and a physician at Yale New Haven Health. He has stated that for the sake of the profession’s future, healthcare leaders must explicitly address isolation, especially now that it has been made worse by the necessity of social distancing, quarantine, and the “emotional burden [from COVID-19] that will predictably develop over time.”

In an address given in April 2020, McLean exhorted American College of Physicians’ fellows to combat the isolation of their colleagues by making contact “via phone, video, or in person every day with at least one colleague to sincerely inquire about their personal well-being and personal life outside of a clinical context.” He then noted, “Isolation is truly a significant challenge. As physicians, we understand that human connection is everything…. The emotional toll of this isolation on individuals will be large and with us for a long time. The little gestures and touches, even remotely, are so meaningful. We all know, but need reminders in these hectic days delivering care, to try to pause, [and] consider the emotional component of everything we do on ourselves and on those around us. That is what makes us healers in the truest sense of the word.”

Making It Personal

   Mayo Clinic pays salaries to its physicians so that their behaviors are more likely to be aligned with Mayo Clinic’s values of teamwork and integrated clinical practice. Is your organization’s approach to compensation, recognition, and promotion aligned with its values? If not, how could they be changed to promote alignment?

   Mayo Clinic invests in getting physicians together in groups for meals as one way to boost connection and reduce the risk of physician burnout. One organization we know provides budget dollars to supervisors specifically to fund team-building activities outside of work. Can you invest in connecting people in your organization in ways that allow them to form groups that engage in meaningful conversations with their peers?

   Another deliberate step that Mayo Clinic took to provide opportunities for peers to be together and form supportive relationships was to bring back dedicated spaces for physicians, complete with free beverages and fruit, lunch tables, limited food for purchase, and computer stations. Does your workplace have spaces where colleagues can gather informally? Are they designed in a way that is welcoming, relaxing, and conducive to casual conversation?

   How do you cope during times of great stress? How does your organization help employees cope during times of adversity?

What Oprah Knows for Sure

The best leaders connect with the people they are responsible for leading by communicating and achieving an inspiring vision, valuing people, and giving people a voice. It should come as no surprise that Oprah Winfrey, one of the most influential, admired, and successful women in the world, meets that description. Harvard professor Nancy F. Koehn (2011), who has studied and written about Oprah, observed, “like all great leaders, [Oprah] connects—in meaningful, dignified ways—to people on an emotional level.”

Early on, like other broadcast interview programs, Oprah’s TV talk show included “sensational” guests. Over time, however, her vision became to lift up people by connecting them with ideas and stories that improved their physical and mental health, spirituality, and self-fulfillment. She began to require the producers who came up with guest ideas to present their vision for that episode and then she would decide if that was aligned with her vision.

Oprah also describes her vision as using her expanded platform to “connect people to themselves and a higher consciousness” (Winfrey 2014) and to “change the world” by being “a catalyst for transformation in people’s lives” (Koehn 2011). When you listen closely to how Oprah articulates her vision in greater detail, you learn that she believes people need to get to know their calling and the values they believe in. “Know who you are and why you are here,” she says. Doing so connects them with their “emotional GPS” that guides their actions and lives. She believes everyone has a calling. To help her discover her own calling and values, Oprah has reflected on her life experiences by writing in a personal journal since she was 15 years old.

Valuing people as human beings and not thinking of or treating them as means to an end is very much a part of Oprah’s character. She does this in many ways. She believes that all people want validation and want to know: “Did you see me?” “Did you hear me?” and “Did what I say mean anything to you?” (Muller 2019). She has stated that she has taken the words of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. to heart to judge people not by externals such as the color of their skin or beauty but by the content of their character. Oprah has been described as being “unfailingly respectful to her colleagues” (Koehn 2011). Oprah gives the people she leads autonomy to do their work. She is grateful and expresses appreciation, stating “I could weep when I think about my team.”

One can see other ways Oprah values people. Over many years now, she has focused on helping others through her substantial humanitarian and philanthropic efforts. A prime example is the generous donation she made to create and fund an academy for academically gifted girls in South Africa whose disadvantaged backgrounds might otherwise hinder them from receiving an excellent education. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy opened in 2007 for grades seven and eight. The boarding school now serves grades eight through 12, and its vision is to “[create] a safe space to educate, to nurture, to empower, and, of course, to inspire this next generation of leaders for South Africa and for the world” (Winfrey 2017a).

Oprah gives people a voice by leading by example and being open to sharing her experiences in life. For instance, she has shared her struggles to lose weight. She’s spoken about being raped by a teenage cousin and molested by one of her mother’s boyfriends. Her vulnerability has given courage to others to speak out. She is confident while also being humble and open to new ideas.

Her passion for connecting with people and cultivating a connection culture has helped Oprah advance from being a local television reporter first in Nashville and then in Baltimore to founding and leading a phenomenally successful production company, Harpo, and then founding and leading the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) in partnership with the Discovery Channel. Harpo, the production company Oprah started in 1986, was reported to have a low annual employee attrition rate of 10–15 percent, and the tenure among senior executives averaged 11 years (Koehn 2011). She wrapped up The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2011 after 25 seasons. Along the way, Oprah has acted in a number of movies, including The Color Purple (1985) and A Wrinkle in Time (2018), as well as authored several books. O, The Oprah Magazine carries forward her vision. The monthly magazine was launched in 2000 and now reaches more than 22 million readers across the magazine, website, and social media (O Media Kit 2020). Oprah is still going strong, and it will be exciting to see in the years ahead how this extraordinary leader continues to live out her calling.

Making It Personal

   Oprah Winfrey exhorts people to “know who you are and why you are here.” In The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life’s Direction and Purpose, she shared, “All humans have value and a voice. And I consider it my purpose here on earth to celebrate and validate both” (Winfrey 2019). What are the core values that define who you are and point to what is important to you? Do you have a sense of “calling” or purpose, and have you articulated it? If not, to help you hone in on your unique purpose, consider these questions: What matters most to me? If I knew that I only had nine months to live and I had unlimited resources, what would I want to do? What activities energize me? In articles, books, or movies that I have found to be really thought provoking, is there a common theme?

   Oprah believes that people want to know “Did you see me?” “Did you hear me?” and “Did what I say mean anything to you?” In your interactions with people, what do you do or say that validates them? What is a habit you have that might get in the way, such as interrupting the other person so you can insert your own view? According to Bob Tiede, author of Now That’s a Great Question, after we’ve asked someone a question and there is silence before the person answers, many of us wait only two to three seconds before either rephrasing the question, answering it ourselves, or moving on. Pay attention to see if you have this tendency.

   Oprah has been open about her struggles. Think of a time when you were vulnerable about an issue or hardship you have faced. How did you see that affect your connection with the listener?

Main Street Connectors

The Kneaded Bread, a bakery on Main Street in Port Chester, New York, is renowned for its delicious baked goods, including up to 20 varieties of bread. The line that queues up just before the bakery opens its doors is a testament to its enduring popularity.

For more than two decades now, the bakery has been owned by Jeffrey Kohn, a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef, and his wife, Jennifer, who oversees operations. A few years ago, I was concerned when a celebrity chef opened a beautiful new bakery directly across the street. The new bakery has since closed its doors. I think there are several reasons why the Kneaded Bread outlived the celebrity chef’s bakery. One reason is the quality of everything at the bakery reflects task excellence. The bread is baked fresh each day, the soup is made from scratch, and the turkey in their sandwiches is roasted by them. The second reason is relationship excellence, reflected in the bakery’s connection culture. Task and relationship excellence together help the bakery achieve sustainable superior performance and provide it with a competitive edge.

The Kneaded Bread’s connector-in-chief is its manager, Fernando Bastida. Whenever I ask people if they are aware of the Kneaded Bread, inevitably they bring up Fernando. Everyone knows Fernando.

Bastida, who came to the United States from Mexico, is beloved by the people who work at the bakery and by its customers. He’s always quick with a smile and loves to engage in conversation. You can see by the way that people who work at the bakery interact with him that they feel connected to him. We feel connected to him too. Sometimes we visit the bakery just to say hi to Fernando, and we leave having purchased something to enjoy back home! Since he is a food and dining aficionado, we’ll ask him for dining recommendations. On more than one occasion, he has joined us for dinner.

The Kneaded Bread has become a hub in the community, with people gathering throughout the day for coffee and a pastry. Jeffrey Kohn has said, “We never got too fancy. It’s a feel-good place and it’s been a feel-good place from the minute we opened our doors” (Muchnick 2018).

The Kneaded Bread has expanded twice over its 20-year life. In 2018 the Kohns purchased the building where the Kneaded Bread has been a tenant. There’s talk that they may expand yet again. Given its popularity, I expect there will be more expansions in the future for this Main Street go-to.

Do you know people like Bastida in your local business community who connect with customers and make your community all the better for it? Several other community connectors come to mind.

Judy Gilmartin-Willsey, the owner of a framing shop in Armonk, New York, is often referred to as the unofficial mayor of her adopted town. Years ago, she rallied with others to put it on the map as the “birthplace of Frosty the Snowman,” and now thousands come out for family-friendly activities and a parade down Main Street on the annual Frosty Day.

There’s the team at Threads and Treads, an athletic apparel store in Greenwich, Connecticut, that was founded more than 30 years ago by Mickey Yardis. The store sponsors race events throughout the year, including the “Jingle Bell Jog,” the “Cook Your Buns” run in the heat of the summer, and a triathlon. Threads and Treads has developed a community of runners (and bikers and swimmers) and their families who connect by participating in these runs; people stick around afterward to enjoy food, drink, and conversation.

When one of our daughters taught English in the small town of Guardo in northern Spain, she took exercise classes from Isabel Rojo Alvarez, who owns a gym with her husband. Our daughter admired how Isabel connected personally with each of her students and motivated them to work even harder. As Elizabeth adjusted to life in a new setting, Isabel’s welcome was especially important. “Isabel really cared and took the time to get to know our goals in the gym and what was happening in our personal lives, which helped her not only be an excellent trainer but also a valued friend. People found community in the gym and missed fewer days because they wanted to see Isabel and the strong group of women she brought together in classes” (Stallard 2019).

Connectors who cultivate community make all our lives better. The moment of connection may appear small to a casual observer—a kind word, a listening ear, an explanation that brings clarity to a situation—but might have a significant effect in the recipient’s life. The next time you encounter people who are a force of connection in your community, make sure you thank them for the positive impact they have.

Making It Personal

   Who comes to mind when you think of “Main Street” connectors you’ve encountered? What attitudes, language, or behaviors have you observed in that person that make a difference?

   Is there anything that holds you back from offering a moment of connection to a passerby or someone you recognize but don’t really know? What is one thing you could do for a neighbor, store clerk, or waitress this week?

   It helps to have a few go-to questions that will start a conversation or draw out the other person. One of mine is “What do you like to do outside of work?” After listening, and resisting the natural temptation to jump in with your own story, ask follow-up questions about details shared, what the person felt, or what the person learned from the experience. What are a few open-ended questions that you might ask someone you are just getting to know?

Horned Frog Family

Texas Christian University (TCU), with more than 11,000 students, is located in Fort Worth, Texas. In recent years, TCU has been consistently recognized as a top 100 U.S. News & World Report college and in the top 20 list of up-and-coming national universities. TCU is listed number 2 of best-run colleges by the Princeton Review.

As word about TCU has spread across the country and around the world, applications have soared. Almost half of the students now hail from outside Texas and more than 85 countries are represented in the student body. Over the past five years, total applications received for the incoming freshman class have been steadily increasing, with a new record of 20,156 set in fall 2018. The fall 2018 entering class was the largest in university history at 2,194. Admission numbers tell the story of TCU’s incredible momentum and its rise as a desirable learning laboratory and reputable academic community.

TCU’s sports teams have put the university in the national spotlight too. Competing at the NCAA Division I level, the football team has appeared in 16 bowl games, including winning the Rose Bowl in 2011. TCU has hosted the live broadcast of ESPN’s College GameDay on several occasions, its baseball team has traveled to the College World Series five times since 2010, and men’s basketball had an NIT win and NCAA tournament appearances. In the 2017–2018 school year, 11 of TCU’s 21 sports were ranked in the top 25. It’s indeed an exciting time to be part of the Horned Frog family.

Seeing TCU up close allows you to appreciate that its true strength—indeed its competitive advantage—is more than just academics and sports. What really makes TCU stand out is its connection culture.

TCU’s formal vision is “to be a world-class, values-centered university” and its mission is “to educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens in the global community.” The university values “academic and personal achievement, intellectual inquiry and the creation of knowledge, artistic and creative expression, a heritage of service in pursuit of the greater good, personal freedom and integrity, the dignity of and respect for the individual, and an active appreciation for the array of human experience and the potential of every human being.” Of note, the TCU mission and vision statements were affirmed by the board of trustees in April 2019, while the values statements were adjusted and approved by the board upon suggestions made through a task force comprising faculty, staff, and students.

Valuing people is a signature character strength of TCU’s culture. The university’s faculty members clearly value their students and, thanks to a student-teacher ratio of 13-to-1, they have time to get to know them. The enthusiasm of its faculty and staff members has helped raise TCU’s status in the academic community. For nine consecutive years, TCU was named by the Chronicle of Higher Education as one of the “Great Colleges to Work For.” Additionally, TCU received Honor Roll designations in several categories, an accolade reserved for institutions with the most recognitions across categories. This status demonstrates the united effort across all departments and divisions to make TCU a top-tier academic community.

TCU Chancellor Victor J. Boschini Jr. leads the culture in word and deed. In his 2018 University Convocation and Founders’ Celebration address, in reference to the university’s strategic plan as directed by the Board of Trustees, Vision in Action: Lead On, Chancellor Boschini said:

An advocate of servant leadership, Chancellor Boschini praises TCU’s faculty and staff for continuing to “build the mentoring relationships that have long defined TCU.” The university is intentional about hiring teacher-scholars who mentor students and who involve them in their research activities—in fact, approximately 25 percent of the student body, both undergraduate and graduate students, are involved in research projects.

Boschini’s mantra is “listening,” and he encourages others to stop and listen and be curious about what people think. He is outgoing, enthusiastic, and energetic, and when he engages in conversation, he is present and focused on the other person. To stay in touch with students, he teaches a freshman seminar in education. He not only knows every student’s name in his class, but also what is going on in their lives. Whenever I walk with him across campus, invariably we stop to talk with a student or he engages with someone who has called out a friendly greeting. Through simple gestures of making eye contact, smiling, and greeting a passerby, Boschini communicates that he is interested in them.

TCU places a high priority on the importance of students making friends and establishing a support network. Recognizing the high level of stress felt by incoming college students and the negative impact of loneliness, TCU has myriad programs to help students make connections, even before the first day of class. Send-off parties occur around the United States to connect incoming students and their parents with others from their region before they leave home. Frog Camps—whether held in Fort Worth, the mountains of Colorado, or in an international location—introduce new students to each other and to TCU’s history and traditions. Frogs First helps new students connect through activities during their first few weeks on campus, culminating with dinners hosted by faculty and staff members in their homes. A Connections program places students in small groups and encourages meetings led by upper classmen during the fall semester.

More than 200 student organizations offer opportunities to gather around a common cause or shared interest—from community engagement and religious life organizations to sororities and fraternities, multicultural resource groups, and campus recreation. The annual TCU Day of Service program connects student volunteers with opportunities to serve. Throughout the year, the university’s student affairs department orchestrates initiatives and events “to endear students to TCU through irresistible events and experiential leadership opportunities.” Concerts held on the commons unite the community, allowing students to make connections with other students on campus. Community-wide events like the Christmas tree lighting also attract alumni and neighbors to gather with faculty, staff, and students on campus to celebrate the holiday season.

To cultivate inclusion excellence, TCU established an Office of Diversity & Inclusion to promote campus conversations and advance goals and strategies as recommended by the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. The DEI strategy focuses on four actions (attract, teach, reach, and embrace) to serve as the foundation on which academic units, administrative departments, and student groups may develop processes and plans to achieve desired goals within their respective areas. These actions are intended to enhance recruiting and retention of under-represented faculty, staff, and students; bolster curriculum and training; increase outreach and engagement with external communities; and promote a campus environment that is welcoming for all and free of bias.

In an effort to ensure that its students spend four years immersed in cultures of connection, the university established the TCU Center for Connection Culture. The purpose of the center is to “instill a lifelong commitment to connection, promote connection opportunities in the TCU community, promote the teacher-scholar model, and value diverse perspectives.”

Fort Worth embraces TCU as its university and the students embrace the city in return. Merchants display posters of TCU’s sports teams, many residents fly TCU flags, and local street signs are TCU purple with small white icons of the Horned Frog mascot.

My colleagues and I are encouraged to see that the education of rising healthcare professionals is beginning to include the importance of human connection and connection culture, and TCU is taking the lead. The new TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine, a partnership with the University of North Texas Health Science Center, welcomed its inaugural class of 60 medical students in July 2019. The school is intentionally developing Empathetic Scholars using an “interdisciplinary curriculum designed to build skills in awareness, listening, inquiry, and engagement to foster exceptional connections between physicians and their patients, their teams, and their communities.” Incorporated in the education is a physician development coaching program, which assigns a coach to student team members. The coaching relationship will “assist in the development of resiliency, collaboration, communication, and continuous improvement for personal and professional development” (TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine 2019).

With all that it offers, it is no wonder that TCU has been ranked number 3 in the United States for student engagement by Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education. As the university continues to educate and equip students to become intentional about connecting with others and influencing the cultures they are in, I am confident their students are destined to help change the world.

Making It Personal

   Do you know the stated vision, mission, and values of your organization? In what ways do you see the organization living out the vision and mission? Which of the values resonate with you the most, personally, and in your role at work? Is there a value that is more aspirational than actual, in your opinion? What can be done to put it into practice?

   Pick a day to smile and make eye contact with people you come into contact with at work or around your community. Note the results. How did people react to you? How did doing this make you feel?

   What does your organization do as part of the onboarding process for new employees that makes them feel connected? Are there other steps that could be taken to make new hires feel like part of the team?