DAN SIMONS

It sucks when you really suck at something. Or that’s how I used to think. I hated the range of emotions connected to being a beginner: anxiety, self-doubt, and very often avoidance/procrastination. I am sure many of you can relate. But now, I’m seeing it differently. Rather than attaching mental angst and energy to my sucking, I focus on progressing through the I suck  space, reframing it to the necessary learning space on my way to the I can do this  and perhaps even  I can be great at this  space. While I have always loved learning and consider myself a lifelong learner, I have been impatient with myself in this initial learning space for something new.  Dr. Becky (an amazing sharer of knowledge about parenting, living, and learning; if you’re not currently a disciple, I recommend becoming one) talks about The Learning Space , which she frames as the space between not knowing and knowing. Her insights are focused on students and learners, as she guides them to understand that being resilient in this space generally feels messy and unpleasant – and that’s normal. I’m applying her lessons to my own adult path.  In the Fall of 2024, WTOP (a local radio station with millions of listeners) approached me with the idea of doing a podcast on entrepreneurs in the DC area, talking about their lessons and journeys. I was intrigued and agreed to do it. I knew it was a seriously legit opportunity to reach a huge audience, have (hopefully) valuable conversations, and share insights from fellow entrepreneurs for those on that journey or interested in that journey. I’ve had plenty of experience being a guest, being asked the questions, but I had very little experience in the host’s chair. We put together a team to develop the podcast, Founding DC . We set up a series of practice sessions with one of the team members role-playing as the guest.  During the first practice session as host, I sucked. I left the studio that day worried… here I am, sucking, and soon, my suck will be on full display . I thought about bailing; I wondered if there was some sort of cheat code; and then, I thought about Dr. Becky’s lesson. I admitted I cared, I admitted I wanted to do well, and I knew that I could go on the journey of leveling up. I dove in. I scheduled more practice sessions. I engaged an amazing coach. I spent time in the uncomfortableness of the learning space. And guess what? I don’t suck nearly as much as I did when I started. We’ve done four podcast episodes  and are now prepping for our fifth and sixth. And now, I am excited to do them. I am excited to keep learning. Whether or not I’m great, that’s for the audience to decide. The only thing I can do is treat it like a craft, get continuous coaching, allow myself to move and stumble through this learning space, and enjoy the process, even in the moments when I suck.

Partnering up with YPO and Bershan Shaw to share practical strategies for CEOs and business leaders to create healthier, more resilient workplaces. Watch our frank and oftentimes personal conversation about our own struggles, and how they have informed our business practices, including our reasons for building mental health support and transparency in business. We also share our wellness strategies to help your teams and your businesses thrive. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha5RrMGv1qQ

Speaking at the DisruptHR meeting in Baltimore was a great opportunity to connect with HR professionals and share my Mental Health Playbook that moves mental health out of HR silos and into operations. As always, I share some of my own personal experiences, in part to role model de-stigmatizing mental health and in part to explain how mental health impacts performance, productivity, and the bottom line. This is a short 5-minute presentation, which is relevant for all biz leaders. Watch at link below, share with your colleagues, and let me know what you think.     DisruptHR is an information exchange designed to energize, inform, and empower HR leaders, business professionals, and community leaders who are interested in disruptive ideas to move workplace thinking forward, support talent, and compete better in the global marketplace.

Co-written with Julie Baron, LCSW-C, Julie Baron & Associates . Between the two of us, our qualifications include university adjunct faculty, licensed mental health clinician, business owners and entrepreneurs, including Founding Farmers  Restaurant Group that employs 1,500+ people (the majority under the age of 26), and parents of college-age children. The current playbook of academic institutions striving to provide mental health support for students is not working. Noble? Yes. Comprehensively effective? No. Instead, or really, in addition, academic institutions should play to their strength – affecting students in the classroom. This is where topics and discussions about mental health can be brought out from the shadows and normalized.   We hear the questions, from students, at school, at work, in clinical settings:                   Why do I feel like this? I hate this.                   I’m in shambles right now.                   I’m not making new friends.                   This place isn’t for me.                   I hate it here.                   This is all just too much.                   I feel so lost.   We see the social media threads with hundreds, thousands of posts and comments of parents saying: My kid has been at college for a few weeks and is really struggling. This is so hard. Any advice?   According to the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment, 36% of college students (and almost 60% of gender nonconforming and trans-identifying students) reported being diagnosed with anxiety, and 28% report being diagnosed with depression, which does not include the additional reports of students suffering with other mental health disorders. [1] There is an even wider subset who have no formal mental health diagnosis yet suffer in silence without seeking support. These vulnerabilities create an increased propensity for problems on college campuses, such as substance overuse, sexual assault, and academic challenges affecting graduation rate. Without needed mental health education and support, those most vulnerable and desperate are also at risk for suicidal thoughts, behavior, or attempts. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for teens and young adults, ages 10-34. [2]   These statistics are alarming and underscore the pressing need for proactive measures on college campuses. Though some institutions have existing “freshman seminar” courses, the education on mental health and wellness seems minimal to non-existent. We believe, and the research supports, that education on mental health, along with social connection offered in a group classroom setting, and additional mental health supports and resources, can: broaden understanding of self and others; increase empathy; decrease isolation; and offer a space for needed expression. Every first-year student should be required to take a course that incorporates these concepts and experiences. Normalizing transition-related stress, knowing they are not alone, and learning what to do or how to help others if concerns about a more serious mental health condition arise can offer comfort, ease stress, and may even save lives. These classes must allow for small group processing, open communication, and a space for sharing experiences. We imagine calling it something like, “Freshman Psych in the Mirror 101.”   Many colleges and universities have made efforts to scale up their mental health resources and study ways to implement more comprehensive mental health supports into the school cultures. These efforts are important and should continue, adjacent to initiatives to shatter the taboo that mental health cannot be talked about in an academic classroom setting. Many universities have both undergraduate and graduate departments of education, social work, and psychology with experts “in house,” who could be valuable in the research, design, and implementation of such a course. Failing to invest in leveraging the classroom experience to normalize mental health conversations and facilitate understanding of self and others, is fiscally and strategically short-sighted.   Let’s expand the topic of mental health beyond the silos of Student Services and get it into the classroom where it can become part of common discourse. Such a course has the power to offer strategic, actionable support, allow for bonds to form, and send our students back into the hallways and dorms with a chance at thinking, “Oh, I’m not the only one that feels this way!” Offering an opportunity for all incoming first-year students to learn about and practice managing hard emotions and experiences together can help everyone, with added benefits for those who may be struggling more than others. With the endorsement of the school and support from faculty, graduate students, or other student leaders to guide important learning, the message in the college culture would be clear: “We value the mental health and personal growth of our students, and we can learn together that struggling is normal.” Your Voice Matters. Help Make An Impact. If this blog resonates with you and you want to make a positive impact, share it and tag the university or college where your child goes or where you graduated. Post it on your social channels and in your parent Facebook groups. Share wherever you think it will get more eyes. Copy this link dansimonssays.com/post/a-call-to-action-for-universities-colleges  or click one of the social media icons at the bottom of this page. [1] American College Health Association. American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment III: Undergraduate Student Reference Group Data Reporting Spring 2023 (PDF). Silver Spring, MD: American College Health Association. Spring 2023. [2] Curtin SC, Garnett MF, Ahmad FB. Provisional numbers and rates of suicide by month and demographic characteristics: United States, 2021. Vital Statistics Rapid Release; no 24. September 2022. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15620/cdc:120830

Because, from a financial perspective, it’d be foolish not to.    Conscious Capitalism DC (CCDC) hosted a recent gathering with DC-area executives focused on just that question: the reason business leaders need to turn their attention and their dollars to addressing mental health in the workplace. Working with CCDC Co-Chair Amanda Karst (Chief Operating Officer, AO People Partners), we brought together influential leaders and changemakers for an evening of conscious conversations. Here’s a 2-minute short video from the event: Mental health in the workplace, as many of you know, is always a critical business conversation to me. I  was excited to be joined by two-time NBA All-Star, Roy Hibbert , who gave a fantastic keynote, which you can watch HERE . He spoke about his own mental and physical journey as an elite, world-class athlete, and  the challenges he faced while playing at the highest level. Impactful keynote speakers can be hard to find. If you’re looking for an NBA All-Star and high-caliber human being with the ability to capture a room, Roy Hibbert is your guy. (You can reach him through danielle.cantor@famebb.com .)     Next up I shared my Mental Health Playbook , and the business reasons why every leader should want  to address mental health in the workplace, regardless of your field —  the business case is crystal clear. The dollars make the case; the humans make the dollars. While for some leaders, it is simply enough to want to help and support people, the raw capitalist’s motivation is compelling on its own. You can watch my full talk HERE .   Grace Aduroja-Kolker, Manager of Women's Initiatives at Williams & Connolly  and Executive Coach & Facilitator, was the night’s emcee. If you need an amazing person to emcee an event, reach out to me and I will connect you. After our opening presentations, she helped get us all started in a series of very productive, conscious conversations around delicious catered food from none other than Founding Farmers Co. Catering & Events. The roundtable discussions were focused on: (1)  How investing in mental health in the workplace creates organizational value? (2)  Current practices that are effective, and what hurdles get in the way of creating and implementing mental health support programs? (3)  Specific strategies and actions executives are considering implementing next to further advance mental health support? (4) How to measure the value and impact of mental health programs?      Aduroja-Kolker and Conscious Capitalism Board Member/Founder/Emeritus, Timothy Henry, helped summarize key insights and takeaways, encouraging attendees to continue the conversation beyond the evening and utilize knowledge gained to foster healthier workplace environments in their own spheres.     In the spirit of shout-outs to recognize what makes an evening like this possible, I’ve got to highlight the team at   Founding Farmers Co. Catering & Events.   As the official caterer  and sponsor  for the event, the food was fantastic and exceptionally executed !  (My bias aside, just ask anyone who was there.) Event planning and production was expertly overseen by my friends at LINK Strategic Partners . Additional direct funding came from these consciously led businesses:  AO People Partners , Congressional Seafood , Conscious Capitalism DC , and Shulman Rogers .       If you want to read more about why mental health in the workplace is much, much more than simply an HR topic, check out my blog HERE . To learn more about the Conscious Capitalism organization, check out their website   or learn more about our DC chapter events and how to get involved   HERE.

I sat down with the Michael Haft and Harrison Suarez to learn more about what gives Compass Coffee its true north. Check out our video (below or on YouTube) to learn more about these two entrepreneurial Marines, who are building a coffee empire in and around DC, dedicated to making "...real good coffee. Nothing fancy, nothing too crazy or hard to pronounce, just really good." We worked directly with Michael and Harrison to make our own real good coffee, our First Bake Blend, served only at Founding Farmers.

In looking for a successful 2024, here's a list of my top strategies ... or seeds to plant ... to help each of us become more successful business people. It may be no surprise that they will also help us be more thoughtful and caring humans. #1 Prioritize mental healthcare in your life and for your team. The single largest productivity gain staring us in the face is not technology, robots, layoffs, or new manufacturing methods. It is improving the mental health of ourselves and our workforce. Do this, and you can, and will, unleash a massive productivity gain. Smart business is built in a mentally healthy environment and in collaboration with every single member of your team. When your team excels, the company excels. That’s real business innovation. For more, read my blog, “The Largest Productivity Gain Most Companies are Missing,” and watch my Conscious Capitalism CEO Summit keynote address, “Creating Value by Prioritizing Mental Health at Work.” #2 Know what YOU need and get it. Map out your life and your schedule, and how you spend your time on your terms. If alone time is what fills your cup, then create, actually demand, that alone time. If there is someone or something that is sapping your energy when you are around them, or even not around them, then damn it, make the change, learn the polite but hardcore “no,” and jettison them, or it, from your life. You will create a world that fulfills you without all the excess that doesn’t. Cut out, delete, minimize the useless stuff and focus on YOUR “All,” what matters most to you. More details on how I work to manage my time so I can have my “All” at “Creating Your Own Personal Productivity Map” and “Go Your Way.” #3 Learn to listen more and talk less. Most entrepreneurs can work on their listening capacity. If you are one of those people who interrupts all the time… or feels anxious/impatient when others are talking, just waiting to get your point made… you are likely a poor listener and what I call an “expert responder.” Essentially, you are hearing what is being said while preparing your response. Listen to listen instead of listening to respond. If you think you’re a great multi-tasker who is deeply listening and simultaneously formulating a brilliant response, you are wrong, and you are missing the value created when you truly listen to listen, and absorb, and only after that, determining if a response is warranted and value-added. Consider how you can work on your listening skills by reading “Develop the Capacity to Listen, Not Just Hear” and “An Argument Against Multi-Tasking: The Jog That Restructured Our Company.” #4 Love. In my business, the people who continue to succeed, the ones who can move through even the trickiest quicksand and keep going and growing, have a common capability that isn’t grit, resilience, work ethic, or talent. It’s the ability to love and be loved. Sure, I know there are winners in business who love no one but themselves and are substantially dysfunctional with relationships, but these folks are the exception not the rule. So, I’d theorize to ignore the Musk’s and Trump’s of the business world and know that the data tells us those who can lead with a balance of head and heart are more likely to win long term. Explore more at “What Predicts Success?” #5 Do the work and tell the truth. An opposing and wiser view to the typical fake it till you make it biz paradigm. The real key to creating winning, impressive careers for yourself and your team is to stop faking anything. Dig deep. Do the work, which includes leaning into the pain and hardship when you make mistakes or aren’t good enough. Don’t try to fool yourself or those around you. Be honest with yourself and others and strive to be better. Every single day. Read a smidge more on my blog, “Fake It Till You Make It: Worst Idea Ever.” #6 Become a more conscious capitalist. It is NOT all about the Benjamins. When profit is your sole stakeholder, your north star, your moral code, you run the risk of destroying yourself, your career, and your profit. For the how and why, check out “The Capitalist’s Journey to Consciousness: Lessons from the Yellow Brick Road.” #7 And yes, ‘f-in UNPLUG from all the devices that buzz, vibrate, and bleep at you, including your Apple watch. This also means removing them from your view. Even facedown, your phone is calling for your attention. YOU decide when to check for emails, texts, and voicemails. Everyone needs to have a plan, a personal system, to manage their smartphone use. Read more about how to break up with your phone or at least reduce your phone addiction/compulsion at my blogs, “Who’s the Tool? You or Your Smartphone” and “Nine Steps to Making Your Smartphone Your Tool… Not the Other Way Around.”

Men, lemme get right to the point. I believe we need to get fluent. If something affects or will affect 49.6% of the population, we should understand it, right? If something affects every woman at some point in her life, then as humans who have professional, personal, and family relationships with women, we should understand this thing, right? Before I go any further, let me get my disclaimer out of the way. I’m male, I’ll never experience menopause myself, and I’m not an expert on menopause. So, why is a guy who knows so little about menopause writing about it? Because that’s exactly the point. I know only a little, yet I have several roles where I believe I’m compelled to know more and to talk about menopause. I’m married to a woman; I’m a father; I’m a business leader with over 1,200 employees; I advocate regularly about mental health in the workplace. I’d be negligent if I wasn’t talking about menopause. Here’s my quick mea culpa. I was essentially clueless about menopause. I understood it to simply be a phase that concluded the pregnancy years and included hot flashes. That’s it, that’s what I knew. Absolutely fair and accurate to describe myself as ignorant. My ignorance was more than just failing to understand the biological change, symptoms, causes, and effects; my ignorance meant that I had no idea what my mother, my sisters, my wife, and every other woman I knew around my age was going through. Here's another way to look at my cluelessness: imagine if I said to someone I love, “You’re going through this phase that affects your mind, body, and overall wellness, and it may become the dominant thing affecting you, and I’m going to just ignore it, not know anything about it, and not be supportive in anyway.” What sort of person would I be to say that to someone I care about? WHY I AM WRITING ABOUT MENOPAUSE At the most basic personal level, it seems like a good idea to understand what Suzi, my wife, will be and is experiencing. Seems like a good idea to educate my three sons on what their mom AND every other woman in their lives will at some point experience. Seems sensible to understand what has happened, is happening, and will happen for my mum and sisters. I also want to ensure my female employees know we care to understand and support what is or will happen to their mind and body. Seems sensible to educate my male employees on what is or will happen to 100% of their female colleagues. And it seems sensible if I want to effectively talk about mental health that I talk about menopause and hormones, since they can be so deeply intertwined. Hormonal changes, that is, changes in hormone levels, can wreak havoc on the brain and body. I learned this early on about menstrual cycles with my sisters and my mum; I learned more with my wife in our lives together, including during and after several pregnancies. (If you don’t know what I am talking about regarding menstruation, pregnancy, and postnatal hormone shifts, and you are in any personal or professional relationships with women, this is another area to do some learning.) And here’s the thing, hormonal changes aren’t just happening or going to happen to all women; they are happening and are going to continue to happen to all of us. Every day, we are learning more. With this knowledge, we have the ability to be more understanding of ourselves and others; and we are better positioned to deal with our symptoms and potentially treat the root cause. My intent with this blog is four-fold: normalize talking about menopause (and hormones); provide a catalyst for business leaders to learn more about menopause and add it to the list of topics where they can provide education and support to their employees; encourage other men to learn more; and be a conversation starter that people can share digitally with their families, friends, partners, and colleagues. SUBJECTIVITY, QUICKIE DEFINITIONS & MY IGNORANT ASSUMPTIONS Definitions and vocabulary are helpful, so let’s do a few quickies. When discussing menopause, it’s important to also know about perimenopause, the phase leading up to the final menstrual period. To paraphrase definitions from the Mayo Clinic, perimenopause means ‘around menopause’ and refers to the natural transition marking the end of the reproductive years. During perimenopause, the body's production of estrogen and progesterone, key female hormones, rises and falls. Many of the changes experienced during perimenopause are a result of decreasing estrogen. After 12 consecutive months without a menstrual period, menopause officially begins, and the perimenopause phase is over. The word “menopause” is derived from “mēn” and “pausa.” The Greek “mēn” meaning month, and the Latin, “pausa” meaning cessation or break. Conveniently and cluelessly, I had always presumed the word menopause legitimately was conveying, Men, ohhhh, you should pause (your intention), because I’m probably not interested. Seriously, I really thought that — and now I understand I was just falling into my own ignorant pitfall of thinking this phase experienced by a woman had a definition that would be about a man. Man-centric thinking, I know, I know. Also, during perimenopause or menopause, many may want their partner (man or otherwise) to keep their paws to themselves; however, that is not an accurate or appropriate blanket statement, and if anything, it just feeds into the ignorance (primarily of men) surrounding the topic of how to engage with a woman experiencing these pivotal phases. Also, I want to note that when I use a phrase such as “women experiencing menopause,” I am not intending to exclude or offend a person who may go through menopause but who no longer identifies as a woman. My perspective is this a human topic, so I hope my approach with terminology conveys my sentiment. WHAT I AM DOING IN ADDITION TO BLOGGING As a business leader, I’m bringing menopause up at work and reminding supervisors and colleagues that this is another topic on which we must be empathetic. The convergence of mental health, physical health, relationship health, and workplace performance means that we all have compelling reasons to explore, understand, and address the phases and symptoms of menopause. I hope you can share this blog with your executive team and your HR team to see if there are ways you can elevate and support the topic of menopause in your company. I believe it fits right in with initiatives around profit, productivity, and business goals. After all, we need our teams, individually and collectively, to perform at their best for the business to perform at its best. As a husband, I’m learning more and asking Suzi how she feels while being supportive of her journey with Hormone Replacement Therapy, HRT. (She wants me to say it has been an up/down/up journey but for her it is well worth doing now that she and her doctor have found the right recipe.) Maybe you can share this blog with a woman in your life to express that you’re on the journey with her, learning, and interested in knowing how to be supportive. I’m taking responsibility for learning more. I am also working to normalize this conversation amongst my family, friends, colleagues, and anyone who happens to read my blogs. I encourage you to do the same; together, I hope we can help propel the conversation forward to be more informed and stop the hush hush stigma and ignorance. Will you join me? TABOO OR TOO PRIVATE? Before I sign off, let’s do a quick review of any reason to not talk about menopause at home or in the workplace. … Pause. Pause. Pause. Well, that’s quick enough review — there’s no good reason. Wait, you think it’s too private? You aren’t comfortable talking about it? Let me try to convey this, albeit with some slight sarcasm: maybe human reproduction is somehow private, icky, or taboo? That’s odd. If you’re reading this, somehow a sperm met an egg and formed a relationship, and you arrived in this world through the vaginal canal, or maybe you bypassed the canal via Caesarian birth. That vagina and uterus, month after month, are part of this amazing biological cycle and function. Hormones are heavily involved, of course. It doesn’t have to be private, and it isn’t icky. This is just science and human biology. So, let’s push through the taboo if you’re stuck there, and I promise, I’ll abandon any judgment or sarcasm. I really do respect that for each person, this conversation has a range of comfort, discomfort, or unfamiliarity. I’m trying to draw you into this conversation, not push you away. I hope you’ll consider moving through any unease. I am certain the people you care about will be glad if you do. For more on menopause in the workplace, you can listen to an episode on the Anxious Achiever podcast where I was recently a guest.

Menopause is a human issue. One set of humans experiences it, and it just seems incredibly important that all humans get it. This includes business leaders, as I discussed with Morra Aarons-Mele on a recent episode of her Anxious Achiever podcast , "Want to Run a Good Company? You Can't Ignore Menopause Anymore." Anything that significantly disrupts your work becomes a work issue, which is one of the main reasons I have been on a mission to encourage discussion of menopause with business leaders everywhere. Give it a listen and share it with your colleagues and friends. Morra's book, The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in April 2023. She recently won the 2023 Mental Health America Media Award. Also on the podcast was Amy Gallo , author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People) , co-host of Women at Work podcast, and contributing editor at Harvard Business Review . You can also read my blog on the topic, "Menopause. Men All Pause. Leaders All Pause."

I had the opportunity to speak with Michael Tingsager on his podcast, Hospitality Mavericks. Our conversation ranged from building a winning biz culture to mental health in the workplace to why family farming plays a key role in ensuring we have healthy food available and a balanced planet now and in the future. Give it a listen below or by going HERE . And let me know what you think. Hospitality Mavericks is a podcast developed to bring together the world's "Mavericks," or people who do things differently from the norm and refuse to cash out on their values by caring for their people, their communities, and the planet.

I believe the single largest productivity gain staring us in the face is not technology, robots, layoffs, or new manufacturing methods – it is improving the mental health of our workforce. Do this, and you can, and will, unleash a massive productivity gain. People can run much faster and longer if they shed that backpack full of burden they have been dragging around, often in secret. So, whether you’re a hard-core conservative or a left-leaning progressive, you have huge motivation, aligned with your principles, to take my advice. And the first place it often starts, is rejecting what I think is one of the stupidest management strategies: Expecting your team members to leave their problems at the door when they come to work. Who can actually do that? Or be expected to do that? And why does anyone want that anyway? I’ve written before about companies deserving the talent of their employees, moving away from the stereotypical and hierarchical (and mostly patriarchal) top-down squeeze of blood, sweat, and tears from every single employee. It is not a wise way to harness the talent of your team, and it is a terrible way to build a business. What I didn’t specifically address is what comes up day after day in operating our restaurant company: The mental health and emotional wellness of our team matters way more than anything else. Of course, to run a successful business, you need specific skills and expertise, organization and consistent management, smart budgeting and forecasting, good communications skills, and clients/guests/buyers who want what you’re creating. But none of that matters if some of your people are falling apart or don’t feel safe or supported in their day-to-day work. The best playbook in the world is worthless if the players are in elite physical shape yet terrible mental shape. Excellent performance requires health. And mental health is health. Mental Health & Emotional Well-Being Here’s the thing. A lot of people struggle with their mental health, and that means it is highly likely a lot of people working with you and your company do too. According to the National Institutes of Health, nearly one in five U.S. adults lives with an identified mental illness. In 2017, that was 46.6 million Americans. There are many, many more who have not been identified, but who would likely meet the criteria for diagnosis. In addition, nearly 8% of adults reported having a substance use disorder, and of course, many don’t report. The estimated number of adults with serious suicidal thoughts is over 9.8 million – an increase of 200,000 in just one year. In addition to diagnosable mental illnesses, we all know there are a lot of other life events and experiences, whether temporary or long-lasting, that impact one’s emotional state. Whether grieving the loss of a loved one or pet, struggling through the end of a rough relationship, coping with financial worries, managing a sick kid or aging parent, dealing with housing problems, or simply not getting enough sleep because you have an infant or go to night school, everything on this list can impact the well-being of your employees and their ability to do their job, even the simplest of tasks. Putting your head in the sand and ignoring these glaring realities impacting the people in your company is not only stupid, it’s irresponsible. Yet, many companies merely cross their fingers, close their eyes, and hope for the best while simultaneously demanding success from their teams. Or even worse, they articulate specifically that you should keep your personal life, including any problems, to yourself, leave them at the door, and focus only on your job when you are at work. Or else… go work somewhere else. Ugh. That is totally unrealistic. Who can honestly leave their personal life, especially their problems, at the door? I know I can’t. And I don’t want to. Everything Matters. Everything is Personal. In our company, we say, “Everything Matters. Everything is Personal.” This means, we know and expect you to bring YOU to work, every day. All parts of you. Your smarts, expertise, energy, drive, hopes and dreams, as well as your worries, anxieties, fatigue, weaknesses, family love and angst, physical and mental health, and challenges. The best way to deal with that wonderful and complicated stew that is each and every one of us is not to try and refuse it entry, but instead embrace it and support the process of dealing with it. Of course, this doesn’t mean that in our company you can just behave however you like and screw whoever doesn’t like it. Far from it. Rather, it means we recognize each person as a whole, and we hold everyone accountable for each and every piece of themselves. BUT, they also know that they have the support of our entire team. How does this actually work? The best way to explain it is to go through some scenarios. Someone is repeatedly late to work. What do we do? Before we start reprimanding them and threatening their position, we ask, “why?” What is going on that is preventing that person from getting to work on time? Another person appears to be chronically angry, is acting out and/or yelling at co-workers (or even guests). What do we do? Well, of course we intervene immediately to create a safe environment for everyone. Our approach to our employee is first a question, “Are you okay? Where is the anger coming from?” We dig for a cause instead of just hammering them for a symptom. A very reliable employee suddenly starts regularly calling in sick or seems to be hitting the bar heavily after each shift or appears unkempt, down, lost. What do we do? We seek to understand why. What is happening in their life? What is their mental state? How can we help? All of these can easily trace back to one of Stephen Covey’s famous points fromThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People®, “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood®.” In the current business world, this decades-old principle still remains one of the most innovative, especially as it relates to mental well-being, the success of our employees, and of our business. Real Business Innovation in 2019 Recognizes Mental Wellness The single best way to achieve the esteemed “productivity gain” in a company, or achieve success across your entire enterprise, does not come from a new computer, a new robot, or a new method. Try a 50% improvement in the mental health of your workforce, and you’ll see incredible gains in productivity. I’m not a scientist or researcher, so it would be great to have someone from Harvard Business Review to back up my statement with real evidence. But, I have all the evidence I need. I’ve been participating on, building, and leading teams for almost 30 years, and I am certain that the elite results are achieved when mental health and emotional wellness is prioritized and addressed, so that the team members are unleashed. If you’re the smartest data scientist around, and can develop the algorithms for Watson or Alexa, but your anxiety prevents you from talking in meetings or your moderate depression makes it hard to get out of bed some days, all that aptitude and ability you have been fostering will never be maximized until you find a way to stop lugging around that 75-pound mental health burden backpack. If your mom is sick and you’re struggling with ways to support her and pay your bills, there is no way you are eagerly drumming up new business contacts or able to creatively brainstorm the company’s next advertising campaign. All of these scenarios are only made worse in a company that looks away, that asks you to leave your problems at the door, that doesn’t seem to care about you, only your work. Real innovation is seeing people for who they are, connecting with your employees, and creating a safe environment for everyone, every single day. Trust me, innovate with mental health, and you’ll see a surge in all sorts of other innovation and productivity. In this environment, everyone can excel together. Everyone can benefit from participating in building the business. You aren’t building it on the backs of your team. You are building it in collaboration with every single member of your team. When they excel, the company excels. That’s real business innovation in 2019.

Talent is always the most valuable commodity in a business. Everyone says it. Most everyone knows it. Bestseller after bestseller on The New York Times list confirm it. I enjoyed reading Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code as much as anyone. Yet, most companies struggle to go beyond putting up posters that say: “People are the most valuable asset we have.” It is the companies that truly recognize the value of talent – and how best to recruit, nurture, harness, and retain it – that are the most productive and profitable. Employees who see the virtue in their talent, and the importance of cultivating it, can clearly write their own tickets. But wait, I need to pause for a minute. After I wrote this blog, I realized something was missing, so I’m coming back to inject a thought right here. What I’m writing about can only be effectively applied if you – as a boss, leader, co-worker – view the world through equal eyes. This means if you’re a bigot or can’t believe everyone is equal regardless of where they are along the gender spectrum, then don’t waste your time reading any further. Of course, there’s a good chance you (or I) are unconsciously incompetent on matters of equality, so for all of us, it’s always worth taking a good, hard look in the mirror on a regular basis and asking for feedback from friends (and non-friends)… but now my sidebar has gone on far too long, so let me get back to the topic at hand. An Unproductive, and Frankly Stupid, Management Strategy in Many Companies The reality in many companies is so stereotypical it has become a caricature. The typical boss pushes and squeezes and demands performance, and then just squeezes harder when the employee doesn’t deliver the result. The employee stops caring, only works at what the boss can see, and doesn’t really give a sh#% about the company, the clients, and just doesn’t want to do the work at all anymore. It is a miserable model that will never lead to long-term success for the company or the employee. The only upside is that it’s made the Dilbert cartoonist and The Office TV show creator into wealthy celebrities. So, what gives? Why has this been the way if it doesn’t actually work? Managing talent is not easy work. It has been a moving target for much of the last century. There was the paternalistic (yet anti-Semitic) model introduced by auto magnate Henry Ford, which fed into a begrudging partnership enforced by public- and private-sector unions. This broke down in the 1980s when economic collapse and competition ripped apart the prickly alliance between employer and employee. The Millennials are here, and Gen Z is knocking on the door wanting integrity and authenticity in the workplace. For a generation raised with electronics and social media, they know how easy it is to play pretend in the electronic world, to manipulate an audience with a photo filter, or the search engine optimization (SEO) behind an online story. While these tools are familiar, many of them want to know there is more substance in their work. Thankfully, innovation, global competition, new generations of employees, and emerging staff shortages are requiring an overhaul of workplace relationships and the adoption of a new and better model. A New Model: Deserve Your Talent Equitable employer-employee covenants are the new gold, with boss and employee held accountable. In the good ones, there is strategic planning meant for both, with career paths, skill development, and job satisfaction giving equal billing to the tasks, priorities, and projects. This is the landscape for our Deserve Your Talent model, where employers create a culture of never-ending learning and reinvention to develop skills and retain employees while achieving greater levels of operational success. Employees in many ways are their own masters, adapting, excelling, and owning their personal potential now and in the future. To have a remarkable partnership between employer and employee, both must be given room to grow that acknowledges their contributions and responsibilities in the long-term advancement and success of both the company and its people. Homegrown Hires Adopting a Deserve Your Talent model requires internal strengths, creating the capacity to dip into a pool of skilled professionals who understand a company's history and culture. This reduces turnover and failure rates that come with external hires. According to the American Management Association, organizations that filled 25 percent or more of middle-management positions with external hires have double the turnover of those that choose to elevate homegrown candidates. The goal of a Deserve Your Talent strategy is to find, train, and elevate employees with high potential who are already inside the company. The first stop is always in-house for promotable talent and not Craig’s List or a headhunter. You make this known in the company, and employees begin to strive for more. High-performers who are confident in their own potential have better opportunities and know they will be rewarded. For employers, it is critical that Deserve Your Talent becomes a process and not propaganda. To preserve talent inside the organization, employers must seek out potential and foster it. Invest in aptitude rather than hiring a resume. See your current employees for who they can become (rather than who they are). Remember where you were five or 10 years ago. Provide experiential training and honest feedback, maintain the ebb and flow of talent, and encourage employees to take the steps necessary to grow. In this approach, rather than squeezing and choking every last bit of work out of our employees, we can relax a bit. And breathe. Then we can take a look at what is working and what isn’t and try to figure out what is choking off their proverbial airway. Maybe they just need more oxygen, more space? Or a barrier removed physically, mentally, politically? We work to see the aptitude even when the employee can’t see it in themselves, and try to identify the things preventing that aptitude from blooming. Sometimes you gotta change the soil they are planted in or change the plants around them or add different nutrients, and voilà, that seed that wasn’t sprouting can now turn into a solid oak tree. For employees, Deserve Your Talent is empowering but comes with responsibility. It means owning your potential and taking responsibility for your progress. While employers provide the fertile soil, only the employee can grow their fullest selves through self-examination, openness to learning, hard work and rigorous habits, and assertively fostering their own growth, both personal and professional.