Leaders Must Put Character At The Center Of Everything They Do

“How you show up, what you stand for, and what actions you take to that end—as an individual and as a leader in your organization—are now gating factors to lasting success,” explains Frank Calderoni in his book, UPSTANDING: How Company Character Catalyzes Loyalty, Agility, and Hypergrowth.

Calderoni explains that leaders must put character at the center of everything they do, and he explains that company culture is distinct from company character. He explains that:

Company culture is the system of beliefs, values, goals, behaviors, and the way employees feel working in the organization—from leadership style, decision-making norms, customer experience, and company policies—officially and unofficially. Essentially, it’s the personality of the organization.

Company character is the integrity, respect, and fortitude residing at the core of your culture. It is the basis of trust and emotional connection people have with your organization—measured by the distance between what you say and what you do. It is earned as much as it is defined.

Calderoni’s book teaches you how company character catalyzes loyalty, agility and hypergrowth. He provides you proven techniques, workshop processes, real-world case studies and examples and insightful observations from business leaders and his own career—which includes 20 years as an executive at IBM and CFO positions at Cisco and Red Hat. Currently, he is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Anaplan, a cloud-native SaaS Company that helps enterprises orchestrate business performance.

More specifically, the book will teach you how to:

Hire and evaluate talent for character
Involve employees in identifying the company’s values so they co-create them
Put character at the center of every decision
Follow through on convictions
Answer the call in challenging times
Eliminate or reduce unconscious bias
Measure employees’ sense of belonging
Invest in career opportunities for underrepresented people
Decide how to face the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) issues that will test your company’s character

In short, Upstanding shows you how to be a modern leader in today’s new normal. It’s an incredibly timely read and one to add to your must-read books list for leaders.

Calderoni shares these additional insights about his book.

Frank A. Calderoni

Question: What inspired you to write your book?

Calderoni: I’ve always wanted to share a business strategy that I’m passionate about, creating corporate character. As I mentioned, when the pandemic hit, followed by a global recession and social unrest, it resulted in an unprecedented amount of change, disruption, and reflection for companies.

This highlighted a cultural shift that’s still taking place in society—it was time for leadership to pay attention and an opportunity to make a difference.

I wrote the book to share my insights and from those who I admire and respect. There is a significant shift happening in leadership, and it’s up to all of us to be that leader for our organization.

Question: Why do we hear so much about company culture and so little about company character?

Calderoni: Historically, companies and the media focused on culture. There are several books, Built to Last, comes to mind, and lists such as Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For, that praised company culture.

When it came to Environmental, Social, and Governance topics, companies tended to stay silent. In part to not offend stakeholders in their ecosystem. Back when I started working, driving social change was not part of the corporate agenda.

However, our stakeholders: employees, customers, even investors, are paying attention to what we're saying and doing. So, not taking a position is being seen as not caring about the issue.

Going forward, I believe you're going to see company character become more and more critical, and companies will not only pay lip service to these issues but create policies that drive change. The ones that do this best will have the most loyal customers, attract the best people, and I believe will have the most success.

Question: What are a few best next steps for a business leader interested in creating a character-led culture?

Calderoni: If you aren’t sure how to begin, start by understanding your purpose. If you don’t know it or don’t have one, work with others to create one. Use your desired customer experience as your North Star.

Spend time figuring out your values and how they support your purpose. To build commitment, involve your employees early in this process. If you already have values, help connect the dots to your (and your team’s) work.

Finally, and most importantly, behaviors and decisions reflect character. Strive to be a role model for the culture you want to create.

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Comments

Five Essential Principles For Sustaining Growth Through Innovation

Even though many companies strive for innovation, most struggle to achieve meaningful change. The largest reason for this disconnect? Playing it safe. Leaders and organizations want to implement new ideas, but too often they are held back by the fear of failure, even though setbacks are intrinsic to the innovation process. In the new book, No Fear, No Failure , by Lorraine H. Marchand (with John Hanc), readers will learn how to overcome the status quo that stifles creative thinking and how to create a culture that encourages innovation. Marchand provides a framework for sustained growth built on the “ 5 Cs ”: Customer First Culture Collaboration Change Chance She draws on more than 120 interviews with leaders across industries, real-world case studies, and her firsthand experience and shares step-by-step, field-tested strategies, tactics, and tools that practitioners can use to embed creativity within organizational cultures. Marchand is a former Big Tech and Big Pharma ex...

10 Quotes From The 5 Levels Of Leadership -- John C. Maxwell

Soon I'll post my full review of John C. Maxwell's latest book, The 5 Levels of Leadership . In the meantime, here are some of my favorites quotes from the book that I believe should become a must-read book by any workplace/organizational leader: Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself. It's about advancing your team. Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. Leadership is action, not position. When people feel liked, cared for, included, valued, and trusted, they begin to work together with their leader and each other. If you have integrity with people, you develop trust. The more trust you develop, the stronger the relationship becomes. In times of difficulty, relationships are a shelter. In times of opportunity, they are a launching pad. Good leaders must embrace both care and candor. People buy into the leader, then the vision. Bringing out the best in a person is often a catal...

How To Play Bigger And Be A Category King In Business

"The most exciting companies create. They give us new ways of living, thinking, or doing business, many times solving a problem we didn't know we had -- or a problem we didn't pay attention to because we never thought there was another way," explain the four authors of the dynamic new book, Play Bigger . They add that, "the most exciting companies sell us different. They introduce the world to a new category of product or service." And, they become category kings . Examples of category kings are Amazon, Salesforce, Uber and IKEA. Play Bigger is all about the strategy that builds category kings. And, to be a category king you need to be good at category design : Category design is the discipline of creating and developing a new market category, and conditioning the market so it will demand your solution and crown your company as its king. Category design is the opposite of "build it and they will come." Key traits of category design...

6 Ways To Seek Feedback To Improve Your Performance In The Workplace

Getting feedback is an important way to improve performance at work. But sometimes, it can be hard to seek out, and even harder to hear. “Feedback is all around you. Your job is to find it, both through asking directly and observing it,” says David L. Van Rooy, author of the new book, Trajectory: 7 Career Strategies to Take You From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be . As today's guest post, Van Rooy offers these six tips for how to get the feedback you need to improve performance at work . Guest Post By David L. Van Rooy 1. Don’t forget to as k : One of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming things are going perfectly (until they make a catastrophic mistake). By not asking, you’re missing out on opportunities for deep feedback: the difficult, critical feedback that gives you constructive ways to improve. 2. Make sure you listen : Remember, getting fee...

How To Harness Employee Experience Design To Attract And Retain The Best Talent

Employee Experience Design (EXD) is designing with people and not for them. It’s a proven method for engaging and collaborating with your employees to help solve your most difficult workplace challenges. You’ll learn all about EXD in the new book, Employee Experience Desing: How To Co-Create Work Where People And Organizations Thrive , by Dean E. Carter , Samantha Gadd, and Mark Levy . “Many organizations are drowning in policies and initiatives. EXD is a way to reduce that burden while delivering better results both for employees and for the bottom line,” explain the authors. The book includes inspiring stories from brands like Airbnb and Patagonia, among many others, including those in retail, healthcare, hospitality, apparel, and biotech. It describes the power that’s unleashed when organizations design with and not for their employees. The first part of the book covers The Why of why EXD is so important and addresses legitimate – and tough –...

Leadership Lessons From Kent Taylor, Founder Of Texas Roadhouse

From cover-to-cover of Made From Scratch you’ll learn the leadership lessons of the late Kent Taylor , founder of the restaurant chain Texas Roadhouse. In the new book, Taylor recounts how he built the restaurant chain from the ground up after being rejected more than 80 times as he pitched the idea for the business. His approach to business was often out-of-the-box, however, his business lessons and leadership lessons from the course of his life and career are invaluable. Here are some of my favorite leadership lessons from Kent and his book: The best leaders stay down-to-earth and approachable. In a bottom-up company, the leader learns from frontline people. As soon as you make a profit, find a way to give back. Be willing to laugh at yourself. Become a student of your craft. Positive reinforcement inspires much greater performance than fear ever can. Want to get the respect of your people? Then roll up y...

Don't Delay Tough Conversations With Your Employees

If you have an employee who needs to improve his/her performance don't delay the tough conversation with them. If you don't address the issue right now, the employee has little chance to improve, and you'll only get more frustrated. Most employees want to do a good job. Sometimes they just don't know they aren't performing up to the required standards. Waiting until the employee's annual performance appraisal to have the tough conversation is unhealthy for you and the employee. So, address the issue now. Sit down with your employee in a private setting. Look them in the eye. First, tell them what they do well. Thank them for that good work. Then, tell them where they need to improve. Be clear. Be precise. Ask them if they understand and ask them if they need any help from you on how to do a better job. Explain to them that your taking the time to have the tough conversation means you care about them. You want them to do better. You believe they can do better. ...

How to Be a Leader – 9 Principles from Dale Carnegie

Today, I welcome thought-leader Nathan Magnuson as guest blogger... Nathan writes : This is it, your first day in a formal leadership role. You’ve worked hard as an individual contributor at one or possibly several organizations. Now management has finally seen fit to promote you into a position as one of their own: a supervisor. You don’t care if your new team is only one person or ten, you’re just excited that now – finally – you will be in charge! Unfortunately the euphoria is short-lived. Almost immediately, you are not only overwhelmed with the responsibilities of a team, but you quickly find that your team members are not as experienced or adroit as you. Some aren’t even as committed. You find yourself having to repeat yourself, send their work back for corrections, and staying late to fill the gap. If something doesn’t change soon, you might just run yourself into the ground. How did something that looked so easy ...

Advisory Leadership

Flashback to three years ago...because this book is so, so good! After reading nearly 30 new books about leadership this year, my pick for 2015's best new leadership book is, Advisory Leadership , by Greg Friedman , Although the book is authored by an award-winning financial advisor and primarily written for professionals in the financial services industry, this book is a must read for any leader who wants to create a nurturing heart culture that hinges on the human-centric values the next generation of employees hold in high regard. And, what exactly is heart culture ? Friedman says, "At its core, heart culture symbolizes how a company values more than just an employee's output. It's not about the work, but rather, the people who do the work." He further explains that leaders can no longer afford to ignore the shift toward a people-first culture and its direct influence on a healthy, effective work envir...

Why Workplace Wellbeing Matters

“Confusion often abounds as to what workplace wellbeing actually is and what it entails,” explain the authors of the book, Why Workplace Wellbeing Matters: The Science Behind Employee Happiness and Organizational Performance . “Workplace wellbeing is how we feel at work and about our work,” share Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and George Ward . “It has evaluative, affective, and eudaimonic components. These may sound complicated but are actually very straightforward.” Evaluative workplace wellbeing refers to how we think about our jobs. It is an overall judgment, an assessment about how things are going, and it is typically measured by job satisfaction. Affective wellbeing refers to how we actually feel on a day-to-day basis while we are at work. It is an emotional or hedonic experience, and it can involve both positive and negative emotions. Eudaimonic wellbeing is about how much of a sense of purpose we get out of our work. ...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog