285. The Leaders of the Future Create Connection with Dr. Michelle K. Johnston

The Daily Helping

Dr. Michelle K. Johnston is a management professor, executive coach, and leadership expert helping leaders get the results they need through meaningfully connecting with their people. Michelle’s first book, The Seismic Shift in Leadership, is an Amazon bestseller and details the need for leaders to shift from a command and control leadership style to one that focuses on connection because that’s what drives long-lasting results.

As part of the research process for the book, Dr. Michelle interviewed 18 world-class leaders. She realized that the reason many leaders were getting pushed out of organizations is that they were gunning for results but lacked connection with the people they worked with. Connection drives results, well-being, productivity, innovation, and financial performance.

If you want to be successful, it’s all about connection — but how do you get started? Connection starts with yourself. You have to own your story, your journey, and the events that made you who you are today. And you can’t hide any of it. Misguided leaders try and appear perfect, but that only leads to them putting up a wall around parts of themselves and severing any chance at connection. Perfection doesn’t work, it creates cultures of fear. We need cultures of connection

If you’re a business owner or feel disconnected in your work or personal life, here are some tangible steps to enhance that connection:

• Connection starts with yourself. Get to know yourself before you connect with others
• Embed time to make personal connections with people and get to know them
• Own your calendar and determine how you should be spending your time
• Create rituals and traditions to look forward to

Now is the time to reinvent leadership with a focus on connection. Because if you don’t do it now, you’re going to get left behind.

The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway

“It starts with you. We want to show up as the best version of ourselves. In order to do that, really figure out what brings you joy, how you can be super healthy, and in the right space to bring that energy to work every day. It's kind of counterintuitive because here I am talking about meaningful connection with others. First, connect with yourself. Figure out what it’s going to take for you to be healthy, how you can exercise, and be good to yourself so that you have that mental energy and you can bring the best version of yourself to work every day. Then you can connect with others and then you can connect with an organization.”

Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Google Podcasts to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.

Resources:

• Learn more at michellekjohnston.com
• Read: The Seismic Shift in Leadership
• Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michelle-johnston-0264b5b