People do not quit their jobs. They quit their leader – the boss. Ineffective leaders breed ineffective followers and performance and productivity suffer as a result. With a positive, emotional connection with your people you send a clear message that you are interested and invested in what your people experience on a daily basis.
People in general do not follow just anyone or follow out of the goodness of their heart. They need good reasons—a motivation – to follow. You are responsible for giving them those reasons by understanding what they want and need to fulfill their work requirements and contribute to a mutual beneficial meaningful purpose in their work.
During the downturn in the so-called bubble, many leaders acquired what the professional literature is calling learned helplessness. Everything is negative, we have a “new normal” and the positive and optimistic qualities of leadership seem to be caught in this self-fulfilling prophecy of scarcity and mediocrity. As leaders infect this mindset into their teams, productivity and other performance factors wane. The team members get caught in a brain-funk – simply do whatever the leader says to keep their jobs and stay out of trouble with the boss.
The reality is that inwardly, people still want to make a difference at work. They want leaders who will give them control and emancipate them to do their jobs and solve problems at their level. For some of you this may seem like a radical idea –giving control away – and a deviation from the historical “top-down” driven approach to leadership. However, if you want to connect, if you desire to become an influential leader, you have to begin to change from the outdated and ineffective practices of the past that limit your leadership capacity.
Neuroscience research tells us that it is only through a positive emotional connection that people come together in a collaborative relationship. Positive emotional connections are driven by positive behaviour competencies underpinned with the skill of Positive Presence. As leaders we should be asking ourselves daily, is the behaviour I am engaging in drawing people towards me or away from me? Understanding the elements of what endears our team members to us is essential to understanding the great impact that connection has in driving performance in the workplace.
Learning to create a mindset that overrides the stress response is an invaluable skill in today’s workplace wrought with lightening-fast change, complexity and unrelenting demands. It is the neuroplasticity of your brain that enables you to change brain structure to extinguish stress reactions and amplify higher brain function. When we are able to move our mind into this higher brain function, it is then that we work smarter, we are more innovative, and we improve our emotional intelligence. Furthermore, when we are using our higher brain function, the following benefits arise:
In the last couple of decades, a new field of neuroscience has mapped the mental zone that can literally change the brain to quiet an overly active stress response system and simultaneously pave the way for higher brain networks to perform at optimum. The more you function from this ‘higher’ mental zone, the less you stress, and the more your brain lights up with the mix of intelligence that predicts a successful life.
Virtually all the advice on getting people to engage in their work and increase their productivity is predicated on a false assumption, namely that outside influence will result in lasting internal change, stimulating pride, purpose, motivation and a positive attitude. Unlike animals, human beings have the power to choose inappropriate behaviour, substandard performance, and a negative attitude, and willfully do so, even in the face of overwhelming negative consequences. Saying that, the current model for engaging people in their work and increasing their productivity is ineffective. Alternatively, leadership needs to focus its energy on the high- and mid-level performers rather than investing valuable leader time in those who are choosing substandard attitudes and behaviours. 
The sad fact about chronically disruptive people is that they are rarely coachable or teachable. Human behaviour research shows us that functional environments will become dysfunctional as a result of disruptive employees. Rarely if ever does the opposite occur. This is because functional people, in an attempt to be the rational individuals they are, will placate the behaviour of dysfunctional individuals to try and create a sense of peace or unity. Scientifically, it’s because functional people exude a flow of positive energy and instinctively try to suppress and change the negative energy of a dysfunctional individual, unaware that negative energy is often stronger in its immediate impact and magnetism. Interestingly, dysfunctional people rarely, if ever, change on their own accord because they don’t think anything is wrong with them or their behaviour, and they thrive on the power of disruption. Basically, dysfunctional people lack the essential skills of self-awareness, self-management and collaboration that that are necessary skills for lasting personal change. 
How often do we ask ourselves, “How do I create the best possible workplace where people wake up in the middle of the night disappointed it is not time to go to work yet?”… 
To quote from Peter Drucker in his book “Managing in the Next Society” (page 124), “… A knowledge based workforce is qualitatively different … survival, of every business will depend on the performance of its knowledge workforce – and the only way an organization in a knowledge-based economy and society can excel is through getting more out of the same kind of people; that is, through managing its knowledge workers for greater productivity. It is, to repeat an old saying, ‘to make ordinary people do extraordinary things.’”
Many organizations possess great potential for creating high levels of organizational performance excellence, but are missing the one key ingredient for excellence – trust among the senior leadership team. This is reflected in the safety, quality, service, and financial performance indicators of the organization. The impact of low levels of trust ripples through the entire organization. 
No other aspect of effective leadership is more apparent than the loss of trust through bad behaviour. Building and sustaining trust is critical to accomplishing tasks, achieving goals and creating a performance driven culture. This is true for any enterprise, whether for-profit or not-for-profit. In this way, trust is an operational and collaborative imperative. A lack of trust in any organization leads to below-average safety, quality, and overall low performance.