Some CEO’s get it — most CEO’s don’t. Treating employees with respect and dignity while working to gain their trust; this is the secret sauce to begin an organization’s path to a great workplace.

It is not complicated. The CEO must live by these basic principles.

The One’s Who Get It 

Executives who adopt and model trust and respect as a way of living and working are the ones who want to improve upon their already great environment, afraid they will slip somewhere and want to make sure their leaders are communicating – both ways – with their people.

Patrick Lencioni, author of “The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business,” said “why is it that the good companies who are doing great with company culture are the ones who call for consulting engagements?”

Culture eats strategy for breakfast. -Peter Drucker

The One’s Who Don’t Get It

The executives who don’t get the importance of treating people with respect and dignity, well, they won’t get within 100 miles of people like me: a Great Workplace Advocate.

The business of treating people respectfully is just too “soft” of a subject.  Their time and money is better spent on the “hard” aspects of the business. Assets, operations, business strategy, winning the latest employee relations lawsuit, having their executive suite renovated and enlarged.

 The Coming Company Culture Tsunami

The topic of company culture is not going away. In fact, it will hit many executives like an employee relations tsunami. The new recruits arriving at your office will expect better treatment than the Boomers expected and received. Even so, there will still remain executives who don’t get it. For most CEO’s it’s too hard to be soft.