When someone is referred to as the “Apostle of Appreciation,” it’s hard not to think that they might be passionate about employee engagement and culture. The Inc. Small Giants Community’s Executive Director, Raul Candeloro, sat down with Chester Elton, author of All In (along with Adrian Gostick) to learn more about what leadership can do to capture and utilize the power of fully engaged employees. Here is a brief excerpt. To read the complete interview, check out other resources, and learn more about The Inc. Small Giants Community, please click here.
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Candeloro: Let’s begin by talking about yourself, so our readers can get to know you better. Could you briefly describe your life journey until you wrote All In?
Elton: Well that’s a big question. I was born in Edmonton, Alberta, right across the street form a skating rink. That was 1958. Is that too far back?
My career started in sales and consulting, and I still love to solve a problem for a client. I wasn’t satisfied taking orders from clients; I wanted to be a thought leader. I was working with some great clients and doing some really innovative things in employee engagement, and I wanted to take those ideas—that no one else was doing—and capture them to help others. My company had just hired Adrian Gostick to head up communications, and we hit it off and started to write.
At first, we looked at a small slice of engagement—how employee recognition or appreciation impacted the work environment. Our books had a very Orange theme: The 24 Carrot Manager, The Carrot Principle and The Orange Revolution. We obviously hit a cord with leaders, as all of the books were New York Times Bestsellers. We’ve sold more than a million copies and had them translated into more than 30 languages.
Our latest work is called All In. Just about every conversation that we would have with senior leaders about engagement, or teamwork or recognition, would end sounding something like this, “Yes, all those things are important, but if you don’t get the culture right, it doesn’t matter.” Our research then took us into what great workplace cultures were doing differently—how they got their employees to buy in and give their all.
Towers Watson allowed us access into their monstrous database, and we were able to cull the 7 steps high-performance organizations components we needed to build a profitable, scalable, transferable culture.
Candeloro: Now about the book. With already so many leadership books out there about, what new information does All In offer?
Elton: We get at least a few emails every day from readers. What they tell us is this: While many leadership books offer theories, All In has a 300,000-person survey to back it up. It’s based on science. The book also offers a road map, or a plan to follow. And there are great studies of real managers in tough industries who are doing this right. It shows what others have done and how to apply it where you work.
Candeloro: Could you give us an example out of All In that reflects your main ideas or concepts?
Elton: Doria Camaraza is great example. She’s general manager of the most productive, profitable part of American Express—a call center in Florida. She’s one of the most amazing leaders we met on this journey, and is proof that culture is the great differentiator. Competition can replicate everything you do but they can’t replicate your culture. If you don’t define the culture you want, it will develop without you and odds are it won’t be the one you want or need.
Candeloro: In a short sentence, what kind of person should be attracted to your book?
Elton: We hear from a lot of line managers, senior leaders, HR people, students about to start out in the business world. The point is, is you want to make your workplace more engaging and meaningful, it’s certainly worth the 15 bucks our book costs on Amazon.
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To read the complete interview, please click here.
Chester Elton’s books have been translated into over 20 languages and have sold more than a million copies worldwide. The Carrot Principle, published by Simon & Schuster, has been a regular New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, and 24-Carrot Manager has been called a “must read for modern-day managers” by Larry King of CNN. The Orange Revolution was the number one selling business book in the United States according to the Wall Street Journal. As a motivation expert, Chester has been featured in The Financial Times, Washington Post, Fast Company and the New York Times. He has been featured on 60 Minutes, CNN, ABC’s Money Matters, MSNBC and National Public Radio.
Moreover, he has spoken to delighted audiences from Seattle to Singapore and from Toronto to Istanbul. He holds the acclaim of being the highest rated speaker at the national Society for Human Resource Management annual conference (Bill Cosby was the number-two rated speaker). He serves as an employee engagement consultant to firms such as Pepsi, American Express, Madison Square Garden, Avis Budget Group and Texas Roadhouse. However, he is most proud to be the father of four exceptional children.