Page 275 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

IMPLICATIONS FOR EXECUTIVES, HUMAN RESOURCES, AND INDIVIDUALS

• • How employees show pride in their work setting (e.g., in
cleanliness)
• • What employees want to talk about when asked about
their work
• • How much employees use the products or services the
company offers
• • How many company symbols employees use
• • What reputation the company has with outsiders

None of these queries or observations is perfect, and if
employees are coached overtly to parrot the “right” answers
or put on a show, these measures will become meaning-
less. But board members who ask, listen, and accept the
answers given can get a feel for the degree of organizational
abundance of a company. Board members who attend to
employee signals and who openly discuss meaning making
help connect social consciousness with sustainable eco-
nomic success.

C-Suite Executives (C for Chief, as in Executive, Financial,
Technology, Marketing, or Human Resource Officer)

Senior executives model and monitor their organization’s level
of abundant or deficit thinking. They live in glass houses,
and their words and actions are scrutinized and mimicked.
Senior leaders model a commitment to meaning by commu-
nicating, personalizing, and tracking meaning at work.
In formal settings like board meetings, annual reports,
websites, performance reviews, training programs, and
monthly staff meetings, leaders communicate priorities by
what they spend time on and how they work through issues.
In informal hallway conversations, leaders signal what mat-
ters most to them. When leaders are transparent about not

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