Intrinsic 2021

INSPIRATIONAL DIARIES

Dashrath Manjhi’s true inspiring story

Dashrath Manjhi was born in to the lowest rung of India’s caste system in Gehlaur village, India, and ended up working in coal mines.

When he was an adult, his wife was injured and died because the nearest doctor was in a town 34 miles away.

Because of this experience, Manjhi decided that he was going to make a new roadway through a ridge of hills, in order to make his village more accessible.

Manjhi ended up carving a 110m long path, completing it in 22 years (between 1960 and 1982), using only a hammer and a chisel.

Ultimately, Manjhi’s road reduced the distance between the start and finish areas from 34 miles to 9.3 miles.

Colonel Sanders has one of the most motivational success stories

Earning his place on this best motivational stories list is KFC’s Colonel Harland Sanders.

Sanders worked a number of jobs, such as a steam engine stoker, filling station operator and an insurance salesman, but it wasn’t until his time running his restaurant in Kentucky that he made what would make him famous. While there, he developed his secret recipe and method of cooking chicken.

Sanders proceeded to go around USA trying to sell his chicken recipe to restaurants. His idea was to give them the recipe for free and then take a percentage on each chicken dish sold.

Colonel Sanders was rejected 1009 times before he got his first “yes”.

Colonel Sanders proves that sometimes you just need to keep going if you want to be successful.

JK Rowling’s inspirational message

If writing one of the most successful book series and movie franchises of all time does not deserve to be on this list, I don’t know what does.

JK Rowling‘s motivational story is one of a woman who was completely broke, living off of benefits with her daughter, writing away at this story of a boy that does not know he is a wizard.

Her famed story was rejected by 12 publishers before it was finally picked up by Bloomsbury.

So if you are a writer or artist looking to get your work out in to the world, stick with it, and one day you may have a great motivational story of your own.

Oprah Winfrey’s story is one big inspirational message

Oprah Winfrey has built a billion-dollar empire, and, in 2017, was placed 1st on Forbes’ list of America’s richest female entertainers.

But life was not easy for Oprah growing up, and she went through a great deal of adversity to have this real life inspirational success story.

You see, Winfrey originally grew up in Mississippi with her grandmother before she was sent to live with her mother in Wisconsin when she was 6. This move was disruptive and she felt alone and abandoned. But, before she could get comfortable in Wisconsin, she was sent to live with her father in Tennessee, before moving back to live with her mother again.

During this time, Winfrey was abused by her family members. Her grandmother whipped her, leaving her with welts over her body. When she was 9 years old, a 19 year old cousin of hers raped her. She was also sexually assaulted by other relatives between the ages of 10 and 14. Winfrey became pregnant aged 14 and considered committing suicide. Ultimately, the baby was born prematurely and died in the hospital. Winfrey knew this was her second chance at life.

Despite her difficult childhood, Winfrey went on to become one of the most powerful women in in the world and is an inspiration to the world.

Stephen Hawking’s story is motivational

Soon after his 21st birthday, Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), causing him to be unable to use most of his muscles.

Being told her only had between 2 and 4 years left to live, Hawking decided to put his energy in to learning as much as possible in the time he had left. In fact, Hawking attributed his success to his condition, as he was bored with life before he was diagnosed.

Hawking ultimately went on to live until the age of 76, having had a huge impact on science through his life’s work.

Paulo Coelho’s life story

One of the world’s best-selling authors, known mostly for his book The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho grew up knowing he wanted to be a writer. The trouble was that being a writer was considered to be a dangerous profession in a country under military rule.

He read a lot, was very shy, and did not socialise very easily. His parents didn’t know what to do with him, and sent him to a lunatic asylum when he was just 17 years old.

Paulo never saw himself as a victim, and even understands his parents’ position when looked at from their point of view. He understands they loved him and just wanted to help him.

Ultimately, Paulo Coelho escaped the asylum three times before being released in 1967.

Difficulties come in many forms, and Paulo Coelho is inspiring for not only coming out of his experiences on the other side as a best-selling author, but also for putting in the effort to understand his parents and forgive them. His is a motivational success story that shows that anyone with any difficult upbringing can make a success of themselves.

"Follow your passion!" is perhaps just a bit too glib to be useful. It is this exact piece of advice that leaves people damaged if they don’t find a dream job that complements their natural abilities and fills them with an intrinsic sense of joy — not to mention that passions can be ephemeral.

And instead of “Follow your passion” or “Follow your bliss,” my bumper-sticker career advice is “Follow your blisters.”

A blister appears when something wears at you – and even chafes you a bit – but you keep getting drawn back to it. What I like about the phrase is that it implies something about perseverance and struggling through tasks even though they are not always blissful. “Follow your blisters” makes me ask myself the question, “What kind of work do I find myself coming back to again and again, even when I don’t succeed right away, when it seems like it’s taking too long to make progress, or when I get discouraged?”

So, if you’re looking to find a career that will matter to you, instead of looking only in the direction of “passion,” also think about the activities that you return to — despite the fact that they are harder to complete than things you are more immediately or emotionally drawn to.

Martin Seligman, one of the parents of positive psychology, asks the question this way: “What activities were you already doing as a child that you still like to do now?” It may not be the thing you love to do the most, and it may not be the most fun all the time, but ask yourself: Is there something I have to work hard at to get right, something that I want to get right because I care enough about it, no matter how much time and practice is takes? Is there something that gets me up a little early, or keeps me working late, after others have gone to sleep? Not because the project is due the next day, but because it’s important to me to make a little more progress? Not every day and night, but reliably?

What activities do you never need to put on your “To Do” list? You may notice that other people need to remind themselves to analyze the metrics of their social media posts while you are naturally pulled toward cracking the code of what performs well. You may notice that other people dread preparing speeches to give before the class while you are up late doing research to support your points and practicing in front of the mirror. Pay attention to this. And in comparison, also notice what tasks you have to nudge and remind yourself to complete at all.

For me, it’s hard not to work on this article, even now, late at night when everyone else in the house is sleeping, whereas I need to create reminders to prepare for administrative meetings (and even then I wait until the very last minute). The things that always seem to get done often reveal insight into what will fulfill you in your career — they are the things we never need to be asked twice to do, and ultimately, they are more satisfying than the things we may love to do largely because they come natural and easy to us.

Finally, “Follow your blisters” implies something that you come back to so many times that you eventually move past the blister stage, into toughened skin. Eventually, the activity “marks you” through use and practice, and you develop a special competence. When you practice an activity a bit more obsessively than other people, you build unique character – you earn some wear and some healing that makes you idiosyncratic, and a little unbalanced.

When it comes to career advice, “Follow your passion!” is a little like “Follow your bliss!” Sure, passion sounds like a wonderful thing when choosing where to invest your time and effort. After all, the average person spends more than 90,000 hours at work in their lifetime. Yes, that is one-third of your entire life. So, of course it would be nice if that time was spent doing something you actually love.

As the demands of the workplace keep rising, many people respond by putting in ever longer hours, which inevitably leads to burnout that costs both the organization and the employee. Meanwhile, people take for granted what fuels their capacity to work—their energy. Increasing that capacity is the best way to get more done faster and better.

Time is a finite resource, but energy is different. It has four wellsprings—the body, emotions, mind, and spirit—and in each, it can be systematically expanded and renewed.

Resolutions You Haven’t Tried and Won’t Fail in 2021

1. Visit at least four national parks

Traveling to new places creates memories that make life meaningful. But guess what? You don’t have to maneuver airport security, squeeze onto a plane, and land in a faraway oasis to have fun.

Chances are, there’s wonder and excitement near where you are. If your state or the surrounding ones have several national parks, make a resolution to explore the rolling plains and sprawling forests you’ve never seen before.

2. Try one vegan snack each month

Eating healthy is about building a roster of delicious yet nutritious foods that you enjoy. Instead of launching an overwhelming commitment to a new diet, take baby steps by expanding your palate.

A good place to start is with wholesome, vegan snacks. They’re getting better all the time, and slowly introducing them to your taste buds promotes healthy living.

3. Redecorate your home to match your desired energy

Forget the popular home decor trends. This resolution requires some serious soul searching. To fill your space with the right vibes, ask yourself one question: How do I want to feel when I get home?

Use your answer to finding lighting, furniture, and plants that inspire your most ideal mood. Each homecoming is a chance to calibrate your energy for the next day, so redecorate with intention.

4. Take yourself on a leisurely date once a month

Dating yourself can be fun. As a ‘you’ connoisseur, you already know which activities bring joy to your life. Now all you have to do is be intentional about rewarding yourself with these experiences.

For you, perhaps it’s cracking into two pounds of crab legs. Or maybe it’s visiting your favorite museum to see a new art exhibit. No matter how busy 2021 becomes, get some much-needed alone time to pamper yourself.

5. Listen to educational podcasts while playing video games

Want to fill your brain with more knowledge? Do it while playing an easy game you’ve beaten plenty of times. This resolution works because the muscle memory of gameplay won’t distract you from listening and learning. And best of all, you’ll save time by mixing entertainment with education.

If you need podcast suggestions, try Science Vs or Invisibilia. These are great listens when you want to learn something few people know.

6. Learn every dance that goes viral in 2021

Remember the Dab? The Renegade? The Woah? If none of these sound familiar, don’t miss the next dance craze because FOMO is the worst. (Also, we’ve yet to see someone do those dances without a huge smile on their face.)

Maybe that’s because dancing is armor. Somehow, all that movement boosts your happiness in a way that protects you from bad vibes. If you do nothing else this year, dance freely!

7. Wait 48 hours before making big purchases

A new year doesn’t just mean a new you. For some of us, it also means new stuff. If you’re contemplating an expensive purchase, wait two days before swiping your debit or credit card. It’s a good test to see if you truly needed the item or simply had a fleeting, emotional urge to shop. Either way, take some time to figure it out before you spend too much money and break your budget.

8. Grow fruits and vegetables on your patio

Gardens have gotten smaller and more manageable over the years. If you’re adamant about eating food you can trust, try growing your own.

Tomatoes and certain herbs are great for beginners, and there’s nothing like enjoying a self-made harvest. You’ll just need pots, seeds, the right soil, some netting, and patio space for the entire setup. This can work for apartments and houses alike, so give it a try.

9. Ditch your car and cycle to destinations within five miles

Tired of the gym and how it’s always packed at the beginning of the year? Switch things up by cycling to nearby destinations. You can ride your bike to visit neighbors, the grocery store, or anywhere you’re willing to pedal for a quick errand. Driving is faster, so you’re bound to miss the convenience now and then. But just remember: Cycling gives you exercise and enviable legs.

10. Mail letters of gratitude to close friends and family

We hear it all the time: Give people their roses while they can still smell them. If you have family and friends that mean the world to you, show your appreciation for the happiness and joy they bring to your life. One powerful way to do that is by mailing letters of gratitude. Life takes us in different directions over time, but handwritten notes will help you keep the feelings of connection.

11. Network your way to success at virtual conferences

Zoom meetings are hot right now, which means virtual conferences are too. For those who can’t easily travel, this levels the playing field in a big way.

Networking is the best part of conferences, and you can still do that in a virtual setting. Before you purchase a ticket, read the event schedule to see how far the opportunities go.

12. Fuse your hobbies with your workday

There’s a growing consensus that work-life integration trumps work-life balance. Instead of giving each task equal weight—having dinner with family, responding to all of your emails, cleaning the house—realize that a certain amount of give and take keeps everything in check.

This is especially important when it comes to hobbies. They’re hard to squeeze into your day and often go unnoticed or unpracticed. To change that, include them in your daily routines. You can study a new language on your lunch break or play guitar during a 15-minute work break. It’s up to you!

Success can be defined in many ways. If you are experiencing happiness, love, or adventure in this moment, you’ve already found success. Keep it up.

Rejecting the role of a victim and instead viewing events through hopeful lenses defuses energy-draining negative emotions. Avoiding the constant distractions that technology has introduced increases mental energy. And participating in activities that give you a sense of meaning and purpose boosts the energy of the spirit.

Success in leading change

 Definitions Of Success You Should Never Ignore in 2021

“What happened to my resolve?” a leader remarked in the middle of a session.

We were discussing how we're navigating the second wave of the pandemic and responding to the breaking news that a vaccine might be on the horizon. On the surface, everything was fine: The business was thriving and his company was in a good position.

Still, that remark captured his true concern: On a personal level he was experiencing a loss of agency, determination, and energy. The “steady hand” approach and rapid action mindset that had characterized his leadership during the first wave were becoming fuzzy, less ingenious, and much more volatile.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook had begun to wonder whether it might be time to rethink their opportunistic approach to the expansion of their small restaurant empire in Philadelphia, CooknSolo. The pandemic, however, caused an abrupt and intense change of focus-the goal was no longer expansion, but survival. Solomonov had overcome much in his life, including addiction and the death of his younger brother; these experiences had given him the perspective to take on great challenges in his career, the COVID-19 pandemic being the greatest challenge yet. As the economy cautiously started to reopen in June 2020, how should Solomonov and Cook proceed? How should they think about their business in terms of survival through the duration of the pandemic and set themselves up to come back even stronger in the post-pandemic world?

Explore the life and career of rapper and music producer Swizz Beatz. Set in 2019, it covers the evolution of Swizz's musical career and his new venture into the commercial art market.

A good number of executives accept the cliché that success always demands a price and that the price is usually deterioration of private life. This cliché does not always reflect reality, however—some executives seem to be exempt. What distinguishes the executives who pay a heavy personal price for their success from those who are able to maintain and develop fulfilling private lives?

Undeniably, many people who reach executive levels in organizations do so at the expense of their personal lives. They spend long hours at difficult and tension-filled jobs and retreat to their homes not for comfort and sustenance but for a place to hide or to vent feelings left over from a bad day at the office. Yet other executives who endure the same long hours and tension-filled jobs come home full of energy and excited by the day. What distinguishes the two groups of people?

As we dug through the layers of the organization, it turned out that the feeling was widespread among other leaders and managers. Stress incidents were on the rise, people’s emotional reactions were becoming more polarized, and there were more team defections.

After studying more than 2,000 executives and interviewing many husbands and wives, these authors have found that, psychological differences aside, the executives who successfully cross the line from job to private life are able to do three things better than the other executives. They adapt well to change in jobs, they find the right jobs for them, and they handle career disappointments well. The authors discuss these sources of potential negative emotional spillover; then they investigate how organizations might minimize obstacles to coordinating one’s private and professional lives.

The same is likely true across a broad range of companies and sectors. It goes by different names: “pandemic fatigue,” “mental fog,” “work/life blur,” “extended vacuum,” and an “endless wait,” just to mention a few phrases I have heard leaders use. Clients mention that they are fed up and bored and that “2020 has been beyond heavy.” Even those working in booming industries report that they feel “emotionally amputated.” “The other day I cried for no reason,” another (usually hard-nosed) client told me. Others struggle with not being able to do things like exercise with great enthusiasm, as they did during the first wave of the pandemic. Their brand-new collection of home fitness gear is gathering dust. And no one gets a kick from yet another virtual “happy hour” at work.

It feels like the whole world is tired. Even though the vaccine shines a light at the end of the tunnel, the home stretch will be long and perhaps take a greater toll on our professional and personal lives than we expect it to.

To move through the second wave successfully, leaders need to reexamine their personal resilience and that of their team members: the ability and strength to overcome obstacles, bounce back, and recover in the face of challenges. How strong are you under pressure? How quickly do you bounce back from defeat?

Most importantly: How can you find the mental strength to lead through the last mile?

How to Lead When the Whole World Is Tired

Compared to the adrenaline-fueled response in the spring and the false dawn about the recovery over the summer, the second wave requires a new understanding of personal resilience. In the first wave, personal resilience relied on a psychological emergency response called arousal. Shocks, threats, and sudden uncertainty make us super alert and we activate resources that are skin-deep: Adrenaline, fighting spirit, and pulling together. This response is impulsive, almost universal, and immediately recognizable across many teams.

Personal resilience in the second wave is a different story because it relies on psychological stamina. Psychological stamina rests on more deep-seated emotional patterns shaped by our individual needs, histories, and experiences. Stamina is required because, frankly, the second wave is not exciting at all. People report feeling bored, disconnected, and unnerved. In contrast to the skin-deep reactions of the first wave, the second wave requires perseverance, endurance, and even defiance against the randomness, gloom, and burden of the pandemic.

Cultivating resilience requires some emotional rewiring and calls for a different kind of appeal to team members and colleagues. The essential task is to identify your biggest challenges over the next year and then tap the psychological stamina you and your team needs to get there. There are three key steps: understanding the difference between urgency and importance; balancing comfort with containment; and finding new ways to energize yourself and others.

The way ahead may be to follow the example of a CEO I advise. Even though her business has been successful throughout Covid-19, she chose not to rest on her laurels but to ask: “How do we turn the short-term momentum into long-term advantages?” She asked her executive team to come up with ideas for the future and set up a task force with high-performing talents from across the organization. Specifically, she asked them to consider the steps they could take here and now, steps that would in the years to come eventually become longer-term competitive advantages.

Another approach would be to ask yourself and your colleagues whether you are in fact fully prepared for the feeding frenzy that will inevitably kick off in the wake of the vaccine. Companies will clamor to win back lost business and reclaim lost customers. For many businesses, dealing with the aftermath will be just as intense as dealing with the crisis.

Ask yourself and your teams: Are you doing all you can do to emerge from the crisis as a stronger company? The window for change may be closing and the time to turn good intentions into action is now.

Balancing Compassion and Containment

In order to act, you and your employees must be motivated to act. Specifically, action requires both compassion and containment.

First, let’s look at compassion. At this point in the crisis, the conditions that breed depression, loneliness, and anxiety are present: Working in isolation, health concerns, job insecurity, heavy workloads, and rapidly shifting priorities. A global survey conducted by Mercer found that the majority of the 270 insurance companies surveyed now rate mental health as being as much of a risk as smoking.

Leaders need to be serious about mental wellbeing and intervene sooner rather than later. This means that your employees need more warmth and comfort than they might have prior to the pandemic. But you can’t soothe your team with spreadsheets and plans; that takes listening and daring to stay in the hardest moments –daring to talk about doubt and discomfort — instead of skipping ahead to the next item on the agenda.

Compassion, though, must be balanced with containment. Containment is described by IMD professor Anand Narasimhan as “the ability to observe and absorb what is going on around you, but to provide a sense of stability.” Stability comes from setting limits, raising the bar, keeping the pressure at the optimal level, and helping each other snap out of self-pity and moodiness.

In fact, too much caring and compassion can drive people into a learned helplessness trap, believing that they can’t perform without help and support from others. As the father of modern positive psychology professor Martin Seligman demonstrated, we experience learned helplessness when we face uncontrollable and inescapable stress.

Yes, the current moment calls for compassion, but it also calls for a little more edge and collective defiance against the injustice of the virus. You want people to say “enough is enough” and rise to fight against the gloom. As with good parenting, the key is to find the right balance between caring and challenging, between compassion and containment, between saying “you are good enough as you are” and “get moving and get to the next level.”

Energize Everyone, Every Day

“I’m surprised that the hardest part right now is managing my own mind,” the CEO of a large cap company concluded with a sigh near the end of our session.

As we enter the last stretch, the greatest challenge for leaders may be to sustain energy in themselves and in their teams. We don’t quite know how long it will take to finish the last mile and we cannot rely on the urgency of the crisis any longer. Energy is not a given and must be generated and channeled internally.

Alternatively, if we face an obstacle thinking, “It is permanent, it is a general problem, and there is nothing I can do about it,” it leaves us with little or no power to act. People lacking resilience also tend to internalize the problem by ruminating and having thoughts like, “It is probably me. I am no good. I can’t do anything right.” This leaves the person paralyzed. You can probably imagine how these thoughts can spin out of control and end up in pure self-destruction.

If you had more money, do you think your anxiety would go away?

As a psychotherapist specializing in financial wellness, Amanda Clayman helps her clients uncover the motivations and roots underlying their money anxieties, so they can make better financial decisions.

It’s a problem Clayman understands intimately, as an entrepreneur who struggles with financial anxiety. But she says money isn’t always a problem that needs to be solved, if we can learn to understand what’s really going on when we stress out about money.

Georgia State University had developed a reputation for driving student success by nearly doubling its graduation rate for students of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. It did so while growing its student body and the proportion of Black/African American, low-income, and first-generation students-groups with historically lower postsecondary graduation rates compared to national averages. Georgia State's Student Success team, led by Tim Renick and Allison Calhoun-Brown, used a data-based approach to deploy micro-grant programs to retain students, implemented predictive analytics to improve student advising, and optimized course sequencing to help students graduate before they exhausted their financial aid.

In 2016, they faced a growing "summer melt" problem where nearly 20% of incoming students who committed to attend never actually enrolled at Georgia State-and many never enrolled at any college. At the same time, they wondered how to balance continuing to incrementally improve student success at Georgia State and scaling their efforts to help the many other universities facing similar problems who sought to learn from their experience.

Definitions Of Success You Should Never Ignore in 2021

1. Success is always doing your best.

2. Success is setting concrete goals.

3. Success is having a place to call home.

4. Success is understanding the difference between need and want.

5. Success is believing you can.

6. Success is remembering to balance work with passion.

7. Success is taking care of your needs.

8. Success is learning that you sometimes have to say no.

9. Success is knowing your life is filled with abundance.

10. Success is understanding you cannot keep what you don’t give away.

11. Success is learning something new each day.

12. Success is learning that losing a few battles can help you win a war.

13. Success is standing your ground when you believe in something.

14. Success is not giving up.

15. Success is celebrating small victories.

16. Success is understanding that you control your destiny.

Success can be defined in many ways. If you are experiencing happiness, love, or adventure in this moment, you’ve already found success. Keep it up.

Workplace hacks

Professionalism

You know that it's essential to be professional if you want to be a success. But what does "being professional" actually mean?

For some, being professional might mean dressing smartly at work, or doing a good job. For others, being professional means having advanced degrees or other certifications, framed and hung on the office wall. Professionalism encompasses all of these definitions. But, it also covers much more.

" Hi. I’m a manager at my organization. I don’t feel that I’m professional enough. I don’t always word or say things in the proper manner. There’s very little respect from my staff. Can you help me? "

This is a tough question. Often we want to associate professionalism with leadership or management. In the world of business, everyone needs to be professional. And I agree with the reader – communication skills are important. Occasionally, we can put our foot in our mouths but if that happens too often…well, people figure it’s not a mistake, it’s who we are.

Knowing your stuff. Please notice I didn’t say “know everything”. Part of gaining respect is being able to say “I don’t know.” Be the best you can at what you do and don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know something.

Traits of professionalism:

• Standing for something. This is about ethics and having a moral compass. You don’t have to agree with someone to respect their ethics. I’ve known people who threw their moral compass out the window to avoid confrontation. People notice that stuff and their credibility is lost.

• Keeping your word. This is a big one. If you commit to something, then do it. If something happens and you can’t deliver – tell someone. Or renegotiate the deadline. Laying low and hoping people won’t notice doesn’t work.

• Being honest. I know this should go without saying but we all know that there are people who struggle with honesty. And I’m not even talking about those times when it’s all-out, mean-spirited lying. Think about when a person doesn’t tell someone about a mistake because they don’t want to get involved or confront the issue. Eventually the lies catch up.

• Supporting others. In my career, one of the quickest ways I’ve seen people lose the respect of their co-workers is when they to stop supporting them. In this case, being a manager is a tough job with many responsibilities. One of them is developing their team. When team members feel they’ve been abandoned, there’s a huge disconnect and respect is lost.

• Use your time productively at work. Focus on your job responsibilities and avoid getting pulled into social media, web browsing and phone activity while on the clock.

• Be kind and polite and use good manners to everyone you come into contact with, no matter what their role is, and no matter how you're feeling. This might sound unimportant, but it makes a significant impact.

• Learn to manage your emotions and gain awareness of your emotional triggers so you can manage your reactions positively and productively. Accept and reflect on feedback to assist as you learn and grow.

• Project a professional presence and dress appropriately for your industry and organization. A good rule of thumb is to dress in the position you aspire to have.

Research has shown, and a great many executives now understand, that a heterogeneous workforce yields more innovation and better performance than a homogeneous one does.

With the Covid-19 epidemic, many employees — and their managers — are finding themselves working out of the office and separated from each other for the first time. Fortunately, there are specific, research-based steps that managers can take without great effort to improve the engagement and productivity of remote employees, even when there is little time to prepare.

First, it’s important to understand the common challenges, from isolation to distractions to lack of face-to-face supervision. Then managers can support remote workers with 

1) regular, structured check-ins; 

2) multiple communication options and established norms for each; 

3) opportunities for social interactions; and 

4) ongoing encouragement and emotional support.

In response to the uncertainties presented by Covid-19, many companies and universities have asked their employees to work remotely. While close to a quarter of the U.S. workforce already works from home at least part of the time, the new policies leave many employees — and their managers — working out of the office and separated from each other for the first time.

We have not identified any major company that is doing this well on a broad scale. But research and lessons gleaned from other contexts can point the way forward. In our work with leading management thinkers and practitioners across the country, we have arrived at a four-step strategy to help companies move toward greater and better representation for black leaders.

It involves shifting from an exclusive focus on the business case for racial diversity to embracing the moral one, promoting real conversations about race, revamping diversity and inclusion programs, and better managing career development at every stage.

Take a look at this list of corporate values: Communication. Respect. Integrity. Excellence. They sound pretty good, don’t they? Strong, concise, meaningful. Maybe they even resemble your own company’s values, the ones you spent so much time writing, debating, and revising. If so, you should be nervous. These are the corporate values of Enron, as stated in the company’s 2000 annual report. And as events have shown, they’re not meaningful; they’re meaningless.

Take a look at this list of corporate values: Communication. Respect. Integrity. Excellence. They sound pretty good, don’t they? Strong, concise, meaningful. Maybe they even resemble your own company’s values, the ones you spent so much time writing, debating, and revising. If so, you should be nervous. These are the corporate values of Enron, as stated in the company’s 2000 annual report. And as events have shown, they’re not meaningful; they’re meaningless.

GDP is higher per capita in countries where more managers come from lower social-class origins. Given the increasing importance of purpose and social impact to employees, customers, and other stakeholders, we believe there’s no better time to make this transformation. We also believe our framework can be adapted for other marginalized groups in the United States and around the world.

Taking these steps won’t be easy; executives will need to think deeply about their ethics and corporate culture and exert extra effort for a cause they may not consider central to their business. But the reward will be great: maximizing the human potential of everyone in the workplace.

As we said earlier, diversity and inclusion efforts have been gaining traction, and workforces are becoming increasingly multiracial. But given the dearth of black leaders, we would like to see companies jump-start their efforts in four ways.

And in more-progressive companies — ones truly committed to inclusion — a different kind of pushback sometimes occurs: If a team incorporates women, Asians, Latinos, and representatives of the LGBTQ community alongside white men, if it has data geeks and creative types, extroverts and introverts, able-bodied and physically challenged members, isn’t it diverse enough? Our answer: Not when teams, especially those at the highest levels, leave out the most marginalized group in the United States.

Our research suggests that success in the face of systemic discrimination often begins with affirming one’s own potential. When people believe in their ability to grow, they make decisions that reflect this conviction, such as investing in their potential, focusing on their unique strengths, and discovering new paths to success and fulfillment that align with their core values and leadership goals.

As workers are tasked with working from home to help flatten the curve of new coronavirus cases, new opportunities and obstacles for working remotely have emerged. Millions of people are trying to navigate nonexistent physical boundaries between their personal and professional lives within their homes. From dual-career couples invading each other’s work space, to children interrupting meetings at inopportune times, to caregiving for elderly family members, workers are forced to reconsider when and how they show up to work.

The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic starkly revealed fundamental deficiencies in health care delivery around the world. It also sparked innovations in the delivery of care and a transient change in how our organizations are managed. Many credited their successful Covid-19 response to flatter hierarchies, easier access to senior leaders, a sharper focus on what really matters, quicker decision-making, rapid experimentation and tolerance of experimental failure, and less-experienced staff spontaneously stepping up to lead. As one academic observed, “In a small crisis power moves to the center,” but in a big one, “it moves to the periphery.”

Leaders love to talk about corporate culture and values, yet many companies have a disconnect between what leaders preach and what is practiced throughout the organization. Improving corporate culture requires a sustained effort over time. A first step: Look at how well those values are being communicated to the workforce.