In Progress: Attract, Engage and Retain Top Talent

I am working on a book with Donna de St. Aubin entitled Attract, Engage and Retain Top Talent: 50 Plus One Strategies Used by the Best (Author House Books). The whole idea of the book is to provide reasonable, practical concepts and ideas for leaders in small or large organizations to enhance their ability to create a workforce of engaged people who stay and contribute to the organization's success, and are happy to do so.

Click here to BUY NOW

Below are two excerpts (draft form) from Chapter 25 - Act with Virtue.

Most of us try hard to follow the advice from our youth to play nice and get along with others. But many leaders might wonder whether there really is business value in investing time and resources to build a nice organization where good values are woven into the fabric of work life. The point of view of this chapter is that positive business outcomes occur when an organization lives by its values; when employees are proud of the inherent and visible goodness of their organization.

Virtues are the best of the human condition; the most ennobling behavior and outcomes, the highest aspirations of human beings. Plato and Aristotle described virtuousness as the desires and actions that produce personal and social good. (Pg. 48 of Positive Organizational Scholarship.) In the chapter on Virtues and Organizations from the book entitled Positive Organizational Scholarship (edited by Cameron, Dutton, and Quinn), Park and Peterson state that “organizational-level virtues are characteristics of organizations that contribute to the fulfillment of its members.”

...And later... To summarize all of this; demonstrations of virtue by organizational leaders serve as a source of identity and pride for employees. Virtuous actions create an upward spiral of positive emotions, having an amplifying effect and creating positive social capital. Positive emotions and social capital are the currency that creates great performance through collaboration, healthy colleague and customer relationships, and desire to contribute; even beyond what is expected. A solid foundation of virtuousness can buffer an organization from the negative impact of trauma from events such as downsizing or other high-impact organizational changes.