#228: Contagious Culture: How to Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization That Thrives

On today’s show, I’m talking with Anese Cavanaugh. Anese created the IEP (Intentional Energetic Presence) methodology on how you show up, being intentional, the way you take care of yourself. She also created a company out of her ideal beautiful job (Active Choices Incorporated; better known as IEP methodology) and has written two books, Contagious Culture, and Contagious You. In this episode, we’re talking about how you can reenergize your leadership energy by building a healthy, happy, contagious culture within your business.

The most important takeaway from this episode is the importance of culture in your work environment. Leadership and the culture are two critical components that make it fun for your team to do the hard work they have to do. People are what it takes. It starts with you and how (or if) you’re showing up. What do you want your impact to be? Once you start to name your assumptions, you start to realize they're only assumptions and they're probably not fully real. And there's things that you can get curious about.

What You Will Learn In Today's Podcast Interview

How recognizing that you’re part of the problem gives you back your power.
Why you need to take better care of your energy.
What the IEP Method® (Intentional Energetic Presence®) is and the vital role it plays in your business.
When burnout isn’t about your financial asset, but the role you play in it.
How writing out her ideal job description and crafting her intentions inspired Anese to start her first company.
Who is responsible for creating the culture in your business and how you can improve it.
If you take care of your people and are being intentional about your impact, the money takes care of itself. (or: Money follows if you treat your people right and are intentional about your impact.)
How to identify the lowest vibration in the room and the best way to deal with these people—even if it’s you.
It’s better to be clear and clean about your intentions because people can pick up on the energy behind your ask and react poorly to feeling manipulated.
When and how you can “reboot your presence” in the moment for better outcomes.
What “energetic hygiene” means, how it affects you even when you aren’t consciously managing your energy and what you can realistically do to improve it.
The impact of letting employees linger on in the business longer than they should, from what it says to your other staff to the resources you’ll waste even months after you release them.
Why direct engagement agreements can save team morale and solve issues before they fester.
Anese’s Five Magic Questions that show your intentionality, the way you're taking care of yourself, the way you're showing up, your level of presence and the culture you're creating:
- Are you having the impact you want to have?
- Do you feel the way you want to feel?
- Do people follow you because they want to or because they have to? Do people work with you or stay married to you because they want to or because they have to?
- What kind of a culture are you personally creating?
- Are you living in alignment with your core values?

Are You Growing The Value of Your Business

Take The 2-Minute Assessment To Get Your Intentional Growth Score™ And 1-Page Vision Board.

Are your company's current initiatives intentionally designed to increase the value of the business?
Do you know what you want from your business long term and why?
Do you know what your company is worth?
Do you know the differences between Management, Family Transitions, PE Firms, ESOPs and Strategic Buyers?
Does the business have a written strategic plan on how to achieve the desired normalized EBITDA and valuation?

About the Guest:

Anese Cavanaugh is devoted to helping people show up and bring their best selves to the table in order to create significant positive impact in their lives. She is the creator of the IEP Method® (Intentional Energetic Presence®), an advisor and thinking partner to leaders and organizations around the world, a keynote speaker, and author of CONTAGIOUS CULTURE: Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization That Thrives (McGraw-Hill, 2015), CONTAGIOUS YOU: Unlock Your Power to Influence, Lead, and Create the Impact You Want (McGraw-Hill, 2019), and THE LEADER YOU WILL BE: An Invitation (a leadership storybook).

As a leading voice on intention, energy, and presence in leadership and culture, she helps people unlock greater leadership potential, collaborate more inspiringly, create more openly, intuit more bravely, and lead more joyfully and effectively. Top innovators and executives in companies like IDEO, Zingerman’s, Cooper, GM Financial, Vistaprint, 15Five, Fitbit, Vivayic, Kaiser Permanente, and others have engaged with Anese to strengthen team health, maximize leadership impact, and optimize company culture. In addition to appearing in publications like Harvard Business Review, The Huffington Post, CEO.com, Forbes, the NY Times, and others, Anese has a column, “Showing Up” on Inc.com and writes regularly for subscribers of AneseCavanaugh.com.

Quotes:

06:42 - “If I'm clear and connected to my intention, that helps create everything down the line.” – Anese Cavanaugh

16:17 - “Whether we're the owner of the company or whether we're the front desk person or we're the janitor, we're creating the culture of the company just by the way that we show up and the energy we're bringing to everything.” – Anese Cavanaugh

17:42 - “If you take care of the people, you take care of focusing, and be intentional about the impact, the money and finances take care of themselves.” – Anese Cavanaugh

27:10 - “If you’re clear and clean about your intention, and your intention is in service of something good, it is much more likely to happen.” – Anese Cavanaugh

32:55 - “Do you exhaust your team before you even say ‘hello’ on screen?” – Anese Cavanaugh

46:21 - “$483 to 605 billion was lost in United States in 2016 due to actively disengaged employees. On 2016, actively disengaged employees only made up 16% of the workforce.” – Anese Cavanaugh

58:46 - “In your intentions, your intention has to be greater than your discomfort. Your commitment than your intention has to be greater to your desire to be comfortable.” – Anese Cavanaugh

62:22 - “Underneath every single complaint is just an uncommunicated request.” – Anese Cavanaugh