Bringing Humanity to the Forefront of Culture 🌟 #HumanCenteredLeadership

Good morning, LinkedIn. Happy Thursday. Welcome to another edition of let's Build Superhumans with George B. Thomas. How you doing, George?

Well, you said Thursday, and I was like, this week is flying by, like, what is happening? I can't believe. It's almost like we're heading in the month where it's going to be Thanksgiving and Christmas. So I. I'll say I'm doing okay, but I don't know if I'm doing okay.

That's why we're here, man. To let everybody know that we are doing okay. We do need to kind of take stock in what does okay mean. And, you know, it's been awesome to spend this time with you and kind of break it down and hopefully, you know, make it a lot easier for people to understand what their okay is, what those around them, you know, might be.

First of all, it's funny that you're kind of going in that direction because we as humans so many times say okay when we're not, because we are fearful that nobody wants to be human enough to actually stop and listen to the problems that we might be facing and help us get out of the ditch. And again, that's individual humans, that's teams, that's entire organizations that get stuck in ditches, and everybody wants to look and go, we're okay. I mean, listen, I've had to have some real fun conversations of, like, I think we're okay, but I'm not sure we're okay. But we'll see if we'll be okay in about two weeks. Like, you gotta live in reality. Like, humans have to live in reality. So, anyway, just a side tangent to get us started.

No, that's. That's the only way to do it. And that's what I love making space for on the let's Build shows is, you know, sometimes we gotta take the tangents to be able to speak clearly on the topic at hand, which today is the 10th pillar.

Yes.

Of the framework we made it. It's humanity. And up to this point, we've had holistic happiness, helpfulness, human humility, holiness, hungry honesty, humor, and health. George, hopefully Dope Gauges is going to tell us today what we haven't heard yet, maybe, or how we can learn from this last pillar when we really just, you know, derive at home. This is for humans. Yeah. Yeah, right. What does that mean?

Yeah. And. And first of all, let me just be a good human about this and just say, chris, first of all, thanks for having me over the last couple months and diving in each week into Each element of the superhuman framework, it has been both exhilarating and eye opening and just the start of so many more conversations that will happen around these ten pillars and of course the four cornerstones. But today I, I really am excited, I might even use super excited about what we're going to explore today. Because humanity, being human, well, it's just, it's a really important part, right? And, and let's get on the same page here because as, as we define it in the superhuman framework, it's not this abstract concept that some people might think when they think about what is being human, being a good human, leaning into your humanity. And I want to just start off by telling a little bit of two sides of a coin, of a story of humans. I'll never forget when I first got started in the HubSpot ecosystem. I was reaching out. I was working at the sales line at this time. I was reaching out to people because I wanted to do interviews. I wanted to interview the experts because I was a young buck. I was just getting started. Not young buck in age, but in the HubSpot ecosystem. And I'll never forget, I reached out to this one individual and they replied all instead of replying to the person that also worked at their organization and said something about who the h e double hockey sticks is this guy to which then I was like, one, you're a douchebag. Two, I don't want to interview anymore. And three, you just made me not feel real good about what I'm trying to do here. I won't name that human. They still are in the HubSpot ecosystem and we do actually wave at each other when we see each other walking down the hall because, well, times have changed. I'm not a young buck in the HubSpot ecosystem anymore. From that story though, I picked up and have run over the last 12 years of this golden rule that I have no douchebags allowed. If you're going to be in my circle, you're going to be a good human doing good things to make the world a better place. If you're a douchebag, no. Let me tell a story of the other side of this coin. When I was a kid, my parents had this friend and this friend had like a log cabin. He had a little bit of land, he had like four wheelers and motorcycles. And like his kid and I were friends and we'd go hang out and he just seemed like a normal guy, like average. Every like lived in Montana, normal dude, blue jeans, flannel shirt, down to earth. And Chris, you know, it was years later I found out that he was the number one orthopedic surgeon of the actual valley that we lived in, was worth millions of dollars. But you would never know it because there wasn't an air of arrogance there. There was a level of humility. I put my pants on one leg at a time, just like everybody else. And so understanding, there are these kind of two choices to be one or the other, and maybe you can be in the middle. I would ask the listeners, the viewers, to diagnose, like, how am I leveraging happiness, humility, some of the other H pillars that we've talked about to actually ground me in my humanity, right? If I go out of this and I talk about humanity is not just about making connections, right? Because that's what I was trying to do. I was trying to make connections, do interviews. We were friends with Frank. That was connections. The thing that we need to lean into is it's about making connections with other humans that are intentional. By the way, the line that is, it's not about making connections, it's about making connections that are intentional. There's probably a bunch of humans on this planet that can put that in their networking pipe and smoke it for a hot second. Now, I digress. I don't mean to be mean, but like the idea of business networking and intentionality, do you create these connections with intentionality or are you another level of noise and nonsense? And is that eroding your. In real world or online humanity? Right. So these are. These are some of the, like, issues and problems that you kind of see that we run into. And they can be little or they can be huge. But humanity, again, is about making these connections that are intentional. There's a reason behind it. For me, when I think about humanity and the superhuman framework, it's about really seeing people, seeing their stories, seeing their struggles, seeing their wins, and being able to weave those threads that you're understanding and diagnosing and bringing in from those humans and being able to weave them together with empathy and compassion. Now I'm going to talk about empathy and compassion a little bit later. If I boil this down to. It's about showing up as a good human wanting to do good things in the world. And when we do this, we don't just build teams. We create environments where people feel genuinely valued and deeply connected. By the way, not the first time I've said those words on an episode with you. Like, there are these. If somebody would go back and listen to, like the almost probably eight hours of these back to back, the amount of times that you would hear, like, seen and valued and connected based off of these 10 pillars, these gauges that we can be paying attention in our life is just crazy. But when we do this, when we're focused on like this deep connection, when we're focused on our humanity, we're not just shaping a company culture, we're crafting a culture that becomes a catalyst for transformation and growth. Now, I want to say that again for the people in the backseats, because if you're not creating an organization that is focused on this, see, are you, are you just creating a company culture or are you crafting a culture that becomes the catalyst for transformational growth for your individual employees, teams, and even yourself as a leader? We become, at this point, extraordinary humans in an organization or culture like that, striving to live beyond the status quo and leaning into embracing our full potential. So when we think about that, and it's like that is literally what we're talking about when we're talking about human being human or humanity, like, why does this matter so much if I'm a leader, if I'm in an organization, if I'm a head of a team? Well, why does this matter so much? Here's what happens when we bring humanity into our lives, both personally and professionally. Studies show that teams with high levels of empathy are not only more engaged, but also perform 20% better. Chris, 20% better. Now, you know, they're not performing at zero right now, but if you think about how your team is performing right now, and you could apply 20% better to that by implementing this level of humanity into the organization, imagine what that means both for happiness and productivity. By the way, many organizations, the conversation is all about productivity. Productivity, product, hey, platform, process people, Productivity, product, happiness, performance increase, right? And so what's fun is Maya Angelou. She said it beautifully. She said, people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. How are you as a team leader making your people feel? How are you as an owner making your people feel? How is your crafted culture making people feel? That's the essence of humanity. It's about the legacy that you leave or the potential legacy that you can leave in the hearts of those humans that you have the opportunity to touch that happen to go, you know, along with you in a portion of your journey down the road of life. Humanity at its core is so important to personal growth and so important to high performing teams. And we, when we take the time to connect on a human level, we see that trust up and to the right flourishes, increases whatever words you want to use, morale of the group rise, alignment naturally happens. See, this isn't just about engagement. It's about fulfillment. Happiness, fulfillment, productivity. Right? And again, I'm doing these word clouds, like I do with every one of these sessions that you and I have sat down, because I want these pieces to pull out of. And the stats. I want the stats and the word clouds just, like, ingrained in people's brain where they can't just leave it alone. They got to fix it, they got to change it. When it's about fulfillment, that radiates into every aspect of our lives, by the way, personal teams, culture. So I want to dig deeper into, like, a sense of belonging and connection. But I want to pause here first and just get your thoughts on the idea of humanity, the two sides of the coin, like maybe you've seen in organizations that you've worked with or in.

I'm so glad that you, like, centered around this idea of connection. And as you're talking through it, like, you know, we put so much emphasis on touch points, right? Us in the customer experience, growth marketing space. But as soon as that starts to automate this connection part, and I've talked about this already, like, is that really the part that, that we want to replace, like, the humans? And here's why. Why not, right? And so I think this is a practical example. I have created a lot of content this year. So when people connect with me inbound, right? Literally connect, that's. That's the activity that they're taking on LinkedIn, right. My first question is, thanks for the connect. What brings you my way today? And at this point, I've probably already checked out their profile and understand their title, and I'm already passing some judgment on whether they're trying to, you know, pitch me or they've seen some content. Because usually when they've seen content, they will answer that question with, I've seen this show. Yeah. When they can't, right. I'll give them a couple tries, like, ask some more questions. But at that point, and I've, I've been able to describe the, the process to people, but what am I actually trying to accomplish there? When I wrote down, as you were talking about it, like, are you trying to connect with me, the human being, or are you trying to connect with my profile, the co founder, the head of experience, the head of sales, whatever the demographic of your ICP or your buyer Persona? And it's I can sense that, like, immediately, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And that's where, like, you say, like, there's the activity of connecting, but then there's the connection, you know, with the human being. And it's a very different thing. And as a leader, I would say, whether you know it or not, and you tell your, your team to, to just get out there and, and get touches like automate connections. Automate connection invitations and requests, which I've done in the past. I know, like, you know, there's this volume plays. Just because they get results doesn't mean, you know, it's, it's a good idea. Because when you do that, you're automatically removing the humanity from your team.

Like, yeah, I want to double down into something that you mentioned about connecting, connection. Because I also think that you're leaning into. This other piece that I'm going to talk about is like, do you belong here? Or on the flip side of feeling like you belong. Like, listen, if you're connecting with the profile, if you're connecting with the title, what you're truly trying to do is connect with the wallet. And I'll tell you, if you're connecting with the profile and title, to connect with the wallet, that's what I say about that. Or you're going to get this from Chris or me, right? Because what we want is, we want people who are connecting with our brains and our hearts. And if you connect and engage with our brains and our hearts, at the end of the day, at some point you might have a chance to, to connect with the wallet. But when you go for the wallet first, it's not going to happen. And this is just how humans work, right? And so let's talk about this idea of connection, belonging. And really, again, when we're talking about the component humanity, we're talking about the superhuman framework and the idea of creating belonging in genuine connection, individual teams, organization. When we go in this direction, humanity. While I'm going to talk about empathy, because you couldn't have a humanity conversation without talking about empathy, I want everybody to know it's more than just empathy and kindness. Okay? Like, I feel like that's kind of table stakes. And again, depending on how you were raised, maybe it's not, but it should be. Humanity in the sense of what we're talking about right now is about building communities where everyone feels safe, seen, valued. And the big word here is respected. Because, by the way, I can see you and I can make you feel valued. But when I, when I really value you, there's a level of respect. And, and I don't care if you're male, female, whatever. Like, respect is a ingrained piece that we can feel if we have it or if we're lacking. To you leaders out there, do you respect your employees? To you employees, do you respect your leaders? You see, when we prioritize this kind of connection, we're not just changing individuals. This is when we start to transform cultures, whether it's in a team or it's the entire company on a broader community, cultural standpoint. Chris, again, word clouds and research and stats, right? Research tells us that when people feel a sense of belonging, they're not just happier, they're also 50%, 50% more productive. What do companies want? Productive humans. What do teams want? Productive humans. What do humans want to feel seen, heard, respected. And if they are, guess what, they're happier and 50% more productive. So instead of always focusing on how can we optimize the ish out of our organization for more productivity, how can we optimize the human's happiness for more productivity? So, so why, why is this, like, why am I going down this vein as humans, feeling valued and connected speaks directly to our basic human needs. By the way, all leaders, maybe even all humans, if you just took a month, three months, six months, a year, a couple years to focus in on like psychology and psychological triggers and why we do the dumb ish and smart ish that we do anyway, these basic human needs, it speaks to those. And when people know kind of the fact that they're part of something greater than themselves, guess what? Their well being rises, motivation is ignited, and engagement soars. By the way, I hope everybody understands how important engagement soars is right now in a culture of quiet quitting, hashtag problem, quiet quitting solution, engagement soars. Why? Because we're focused on the happiness of the human. And they feel like they're part of something bigger because they're being more productive in the mission and goal. It's the foundation of like, feeling fulfilled in life, personally and professionally. But the big question is, like, how do we build that connection? How do we make people feel like they belong? And here's three simple. I would call them simple but effective ways or things that I feel like people watching this or listening to this could do today. And so what I want you to think about is listening, gratitude and experience. And if I could get smart and I could be like listening experience and gratitude and tell you that that will give you a leg up anyway, see what I did there? But I'm not going to do that. Listening, gratitude and experience is what I want you to think of. The first practice active listening. Don't just wait for your turn to speak. You're waiting because you already have the answer and they're only a quarter into what they said. That's some dumb crap. I need you to really tune in. I need you to ask follow up questions that show genuine interest in what the other person is saying. But to do that, you would have had to have stopped your brain long enough to listen to what the flip they had to say. Here's a real world use case of what I do. Whenever I'm in a one to one conversation with a human and it sounds small, but it's huge, I will flip my phone upside down because I want them to know in just that gesture, by the way, they realize they're important. I don't want to see my email messages, I don't want to see my text messages, I don't want to see my, any, that phone, any communication coming to me digitally while I'm sitting there talking. I'm actively listening. You are important to me. I see you, I hear you. I respect you enough to put the phone away. By the way. Virtual meetings. My phone is completely on a different desk. I don't look at it, I don't listen for it. My friends and family are like, don't you ever look at your phone? And I'm like, no, because I'm talking to humans. They're, they're important, right? And so like it's, it's little things, but it makes a big, big difference. What I'm getting at is you have to show genuine interest in the other person's perspective again, making them feel. Remember Maya Angelou? Feel heard. It's incredible how much connection grows when you give someone your full attention. Because you know why? Because that's a rare commodity. They look around and not everybody does that. Now all of a sudden, you're an anomaly. You're special. There's a deeper connection because you just did something that good humans do. So the second thing I want you to think about, and I would call this a tool, is gratitude. Genuinely express appreciation to those around you. Whether it's thanking a coworker for a job well done or acknowledging a friend's support in like a time that you needed it. Those small moments of gratitude can form big bridges of connection. The lack that I hear the word thank you in our cultures, in our organizations, it's. I so wish we could kind of go back a little bit in the old school. World, which I think maybe in an AI powered, AI assisted, digital, fast paced, we might get there. But like, could you just do me a favor? Could you open the door for somebody today? All right, so finally I want you to think about shared experiences. Actually, you know what? No. I want everybody to realize that this can be super easy. And what I mean by that is when I first got my first agency job, I would go in and by the way, I didn't do this because I was trying to hack something. I did this because it was natively who I am. But I would go into the agency and I would walk around and I would say good morning to every person at their desk. I didn't think it was a big deal, just good morning. Good morning. Morning, Patrick. Morning, Eric. Do you know, 12 years later I was in a meeting and this guy starts to tell this story about how he this place that he used to work and this guy would come in and he would say good morning. And how that was late in his day. And I was like, oh, that dude sounds awesome. And he goes, you know who that guy was? That guy was George B. Thomas. Dude. I got chills. I didn't know it was making an impact, but it was something simple like just big bridges connection. All right, so again, we're not talking about, you know, brain surgery or like rocket science. Like it's little human interactions, little things that we can implement. So the third thing is shared experiences. Again, whether it's through the team building activities that you plan, but please don't make them stupid. It could be community events that you throw, but please don't let the budget ruin what it could be. Or listen, sharing a meal together. One of the things I loved about actually working in an organization that was in a city that we could go and have lunches occasionally during the week and just break bread together. Like, are you doing that in your organization? Create shared stories like live life together, actually care and interact. Like that's the glue that binds us together. These moments become the stories that bring you together, that bring you closer as humans. Chris, where's your brain at?

The fact that you didn't know that, like that that feedback that you got, because I think I was on that, that call the culture of, you know, especially in marketing where we need the feedback to prove that the thing is working. Yeah, we cannot do that. Like that's the opposite of, you know, proactive, just doing the right thing. The fact that you didn't know that.

Existed for 12 years.

Right. And if you would have been waiting for that feedback as you were doing it and you didn't get it, you stopped doing it. Yeah, right. But instead you just like, this is what a good human being feels like to me. And like, the impact of that, that would have been lost. And like, we're always looking for validation. And social media creates this loop of like, likes. And that's not going to be like, you cannot have that. Like, don't measure this. Don't put KPIs around this.

Some things can't be measured.

Like, right?

Yeah, well, they can, but it takes a long, long time. A long time. Like, that's the thing. And again, I do a lot of what I do with a mindset or mentality of zero expectations. I'm just gonna do it because the right thing, and the right thing is always right. And being a human being, a good human, adding value, being kind, caring, it's just right. Right. To do this though, you have to have empathy and compassion. Something that, like, I feel like should just natively be built into humans. But I've realized like, sometimes the life we live or the place we were born or the choices we make, not that we can't have those, but maybe they've been at bay so far. Maybe we haven't been able to leverage them to the level that we could be. But. But if we continue to build on this idea of humanity and connection, I want to dive into empathy and compassion. Because these two things, they're the engine that makes all of this work. By the way, everything that we've talked about so far, empathy is about understanding another person deeply. Not just understanding, not just seeing, understanding what makes them tick. It's about stepping into their shoes. Or as my dad used to say, walk a mile in their moccasins. I don't know where he got that saying, but like deeply stepping there. Life, right? I said shoes, but life. I'm giving you words here. And because of that, because of that empathy, because of that understanding, truly connecting beyond this surface level bs, you know how I know I'm going to really, really like somebody? Their ability to have something other than a surface level conversation. Are they willing to get in the muck and mire? Are they willing to dig deep and talk about really important stuff? So let's talk about teams and kind of this concept here. Teams that exhibit high empathy, Kris, they have 25% better communication and trust levels. One of the biggest problems that I've seen in organizations over the last 12 years is humans don't like to have conversations with other humans. Marketing and Sales silos, marketing, trying to talk to C Suite. Like you could just keep on listening. But if you have this empathy, there's a 25% better communication thread happening, there's deeper trust levels and these are essential ingredients for what could be an amazing, awesome, fantastic whatever word. Thriving culture. By the way, this stat, this source. Harvard Business Review. I think they know a thing or two, right? So compassion, by the way, is empathy in action. So you have to have empathy. Now, how do you put it in action? When leaders team individual human leading from the back pew, whatever, the actual leader or owner of the when whoever you are as a leader of your own life, of the whatever, when you show compassion again, you're not just listening, you're listening and then you're freaking doing something about it. Imagine a leader who makes the effort to ask how their team member is really doing, really doing, getting past the okay. We literally talked about this at the beginning of the show. Okay. How do you get past the okay? And really doing just that small act can completely change the trajectory of someone's. By the way, when I say someone's of a human being breathing, grieving, whatever that human being's day, week or maybe even their entire career. Marcus Sheridan had no clue the impact that he had on my life in multiple ways of diving deeper into conversations, talking about vulnerability, talking about how much you want to make because it was compassion, empathetically driven, based on understanding where I was as a human in my career at that moment in time and given two craps about it, right? So it proves that sometimes the simplest gesture carries the biggest impact. Good morning Eric. Good morning Patrick. Good morning small. And all of this comes down to humanity in action, whether it's empathy or compassion. So to everyone listening, think about how can you bring a little bit more empathy into your interactions today? It doesn't have to be this massively grand thing. It could be as simple as asking someone how they're really feeling and then actually listening to their answer. Look, I know we're almost out of time, so I'm going to just drive this home real quick because we have to talk about humanity in the workplace. If you're in a leadership position or really even if you're not building a human centered culture, human centered culture. It's not just a nice to have anymore. It is essential to your future progress and the ability to have any type of ROI that you're looking to have in, in the dramatically changing over the next two to four year world that we're going to be living in. Organizations that prioritize humanity are those that are going to thrive, those that are going to continue to grow, those. They will not be the blockbusters of the world that is coming. They create spaces where people are safe, have voices, can voice their concerns, can be creative, and can do all of this without fear. When you can have that kind of openness and trust, it becomes the cornerstone to the successful teams and productivity that you're looking for. For one misconception I hear often is that focusing on humanity means sacrificing performance. But as we've talked about in this session, it's actually the exact opposite. Companies that build human centered cultures see a 21 increase in profitability. That's because when we as humans again feel valued, feel safe, we become engaged, we become innovative, we become motivated to push past the boundaries of what seems possible. You have to have diverse teams. This is another thing. I get so tired of diversity being about good optics. It's the wrong way to play. What some people think this is a game. It's not a game. Diverse Teams are 87% better at making decisions because they bring a range of insights and ideas to the table versus this bubble that happens in a lot of organizations. If, if we're serious about building cultures that are not only human but also high performing, we have to place diversity and inclusion at every core aspect of this, but in the way that it's supposed to be, not the way that some organizations are doing this. Listen, as I land the plane and Chris have a little bit of time to maybe reflect on some of these things. We started out by redefining humanity as more than just a concept. It's about intentional connection, empathy and compassion. I've sat here and talked and we explored how belonging is crucial to well being and productivity and how that can be a superpower for your organization. And we've even looked at how these ideas can and should be woven into the workplace to create cultures that value both humanity and performance at the same time. So here's my challenge to all of you. I want you to make a conscious choice today to bring humanity into every aspect of your life, whether it's at work, at home, or in your community. Take those, as I've shown, small steps. Listen fully. Practice empathy. Embrace diversity. Create a space where people feel like they belong and are part of something bigger, part of a mission. Bottom line, humanity isn't just an idea, it's a practice. And it's one that starts with each and every one of us, individual humans implementing and focusing on it every single day. Chris, what are your thoughts, brother?

Save the best for last, brother. This has definitely been the most speechless I've been on any episode because I just, it was just so good. I did not want to get in the way of this knowledge and, and wisdom. I've got a lot of ideas, man.

There you go.

About.

That's what's important.

Yeah. About ways that could connect this to help people practically apply. And what just came to mind. And I think this is. Can be an analogy and a part of the thread there. I think you mentioned, like, you wish it was built in natively. Right. And it actually is. Yeah. Like, we're born with a lot of these things we often hear about as we're kids. It's easier to laugh. It's like we don't worry about what other people thinking. So we have very clear communication habits. Right. And it's almost like that's the human data model that we come with. Right. And as we grow, as we learn around the world around us, we find ways to make it not about the humans. And we change the data model. We change what's important, we change what's visible, and then those things start to drive our decision making and we just lose sight. All those things were innately built with like, empathy, compassion. Most of the things we talked about in this episode, if you're having trouble, like if this hits, is too like, touchy feely. I'm a leader. I'm. I'm in business and we're trying to grow. I don't know how to translate that. That's a way that, that maybe we can help translate it because at some point you can't see your people anymore and you just see your bottom line and that's where all of these issues, you know, pop up. And that's it, man. So I. This episode, it's been very validating and what, what I've been doing this year in terms of just creating more conversations around topics that, that people have had trouble with or just don't know about. And this being one of them. I did not, man. This was not in the plan. Right. This, this framework, like.

Yeah.

Finding this path to get to the heart of, of what is actually causing problems in every business that we look at right now. So I'm thankful, man. Thankful that you're, you're around to put this together, you know, and hopefully help a bunch of other humans, you know, take these steps, man.

Yeah, for me, that's. Listen, it's funny because I have been trying to be a catalyst for growth for more than the last 12 years, but in the HubSpot ecosystem for the last 12 years, I'm trying to be a happy, helpful, humble human. And in. In that I've helped hundreds of organizations make millions of dollars using HubSpot, which, by the way, I can go to bed and, like, feel great about that. That's like, my mission and my mission field. But for some reason, the. The universe has put this passion on me. I feel like it's part of my purpose is to. To now go into these organizations and other organizations and help them stop losing billions of dollars, stop losing good humans, and really be able to reach the levels in which they could be reaching. Because even if you're successful, even if you are like, this is the best business ever, what if it could be more? Is it possible? If you focus on the people?

So if you're out there asking that question, how do I focus on the people? You will find opportunities and they will challenge you, I'm sure. But as you take a look, be reflective, ask yourself the hard questions, get to the hard truths, find those opportunities, and let's grow. Have a great day, everybody.