Bob DeKoch & Phillip G. Clampitt On How We Need To Adjust To The Future Of Work – Thrive Global

The pandemic pause brought us to a moment of collective reckoning about what it means to live well and to work well. As a result, employees are sending employers an urgent signal that they are no longer willing to choose one — life or work — at the cost of the other. Working from home brought life literally into our work. And as the world now goes hybrid, employees are drawing firmer boundaries about how much of their work comes into their life. Where does this leave employers? And which perspectives and programs contribute most to progress? In our newest interview series, Working Well: How Companies Are Creating Cultures That Support & Sustain Mental, Emotional, Social, Physical & Financial Wellness, we are talking to successful executives, entrepreneurs, managers, leaders, and thought leaders across all industries to share ideas about how to shift company cultures in light of this new expectation. We’re discovering strategies and steps employers and employees can take together to live well and to work well.

As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Bob DeKoch & Phillip G. Clampitt.

Bob DeKoch has devoted his entire career to leadership roles, refining his own skills, and mentoring hundreds of aspiring leaders. Rising to senior executive roles in numerous organizations, he has over four decades of experience across major market sectors: the construction services industry and real estate development business, the pulp and paper industry, the beverage industry, and the chemical industry.

Phillip G. Clampitt (PhD, University of Kansas) is the Blair Endowed Chair of Communication at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. Phil has won numerous awards for his teaching and scholarship. Phil has consulted on leadership, communication, and strategic planning with organizations such as Nokia, PepsiCo, The US Army War College, Schneider National, and Dental City.

Thank you for making time to visit with us about the topic of our time. Our readers would like to get to know you better. Tell us about a formative experience that prompted you to change your relationship with work and how work shows up in your life.

When I was completing my PhD, I started applying for assistant professor positions around the country. Everywhere I went, the selection committee asked me, “Why do you want to be professor?” My candid and, I thought, pretty clever response was always the same: “I love ideas. I love people. And, I love connecting the two.” Almost everyone on those committees nodded in knowing agreement and usually ended up offering me the position.

Seasoned by many years of teaching, coaching, and reflection, I’ve often thought back on that response. While I still love connecting people to cool ideas, I came to realize that I was wrong about something important. What I’ve learned is that professors have to connect to people first,then they can connect students to life and career-changing ideas. Those significant tweaks to my teaching philosophy have transformed my relationships to students, the thinking routines of my students, the career success rate of our graduates, and the pedagogical framework for our program. (Phil)

As I moved up the corporate ranks, I had Increasing responsibility to lead people. The technical and administrative skills of leadership came fairly easily to me. But I realized I had much to learn about leading others. Over time, I discovered that the key was allowing people to do the best they could in their positions and my primary role was to release their potential through engaging them in challenging projects/task and personally investing in their aspirations — even if it meant pursuing opportunities elsewhere. (Bob)

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Source: Bob DeKoch & Phillip G. Clampitt On How We Need To Adjust To The Future Of Work – Thrive Global