How does Monte Nuckols know goodness pays?

Last Friday, a full room of guests battled through an April wintry blast of snow and ice to attend the Good Leadership Breakfast. We learned about how goodness pays through the experiences of our guest speaker Monte Nuckols, an international IT executive with Adient.  You can view a summary video here, and listen to the podcast here. Monte recalled the compassion and encouragement of a specific leader when I asked him the most important question: Looking back over your career, can you think of a specific moment that stands out as a proof point for you that goodness pays?

His answer, paraphrased and edited for brevity:

How Monte knows for sure goodness pays

Most people don’t realize how close the entire United States automotive industry was to going under during the Great Recession. We know how U.S. President Obama helped rescue General Motors, and the other manufacturers were equally in peril. It’s really important to understand that, at any given moment, there is $50 billion flowing through the United States economy in the automotive supply chain – and that included the company that I was working for at the time.

So, it’s not surprising that most of the companies in the automotive industry were doing layoffs. I knew that goodness pays when I experienced how the North American leader of our company explained, and then carried out a huge round of layoffs. He told people the real story. He made himself available. He communicated with respect and compassion – and he moved swiftly so people didn’t worry more than necessary.

I was part of the team that decided to continue with our employee engagement survey, even during the middle of the layoffs. To our surprise, our engagement scores were very high, and employee trust in leadership was the highest we had ever measured. That showed me how good leaders, who behave with goodness, can improve any situation, including affecting the lives of so many employees with layoffs.

On May 10, 2019, we continue the pattern of hearing from world-class IT executives when Phil McKoy is the speaker at the Good Leadership Breakfast. He’s the CIO of United Healthcare.

Mark your calendars now for the August special edition of the Good Leadership Breakfast: TCF presents, the Masters Alliance Young Leaders Breakfast on Friday, August 16.  It’s the third-annual event where every ticket holder is obligated to bring a young leader to hear the message “goodness pays.” We are expecting more than 400 attendees…tickets will be on sale in May.