Hartford Business Journal

20 Hartford Business Journal • September 18, 2017 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Opinion & Commentary EDITOR'S TAKE Let private sector woo Amazon to CT T here's been lots of hubbub lately about Amazon's decision to open a second headquarters, where it plans to employ 50,000 workers earning an average salary of $100,000. The announcement excited many government and economic development officials around the the country and sent Connecticut policymakers rushing to the podium to declare our state's intentions to woo the online retailing giant to our hallowed grounds. Local media quoted everyone from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin and even U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, who boasted about the state's highly educated and skilled workforce and prime Northeast location. While Connecticut should make an aggressive push to compete for Amazon's new head- quarters, it shouldn't be a government-led initiative. If Connecticut is going to have any shot at competing with major tech centers like New York, Boston, Chicago, Austin or Charlotte, among many other locales, we need to lead with a coalition of top business executives (from blue chip companies to small and midsize firms and startups) that vouch for the state as a great (not good) place to do business. Even then, Connecticut is a longshot option for Amazon (last time I checked there are still 49 other states in the U.S. that will also be eager to host one of the largest and fastest-growing compa- nies in the world). If policymakers were truly serious about wooing the likes of an Amazon headquarters, they would have spent the last two decades cultivating a business and economic climate that was suitable for job growth and investment. Instead they've built a state government that overspends, over regulates and over taxes. Connecticut's economy has sputtered in the meantime, recovering only 80 percent of the jobs lost during the Great Recession, giving the state the slowest growth rate in New England (yes, even Rhode Island's economy has performed better). Adding insult to injury, several high-profile Connecticut companies — Aetna and General Electric — sought out greener pastures for their headquarters locations. Homegrown Alex- ion Pharmaceuticals — the gem in the state's budding bioscience sector — announced last week it was moving its headquarters to Boston, despite receiving $26 million in economic development incentives from the Malloy administration. There was also a bit of irony lost on many people: On the day after Amazon announced it would spend $5 billion in search of a new, second headquarters, Malloy unveiled a revised budget that caved to Democrats' demands to increase the sales tax. That's not exactly a welcome mat to the world's largest online retailer (Amazon came to an agree- ment in 2013 to begin collecting sales tax from online shoppers in Connecticut). While a sales-tax hike may be off the table now, the message was already sent. Mean- time, other tax increases loom as the state continues to grapple with its fiscal crisis. Let's be honest, Connecticut's business community doesn't have a high degree of confidence in our state policymakers; nor should they. Lawmakers for more than a decade have been unable — or unwilling — to make the hard decisions that will put our state on a more stable fiscal footing. The Connecticut Business and Industry Association released its "2017 Survey of Connecticut Businesses," last week, which found that the top four factors hampering business growth and investment in the state are the high cost of living, uncertainty and unpredictability of state legislative decision-making, taxes, and additional business costs from state mandates and regulations — all factors influenced by government. That's why policymakers should sit on the sidelines while trying to woo Amazon, at least for part of the beauty pageant. Instead, government should convene a group of high-profile business leaders who truly believe in what the state has to offer — and it has plenty — to sell Connecticut and its prime location, talented workforce and high quality of life. After that, state government can ride in on its white horse, present Amazon with a gener- ous incentive package and hope for the best. COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS Managers, executives must lead with empathy By Julie Connolly E mpathy fuels connection and at the highest levels in any organization, relationships are how work gets done. The higher one climbs, technical acumen becomes less important than relational acumen. Efficacy as a leader increasingly depends upon emotional intelligence, or EQ, over IQ. In his Washington Post article, "Leader- ship character: The role of empathy," Colo- nel Eric Kail notes, "Leadership, after all, is a relationship. We cannot expect others to go very far with us in a relationship until we reveal who we are and in turn learn who they are in a meaningful manner." This statement underscores some key truths: how long someone is willing to fol- low a leader is a conscious choice, people need to trust those they follow, and there is a human need to feel known. At its core, empathy is the ability (and willing - ness) to learn about someone else in terms of what drives them and how they experience the world. Effective leaders, both within the community and within organizations, under- stand this and employ empathy to develop and maintain strong relationships with their external and internal constituents. If you suspect empathy is not one of your strongest competencies, the good news is that it can be learned simply by asking questions and listening to hear versus listen- ing to respond. At an organizational level, leaders can encourage their employees to en- gage with the com- munity in an effort to understand the needs and people with whom they live and work. These are skills that are taught to our program partici- pants at Leadership Greater Hartford. Many of us received early training in empathy from our parents. Can you recall times when you complained about some- one else's behavior and one of your parents asked, "Why don't you put yourself in their shoes and see how it might feel?" Organizations frequently use personal- ity assessments such as Myers Briggs, DISC, or the Enneagram, for employees to gain a better self-awareness and a heightened understanding of and an ap- preciation for those with whom they work. With this understanding, the hope is that leaders can better motivate and inspire their teams and form stronger relation- ships across the organization. In my capacity as an executive coach, I have observed many clients stop at the self-awareness piece and fail to expend the effort to understand their team. They often cite time as the culprit. If they had more time, they would engage more with their people, but time being limited, tasks receive higher priority. Unfortunately, when leaders don't understand what drives the people they are leading, miscommunications, under- performance and demotivation result, which in turn become the catalysts for long-overdue conversation. Conversation is then conflated with confrontation, and I observe my clients and program partici- pants expending energy anticipating their own discomfort rather than investing the energy in an open dialogue fueled by curiosity to learn more. Daniel Goleman, author of the ground- breaking book, "Emotional Intelligence," de- scribes two types of empathy and how each type can be effectively used in his recent article published for the Korn Ferry Institute, "How Empathy Adds to a Leader's Power." Cognitive empathy is the ability to under- stand another person's perspective — how they think. Emotional empathy is the ability to sense how someone feels about their expe- rience through non-verbal cues. In addition to time, some of my clients shy away from the concept of empathy as they fear it may make them appear "soft," or they equate being empathetic as running around feeling everyone's pain. However, as Goleman explains, leaders skilled in empathy gather in- valuable informa- tion. If a leader can understand how staff views the organization through the lens of their positions, valuable informa- tion about potential inefficiencies, leader- ship deficiencies and working conditions can be revealed. Moreover, understanding the personalities and feelings of staff lend insight into tensions brewing between departments or among team members before a tipping point is reached. So how can you show up as a more empathetic leader? Consider setting some dates for coffee with members of your staff. Ask open-ended questions that seek to better understand their world. Inquire how you can support them with any chal- lenges they share. This investment of your time will yield a huge return. You will be the empathetic leader that people will continue to choose to follow. Julie Connolly is the director of Leadership Greater Hartford's Quest program Julie Connolly Greg Bordonaro Editor If you suspect empathy is not one of your strongest competencies, the good news is that it can be learned. If policymakers were truly serious about wooing the likes of an Amazon headquarters, they would have spent the last two decades cultivating a business and economic climate that was suitable for job growth and investment.

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