All In: How the Best Managers Create a Culture of Belief and Drive Big Results

If your people believe in you as a leader and in the vision, core values, and goals of the team and the larger company, you'll create a great work environment. You may also boost your company's profitability and give it that crucial competitive edge.

In this book, the authors present a body of research that shows the impact this kind of positive culture can have on a company's bottom line. And they set out a roadmap managers can follow to create a culture of total buy-in.

They support their ideas with case studies from high-performing businesses like Starbucks, Avis Budget Group, Cigna, American Express, and Hard Rock. And they throw in colorful references to Olympic champion Michael Phelps, martial arts icon Bruce Lee, Greek philosopher Plato, and former U.S. President John F. Kennedy that back up their conclusions and broaden the book's appeal.

As the subtitle suggests, "All In" is primarily for managers, at any level in their career and in any industry. You might be the leader of a small team, the CEO of a multinational organization or somewhere in between. But you don't have to be in business to appreciate this book. It's just as relevant to leaders of nonprofits, political movements, and sports teams. If you're in charge of people and you need them to believe in your leadership, this book is for you.

The authors base their theories on years of experience consulting for businesses on culture and leadership. Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick founded the global training and consulting firm The Culture Works, through which they've taken their practical tips on workplace culture to organizations around the world. They also co-wrote the best-selling business books "The Carrot Principle" and "The Orange Revolution." Mind Tools spoke to Elton about "The Carrot Principle" back in 2008 so check out our Expert Interview with him if you want to hear more.

For this book, the authors interviewed corporate managers from an array of companies and industries. And they teamed up with research firm Towers Watson to survey more than 300,000 employees in high-performing businesses to prove the difference a positive culture can make to a company's bottom line.

So, keep listening to hear how a clear message and a sense of purpose can revitalize an ailing business, how to keep your focus on the customer, and to learn how the best companies reward their people.

"All In" kicks off with the story of the French tightrope walker known as the Great Blondin, who's most famous for crossing Niagara Falls on a high wire – balancing on stilts, wearing a blind fold or pushing a wheelbarrow while he crossed. Blondin built up a loyal following of devoted fans who'd line the Falls to watch his exploits.

On one occasion, the author put his supporters to the test. If they believed in him so much, would they be willing to get in the wheelbarrow and be pushed along the tightrope across the gorge? Nobody volunteered. Then Blondin's agent, Harry Colcord, took off his hat and waved it in the air, signaling he'd willingly jump in the wheelbarrow. Blondin wasn't actually expecting to wheel anyone across that day, but Colcord's gesture planted a seed. He returned to Niagara a few months later and carried his agent across the gorge on his back.

The authors use the metaphor of Blondin's high-wire act throughout the book. Imagine the wheelbarrow is your latest project or a long-term vision for your company. Would your team members jump in or would they stay on the sidelines? Would they take a bet on your leadership or would they prefer to play it safe? In the best-case scenario, your wheelbarrow is full of people. In the worst, it's empty and somebody has removed one of its wheels!

This metaphor doesn't bear much scrutiny – after all, many of us wouldn't get into Blondin's wheelbarrow under any circumstances. But the idea is that success at work depends on your team trusting you completely, so they want to go along wherever you're going. They need to be ‘all in,' as the title of the book puts it.

The authors say there's a simple formula that will help any manager fill up his wheelbarrow: make sure your employees are engaged, enabled, and energized. Engaged employees understand how their work contributes to the bigger picture and they realize they're accountable for results.

Enabled people have the right tools and training to do the job. And energized employees have a good balance between work and home life, enjoy high levels of wellbeing, and feel recognized. These aren't new ideas but we like the way the authors distill them into three simple words.

The authors go on to set out a seven-step plan for creating a culture of belief that will show managers how to communicate their vision clearly, encourage accountability, foster peer-to-peer support and recognition, and develop a proactive workforce, among other things.

So let's look at what they have to say about the importance of having a clear message and a vision everyone can buy in to.

To make their point, the authors pick a household name – Pepsi. In 1999, the soft-drink company sold Pepsi Bottling Group, its distribution arm, via an initial public offering – the biggest ever in the history of the New York Stock Exchange.

At the time, the bottling group was the world's largest distributor of Pepsi drinks, employing 70,000 people and bottling and selling more than 40 percent of Pepsi beverages worldwide. But Pepsi was facing stiff competition from bottled waters, juices, and vitamin drinks, and investors didn't think the bottling group was a good buy.

Just months after the spin off, its stock was trading 25 percent lower than the initial offer price. Shareholders were unhappy, employees were worried about their jobs, and management didn't know which way to turn.

It was clear the company needed a new sense of purpose that would galvanize its workers and fire up investors. Leaders started coming up with mission statements. But it was Craig Weatherup, the group's new chairman and CEO, who stumbled upon a great idea while chatting to a delivery driver in Denver.

‘You guys make things so complicated,' the driver told Weatherup. ‘It's really not that hard. We sell soda.'

The short phrase ‘We sell soda' became the group's rallying cry. The word ‘we' helped create a team spirit, a sense of unity, and a communal purpose that had been lacking up until that moment. The word ‘sell' helped get everyone behind the company's main activity, reminding them that success depended on excellent salesmanship and great customer service. Finally, the word ‘soda' galvanized workers around the group's core product and kept management focused when the temptation might have been to diversify into distributing other items.

‘We sell soda' became a powerful mission statement that everyone in the company could support. Combined with a set of core values, it helped Pepsi Bottling Group rack up a decade of strong growth. And when PepsiCo decided to reincorporate the group and rename it Pepsi Beverages Company, its leaders decided to keep the mission statement and values that had brought the company back to life at a difficult time in its history.

We think this example drives home a really important message. It's very easy to overcomplicate things, or to drift away from the vision or values that inspired us in the first place. If your organization has fallen into this trap, try bringing things back to basics and come up with a clear message that all employees can agree with and buy in to.

Having a well-articulated vision is one step toward creating a successful business. Another is to make sure you're focused on the customer or client. Research has found that for every customer who complains, there are 25 who don't. Just imagine how many people may be grumbling about your business out of earshot.

Managers need to create a culture in which their employees always put the customer first and the authors offer eight suggestions on how to do this. Let's look at a few.

The first is to give customers more face time. It's so easy these days to think electronic communication is the easiest way to communicate, but emails and online surveys won't build customer loyalty. The best way to build rapport with customers is to connect either in person or on the phone. Of course, this may not be possible, but if you're the manager of a retail business, for example, you could try walking around the floor and engaging with shoppers.

Another tip is to use social media to find out what your customers are saying about you and respond where appropriate. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media outlets are great places to hear some honest, straight-talking feedback from customers or clients. You can find out what makes customers happy and see where you're going wrong. And you can jump on any problems immediately, before they get out of hand.

Taking this a little further, why not create an online customer forum where people who use your products or services can connect to each other and to you? Listen carefully to them and take their suggestions on board.

You could also bring a few of your most straight-talking customers together to sit on a customer advisory board. These should be people who understand what you're trying to achieve but who aren't afraid to give honest feedback. Or you could host a customer panel at your next employee meeting, so everyone gets to hear what people think about your business and what the competition is doing to lure customers away.

While some of the authors' suggestions are common sense, it's likely you won't have thought of them all. These eight tips provide a great checklist for managers who may have forgotten the importance of customer feedback or who may be struggling to find innovative ways to connect with their clients.

Let's now look at employee recognition. As a manager, you'll want to keep your employees happy and make sure they keep coming to work. A great way to do this is by recognizing their worth and making them feel valued.
"All In" is full of examples that show how successful businesses do this, including the online store Zappos, café and restaurant chain Hard Rock, and accountants KPMG.

But the champion of employee recognition is the global credit card company American Express, the authors say. In recent years, the leaders have created an array of tools for managers to reward employees on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis, and for employees to recognize each other. The goal is to encourage loyalty and improve performance by creating an environment in which everyone is rooting for each other and excellent service is publicly acknowledged.

American Express has a system in place across 45 countries that allows any employee to recognize any other, using online cards. This might be to say thank you, to celebrate milestones or anniversaries, or to praise great work. The company also gives employees awards for outstanding service that can be accumulated and cashed in for merchandise, AmEx gift cards, or money. And AmEx acknowledges employees for years of service with an array of gifts and benefits.

It's the American Express call center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that wins the authors' vote for the most positive workplace culture. They describe one of the company's monthly meetings in which the general manager leads a dance party of employees in the call center's atrium – complete with Lady Gaga hits blaring out – before publicly acknowledging employees for outstanding service. There are balloons, party games, cheers, and loud applause.

The positive culture seems to be paying off. AmEx has won five consecutive J.D. Power & Associates awards for customer satisfaction and it continues to go from strength to strength.

But while the AmEx case study is a colorful example of a positive environment, it also highlights one of the main downsides of this book. "All In" is very US-centric. Most of the companies profiled are American and readers in other parts of the world may find it difficult to imagine the cheerleading culture of that American Express call center transplanted to their offices in London, Paris, Tokyo, or elsewhere.

We also think the picture the authors paint of life at some of the companies is simply too good to be true. We'd have welcomed a little more balance and a few more dissenting voices.

Those reservations aside, "All In" is packed full of great tips for managers who want to build a culture where employees are fully committed to the company's mission, enjoy coming to work, feel valued, and are willing to give their all for the sake of the business.

"All In" by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton is published by Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.

Click here to buy the book from Amazon.