Latest news with #ZachMercurio
CNBC
22-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
If you have this skill, you're a better boss than most, says workplace expert: It reminds employees 'that they're needed'
Plenty of people love company-wide pizza parties and generous workplace vacation packages. Just don't expect those kinds of perks to consistently motivate people to perform their best, says leadership and workplace researcher Zach Mercurio. To feel like they matter at work, employees — perhaps surprisingly — prefer one factor over just about everything else, Mercurio says: a boss who's good at making small talk. Not the superficial chatter that people use to cut awkward silences, but the meaningfully personal conversations that lead to small moments of connection, he explains. "We've studied people for five years in numerous occupations, and we've asked them this question: When you feel that you matter, what's happening at work?" says Mercurio. "Nobody yet has said, 'When I got a promotion, when I got a pay raise, when I got employee of the month' ... They've all talked about small interactions in which someone truly sees them, hears them, is there for them, and reminds them that they're needed."Questions that show a sincere interest in the other person can helping you build trust and a genuine workplace rapport, Mercurio says. This could be as simple as: "I know things are a little hectic this week. How are you holding up?" Or, "I heard your son graduated this week. Congratulations! How did you celebrate?" Without casual opportunities for personal interaction, remote workers particularly feel increasingly disconnected and insignificant at work, Mercurio notes. The same is often true of workers in underappreciated positions like janitors, delivery drivers and public transportation operators, he adds. "We've used technology to manage remote and hybrid work, so a lot of our interactions are more transactional than ever. We send updates via Slack or email," says Mercurio. "But what can't be an email is checking in on how you're doing because your parents are in the hospital. [Or] resolving a conflict in their ways of working or checking in on how a project is going." If you want to avoid superficial small talk, "ask clear, open, exploratory questions," Mercurio says. He offers these examples: Avoid inquiries like "How are you today?" and "How was your weekend?" that can result in autopilot responses, author and keynote speaker Lorraine Lee wrote for CNBC Make It in February. Instead, try "conversational threading," asking questions that encourage more substantial conversation, Lee wrote. For example: "What are you excited to be working on?" or "What was the highlight of your weekend?" If you're on the receiving end of an awkward small talk question, give an answer that prompts follow-ups. If someone asks where you're from, don't just say "California" — say something like, "I'm from Malibu, near the beach. My family and I used to go surfing on the weekends." Bosses especially should take advantage of these small moments to build connections with their employees, Mercurio says: As workplace trust dwindles across the U.S., the relationships you create at work can help you keep your employees productive and engaged. "I encourage [leaders] to track your interactions with your team, for example, over the week," he says. "When do you interact with them? Write down, what do you talk about? How much is this talk about what they do and what they can do for you, and how much of that time is spent talking about who they are and how they're doing?" ,
Forbes
19-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Secret Driver Of High-Performance At Work? Mattering
When I finished my first year of law school, I clerked for a judge during the summer. I felt nervous about the experience and constantly wondered whether I had what it took to practice law. As the summer progressed, the judge gave me a complicated research project that I fumbled my way through and eventually submitted. Several days later, I found a note on my chair that said this: 'Your report was excellent. I appreciated how you summarized the key take aways – it made my life easier. Thanks – Judge.' It was as though his words were magic and unlocked something that I have remembered almost 20 years later. I still have his note in my office. Why? That magical feeling from something as simple as a 20 word note has a name – it's mattering – and it's the subject of Dr. Zach Mercurio's new book, The Power of Mattering. I first discovered Zach and his work while I was researching my own book. I had the pleasure of interviewing him about his work because I identified that mattering was an important driver of high-performing and thriving team cultures. Mattering has two parts. The first part is feeling valued (appreciation & recognition) and the second part is knowing that you add value (achievement). He explains that mattering is created through small, repeated interactions that help people feel: This work comes at an important time. Gallup recently reported that employee engagement in the US dropped to a 10-year low and globally, both employee engagement and well-being have dropped in the past year, with engagement falling for only the second time since 2009. Managers are experiencing the sharpest decline. In addition, burnout continues to be a problem across industries, and one survey of more than 4,000 workers found that 82% of the respondents have felt lonely at work. The experience of mattering fuels everything leaders say they want more of in their workplaces: engagement, innovation, and retention. It is also a key driver of intrinsic motivation, resilience, and well-being. Mattering to others is an important psychological resource that enables people to better meet life and work demands. Here are some ways Zach says we can start to increase mattering, using his noticed, affirmed, and needed framework: One of my favorite questions he suggests asking is, 'When you feel like you matter to me, what am I doing?' I asked my nine-year old daughter this very question while driving her to her Girl Scouts overnight camp. She thought for a second and responded, 'when we snuggle, when you say good things about me in front of other people, and when you whisper in my ear that I'm doing a good job at something or you're proud of me.' Tears welled up in my eyes in part because her answer was so simple, and it's valuable data for me. Those are actions that I can easily replicate. If you're asking this question at work, you can rephrase it to say, 'When you feel like you're a valued part of this team, what am I doing?' I spent almost four years on a team working with U.S. Army soldiers, many of whom were drill sergeants. As part of this work, the soldiers took a strengths assessment, and our training team would display each of the soldiers' top strengths. For many of the drill sergeants, one of their top strengths was the capacity to love. That always made me smile, as my early perceptions of drill sergeants were anything but loving. When I talked about that with them, though, their message was clear. The way to build a high-performing unit wasn't just through toughness, it was also by truly getting to know the soldiers in their units. If they wanted their soldiers to support others, they first had to feel supported. If they wanted their soldiers to sacrifice, they had to make sure they were first seen as people – valued and respected. As Zach states, for people to care about anything, they first must feel cared for. And great leaders seek to understand the person before the employee. At a time when burnout rates are on the rise, geopolitical and economic uncertainty abound, and we all wonder about the impact of AI at work, know that the path forward is deeply human. Paula Davis is the CEO of the Stress and Resilience Institute and is the author of the newly released book, Lead Well: 5 Mindsets to Engage, Retain, & Inspire Your Team.
CNBC
15-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
3 toxic phrases the best bosses never use, from a workplace expert: They're 'really unhealthy'
Some bosses know how to motivate their employees with actionable feedback and advice. Others take a more passive-aggressive approach, which almost always backfires, says leadership and workplace researcher Zach Mercurio. Bad bosses may frequently use these three common toxic phrases, he says: "There's this old like trope that still goes around in management circles of like, 'Don't think you're irreplaceable. We can get someone else in here.' And I think that's really unhealthy," says Mercurio, author of "The Power of Mattering" and a senior fellow at Colorado State University's Center for Meaning & Purpose. When bosses use those phrases — or use different words to convey similar messages — they're probably trying to encourage their employees to work harder or go above and beyond to get the job done. In actuality, they come across as threatening and fear-mongering, Mercurio says. "When people feel replaceable, they tend to act replaceable. They don't show up, they don't come in ... they actually put in less effort," he says. "You actually deplete people's self-esteem and self-worth and sense of capability they need to improve their performance."To motivate a workplace, consider setting lofty goals for your employees — goals that may be challenging, but you know they'll be able to meet them. That's a tactic that Lisa Su, CEO of billion-dollar chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), uses to get the most out of her teams. "People are really motivated by ambitious goals," Su told Time in December. "[The] strategy of, 'Hey, let's just do a little bit better here and there' — that's actually less motivational." And if you see an employee struggling, sit down with them to discuss their productivity before doing or saying anything more drastic, Mercurio recommends. Sometimes, "HR will deploy a performance improvement plan to somebody, and they've never actually had meaningful conversations [with their boss], and they don't have the support to improve their performance," he says. Those meaningful conversations typically need to include an honest assessment of expectations and performance, rather than attempted motivation that can quickly turn toxic. If you hear that you're replaceable, or that your organization won't support you while you're struggling, you'll probably focus on that takeaway more than anything else, says Mercurio. If your boss uses these phrases, or phrases with a similar effect, Mercurio recommends documenting the words they've said, the contexts of the statements and how they've impacted you. Then talk to your boss about how they made you feel, saying something like: "When I heard that, I felt really discouraged. I want to do great work here, but it's hard to feel motivated when I feel replaceable," Mercurio says. If your boss' behavior doesn't change, you may need to consider going to HR, he adds. "I also think in the midst of this, finding and spending time working with people — colleagues, leaders in other areas — who make you feel that you matter can be helpful," says Mercurio.
Forbes
13-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Most Undervalued Driver Of High Performance? Mattering.
In a world where purpose and performance are often seen as separate lanes, a new body of research is pointing to a simple but overlooked truth: people do their best work when they believe they matter. On the launch day of The Power of Mattering, author and researcher Zach Mercurio is sounding a clarion call to leaders everywhere: if you want your people to show up, contribute fully, and stay committed, they need to know they matter. Not someday, but now. Not once a year in a performance review—but today, in every interaction. The book lands at a critical moment. Gallup reports that employee engagement in the U.S. has dropped to a 10-year low. According to Gallup, only 39% of employees strongly agree that someone at work cares about them as a person, and just 30% feel someone is invested in their growth. Meanwhile, Workhuman's Human Workplace Index finds that nearly half of employees report feeling invisible on the job. Psychologist Alexander Danvers' research puts it plainly: loneliness isn't about lacking social contact—it's about lacking perceived social value, the feeling that we're seen, valued, and needed by others. This, Mercurio argues, is a mattering deficit. And it's costing us more than we think. Mattering is the felt sense that we are seen, valued, and needed by others. It's a fundamental psychological need that influences everything from our motivation and mental health to our performance and retention. Drawing on the work of researchers like Gordon Flett (The Psychology of Mattering) and Isaac Prilleltensky (How People Matter), Mercurio breaks the experience down into three actionable practices: And here's the key: these aren't soft skills. They are strategic assets that meet a fundamental human need. In the workplace, the experience of mattering fuels everything companies say they want more of—engagement, innovation, retention, and discretionary effort. Research shows that employees who feel they matter are more productive, more resilient, and more loyal. Those who don't? They're more likely to burn out, opt out, or quietly quit. One story from Mercurio's book illustrates the power of this perspective shift. Jane, a custodian at a large building, once lamented to her supervisor that she wished she'd become "something more." The supervisor responded: 'Do you know what the word 'custodian' means? It means 'one who cares for something.' That's exactly what you do here—every single day.' That one conversation changed Jane's perspective on her work—and kept her in the role, happily and healthily, for 18 more years. As Mercurio writes: 'If we want people to contribute, they must first believe they're worthy of contributing. If we want them to use their strengths, they must first believe they have them. If we want them to care, they must first feel cared for.' In other words, you can't extract performance from people who don't believe they matter. Importantly, this isn't about grand gestures or HR overhauls. As Mercurio emphasizes, your next great leadership act could be your next one-on-one. Your next hallway encounter. Your next email. We cultivate mattering through micro-moments. He suggests asking your team members a deceptively simple question: 'When you feel that you matter to me, what am I doing?' Then, go do more of that. Some of his favorite phrases for reinforcing mattering include: The beauty of this practice is its accessibility. It doesn't cost a dime. It just takes awareness—and intention. At a time when burnout is rampant, and trust in institutions is at a historic low, Mercurio's message is a reminder that the path forward isn't just technological, financial, or strategic. It's deeply human and interactional. As leaders, we often focus on what we want from our people: more performance, more innovation, more ownership. But the better question may be: What do they need from us to get there? The answer, according to The Power of Mattering, starts with being seen, affirmed, and needed. And that's not a nice-to-have. It's the very foundation of a thriving workplace. Zach Mercurio's book The Power of Mattering is available now. Learn more at
