It really is never too late to have a happy childhood—as an adult and starting at work.

Inspirational early life teachers and parents often passed on the most important life values that make a leader, anyone that others follow with a faith and commitment to their mission. They just took them to heart.

• Be Kind

• Be Patient

• Share Your Toys and Ideas

• Use An Inside Voice

• Be Humble And Say Sorry When You Know You Should

• Clean Up After Yourself

• Do Not Exclude

• Be Brave And Speak Up When You See or Hear Injustice

• Hurting Someone With Words or Fists is Never, Ever, Right

• And Lastly Again—Be Kind

Everyone at sometime is in the need of a nap, food, comfort and someone to appreciate their talents and rub their back.

In my work in corporate America, and in raising my own kind children, I have found that the constants needed for raising connected and happy children, and for having an engaged and inspired workforce, are powerfully consistent. If you are treated with respect, if your motives are clear, pure and focused on the greater good for all involved, if you feel as if someone is there to support you—even if you fail, you will flourish. Everyone wants to grow—they might be afraid for a variety of reasons but human behavior from childhood is focused on emotional and physical growth. Fortunately, most humans just need consistent and reliable teachers/leaders who see them for their gifts, listen carefully to their ideas and model what it means to be trusting as well as trustworthy.

Now imagine that every job you have ever worked in is just a carnival of distinct parenting styles all coming together to form a “team.” You can see why the differing communication amongst each other begins to feel like bumper cars gone wild. Unless there is someone who can clearly step in with the leadership presence to guide the cars in one direction—chaos ensues. And this takes work, the kind of work that means it often gets put on the bottom of the “but I have to get this out today!” pile.

It takes a committed leader able to consciously reflect on their ego based actions to move a team towards KARE.

K—Kindness—Modeled on a daily basis in many interactions
A—Authentic Actions—Show vulnerability and Empathy
R—Respectful Communication—A team that values failing and truth telling. Be courageous, value healthy conflict as a way to growth.
E—Elegance in speech, words, deeds and presence

Yet the workforce of America today is pretty tired and uninspired. “According to the Deloitte LLP 2010 Ethics & Workplace Survey, the recession has diminished two important forms of business currency—trust and ethics. Nearly half (48%) of employed Americans who plan to look for a new job when the economy is more stable cite a loss of trust in their employer as a result of how business and operational decisions were handled over the last two years as a reason for leaving; 46% of them say a lack of transparent leadership communication will drive them to seek new employment opportunities. Executives also believe that trust (65%) and transparency (48%) will be leading factors in voluntary turnover in the coming months.

When the economy heads back up, there will be a brain drain of some great talent leaving their companies because they don’t trust the top leaders. The leading companies of today, and especially of tomorrow, are investing in the growth of their employees and creating the internal culture of a great family. Through good times and bad, a healthy family stays together and talks out the elephants in the room. They allow room for failure, don’t micromanage, are always respectful even when angry, and are accountable to their transgressions and their word.

Which company culture would you chose to work in or to create at your place of business? Create Cultures Where Employees Go To work HAPPY!

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