TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments

In our overloaded age, the most common complaint is certainly about interruptions. And no one feels it more than those who are called to lead and manage companies. But one CEO and a leadership consultant say that those unplanned interactions are not only worthwhile, they are the key to becoming a great leader and creating a wonderful workplace.

In their new book, Douglas R. Conant, president and CEO of Campbell Soup Company, and Mette Norgaard, a renowned leadership consultant, suggest that every planned and unplanned interaction is an opportunity to build engagement and promote the organization’s values, purpose and agenda. TOUCHPOINTS: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments (Jossey-Bass; hardcover; May 17, 2011) reveals the approach that helped Conant transform Campbell Soup Company.   

Conant and Norgaard have distilled the approach into a method that everyone—from top executives to new managers—can master over time and with repeated practice. It revolves around three practices:

• Head:  Take the patchwork of ideas and assumptions and transform them into a coherent set of ideas.
• Heart:  Make your work intensely personal. Care about your work and the people you work with.
• Hands:  Develop the skills so that you can be proficient in TouchPoint after TouchPoint. This requires continuous practice.

Conant and Norgaard say the approach means improving listening skills and understanding that leadership is not about you – it’s about the people you are leading.  “The process,” say Conant and Norgaard, “is to listen intently, frame the issue and advance it. Truly, to better frame the problem and address it really begins with the magic question, ‘How can I help?’ The answer will allow you to understand the issue, frame it, and then move toward a solution.”

“The beauty of TouchPoints is that it is approachable and aspirational,” says Conant. If you pick just three TouchPoints a day – that adds up to more than 1,000 interactions a year. Each of these moments is a chance to remind those on your team about the mission, and to listen to the issues and ideas they may have.” The results of these connections speak for themselves-higher employee engagement, improved growth, increased revenue, and better relationships.

In short, TouchPoints produce a better and more productive organization. And, the concepts have worked over and over again in a wide range of businesses and industries. 

“These interactions build commitment and clarity, rather than simple compliance,” says Norgaard. “There’s an intense focus on the relationship and the result. This approach is about people and performance. The action is in the interaction.” 

Leaders who use the TouchPoints approach are spending their valuable time learning to relate to and engage every employee. And, each TouchPoint, no matter how small, can build a successful organization.

TOUCHPOINTS provides a new approach to leadership – a proven one that can transform both leaders and the people they lead.