Industry Magazine Beyond the Kitchen Door Magazine Spring 2017 | Page 18

and financial institutions. Emerald,
along with his wife, Donna Zajonc, now
heads the Bainbridge Leadership Center,
coaching companies on leadership
issues. He is also a business facilitator,
public speaker, and author.
TED in the Workplace
“People bring a
certain amount
of energy to
their work
each day, and
as leaders, we
have very little
influence over
that. But what
we do have
influence on is
how they direct
their energy.”
SPRING
SPRING 2017
2017
The beauty of bringing TED into
the workplace, says client Steve Hall,
CEO of driversselect.com, is that it
can transform both your personal and
professional life simultaneously into
models of excellence. Sure enough, upon
landing at the driversselect website,
one is immediately struck by an A+
rating by the Better Business Bureau
as well as a “Best Places to Work 2016”
citation by the Dallas Business Journal,
both of which symbolize a commitment
to fostering the type of positivity that
TED embodies. The company touts its
purpose is “to infect the world with
highly contagious C.A.R.E. (Caring Acts
Randomly Expressed).”
Hall first met Emerald at a business
event some years ago and grew to
embrace the TED model which, he says,
has become part of his company’s very
DNA. “People bring a certain amount of
energy to their work each day, and as
leaders, we have very little influence
over that. But what we do have influence
on is how they direct their energy,”
says Hall. “Do they choose to show
up as victims, creators, persecutors,
challengers, rescuers, or coaches? If they
choose to become a coach, a challenger,
or a creator, their confidence will rise
and they will be a better performer and
better person all around.”
Hall has parlayed his strong belief
in Emerald’s leadership philosophy
into a boon for his company, growing
revenue from $38 million to $140 million
since implementing TED two and a half
years ago. Nearly 60 percent of his
100-person workforce have completed
some sort of TED training, and he
raves about the transformation. The
Power of TED website quotes Hall: “A
big part is [that] the mental, physical,
emotional, and spiritual energy people
bring to work today is not being wasted
on internal drama and building silos but
rather focused on growing the business
and taking on the challenges of the
marketplace....We have measurable
results in turnover, absenteeism, and
revenue per employee that blows our
industry out of the water.”
Another TED client, David Knoch, praises
Emerald for often being able to see a client’s
issues more clearly than the client itself. A
professional certified financial planner,
Knoch talks about the period in 2008 when
his clients’ portfolios nosedived—along
with practically everyone else’s—during
the Great Recession. “In this type of
scenario,” he says, “it’s easy to fall into a
cycle of victimhood.” He describes how in
times of falling markets, the client often
feels like the Victim and the advisor is seen
as the Persecutor for not implementing a
more profitable investment strategy. What
Knoch learned from his TED work is how
essential it is to make clients impassioned
about their investment strategy, in effect,
feeling some ownership of it, so they can
have a majority stake in achieving their
financial hopes and dreams in both good
times and bad.
“We aim for enabling intentional
living—The Empowerment Dynamic,”
says Knoch. “Helping people make
promises and have them come true
by taking action.” When an employee
survey revealed that employees would
prefer to slow down the pace of change
at their company, Knoch and his team
helped them better embrace change
by creating a ten-week program, which
included classroom discussions and
gr