Meaningful Partnership at Work: How The Workplace Covenant Ensures Mutual Accountability and Success between Leaders and Teams

216 Pages·2021·6.012 MB·English

by  Seth R. Silver, Timothy M. Franz

Meaningful Partnership
at Work
Endorsements
When teams work remotely, managers often ask, “How can I manage them
if I can’t see them”? Whether virtual or co-located, however, Meaningful
Partnership at Work offers an eminently workable, practical approach that
managers and team members will find indispensable to the performance
management process.
Wayne F. Cascio
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado and former
President of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Meaningful Partnership at Work by Silver and Franz represents the next
step beyond traditional thinking about employee engagement. While many
treatments of engagement focus on how to build passion and commitment
among individual workers. The Workplace Covenant focuses on how to
build a corporate culture where the promise of engagement matches the
corporate culture. Are you a manager or HR person looking for a way to
take your organization to higher levels of productivity? If so, you really
must look at this book…
William J. Rothwell
Professor of Workforce Education, The Pennsylvania State University
and President, Rothwell & Associates, Inc.
This work does not fall under the category of “must read” but instead “must
do”! Meaningful Partnership at Work is very timely, and much needed by
all organizations regardless of size or scope especially during times of
upheaval and uncertainty.
Fernán R. Cepero
Senior Human Resources Business Partner,
YMCA of Greater Rochester, Association Office
Meaningful Partnership at Work is the essence of employee engagement
at the highest level, a true partnership between employees and leaders to
transform the working relationship at all levels. A must read for HR lead-
ers and more importantly for line leaders in their quest for true employee
input, exchange and engagement.
Augustin Melendez
Chief HROD/DEI Officer, Hillside
These unprecedented times demonstrate how an organization’s culture
must be grounded in having shared purpose and respect for human dig-
nity. Silver and Franz provide all the details necessary to create a powerful
team, intervention that affects these exact elements.
Paul M. Mastrangelo
Principal Strategist, CultureIQ
Meaningful Partnership at Work by Silver and Franz tackles a too often
overlooked process for improving team effectiveness. This book provides
a sound, step-by-step methodology for implementing covenants within
your workplace. Backed-up by excellent examples along with compelling
research, these pages are your roadmap for building strong, committed
relationships as a means to improving team performance.
Thomas A. Kayser
author of Mining Group Gold and Building Team Power
Meaningful Partnership at Work is both meaningful and practical. The
ERTAP model – empathy, respect, trust, alignment, and partnership – is
something many of us espouse without having named it. We might go as far
as empathy, respect, and trust, but without the steps of aligning expectations
and developing partnerships, these are only sentiments or attitudes, at best,
not actions. As leaders and managers, we talk a great deal about building
culture, but rarely take concrete, measurable steps in that direction. Silver
and Franz give us specific steps to actually achieve this stated goal of creat-
ing a culture with leaders and followers full and conscious participants.
Babak Elahi
Head of Liberal Studies, Kettering University
Relationships matter. Meaningful Partnership at Work provides a concise,
practical, low-maintenance method to explore, and unleash the power of
teams in your organization.
Britt Lui
Vice President, People & Development, Dixon Schwabl
Silver and Franz powerfully demonstrate the primacy of team dynamics
in organizational achievement – and then laser in on the pragmatics of
establishing and sustaining the mutual obligations among team members
that improve and accelerate outcomes. Both new and experienced manag-
ers can benefit from the processes detailed in this book
Matthew Cicchinelli
President, PAR Government
The Workplace Covenant process is one of the most effective ways to
develop a genuine, intentional, and productive relationship between a
team and a leader. Even for established and respected leaders, the process
that Silver and Franz outline is a powerful learning experience that results
in true team unity and alignment. This book presents an opportunity for
leaders (new and experienced) to move themselves, their teams and poten-
tially their entire organization to the next level.
James VonBramer
SHRM-CP, PHR, Vice President, HR Works, Inc.
Practical, insightful step-by-step roadmap for building and strengthening
team/manager trust filled with wisdom and lessons, learned from two pros
with the rare combination of years of academic knowledge coupled with
practical industry experience and know-how. From an internal HR busi-
ness partner perspective, this is a “must read” for any novice or expert level
HR professional.
Jean Rollins
HR Business Partner, University of Rochester Medical Center
As part of a People Team, we spend a lot of time discussing engagement,
surveying employees, analyzing net promoter score trends, etc. as a means
to figure out the way to maximize performance through engagement.
Understanding what is important to team members is a simple and basic
step managers often overlook. The best part of this book was its simplicity
and applicability for managers. It includes clear explanations, presented
with examples and backed by research. It provides People professionals a
step-by-step approach to facilitating discussions to achieve successful out-
comes. Engaging people on their terms is an essential step to improving
overall company performance. This book provides a clear path!
Laura Begg
MS, ACC, Senior Director, Talent Management, Sapphire Digital
Meaningful Partnership at Work by Silver and Franz shows us how employee
engagement and alignment can take place through all levels of the organi-
zation – one team at a time. This focused book offers a straightforward
guide for building effective and meaningful team partnerships. More than
a one-shot intervention, the guided process described here helps assure
follow-up and continuous improvement while brief case studies help the
manager apply The Workplace Covenant concept to their particular situa-
tion. As an academic currently in a team leadership position myself, I par-
ticularly value The Workplace Covenant framework because it integrates
years of practical organizational development experience with a sound
theoretical model. This helps managers understand exactly what they are
trying to accomplish with their teams and, why it works at a deeper level.
Written in a lively and accessible manner, this book will inspire confidence
in the first-time manager and prompt the experienced executive to settle
for nothing less than the full potential of their team.
Scott Seibert
Professor and Chair, Human Resource Management, School of
Management & Labor Relations, Rutgers University
The Workplace Covenant is a proven powerful process that truly allows
any organization to build and expand upon the vital team leader and team
member partnerships necessary for the creation of more highly engaged
and aligned cultures that impact lives, businesses, and bottom lines. It’s a
win-win for all parties.
Silvio Proaño
former human resources executive at C.R. Bard,
Johnson & Johnson, and Bristol Myers Squibb
Whenever I facilitate the course: “Leadership, Negotiation, and Teamwork,”
I impress upon the students that leadership is about relationship, negotia-
tion is about relationship, and teamwork is about relationship. This is a
profoundly simple yet complex construct. How do we initiate, define,
maintain, and sometimes repair team relationships? We need a Mindset,
a Model, and a Medium. This excellent book equips both the team leader-
ship and the team members with the Mindset, Model, and Medium. This
toolkit enables teams to succeed and thereby improve the organization’s
bottom line through higher performance, higher engagement, and lower
attrition rates. If teams are the “Corvettes” of organizations, and they are,
and if teams need careful design and care, and they do, then this book is
essential for every organization that hopes to leverage the full and impres-
sive impact of teams!
Rob Elkington
Professor, Ontario Tech University; CEO/President,
Global Leadership Initiatives; Faculty, Trent Master of Management
Program; Senior Lecturer Stellenbosch School of Public Leadership
Teams are essential to the success of any organization, and yet, unfortu-
nately, most teams are dysfunctional and ineffective. This book provides
a powerful model, insightful strategies, and marvelous examples of how
great teams can be created and sustained. Anyone who is a team leader or
team member should buy this book!
Michael Marquardt
Professor Emeritus, George Washington University
and Co-Founder, World Institute for Action Learning
At Goldman Sachs, we stress teamwork in everything we do. Meaningful
Partnership at Work by Silver and Franz, spells out a simple yet practi-
cal framework of continuous reflection, active engagement, and constant
improvement of the essential manager-team partnership. A truly worth-
while and transformational read to excel in these unprecedented times.
Lyle Schwartz
Managing Director, Investment Banking Division, Goldman Sachs
Meaningful Partnership
at Work
How The Workplace Covenant Ensures
Mutual Accountability & Success
Between Leaders and Teams
By
Seth R. Silver & Timothy M. Franz
First published 2022
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Taylor & Francis
The right of Seth R. Silver & Timothy M. Franz to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 9781032020143 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032020112 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003181477 (ebk)
Typeset in Minion Pro
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Dedication
Seth’s Dedication: This book is dedicated to my father, Harvey Silver,
who has spent a lifetime being a meaningful partner to me, our family,
his friends and also his countless clients over a 50-year career. His
tireless example of ready support, listening, teaching, challenging,
helpful feedback, kindness, principled decisions, personal happiness,
and unwavering love have been an inspiration on how to live, how to
give, and how to work so that the world is a better place. Our discussions
were the seed of the covenant idea, the source of some Silver Bullets, and
the reason I wanted to write this book. Thank you does not even come
close! I am forever grateful and hope this book takes an early notion
of his to the next level, and makes it available and useful to others.
“Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others,
and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though t’were his own”
Goethe
Tim’s Dedication: This book is dedicated to my parents Bob and Nancy.
Thank you for instilling in me such a deep sense of love and dedication.