On a Journey of Connection, a CEO’s Primary Responsibility is Culture

Wesner Pierre , the thoughtful and charismatic CEO of nonprofit Partnership with Children , makes the surprising claim that as CEO he is “not responsible for results”. Rather, he is “responsible for the people who are responsible for the results.” His primary responsibility is “creating an environment where people can thrive and succeed and do well.”

Partnership with Children is a 115-year old organization that works in 47 schools across New York City to strengthen the emotional, social, and cognitive skills of vulnerable children, to help them succeed in school, society, and life.

In our conversation Wesner described all that he has done and is doing to create that environment. Our conversation was so rich that he not only gave me permission to share the video, but in fact urged me to do so. You’ll find the video below.

Here are a few highlights:

The Listening TourWesner was appointed CEO two years ago. For the first 60 days, he called himself “Chief Listening Officer” and visited all 47 schools. He wanted to emphasize “listening” rather than “learning”. He wanted to be non-judgmental, and encourage people to not “put on a show” for him, but rather to be open and candid.

He asked a lot of questions, including: Who are you? What excites you about the work? What grounds you? Why do you get up every morning to do this? What impacts do you want to have on the world? What’s hard about it? What about this work feels like “this is a drag”?

The Importance of Connection

In talking about the importance of connection, Wesner brought up the famous Maya Angelou quote, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

He said, “There is deep power in creating these connections. In any place, just as people, we need to feel a sense of purpose and belonging. Everyone is seeking this. We find it in our families, in our friendships. We also find it at work. You want to be in a job that resonates with your core. You want to feel like you belong here, that you’re part of something.”

“If I feel a sense of belonging, I’m going to come to work happier. I’m going to be more productive, and the results are going to come. I’m going to be more creative, innovative, excited. Of course … it’s still hard work, and there are going to be hard days.”

Connection Led to Success

Wesner said, “If business understands what animates people … the sense of belonging, the sense of purpose … that’s where the money would be put into: How are you creating an environment of that?”

“That has been my focus. I found a great deal of buy-in quickly. I’ve had a lot of success in my two years, not because I did it, but because the team did it. They did it because they understood quickly that ‘I see you, I hear you, and your voice matters.’”

“My number one job is to create an environment where you can be your best self. I won’t get it right every day, but you know at my core [I’m striving to create] a place where you can thrive.”

You Have to be Grounded

I asked Wesner to speak about the importance of knowing yourself to being able to create a culture of connection and belonging. He responded, “If you’re not moored, if you don’t have something to ground you, it’ll be difficult for you to ground others. If you don’t have a sense of purpose and belonging in you, it’s going to be hard for you to engender that in others, or to create an environment where that happens, because you yourself are struggling with that.”

“I think the other part about all this is an acceptance that the journey is the destination. That we are all journeying though our life, and that you don’t arrive a place of belonging and purpose … Yes! I’ve arrived! Ta da! Fireworks! You journey, you develop more of an understanding, you grow, you learn. We’re all journeying. But I think at your base you need to have a pretty fair foundation of a sense of belonging before you can be an ambassador.”

I encourage you to watch the full 30-minute interview:

Photo ? Rajiv Mehta