C-suite employee engagement

Leading with Purpose: How to Engage Employees from the C-Suite with Fredda McDonald

Podcast

 How Leaders Engage Employees Through Purpose and Storytelling

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C-Suite Employee Engagement: How Leaders Build Trust and Purpose

C-Suite employee engagement is often assigned to HR, but employees experience leadership through the entire C-suite.

They notice whether executives communicate a consistent direction, collaborate across functions and make decisions that reflect the organization’s stated purpose. When the leadership team sends conflicting messages, employees are left to interpret what the company truly values.

In this episode of What’s Your Story?, Sally speaks with Fredda McDonald about the role senior executives play in shaping employee engagement. Their conversation explores purpose, C-suite relationships, C-Suite employee engagement, employee listening, storytelling and the balance between authenticity and leadership responsibility.

Understanding how leaders engage employees starts with purpose. Employees want to know what the organization is working toward, why their work matters and whether leadership’s actions support its message. In this episode, Fredda McDonald joins Sally Williamson to discuss how storytelling, authenticity and stronger relationships across the C-suite can build trust, morale and employee engagement.

Fredda McDonald is Managing Director with World50, a member-based organization that brings leaders together from around the globe to share their ideas, insights, and solutions. On today’s episode, we’ll be talking about the role of the Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO), storytelling, and leadership qualities that foster employee engagement.

In this episode, Fredda and Sally will discuss how to leverage storytelling to lead with purpose, which is a part of C-Suite employee engagement. When employees understand what they are working toward and why it actually matters, they are drawn into their work. Leaders who can engage both the head and heart of their employees have a better chance of gaining buy-in.

We’ll discuss how leaders can generate and boost morale within their organizations by building a strong relationship with other members of the C-suite. Some of the methods she will cover include polling for employee engagement at all levels of the organization and even having a third party collect information directly from the source.

We also follow Fredda down memory lane as she traces some stories where leaders have effectively implemented the steps mentioned above and how they impacted the overall employee experience.

Show Highlights

  • 03:10 – What is the difference between mission, vision, and purpose statements? How does understanding why employees are doing their job impact their experience at work?
  • 07:00 – How do weak relationships at the C-level impact employee experience?
  • 08:10 – Each executive needs to have their own story and be able to explain it simply.
  • 08:30 – Be real. Employees watch actions more than they listen to your speeches.
  • 12:00 – How did a Silicon Valley company work with a 3rd party to get unfiltered information in employee surveys?
  • 16:00 – A CHRO is frequently tasked with making the call to focus on enterprise success and collaboration. What struggles do businesses face in seeking to stand the test of time and survive disruption?
  • 20:00 – How have employees expectations of leadership qualities changed over the last half decade to highlight vulnerability and authenticity? Can too much vulnerability undermine employee confidence?
  • 27:30 – Does having a background as a CMO help in the CHRO role? How so?
  • 28:10 – What is the brand behind a company?
  • 39:00 – Identifying non-traditional ways to foster collaboration can pull even the most disparate teams together. One company uses an annual “Battle of the Bands” to foster collaboration.

Guest Information

Prior to taking her role at World 50, Fredda published a book entitled, BoxBreakers, an Amazon bestseller in the business category, for leaders seeking to inspire innovation in the workplace as a sustainable business practice. The content for the book was gathered from experience she gained serving in senior executive roles with the International Olympic Committee and electronic payments giant MasterCard Worldwide – and from working with global leaders from Delta Air Lines, the Coca-Cola Company and other Fortune 500 companies as a consultant.

You can find out more about Fredda on Linkedin.

C-Suite Employee Engagement: Why Employee Engagement Begins with the C-Suite

Employee engagement is influenced by workload, management, opportunity, recognition and workplace relationships. Senior executives may not control every employee experience directly, but they shape the environment in which those experiences occur.

The C-suite establishes priorities, allocates resources and signals which behaviors the organization rewards. Employees compare what leaders say with the choices they make. This is an important part of C-suite employee engagement.

When those elements align, leadership communication becomes more credible. When they conflict, even a well-written message may fail to build trust.

For example, leaders may describe collaboration as a company value while individual executives compete for resources or communicate different priorities. Employees quickly recognize the inconsistency.

Engagement does not begin with a campaign. It begins with leadership alignment.

C-Suite Employee Engagement: Align the Leadership Team Before Engaging Employees

Weak relationships within the C-suite can affect the entire organization.

When senior executives do not agree on direction, their teams may receive competing messages. Functions begin protecting their own priorities, decisions slow and employees spend time navigating leadership differences.

C-suite alignment does not require every executive to hold the same perspective. Healthy disagreement can improve decisions. But once a direction is established, leaders must understand what was decided, why it matters and how they will communicate it.

Before engaging employees, the leadership team should agree on:

  • The organization’s most important priorities
  • What those priorities mean for employees
  • Which decisions have been made
  • What remains open for discussion
  • The role each executive will play
  • Which messages must remain consistent
  • How employee questions will be addressed
  • What leaders will do to demonstrate the message

Alignment should be visible in behavior, not only in shared talking points.

C-Suite Employee Engagement: Connect Purpose to Everyday Work

Mission, vision and purpose are often used interchangeably, but employees need a practical understanding of what each one means.

  • Mission describes what the organization does and whom it serves.
  • Vision describes what the organization is working to become or achieve.
  • Purpose explains why the work matters.

Purpose becomes engaging when employees can connect it to their own responsibilities.

A broad statement about improving lives or transforming an industry may sound inspiring without helping an employee understand how a current priority supports that ambition.

Leaders should make the connection explicit:

  1. This is what the organization exists to accomplish.
  2. This is the business priority in front of us.
  3. This is how your work contributes.
  4. This is what success will look like.
  5. This is what we need from you now.

Purpose should guide decisions and behavior. If it appears only in annual communications, it is unlikely to shape the employee experience.

C-Suite Employee Engagement: Give Every Executive a Clear Leadership Story

Employees need to understand how each member of the C-suite contributes to the organization’s direction.

That does not mean every executive should tell the same personal story. It means each leader should be able to communicate a clear point of view that supports the larger organizational narrative.

An executive’s leadership story might explain:

  • What the leader is responsible for
  • Why that work matters
  • How the function supports organizational priorities
  • What the leader believes about employees or customers
  • Which experiences shaped that perspective
  • What the leader expects from the organization
  • What employees can expect from the leader

These stories make leaders more understandable. They also help employees see connections across functions.

The CEO’s story may explain where the organization is going. The CHRO’s story may clarify how the company will develop and support the people responsible for getting there. Other executives should connect their priorities to that shared direction.

C-Suite Employee Engagement: Listen Beyond the Employee Survey

Employee surveys can reveal patterns, but they cannot always explain why employees responded as they did.

A score may indicate declining trust, limited confidence in leadership or weak connection to the organization. Leaders still need to understand the experiences behind the response.

A complete employee listening strategy may include:

  • Engagement surveys
  • Focus groups
  • Manager conversations
  • Employee resource groups
  • Stay interviews
  • Exit interviews
  • Open question sessions
  • Small-group leadership discussions
  • Anonymous feedback channels
  • Third-party interviews

Third-party support may be useful when employees do not feel comfortable speaking directly to senior leaders or when the organization needs a more objective assessment.

The method for C-suite employee engagement matters less than what leaders do with the information. Asking employees for candid feedback and then providing no visible response can weaken trust.

C-Suite Employee Engagement: Use Authenticity with Intention

Employees increasingly expect leaders to communicate like real people. They respond to executives who acknowledge difficulty, admit what they do not know and speak in language that feels natural.

But authenticity does not mean sharing every emotion or concern.

Senior leaders have a responsibility to consider how their communication will affect the people listening. Unfiltered vulnerability can shift anxiety from the leader to the employee or leave people uncertain about the organization’s direction.

Effective leadership communication balances openness with responsibility.

A leader can say:

We do not have every answer yet. I understand why that creates concern. Here is what we know, what we are still evaluating and when you can expect another update.

That message is honest without asking employees to manage the leader’s uncertainty.

C-Suite Employee Engagement: Engage Both the Head and the Heart

Employees need a logical reason to support a direction. They also need to understand why it matters.

Communicating to the head includes:

  • The business rationale
  • Supporting evidence
  • Priorities
  • Responsibilities
  • Expected outcomes
  • Measures of success

Communicating to the heart includes:

  • Purpose
  • Shared values
  • Human impact
  • Relevant stories
  • Recognition
  • A sense of contribution

Neither approach is enough by itself.

Emotion without substance may sound inspirational but fail to provide direction. Data without meaning may explain the decision but leave employees disconnected from it.

Strong executive communication gives employees both understanding and a reason to care.

C-Suite Employee Engagement: Turn Employee Feedback into Visible Action

Listening builds engagement only when employees can see what happened next.

Leaders do not need to accept every recommendation. They should explain what they heard, what they can address and where business realities limit the response.

A useful follow-up message includes:

  1. What employees said
  2. What leaders learned
  3. What the organization will change
  4. What will remain the same
  5. Why those choices were made
  6. When progress will be reviewed

This closes the feedback loop and demonstrates that participation mattered.

Visible action can be modest. A small, credible improvement explained clearly may build more trust than a broad promise with no defined owner or timeline.

C-Suite Employee Engagement: The CHRO’s Role in C-Suite Alignment

The CHRO brings an enterprise view of leadership behavior and employee experience.

While other executives may focus primarily on their functions, the CHRO can help the C-suite consider how decisions will be understood across the organization.

That role may include:

  • Identifying inconsistencies in leadership messages
  • Bringing employee insight into executive decisions
  • Clarifying the people implications of business priorities
  • Preparing leaders for difficult conversations
  • Encouraging collaboration across functions
  • Challenging language that does not match employee experience
  • Helping executives respond to feedback
  • Strengthening leadership capability

The CHRO should not be the only executive responsible for engagement. The role is most effective when it helps the entire C-suite take ownership.

C-Suite Employee Engagement: A Communication Framework for Employee Engagement

SW&A’s Content, Style and Situation framework can help leaders prepare employee communication.

C-Suite Employee Engagement: Content: What Do Employees Need to Understand?

Clarify:

  • What is happening
  • Why it matters
  • How it connects to purpose
  • What it means for employees
  • What leaders expect
  • What will happen next

C-Suite Employee Engagement: Style: How Should Leaders Be Experienced?

Employees should experience leadership communication as:

  • Clear
  • Credible
  • Direct
  • Approachable
  • Consistent
  • Respectful
  • Committed

C-Suite Employee Engagement: Situation: What Does This Moment Require?

Consider:

  • Employee knowledge
  • Organizational trust
  • Emotional context
  • Recent leadership actions
  • Communication channel
  • Opportunities for questions
  • Level of uncertainty
  • Required follow-up

The same message may need to be adapted across a town hall, manager discussion and written update. The central storyline should remain consistent.

Like what you hear about C-suite employee engagement? Hear more episodes like this on the What’s Your Story podcast page!