Alessandra Cavalluzzi

196: Alessandra Cavalluzzi: Obviously, this didn’t resonate with people

Intro: Welcome to the Fast Leader podcast, where we explore convenient yet effective shortcuts that will help you get ahead and move forward faster by becoming a better leader. And now here’s your host, customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligence practitioner, Jim Rembach.

Call center coach develops and unites the next generation of call center leaders. Through our e-learning and community individuals gain knowledge and skills in the six core competencies that is the blueprint that develops high-performing call center leaders. Successful supervisors do not just happen so go to callcentercoach.com to learn more about enrollment and download your copy of the Supervisor Success Path e-book now.

Jim Rembach:     Okay Fast Leaders legion today I’m excited because we have somebody on the show today who’s going to give us a new meaning to CSR, it’s not just customer service representative, Alessandra Cavalluzzi was born in the Borough of the Bronx in New York. She grew up in Astoria, Queens until the age of 14 when her family moved to Long Island where she still lives today. Alessandra is an only child but has a very large extended Italian-American family. She is first-generation American with parents and grandparents having been born in Italy and a small town named Grumo in Italy’s Puglia region. Alessandra speaks Italian fluently and is proud of her Italian-American roots. Alessandra says that she’s always drawn to charitable causes and helping others. She credits her mother and maternal grandmother with her passion for community service as they were always putting the needs of others before their own.

Alessandra calls many times as a child hearing her mother Jane say that you should perform random acts of kindness and lend a hand to those who need it most. Her grandmother Angelina was a devout Roman Catholic who Alessandra said attended Mass every single week and would spend most of her days reciting the Rosary. One of Alessandra’s fondest memories of her grandmother was a day when she came upon her reciting her prayers. She says she asked her grandmother why she was always praying because it seemed to her that she was never without a rosary beads and her grandmother replied

I’m not praying for myself I’m praying for our family. When Alessandra asked why her grandmother responded, I know how busy everyone is with work in life and that you may not have time to pray so I’m doing it for you. 

Alessandra grandmother Angelina passed away in 93 but her selfless example has stayed with her since that day. Over the years Alessandra has held a number of different roles in various corporations. She’s worked for law firms, insurance companies, financial institutions and equipment distributors. She’s held positions in human resources, marketing and project management to name a few. She’s managed large teams and given countless presentations. Through it all one thing has remained a constant, the desire to give back and the need to make a difference. In fact, that desire was so strong in her that Alessandra helps her company develop a program to help the communities around us that now is in its 13th year. Today when she’s not writing books she works at her day job as director of community relations or MSC Industrial Supply on Long Island. Alessandra says that her goal is to inspire companies to action in supporting the communities where her employees live and work. She wants to provide you with information, tips and examples to help you create a program that enables your company to take an active role in creative positive change in your community. All companies have the power to make a social impact no effort is too small. Alessandra shares her long on at home with her furry baby of Pomeranian named Elvis. Alessandra Cavalluzi are you ready to help us get over the hump?

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     Absolutely, thank you for inviting me I’m glad to be here.

Jim Rembach:     Well I’m glad you’re here. Now I’ve given my legion a little bit about you but can you share what your current passion is so that we can get to know you even better?

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     My passion is centered around helping others to be better to do better. When it comes, especially to the community it’s inspiring others to just do something everyone can do something to help give back and to make the world a better place, that’s really where my passion is and why I love my work and what I do every day because it’s so perfectly aligned with what I believe my entire life. 

Jim Rembach:     Well, I’m in your book, A Million Dollars in Change which I need to ask you how that title came about, well get to that in a second, but you had mentioned something in the actual closing of the book in the afterword and so for me I’m a little I’m a little backwards being a left-hander, a lot of times I go right to left in books and so I look at the back because oftentimes it kind of pulls a lot of things together that you’ll find within the book, and in there you say that many small and mid-sized companies are dissuaded from starting giving programs and getting involved in their community because they incorrectly assume that they don’t have enough money and or resources to make a meaningful impact. And then also in the front of the book you talk about really the sheer number of small businesses that are out there and how many of them really just don’t give. 

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     Yeah, and that’s really where the title of the book comes from too. So it is something that I’ve come across because in my work a lot of what I do involves also speaking at events and so whether it’s an HR event or it’s a business event or a non-profit event I’ve spoken on the topic of corporate social responsibility and how companies can motivate and engage their employees to give back. And afterward people will come up to me and say I would love to do this in my company but we’re a small company and we don’t really have a budget and so I don’t know how much can we really do having such limited resources. My point is it’s not the size of the budget that you have or how many research resources you have it’s what you do how you leverage those resources and everyone can do something and to your point the number of businesses that are out there if everyone just did one thing to help in the community imagine the impact we could have. And that’s also the message that comes from our nonprofit partners a lot of times they’ll say to me, if we could just get the companies that are on the sidelines to understand that we just need them to do something and that again if you take that every company that’s out there if everyone just did something whether it’s volunteerism or doing a fundraising drive or whatever the case may be the impact is huge when you stop to really think about it where you really can make an impact.

Jim Rembach:     Well I guess for me listening to you talk I start recalling something that I had as part of a conversation with my pastor, I’m a Methodist, and we were talking about one of the threats that he sees to the church and he said that it was apathy. I’m not worried about people preaching and touting and shaking the Bible or those that aren’t following the Bible I’m worried about the apathetic ones. So, are you really talking about that these organizations are in an apathetic stage or really just an ignorance on how to actually move forward state?

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     I think it’s just misconception because a lot of the times they’re comparing themselves to larger corporations. There’s this idea out there that if you’re not spending millions of dollars, which is going back to the title of the book, you’re not spending a million dollars a certain amount of money you’re not doing it right or if you’re not doing something huge like you’ll see sometimes a Walmart or another really big company that’s out creating a clean water, irrigation system in a third-world country or helping on that level or having huge missionary groups in another country and the small company is looking at that and saying well if that’s the right way to do it and to be considered really making an impact then I really can’t do that because I don’t have the resources or the funds. So is it really worth it? How much of a change can I make? Each one of us as individuals can make a change and sometimes even we ourselves have that. Sometimes you say like, well if I speak up or if I do this I’m just one person how much of a change can I make? The point is that you don’t need millions of dollars every effort makes a difference and so there’s no wrong way to give and no effort is too small. So I think it’s really a lot of it is that people just have that misconception that they need more that they don’t have enough at their disposal when they really do. 

Jim Rembach:     I a guess in chapter one you were kind of trying to address that, you talked about the misconceptions and the misunderstandings and you listed three major mis. And one of them being is that a CSR, and by the way I think you said it it’s corporate social responsibility program, and so when you start talking about CSR you’ll say that CSR is a nice to have but it’s not a need to have, what you’re saying that’s a myth?

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     Yes it is. Because a lot of people think that it doesn’t impact core execution and the fact of the matter is that it does. Because when you’re engaging your, first of all it’s a big driver of engagement and a lot of companies say, well how can I get my people more engaged? There are studies that show that employees are looking to do more than just contribute to a company’s bottom line especially with the new generation Millennials and also Generation Z that’s coming behind them, they look for opportunities to really make an impact and make a difference they like to support causes and they want to have the hands-on ability to do so. So in going to work they want to know that even their own skills that they can put them to use in a way that’s helping to benefit others. When you talk about skills based volunteering or service learning that’s a perfect way for an employee to put their skills to good use that goes beyond making the company money. And so that does translate that to higher productivity because engaged employees are more productive they’re more emotionally connected to the company they want to see the company do well so it does help in that sense.  And that’s the myth of—it’s a nice to have but not a needs have, but it actually does help with your company’s core execution in the end. 

Jim Rembach:     You being in the role that you’re in you probably hear it more than anybody but the war for talent is real and really where it gets into as far as that war is concerned is in the skilled talent area. And so when you start thinking about CSR programs, and I’m looking for that skilled talent, it ends up being both an attractor of talent and also a retainer of talent.

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     Yes, absolutely. We hear it from our talent acquisition team when people come in for interviews they will mention, I was on your website and I looked and saw one of the things that attracted me to your company was just how everyone looks so happy and they’re spirited and they’re giving spirit on your community page they mention it, so people do look at that because it speaks a lot to the culture. If you have a purpose-driven culture people are more engaged and that attracts people. Especially as we were saying the generation that’s coming now, if you think about by 2020 they’re saying there’ll be more than 50% of the workforce and more it’s going to be Millennials, so it really is important that we keep that in mind and this is something that that they find very important. 

Jim Rembach:     In that particular statistic that you just recited is also for me it’s even more impactful when you take that out to 2030 though there’s going to be a huge fall off on the older generation finally just can’t continue to stay in the workforce because they’re in their eighties right? And so like by 2030 that number’s going to be like 75%, and it’s just massive. 

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     Yes and so it becomes even more important. One of the other myths is the return on investment, he will say, well there’s really no return on investment because it’s an intangible you can’t really measure it how do you’re making an impact? You can see it through customer loyalty. There are surveys  that are done of consumers that say that they’re willing to pay a few extra dollars to buy from a company that they see is socially responsible that is out there trying to make a difference in the community, so that does impact. So from a recruitment standpoint, retention of employees that feel that they’re proud to work for the company so they want to stay there. From a customer loyalty and a branding visibility and reputation it’s very, very important. It’s going to become even more important in years to come because population looks at that they care for that. 

Jim Rembach:     Another myth that you actually talk about is that that there’s no tangible return on investment, I think you just talked about that and the association with workplace giving in program, so that was another myth that you actually just answered. Now the third myth is that you need to invest a lot of money in a workplace giving program in order to be able to do it right, and that’s a myth?

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     Yes. So when we started the program at my company, I literally had zero budget I had no dollars. It was an idea that I proposed we were always a charitable company but there was no program or a structure around it. And so we had to really make a case for why this was important and why we should be doing it as a company and you need to do more than just bring in statistics and reports. You kind of have to talk to your people and figure out what’s important to them and so having a lot of conversations with peers and colleagues and also other leaders in the company and saying is this something that you feel is important to you but then trying things out and so you can test certain things. And that’s why I say you don’t need to spend a million dollars in order to make the same amount of impact doing something like volunteering, is a low-cost way to get your employees involved and to see where their passion is. Doing something like a clothing drive or a food drive it engages your population of employees at the same time you’re helping a non-profit and you’re helping people in the community. 

So again, skills based volunteering non-profits have a need for talent to help them basically to run a lot of parts of their organizations that they can’t afford to go out and hire people for. So consultants, web developers help with financial planning and strategy building there’s a number of departments and companies that I just named right off the vat finance, IT all of these different areas, marketing, that can lend their skills and talents to a nonprofit it saves them so much money and it’s so valuable. Think about the impact that you’re making. You’re still making an impact at the same time it’s low cost to your company you’re not spending millions of dollars and it’s a great way for you to start a program. Then based on the results and the feedback that you get then you build from there and then you have a case to go to your leadership and say, hey, this is really resonating with our employees, I think we should need take this to the next step  and now invest some actual dollars in building this. That’s basically what I did and how I laid it out in the book and so you’re nutshell. 

Jim Rembach:     You’re right, it is how you laid it out in the book. You have ten chapters in the book and you talk about—you hit on those myths and those misconceptions and misunderstandings you talk about shouting it out essentially being the person who is going to start with me. You talk about strategy and building a strategy and how that’s important and then the funding component and then if you don’t get it what do you do? Charting a course or creating a charter for your course getting engaged—engaging others and starting to build that community at groundswell and making it stick so that it’s not something that, oh, well we just tried it once and it failed again. And then you talk about seeing double non-profits and the old, double standard, what is that about? 

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     So I thought it’s very important to include in the book a chapter on nonprofits and what they basically are up against, which is the double standard. And what that is, is that four profit companies are expected to invest in getting the top talent in putting their money into their marketing and being successful and pulling a profit in. They are actually expect it to spend a tremendous amount of money in order to make that happen. Wall Street expect you to do well, you have to do whatever you need to do in order to be successful. When it comes to non-profits, that doesn’t exist the opposite exists. If a non-profit company invests in hiring their top talent to run their organization or in a marketing plan it’s actually frowned upon and looked upon negatively because we’re expecting them to put every dollar they raise into their mission and into their purpose what they’re trying to achieve. 

So whether it’s finding a cure for a disease or helping the poor and the homeless and the idea behind that chapter is that, that’s really unrealistic way to look at it. Because they’re not going to be able to be successful if they don’t have skilled people running their organizations. And so until we get over that and until we start to understand that non-profits are in the business of helping people we can’t expect them to do well and hold them accountable for achieving their mission if we’re not helping them to be successful in allowing them to invest. Then that’s where companies can help by lending their time and their talent to helping non-profits do that in the meantime and so until we’re able to raise more awareness on it.

Jim Rembach:     Yeah, and there was an awesome TED talk that was done by Dan Pelota on this particular issue–I’m going to put a link to it on your show notes page–because he talks about this double standard issue and how he actually had raised literally millions of dollars for some causes but yet was lambasted in the about the fact that they were investing so much in order to be able to create and generate that kind of income or I guess you’d say charitable donations. And it’s really a societal problem we’re not going to fix big problems if this double standard continues to exist it’s not going to happen. 

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     It’s not going to happen. But the great thing is that because of that talk some of the large charity rating organizations actually changed the way that they looked at nonprofits and actually sent—it was Guide Star and Charity Navigator actually sent letters to all of their subscribers saying, hey, we’re changing our rating system and we want you to take a look at this a little bit differently, don’t just go by the ratio of how much money they raised versus how much they’re investing in their programs because there is a need for them to invest in things like marketing and hiring the top talent. So it was nice to see that, but still there’s a lot more work to be done on that front so the more awareness we can raise about that the better and that’s why I felt it’s so important to include that in the book.

Jim Rembach:     Okay so what we’re talking about here is just riddle with emotion I think you and I can go on about this for a very long time and I appreciate you. But one of the things that we look at on the show are quotes to help guide us and give us some focus and passion. Is there a quote or two that you like, that you can share? 

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     One of my favorites is from Lao Tzu and it’s, “Great acts are made up of small deeds.” And I really, really love it and I actually even included it in the front of the book. It just perfectly sums up everything that I believe in and what I’m passionate about is that, you don’t need fanfare, it doesn’t have to be a huge grandiose type of action. Every act of kindness that you perform has an impact whether it’s on a single person or a group of people. So that for me is my all-time favorite quote. 

I definitely hear your grandmother’s influence in that as well.

Jim Rembach:     I definitely here your grandmothers influence in that as well. 

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     Yeah. She was an amazing person, she really was. To think that she was praying for the family every single day and had her rosary beads in her hands all day long and it wasn’t for herself it was for others and that really stayed with me to this day.

Jim Rembach:     You start talking about this journey and getting to where we are now and writing the book and all of that. Is that there were humps that you had to get over. Is there a time where you can think that you had to get over the hump and you can share that story with us?

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     So, I remember this one time we had an event that we thought was just going to be fantastic and we were going to have a huge turnout our associates were going to love it. And what happened was that turnout was not at all near what we thought it was going to be pretty disappointing at best. The feedback was that the event just didn’t resonate with people. Of course when you put it together you’re so close to it the first thought is, well I can’t believe it this was such a great idea, why didn’t it work?” But I think for me, it was taking a step back taking myself out of it and taking any emotion out of it and saying, okay, well, obviously this didn’t resonate with people let’s find out why? And it’s talking to people and finding out what is important taking that feedback and then incorporating it into future events so that they are successful. And that’s really what it comes down to with anything we do in life, it’s really looking at it from the perspective of the other people and really listening to what they have to say and taking that feedback and incorporating it into future efforts.

Jim Rembach:     I think that’s a really important point. So it wasn’t a situation where you didn’t delay or pause-pause or put things on hold for you, you looked at as a learning opportunity.

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     Absolutely. It’s a learning opportunity and it’s an opportunity to correct the course and to understand that nothing is ever set in stone. Things will change and so you have to, sort of adapt and change and evolve and that’s how you grow and your program grows and how you grow yourself as a leader, as well. You always be open to feedback and changing things.

Jim Rembach:     Okay, so this is interesting then based on all of the things that you’ve been doing for many years and even coaching and talking to others and you kind of see a certain type of theme or a certain you know, activity or something like that, that seems to be one of the most popular. So if I’m sitting here trying to say, okay, I would like to get some things going and don’t want to have that fall on my face situation getting out of the gates maybe I look in this particular area because it seems to be a path where a lot of people can resonate with it.

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     I would say volunteerism getting people actually out, hands-on, helping in the community that’s where we get the most success. Other types of events short fundraisers they respond to that but volunteerism is where they’re the most passionate. I don’t think it’s company specific industry specific or any particular area whether it’s children’s causes or working with veterans or the senior citizens I don’t think it matters people just want to be out there because they feel like they personally are actually making a difference. They can see it because it’s in real time they see the people that they’re helping and so it’s a lot more impactful.

Jim Rembach:     When I start thinking about going through this path and knowing where you are today and knowing that we’re talking about a journey. This thing’s going to last for a very long time for us to change some of these mindsets and get more people engaged and to squash these myths I started thinking about a lot of goals that you potentially have. When you can think about one goal that’s important, what is it?

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     My goal is to reach as many people as possible with this message and inspire as many people as possible to actually go out and take action. And whether that’s you personally becoming more involved in your community or starting a conversation at your company or even within your neighborhood with your neighbors, your friends, it’s just getting the message out and helping as many people as possible.

Jim Rembach:     And the Fast Leader Legion wishes you the very best. Now before we move on let’s get a quick word from our sponsor. 

An even better place to work is an easy to use solution that gives you a continuous diagnostic on employee engagement along with integrated activities that will improve employee engagement and leadership skills in everyone. Using this award-winning solutions guarantee to create motivated productive and loyal employees who have great work relationships with their colleagues and your customers. To learn more about an even better place to work, visit beyondmorale.com/better.

Jim Rembach:     Alright, here we go Fast Leader Legion it’s time for the Hump day Hoedown. Okay, Alessandra, the Hump day Hoedown is a part of our show where you give us good insights fast. So I’m going to ask you several questions and your job is to give us robust yet rapid responses that are going to help us move onward and upward faster. Alessandra Cavalluzi, are you ready to hoedown? 

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     Yes.

Jim Rembach:     Alright. So, what do you think is holding you back from being an even better leader today?

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     I think one of the areas I could be really better at is active listening. I’m good at listening, but I think I could be a better listener.

Jim Rembach:     What is the best leadership advice you have ever received?

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     The best leadership advice that I’ve ever received was, never take anything personally. 

Jim Rembach:     What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     I’m a people person. I love being around people.

Jim Rembach:     What do you feel is one of your best tools that helps you lead in business or life?

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     I think one of the best tools that I have is the ability to see or put myself in other people’s shoes.

Jim Rembach:     What would be one book that you’d recommend to our listeners it could be from any genre, of course, we’ll put a link to, A Million Dollars in Change on your show notes page as well. 

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     One of my favorite books that I’ve read is actually from Deepak Chopra and Rudy Tanzi it’s called Super Brain, it’s fantastic book.

Jim Rembach:     Okay Fast Leader Legion you could find links to that and other bonus information from today’s show by going to fastleader.net/alessandracavalluzzi. Okay Alessandra, this is my last hump day hoedown question. Imagine you were given the opportunity to go back to the age of 25 and you’ve been given the opportunity to take the knowledge and skills that you have now back with you but you can’t take everything back you can only choose one. So what skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why?

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     I would take back the knowledge that everybody is on their own journey and that you need to respect that and just love the journey.

Jim Rembach:     Alessandra, it was an honor to spend time with you today. Can you please share with the Fast Leader Legion how they can connect with you?

Alessandra Cavalluzi:     They can connect with me, I’m on LinkedIn if they’d like to connect with me there. I’m on Twitter @acavalluzzi on Twitter and also on Facebook, “A Million Dollars in Change” and happy to connect with everyone however they’d like to reach out on social media.

Jim Rembach:     Alessandra Cavalluzi, thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom. The Fast Leader Legion honors you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. Woot! Woot~

Thank you for joining me on the fast leader show today. For recaps, links from every show special offers and access to download and subscribe, if you haven’t already, head on over the fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster.

END OF AUDIO