Don’t Forget the “Why” in Your Mission Statement

May 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Powerful Mission Statement

A colleague of mine, Gwen Kinsey, led a crisp, interactive presentation at a recent leadership breakfast event. The topic was about how mission statements engage (or not) your employees. Gwen's session drove home a point for me and I'd like to share it here. She put us in small groups and handed out two mission statements, one to half the groups, the other to the other half. Our task was to read the mission we were given and find connections between it and what we value highly. It turned out … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Change Management, Employee Engagement Tagged With: , ,

Another Angle on Employee Motivation

April 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Soccer_Shootout

It's the end of regulation time in a soccer game and the score is tied. It's time for the shoot out to determine the victor. You are the coach. How should you advise your five shooters, each of whom will get one shot at close range? "I want you all to concentrate on our scoring at least three times", OR "I want you to concentrate on our not missing more than two times." You first reaction is probably like mine, the first option, of course! It's a positive message, a positive objective, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Communicating, Employee Motivation Tagged With: , ,

Developing Gen Y Leaders

April 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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What leadership competencies do newly minted Millenial employees need to develop, from the get go? And what strengths do they, as a cohort, bring to the workplace? We hear so much "gen Y bashing" these days. We hear the stereotypes: unfocused, texting obsessed, ADHD prone, the world owes me recognition and, BTW, I'm pretty well ready for the C-suite…now! The Center for Creative Leadership set out to learn more. They conducted a study of about 500 managers and reported the results last year … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership Development Tagged With: , , ,

They Feel Entitled. How about Engaged Too?

April 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Dollar–Sign–Floating

They're either disengaged or under engaged in their work but they very much intend to stay with their current employer for a long time. This is what a new study by Modern Survey revealed. For government workers, 80% were less than engaged but 60% plan to stay. Not like the private sector, you say? Well, how about 66% not engaged and 56% hanging around? Furthermore, the percentage of employees, public and private, who felt their total compensation package is competitive is in the mid fifties. … [Read more...]

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Teleworkers Perform But Do They Rise?

March 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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The typical teleworker in the US is a 49 years old, university educated, salaried individual in a management or professional role, says the Telework Research Network. Some of these just love the opportunity to indulge themselves through the satisfaction of doing knowledge or creative work that both engages them and challenges them. But many of them also want career advancement. They want to get ahead. This is where an interesting article from Talent Management Magazine enters the picture. It … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Change Management

Developing Leaders for the Horizon

March 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Leaders Make the Future, Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World by Bob Johansen

They say Wayne Gretzky was a step ahead of other players because he skated to where the puck was going to be. Are you developing your up-and-coming leaders for where your markets and your environment are going to be? Will your leaders be prepared for the daunting complexity that's coming? Or are you preparing them for today or maybe just the next year or two? The Leadership Circle, whose 360 assessment profile and Culture Survey we use with our clients, says that even today's (forget about … [Read more...]

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Employee Engagement – You’re Only Part Way There

March 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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Research by TowersWatson has revealed that to generate a climate where your employees contribute a consistently high percentage of their capacity you need more that just "engagement." You must add into the mix enablement (a better term for what used to be called empowerment), and employee well-being. Here, very briefly, is what constitutes each element of what they call the "3 E's": Engagement – employee commitment, both rational and emotional, to contributing discretionary (i.e. more … [Read more...]

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Book Review: To Sell is Human

February 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel H. Pink

"We're all in sales" says author Daniel Pink. In fact, in a Gallup study people reported spending 40% of their time working in what Pink calls "non-sales selling," convincing/influencing/moving people to decide or do that does not involve anyone making a purchase. Dan Pink is always intriguing. Let's look at a few things his book has to say that apply to managers. In my experience, the higher a manager is in the hierarchy, the more frequently he/she engages in non-sales selling and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Change Management, Communicating Tagged With: , , , , , ,

NeuroEngagement: Using Insights from Brain Science to Heighten Employee Engagement

February 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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Employee engagement is all the rage these days. It’s commonly touted as the key to transforming an organization from good to great. When a new organizational effectiveness ‘truth’ comes along there are two common responses. The first response is an unreflective jump on to the bandwagon. Managers keen to improve their own and their organization’s performance will often take on faith the validity of the novel approach – only to be disappointed when it doesn’t bear the fruit it … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employee Engagement

Three Intriguing Thoughts from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos

February 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Jeff-Bezos

A recent HBR blog podcast interviewed the CEO of Amazon who, in a major study reported in the Harvard Business Review's Jan/Feb issue, was ranked #2 of global CEO's. The late Steve Jobs was #1. Jeff Bezos is an intriguing guy. He permits interviews sparingly and is somewhat of a contrarian around some commonly held business beliefs. In the short audio, Bezos makes three points that I think are worth CEO's and managers hearing about. He sees the DNA of Amazon as that of an explorer, vs. a … [Read more...]

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