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: , ,

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...]

Filed Under: Employee Engagement Tagged With: , ,

Employee Engagement – You’re Only Part Way There

March 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment
front-align-150x150

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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NeuroEngagement: Using Insights from Brain Science to Heighten Employee Engagement

February 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment
stockxpertcom_id4004721_size3-222x300

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

Give Me Something (or Someone) to Connect to

May 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Hands_cradling_globe

There is enough research on Employee Engagement to show that engaged employees give more "discretionary effort" (going above and beyond job expectations…without being told/asked) to their employer. Yet levels of engagement have not changed over the last ten years or so, through a period first of  boom, then of bust. Consider this data from the Gallup organization. They surveyed around percent of employees who are (1) engaged, (2) not engaged, and (3) actively disengaged. Check the trend … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employee Engagement Tagged With: , ,

Every Job Matters (to Someone)

May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
woman_at_desk

Recently I heard a presentation by Jim Gibbons, President & CEO of Goodwill Industries. In it he said that "every job matters." Every job has someone relying on the incumbent of the position to do their job well so that the other person can either: benefit or do their own job well. Your client/customer is either internal or external.You serve (or produce for) the external client or someone who delivers to the external client. This is true whether you operate in the private, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Talent Management Tagged With: , , ,

Your Final Performance Review

March 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Patriarchy

I get some great ideas from my clients. In a recent coaching conversation my client and I were strategizing about how to fire up an employee in his 60's with about two years left before retirement who was slacking off.. I suggested he challenge the individual to make the choice to make his last two years his best two years. My client liked the idea. After pondering it for a moment he said, "What if I were to invite him now to draft what he would like his final review to say, the one that will … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Building Accountability, Employee Engagement Tagged With: , ,

Talent Magnets

January 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Character w:Magnet (iS)

In my leadership workshops and keynote speeches I sometimes ask the group/audience to think of the best boss and worse boss they've ever had, what each did, and what effect it had on you. People come up with all kinds of descriptors and behaviors of both bosses. But one thing emerges about the best boss ever (BBE). He or she is someone you want to work for…and keep working for. Furthermore, a BBE is almost always someone that others in the organization would like to work for too. When an … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employee Engagement, Leadership Tagged With: , , ,

Do We Stop Growing after Schooling?

December 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Woman-Upset

I ran across a recent posting from the Gallup Management Journal that made a point have I never thought about before: "Raised through a childhood in which each new year brought novel opportunities, playing at ever more difficult levels of sports, growing physically, educated in a system of cleanly delineated grades -- freshman, sophomore, junior, senior -- many employees find themselves several years into their career wondering what happened to the momentum they used to enjoy. Being both … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Talent Management Tagged With: ,

Job Squeeze Is Real. Talk about it

December 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Cornell ILR

My alma mater, the Industrial and Labor Relations School of Cornell University recently hosted a conference on "The Quality of Jobs." They looked at how trends in what they call the "intensification" of work, the restructuring of jobs, and classic downsizing have impacted the quality of jobs and the levels of satisfaction employees (who are left) are experiencing. While papers with their findings will be published in the new year, one clear finding is that these job and work disruptions are … [Read more...]

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