3 Questions You Must Ask to Boost Employee Engagement to Build a More Positive, Productive and Profitable Organization One of the key ingredients necessary to build stronger customer and workplace relationships involves keeping your employees engaged, motivated and happy. If your employees aren’t happy; employee engagement, productivity, and customer satisfaction will be diminished. In my…
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…
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…
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. – Proverbs 18:21 A story is told about Casey Stengel, a longtime major league baseball manager who had such a unique way with words that it became known as “Stengelese.” He once said, “I’ve always heard…
Make a difference about something other than yourselves. – Toni Morrison In an interview with Open Forum (http://amex.co/SDQOLd), Johnny Rocket’s CEO John Fuller offered some fascinating business insights. Fuller says that one of their guiding principles is to be a difference maker verses a care taker. He explained that he wants people to feel that…
They are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations – Francis Bacon According to a survey reported on in People Management (http://bit.ly/MmCPet) the number of employees who are ‘proud’ to work for their organization has fallen from almost half of workers at the start of 2012 to just two-fifths. A survey of 1,114 office…
One of the key ingredients necessary to build stronger customer and workplace relationships involves keeping your employees engaged, motivated and happy. If your employees aren’t happy; employee engagement, productivity, and customer satisfaction will be diminished. In my teambuilding workshops one of the first things we do is to find out what employees want. Below is…
Research reported by Alex Pentland in the April issue of Harvard Business Review has revealed some interesting new information on effective teams. He and his group deployed “sociometric badges” in teams in 21 organizations. These devices are able to monitor on individual team members’ tone of voice, body language, frequency of initiating and responding, plus…
We all face challenging personalities on a daily basis. It could be that customer who has great expectations, maybe it’s the channel partner who takes but does not give, and sometimes our greatest challengers are on our team. Some call them “problem children”, but I do not recognize that label. Leaders Beacon is the Holy…
“To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. That’s all there is to it.” – Adam Vinatieri As a writer I expound on certain events to bring metaphorical significance to different walks of life. Such is the extended purpose of the media. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people with a lot of…
For leaders of all types, here’s an assignment: Hand out some praise today. Think about how long a weekend can be for someone who feels under appreciated or over worked. It’s emotional stew time, and you aren’t around to defend yourself. When Monday rolls around, your team members are not refreshed. They are back to…
During a recent teambuilding and communication workshop I delivered one of my clients stated, “50% of all our obstacles to success center around team dynamics. Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In other words you can have the best plans, strategies and initiatives, however if everyone is not team oriented, working well together and getting along,…
Edgar Schein, a titan of the field of organizational development, says in his recent book, Helping, that there are four questions on the minds of new members of any team. While these concerns operate at a subconscious level, nevertheless, any team member must become comfortable with the answers before he or she can relax and…
Back in the 90’s the Royal Bank of Canada had a series of TV commercials touting the theme, “Building a Better Bank, One Customer at a Time.” The message, as I recall, was that RBC treats each customer as a unique individual and strives to win them over, one-at-a-time. I frequently refer to this ad…
Do you have a complex, large project that simply must not fail? How do you set up the right team to ensure success? 1) Choose your BEST people to participate on the team. A recent system implementation in my company proved to be one of the more complex projects I have worked on — the key…
Have you ever watched a highly functioning department accomplish a goal or objective? The secret ingredient I have noticed is that “natural leadership” is encouraged from every team member or participant. Within groups, each participant brings a unique combination of skills, talent or style to the discussion. Great groups take advantage of this uniqueness.…
Yield – (verb), to give forth or produce by a natural process or in return for cultivation. – Random House Dictionary In the summer of 1986, two ships collided in the Black Sea off the coast of Russia. Hundreds of passengers died as they were hurled into the icy waters below. News of the disaster…
In a previous post we examined a manager who was too easy on his team. In many cases an assignment will come in to work with a manager who has the opposite challenge – he or she is too tough on employees. Often these hard-nosed managers tend to work long hours, do the work his…
Ever wondered what it felt like to be a lab rat? Constantly being observed and tested. Literally put under the microscope; each action scrutinized. Well, if you’re a leader – you might understand that feeling. As leaders, we must realize that, like it or not, we are being watched. Closely. The nuances of our behavior…
All teams must pay attention to their work: the task, the goal, the things to be done, the agenda items to be crammed into their meetings, the hurried decisions to be made by the group, the deadlines to be met, and so on.