Employee Engagement Zingers

The Pathway to Personal Branding

…

Are you branded?

Painted and tainted by marketing mavens.

Packaged like a box of Tide

Until soap stings your eyes

…

Can you be a personal brand without

a logo

a swoosh

a blog

a tweet

or a tightly rehearsed 30 second elevator speech?

…

Would you ever want to be stuck

in an elevator

sealed in as the door closes

and your 13-floor traveling companion

regales you with their pithy elevator speech

when all you asked was,

“what floor?”

…

My father, the irreverent CPR railroad executive

offered me his leadership legacy:

“Son in life you are going to fart, fumble, fall and fail.

You can’t avoid it, you might as well get used to it.”

…

Does your brand embrace your 4 F’s?

To fart

To fumble

To fall

To fail

…

Without our vulnerability to be sliced by paper cuts

we become nothing more than a box of Tide

Squeaky clean

Far too soapy

Used up after just one rinse.

…

~ A tidy poem by David Zinger

What Canada Could Be

Dave Pollard wrote this wonderful piece on what Canada could be on his site: How to Save the World. I was so moved by it I asked his permission to reprint it and offer it here in celebration of Canada Day. Even if you are not from Canada it will give you a better idea of what Canada could be. Enjoy the post and I also encourage you to follow Dave’s site: How to Save the World.

It’s not easy being Canadian. You get ignored by most of the world, and never taken seriously (Ambrose Bierce’s definition of humanity: “An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth, and Canada.”) You are expected to understand both Americans and Europeans, and sometimes help mediate between them. Outside your own country, you are generally taken to be an American, which is rarely good. There are enormously high expectations of you, based on the country’s natural wealth, education and proximity to world markets. Everything is miles (kilometres) from everything else, which is tough when transportation gets expensive, or if you don’t like driving in snow. The weather is, in most places, brutal — as Bierce implies, not really meant for human habitation at all.

And we have royally screwed up. Our treatment of aboriginal peoples — whose land we stole, and who we slaughtered without a thought — has always been and continues to be abominable. In the Alberta bitumen sludge mines (”tar sands”) we have created the greatest single ecological disaster in the history of civilization, and in the face of all the evidence about climate change, this disaster grows worse daily. Our treatment of animals, wild and domesticated, is appalling. We have squandered our natural resources — fish and forests especially — and now they are mostly gone forever. We have sold most of our land, resource ownership, and industry to foreigners who don’t give a damn about this country, and who don’t live here, and we sold it for an absurdly low price. Most of Canada’s large private employers are foreign-owned, which means that a large proportion of us work for foreigners, selling our labour, our resources and our intellectual capital, and getting very little in return. We have emulated, at one time or another, all the worst rules, behaviours and beliefs of both Americans and Europeans, and few of their best. We have a federal government run by an arrogant ideological extremist supported by only 30% of us, yet we are not outraged when he asserts that his government, and not the 70% supported by the opposition, represents the Canadian people.

Yet this country could be great, and its people could be models for the rest of the world at a time when sustainable, responsible, humble models are so desperately needed.

Author (and spouse of the former governer-general) John Ralston Saul explained in a TVO podcast last month why our legacy offers us some clues of how we could be great. Highlights:

[Citing First Nations playwright Tomson Highway] “Language is given form by mythology.” Highway believes English is the language of the head, French the language of the heart, and indigenous languages are those of the body, the instinct and the senses. Today 45 of 53 indigenous languages spoken in Canada are disappearing, taking with them the original, and in Saul’s view the authentic mythology of this country. In the absence of an authentic mythology and native language we are not a nation, and we cannot address the unique problems and imaginative possibilities this land presents.

We are, in fact, one of the few affluent countries in the world that are not monolithic, rational nation-states. By default, we are therefore a civilization of minorities (he did not use the word ‘tribes’ but that’s what came to my mind as I listened). That is not a bad thing, but it requires us to stop following the US/European models and create our own. To create that model, we need to stop wasting the time of the leaders of Canada’s 1.2 million aboriginal people in land claim disputes and allow them to guide us. The shared collective unconscious of our land is buried in their languages and we need them to interpret it for us.

Despite ruthless and persistent efforts to get Canadians to embrace Anglo-American myths and values, many of the indigenous values remain strong in Canada, for pragmatic and physical reasons. They comprise the unconscious Canadian mythology, which is very different from that of the US and UK (and often really annoys Americans and British people who do not understand or appreciate its subtleties). Elements include:an appreciation and respect for complexity and ambiguity

a patience to discuss, debate and negotiate as often and as long as it takes

a willingness to allow truth and knowledge and consensus to emerge

an aversion to cultural coercion and monoculture (the melting pot)

recognition of the importance of striking the balance between individual and collective rights and interests

a preference for adaptation over imposing will, as a strategy for dealing with change

preference for egalitarian, flat structures over hierarchy and rank

What would a nation that accepted this as its authentic mythology be like?

A few years ago I wrote about Hugh Brody’s book, The Other Side of Eden, an anthropological study of indigenous peoples, and it contained some clues. If our nation adopted an authentic indigenous mythology, and accepted this as our innate culture, in addition to entrenching the seven elements Saul notes above, we would:

1. learn by doing, by experimenting, by practice, not by being told what to do by bosses, experts, ‘leaders’ or parents
2. abhor dishonesty and revere candid and complete sharing of knowledge
3. adapt to the land and physical reality of living here, rather than changing it
4. appreciate that we belong to the land, not the other way around, and conserve it and steward it for future generations and all-life-on-Earth
5. learn and adopt useful terms from all native languages
6. embrace an oral culture, including learning when to speak, when and how to listen
7. become master story-tellers
8. learn the arts of analogy and inductive reasoning
9. respect all forms of life as sacred
10. appreciate the value of facilitation, consensus and conflict resolution
11. leave it up to individuals to act responsibly after a discussion (rather than setting out an explicit ‘who will do what by when’ follow-up action list) — this would revolutionize how meetings occur
12. listen to experts’ stories, but discourage them from proffering unsolicited instruction, advice or opinions — let the story convey the wisdom
13. trust our instincts and our subconscious to guide us as much as our intellects
14. be generous with our possessions, to encourage reciprocality and engender trust
15. respect women as full equals
16. acknowledge and respect uncertainty, unpredictability, qualification, nuance and imprecision, and resist oversimplification, false certainty and false dichotomy
17. encourage and enable the development of self-esteem, self-confidence and self-sufficiency
18. stress the importance of strong, autonomous communities

These 25 qualities are already somewhat recognizable in the national character of Canadians. It’s almost as if we can’t help ourselves, as if this is just part of the way we are. For nearly two centuries we have sublimated and denied these characteristics, but they are still part of us, instinctive, coded somehow in our DNA. While a minority of my readers are Canadian, I find that when I talk about these qualities they seem to resonate much more strongly with Canadian readers than most others.

I am no longer idealistic enough to advocate the systematic breaking up of Canada into small self-selected communities; in a globalized world that’s no longer feasible. But there are ways in which this national character, this authentic mythology of our nation might be institutionalized:

• We could teach it in schools, as an integral part of Canadian history: This is who we are and what makes us different from people of other nations.
• We could celebrate it during Canada Day, since right now what we celebrate on that day is dubious (the confederation of our country according to Anglo-American principles, ignoring the legitimacy and primacy of the First Nations who already lived here)
• We could legitimize Canada’s indigenous languages and work to protect and extend them
• We could abolish the useless Canadian Senate and replace it with a self-selected council of aboriginal leaders whose views on all matters of public policy and cultural development would be actively sought and listened to
• We could strive in all our activities to become and be seen as the world’s most accomplished and articulate story-tellers
• We could teach and encourage entrepreneurial business skills and formation, to make our society and economy more resilient and less dependent
• We could devolve power and authority as much as practical, not to massive provincial, regional and city governments, but to local self-governing communities, and give these communities as much autonomy as they can reasonably handle

Instead of dysfunctionally trying to make our country in the image of others, we could just allow our nation to evolve to be what it is intended to be. And we could stop pretending to be what we are not, and instead become models for the rest of the world: masters of complexity, subtlety, adaptation, story and attentiveness to what we know, without the need for laws, governments or rhetoric, to be right.

What role does energy play in employee engagement?

• Do you have the energy for engagement?
• Does your energy engage others?
• How do you recharge for full engagement?

Rosa Say on Leadership and Management Energy. Are you using an energy lens to examine engagement in your workplace. I strongly encourage you to read Rosa Say’s recent post on 3 ways managers create energetic workplaces.

Say’s snippets. Read then practice the recommendations in the article. Here were a few of Rosa’s very helpful statements:

Workplace energy functions the same way batteries do for your favorite electronics: You can have the most high tech camera in the world, and it will do absolutely nothing if its battery is dead.

LEADERSHIP is the workplace discipline of creating energy connected to a meaningful vision.

MANAGEMENT is the workplace discipline of channeling that mission-critical energy into optimal production and usefulness.

If you are a manager (and all business owners are managers too) assume the role of energy creator in your company. Change the title on your business card to Energy Creator; come on, I dare you.

Be relentless about being the best, and excel. Eliminate or reinvent any process which drains energy instead of generating it.

Energy bounce back. I agree with Rosa that we need a stronger focus on energy and the impact energy has in the workplace. Leaders and managers can play such a key pivotal role and the paradox is that when you create energy for others you are also creating more robust energy for yourself.

Energy Co-Creators. I encourage everyone in the workplace, regardless of their role, function, or position, to take seriously their role of Energy Co-Creators. We must strive to create energy gains not energy drains in our work and connections with others.

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David Zinger is a leading expert on employee engagement. He is committed to creating authentic and sustained work engagement for the benefit of all. Contact David at (204) 254-2130 or Email dzinger@shaw.ca.

Photo Credit: Dream by http://www.flickr.com/photos/allegra_ricci/149049741/

Engage 5 is a weekly feature of Employee Engagement Zingers. Engage-5 asks leading thinkers, writers, consultants, and others involved in employee engagement to complete 5 sentences.

Read Samantha Grant’s 5 sentences on engagement:

1. I define employee engagement as connectedness, inspiration, willingness to contribute to a big cause or the common good.
2. Our biggest challenge in employee engagement is listening openly and without judgment..
3. A powerful way to create greater employee engagement is foster creativity in individuals and teams, and stimulate a spirit of shared purpose and fun.
4. I am personally most engaged at work when I connect with others and am working with them to achieve a common goal.
5. To learn more about employee engagement read Primal Leadership (2002) by Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee.

To learn more from Samantha or more about Samantha click here.

Here is a very good basic slide presentation by Amir Saif on employee engagement and engaged team members:

Are you a screen sucker?

Pull up the covers turn on the screen. According to Credant Technologies 25% of employees in Britain go to bed with their laptops, cellphones and BlackBerrys. 57% of those who work in bed work between 2 to 6 hours a week.

Good vibrations? Do you screen the very person in front of you to connect more strongly with text on a small hand held screen?

3 Disengaging Questions:

1. How do you disengage to sustain engagement over a long period of time.
2. How engaged do you get with the various screens in your life?
3. Can you reside in the “white space” without trying to fill it?

I appreciate Elizabeth Perry’s drawing on Television with the sense of so much white space.

Are you relaxing into the white space of your life and honoring purposeful disengagement to achieve higher levels of intentional employee engagement?

Drawing Credit: http://www.elizabethperry.com/woolgathering/2009/05/television.html

Here is a wonderful snippet from Jon Gordon’s blog about Will Smith’s Secret to Success.

What does a treadmill have to do with Will Smith’s success as a movie star and actor?

When asked by an interviewer to explain his success, he responded: “I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be outworked. You may be more talented than me. You might be smarter than me. And you may be better looking than me. But if we get on a treadmill together you are going to get off first or I’m going to die. It’s really that simple. I’m not going to be outworked.”

What treadmill are you on?

Photo Credit: New Year’s Resolution: 36/365 by http://www.flickr.com/photos/sashawolff/3171917389/

Know Your No

Do you know

your no?

Do you follow

your nose?

Or lose scent of your prey

By a confounding crisscrosses of yeses.

…

Who knows

that you know

Your no?

…

No need to shout

Or shake head from

left to right and back again

again and again.

…

Just know

when you know

your no

you

are

also

saying

YES!

…

~ by David Zinger

Harvey Mackay writes a wonderful newsletter. In a recent edition he discussed Richard Florida’s work on Richard The Rise of the Creative Class and  Flight of the Creative Class. Florida believe that about 30% of our workforce could be considered creative workers.

Florida  offered the following advice for engaging your creative staff:

• Everyone needs the opportunity to contribute their creativity.
• Make sure every worker feels challenged and motivated.
• Make sure creative people have time to apply themselves creatively. (Don’t put them on silly jobs that others can handle.)
• Make sure workers have a chance to gain peer respect.
• Evaluate creative workers by what they deliver, not by how many hours they put in.
• Keep hassles away from creative workers. Don’t feel like it’s their responsibility as workers to do this. Decide whether you want them to spend time filling out paperwork—or being creative.

What are your creative approaches to engaging creative workers?

Engage 5 is a weekly feature of Employee Engagement Zingers. Engage-5 asks leading thinkers, writers, consultants, and others involved in employee engagement to complete 5 sentences.

Read Peter Leather’s 5 sentences on engagement:

1. I define employee engagement as feeling personally aligned to the goals of your organisation and what you need to do to make it a success.
2. Our biggest challenge in employee engagement is helping leaders see the value and not just seeing it a the latest fad or buzz word.
3. A powerful way to create greater employee engagement is to create and share interesting personal stories.
4. I am personally most engaged at work when I do things I enjoy doing and that I see add value.
5. To learn more about employee engagement read Flow: Psychology of Happiness by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

To learn more from Peter or more about Peter click here.

Alex Grech did a fine job of presenting the basics of Buckingham and Coffman’s classic book, First Break All the Rules.

If you have already read the book it is a nice review. If you haven’t read the book it is a great preview. And if you have little time it is a chance to get a view of some of the key ideas.

If we break all the rules, we may break open disengagement and create higher levels of employee engagement within our organizations.