Have you taken a strength inventory? Quick, what were your strengths?

Chances are you have not even taken this baby step in workplace strength development. And if you did, chances are that you got a list that is sitting in some binder or book rather than being integrated into what you do everyday at work.

Is your work strength based? I am not talking about lifting weights and bulging muscles. Rather, do you know what you are best at and do you bring your best to work everyday in a variety of ways?

Do you work at ensuring that all employees are using their strengths? How do you determine strengths? How do you go beyond listing strengths to living strengths and using them in the service of results, others and the organization?

Strength based leadership is a core foundation of this website. As we move into spring 2008, I will rekindle the strengths approach to encourage you to refresh your strengths development. When leadership is strength based and employees are operating from their strengths you will experience high levels of engagement and results.

I want to re-introduce the strength-based focus to work by offering some nuggets from earlier posts. I will do this over the next few weeks and then bring a fresh focus to strength based work. If you are intrigued by the nugget, I encourage you to click on the title as this will take you to the original article.

On Peter Drucker (November 11, 2005)

This was the very first post on strength based work, written on the day Peter Drucker died. Peter Drucker, one of the foremost management experts and writers, wrote a very important article on Managing Oneself. in the Harvard Business Review March-April. 1999: 65-70. The essence of managing oneself was to know our strengths and to fully develop a strength-based leadership approach. Here is a short strength burst from the article.

Drucker challenged each of us to ask ourselves: What are my strengths? How do I perform? What are my values? Where do I belong? What should my contribution be?

Don’t try to change yourself, Drucker cautioned. Instead, concentrate on improving the skills you have and accepting assignments that are tailored to your individual way of working. If you do that, you can transform yourself from an ordinary worker into an outstanding performer.

Chess not Checkers (December 2005)

Marcus Buckingham said the right move for leaders is to see their talent management as chess not checkers. Don’t treat everyone the same and limit their work and career moves. Recognize the differences and strengths of each individual and maximize the contribution of each person’s strengths to the purposes of the organization.

Here is a quote from the Wharton business article about Buckingham: How to tell a good manager from a bad manager? According to Buckingham, it’s simple: Bad managers play checkers. Good managers play chess. The good manager knows that not all employees work the same way. They know if they are to achieve success, they must put their employees in a position where they will be able to use their strengths.

The Free & Powerful VIA Signature Strenght Inventory (March 2006)

The foundation of Strength Based Leadership is the identification and application of strengths. There are numerous pathways to strength identification but one of my favorite tools is the VIA Signature Strength Inventory at http://www.authentichappiness.org/. There is no charge to complete the inventory and receive your results. I appreciate the solid psychological research behind the inventory and the sharp focus on your top 5 signature strengths out of a possible 24 strengths.

Here are a few statements about signature strengths from Martin Seligman’s classic book, Authentic Happiness.

Our life task is to deploy our signature strengths and virtues in the major realms of living: work, love, parenting, and finding purpose. Personal meaning is the attachment of your signature strengths to something larger than yourself.

At work, Seligman believed that re-crafting your job to deploy your strengths every day can change your career into a calling. Your work can be more satisfying than it is now by using your signature strengths at work more often.

Watch for future posts on achieving strength based approaches in the workplace.

Photo credit: 2005 Mar-Austin Type Tour-032 - Hyde Park Gym Muscle by http://flickr.com/photos/mrflip/8916916/

by David Zinger

Acceptance. We must begin with acceptance of the current state of engagement and begin to make changes out of our full acceptance of what is as we move to what can be.

Benefits. If employee engagement is to be sustained over time it must benefit employees, leaders, managers, organizations, and customers.

Connection. Employee engagement is created through caring connections with others in the workplace and connections to our work — stay connected and you will stay engaged!

Disengagement. Although chronic disengagement is a workplace scourge we need to balance engagement and disengagement to maintain productive work over the long term.

Energy. Energy is the raw material of employee engagement and those who master energy management have a huge resource to draw upon for their own engagement and for energizing others.

Flow. The ideal state of work is when we experience flow - we engage so completely in our work that work, time, and self are transformed by the experience.

Gumption. Balancing flow is old fashioned gumption - sometimes we just need to engage in work even when we don’t feel like it, yet this very gumption will act as the primer to experiencing higher levels of emotional engagement.

Human. Employee engagement is human, not human capital or human sigma or human resources, just HUMAN, period.

Integrity. Our work must stem from integrity and our connections with others is strengthened by our integrity fused with their integrity.

Joy. Fully engaging in work can produce joy as work becomes love made visible.

Keys. If we carry too many keys we can feel weighed down - each organization and individual will need to determine the keys or vital behaviors that produce authentic and genuine employee engagement.

Leadership. Leaders need to create vision, direction, and strategy that fosters engagement and also communicate this fully to all employees while also being open to employees helping to co-create the organization’s vision and direction.

Management. In many studies, the single biggest contributor to employee engagement is the relationship people have with the person who manages them so managers must manage their own engagement while connecting fully with their staff to prime employees’ engagement.

Networks. Employee engagement works better together - create a network of best friends at work, create a social media network to communicate with each other at work, or join the free Employee Engagement Network at www.employeeengagement.ning.com.

Oprah. You know how engaged Oprah is in her work, imagine yourself on the Oprah show and she is asking you how you engage in your work, how would you answer her so that her audience would take notice and be inspired by your response?

Purpose. Employee engagement must be directed at achieving a purpose for the organization such as: productivity, profit, recruitment, retention, project success, high functioning teams, quality, customer engagement, etc.

Questions? We are all looking for answers to enhance and improve employee engagement but never overlook the value of a good question, such as: Who is engaged, with what,  for how long, and for what reason?

Results and Relationships. Employee engagement works best when results are woven with relationships.

Strengths. Engagement levels increase when we know our strengths, hold strength-based conversations, work with our strengths, work strengthens us, and we move from listing strengths to fully living our strengths in the service of others and our organization.

Today. Employee engagement is about today, don’t wait for some magic measurement or better time - do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.

Understanding. Employee engagement requires comprehensive understanding of the uniqueness of each individual and each culture within each workplace - seek first to understand and demonstrate that understanding before seeking to be understood.

Values. Make employee engagement a value or promise to all employees that their work matters and makes a difference and you will see economic value come out of this value.

We. In the co-created world of work the old line: If it is to be it is up to me must be rewritten to, If it is to be it is up to we.

X-ray. We must get to the bare bones of engagement and avoid using anonymous surveys that at times seem to measure engagement but actually produce disengagement.

You. This alphabet list of employee engagement from A to Z will only become alive if you take the ideas from this article and put them into practice — did you notice the only thing missing from the Corporate Alphabet picture at the start of this article was “u”?

Zen. Zen teaches a person to engage with their breathing, their mind, and their world — as you let yourself become more mindful in daily activities, including work, you will find yourself becoming more and more engaged.

Photo Credit: Corporate Alphabet by http://flickr.com/photos/undercover_surrealist/2314668364/

Contact David Zinger (dzinger@shaw.ca) to engage David for coaching, consulting, or presentations about employee engagement. He can also be reached at (204) 254-2130.

I’m a former director of Interbrand, owned by the giant Omnicom and arguably the world’s leading brand consultancy. Interbrand authors the annual report into the world’s Top Brands (Best Global Brands http://www.interbrand.com/best_brands_2007.asp) .

I understand the power that mastery of the physical manifestations of brand can deliver to the balance sheet - especially in this age of consumerism where appearance is so important. Many marketing gurus describe brands as promises. However, my passionate belief that brands are simply promises made unless employees are motivated to make or break them is less well understood and often poorly articulated.

As we live in what Tom Peters has called “the age of brand”, brand management is extremely important to all organizations, regardless of sector. The brand is the manifestation of promises made minus those delivered and, as such, responsibility for brand management is much more than a marketers thing. Employees simply have to be engaged with the vision, goals and, most importantly, values of the business if the integrity of the brand is going to be maintained. And this is much more than “tree hugging” HR-speak. It makes very sound business sense and is tied into customer satisfaction and employee retention alike.

Engagement is an elusive and slippery thing, however, as it can’t be forced or conscripted and relies upon individuals exercising free will. Brand Engagement, therefore, is a call to arms for all leaders to start forming partnerships between the external facing and internal facing arms of their organization. It provides a host of best practices and illuminating case studies from a range of organizations who have had success by taking this holistic approach. It’s also a challenge to leaders to form partnerships within their organizations to capitalize on their brands. Until those partnerships are achieved between the people responsible for making promises and those accountable for delivering them, until we can address preconceptions about who is responsible for employee engagement versus brand management the sad fact remains that comparatively few brands are going to live up to their billing!

Outline what you mean by having a CEO - chief engagement officer.

The literature about leadership and internal communication is obsessed with what I call Hero Leaders. The Chief Executives I know and work with, struggle constantly with the notion that they are expected to be the primary communicators within their business when they actually get very little time to act out this role internally and struggle to engage in authentic conversations when they do. For a host of different reasons, the pivotal communicators are line managers. They are the everyday brand superheroes - not CEOs but ceos or chief engagement officers. During times of crisis who do employees turn to? On a day-to-day basis who is responsible for informing and motivating people? Who has to be the communications “jack of all trades” able to facilitate team briefings, interpret and relay vast amounts of context-setting communication and be the role model for the desired culture, the guardian of brand values? Yes, the line manager, even the much maligned middle manager. The sequel to Brand Engagement - Brand Champions, is dedicated to this community and in Brand Engagement I provide hints, tips and techniques for maximizing the impact of this community.

Humor and playfulness are my number 1 signature strengths. One person said the mark of sanity is to blur the lines between work and play. What is the role of play in engaging employees?

It’s a lifelong obsession of mine that we’re expected to deliver our potential at work but to do so with our personalities hidden, to leave our “home” selves at the door when we walk over the corporate threshold. Why? Because it’s somehow deemed unprofessional to be yourself at work. I passionately believe that it is this very neurosis that lies at the core of deep seated morale and performance problems in many organizations. This subject is intrinsically part of the authenticity debate. Being an authentic business is quite simply about promising and being what you promise. It involves clarity about brand positioning, values and communication to customers, prospects, employees, recruits and stakeholders. Being clear about what you stand for (or won’t stand for), makes it a lot easier to do business with you. If you reflect on the leading customer service organizations (and you will have your own examples), the employees aren’t afraid to have fun, they exude confidence and enthusiasm because they enjoy working for the organization and believe in the service or product. Organisations that are clear about their values and communicate them through their people processes (recruitment, performance management, communication etc), will attract and retain like minds. This type of synergy doesn’t require too many rules and enforcement, it encourages self-managing teams, peer pressure and ultimately innovation and experimentation. When these conditions exist for adults, it feels like play and when people feel confident enough to be themselves at work there’s a chance they’re going to be a great deal more engaged and, therefore, effective. Brand Engagement supports this with case studies and data from my consultancy bring yourself 2 work www.by2w.co.uk.

How do we weave bringing ourselves to work and stories into creating more powerful or richer levels of engagement?

I’m a big fan of the work of mythologist and anthropologist Joseph Campbell who dedicated his life to the search for the mono myth or, put simplistically, the central story which underpins all cultures and creeds and forms an invisible part of our collective psyche. As a former student of literature, both English and African, I’ve been intrigued by the seemingly relentless attempts made by businesses to strip the arts from business, to raise barriers between sanitized “business think” and the natural rhythms and patterns of communication. As we all know, storytelling and the oral tradition pre-dates the written word and yet we’ve somehow forgotten the core paths our communication roots have taken as we’ve developed organizations and structures.

The greatest value of storytellers like Campbell is that they remind us of the universality of change, that despite the fact that we may feel victimized by the particular path our organizations may have taken, the fact remains that we’re part of a process as ancient as time itself. If we stop to look around us, to observe the lore that comes from our literature, our art and our stories (both from the home and corporate worlds), we can develop an understanding of the stages of change, learn to look out for archetypes along the way and, most importantly, learn from the mistakes and lessons from the heroes of the stories who have gone before us.

I believe there are a whole host of reasons why there’s such a chasm between the corporate and non-corporate worlds which apply to storytelling along with many of the other, powerful, engagement drivers. The first step towards bringing these worlds back together again in pursuit of greater balance and, I believe, more effective performance, is to recognize that just as we embrace both the commercial and artistic in our home lives, the two can be brought much closer together in pursuit of engagement for mutual commercial gain.

Your chapters end with 5 things to do today. What 5 things would you recommend readers of this interview do today? 

1. If you can influence matters, try and chart the story of the business. It’s a powerful way of connecting people with the change journey and is the most powerful engagement device, an antidote to “short-termism”
2. If you’re trying to build a business case for engagement, consider the cost of recruitment and retention versus spend on internal communication and engagement. We measured this at a financial services firm recently and the results were a real eye-opener.
3. Ensure that your internal communications function is at least as professional as your marketing team.
4. Pause for a moment and consider your personal legacy. As you chart the way through the personal and corporate journey, how do you want to be remembered when you leave and how are your values going to guide you?
5. Measure, measure, measure…………………

Ian Buckingham is the author of Brand Engagement - How Employees Make or Break Brands http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=281268 and he is currently working on the sequel Brand Champions. Ian has almost twenty years consultancy experience in the communication, engagement, change management and organisation development fields. Formerly a partner at the Omnicom owned SDL, Ian was the founder of Interbrand Inside and currently runs The Bring Yourself 2 Work Fellowship at www.by2w.co.uk.

An interview with Cindy Ventrice to get your work week percolating with engagement.

It is my pleasure to interview Cindy Ventrice, author of Make Their Day: Employee Recognition That Works. Cindy is from Santa Cruz California and has worked with a wide variety of organizations including Cisco, MIT, WorkSafeBC, and State Farm Insurance. She works to improve engagement through enhanced recognition efforts.

1. Cindy, what do you see as the relationship between recognition and employee engagement? How well is this being done in the current workplace?

First, David, you need to understand that when I talk about recognition, I am not talking about handing out company logo pens or t-shirts. Recognition is a behavior not an award.

With a management style that leaves employees feeling recognized the ties with engagement are extraordinary. With solid recognition practices employees are more productive, produce higher quality products, give better service, create a more safe work environment, and work to engage each other.

2. As you know, I love the title of you book, it has a Clint Eastwood, Make My Day connection for me. Briefly, if we are a manager why do we want to make employee’s days?

If you think about a manager who really made your day, hopefully more than once, you will realize that you would go the extra mile to make that manager look good. It really is a reciprocal relationship.

3. Explain to the readers why you believe employees want to love their job. Isn’t a job just a job?

Study after study shows that while employees talk about the importance of money, they will stick with a job that lets them use their skills and strengths, challenges them to grow, and allows them to help their organization achieve its goals.

4. In the book you talk about the importance of everyday recognition as opposed to giving out T-shirts and having gala once-a-year recognition ceremonies. How do I do this as a manager when I am so busy already.

You are right, everyone is challenged for time. In fact, I have had no luck getting managers to add recognition to their extraordinarily long to do lists. That’s why, a number of years ago, I started telling managers not to put recognition on their to do lists, but instead I ask them to make recognition the header of the list. I want them to look at that list from a new perspective; ask themselves where they can build recognition into what they already have to do. For instance, when they have a project to delegate they can tell each member of the team why they were selected. It might be because of stellar work on a previous project or because it provides an opportunity to build skills that will help them grow. Both offer recognition.

5. We need to identify and acknowledge the people that work with us. You write about the 4 elements of recognition that work. You give us a PORT (Praise Opportunity Respect Thanks) to anchor our recognition efforts. Can you leave the readers with one example of how we can use each of these 4 factors to both recognize employees and enhance employee engagement.

Thanks, or appreciation is pretty self-explanatory. Simply thank people for their efforts. Don’t take them for granted.

In the previous delegation example we have Praise for previous work and Opportunity in the form of a new challenge. Praise acknowledges success and accomplishments. New opportunities demonstrate that the manager really understands what the employee values.

It is important to remember that there is no recognition without the element of respect. I often ask employees to tell me about the most meaningful recognition they have received. One said it was when her manager said she couldn’t take her vacation at the same time he did! How many people would consider that recognition? He had developed such a strong respectful relationship that she interpreted his comments to mean that she was too valuable to be gone at the same time.

Interview by David Zinger

Join now to be a founding memeber. Monday 7 a.m. update: The network is less than 2 days old, we already have 7 members (make that 8 just as I was writing this) and many of them are leading experts on employee engagement, work, and leadership. I encourage you to be one of our founding members. You don’t need to be an expert or a blogger. You are an ideal memeber if you are interested in the topic, you want to learn more, or you want to enhance your own engagement.

I am extremely excited and enthusiastic to announce the launch of the Employee Engagement Network. I set up the network on January 26th., 2008.

Click here to visit the network. I have always believed that authentic employee engagement is based on connection and I have been reaching out to others involved in employee engagement to learn from them and to offer assistance.

It is very thrilling to now have a network that all of us involved in employee engagement can interact with each other at our own levels of comfort. We can share resources, offer perspectives, find speakers or presenters, learn about new authors, get practical advice, bring new tools to our organizations, and enhance our own levels of engagement.

Don’t just visit the network…JOIN! You do this by clicking on the SIGN UP link on the top right hand corner of the home page.

There is no charge and we need you. We need your questions, your contributions, and your engaging conversations. You get what you give and you will find that you will get a lot of value from our network.

I have just begun to extend some initial invitations and I look forward to people recognizing the value of this network, wanting to be a part of it, and joining in.

Engage along with me, the best is yet to be!

Visit Employee Engagement

David Zinger

It is an honor today to host an interview with Michael Stallard. Michael in conjunction with Carolyn Dewing-Hommes and Jason Pankau wrote, Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity, and Productivity.

I have to admit that the cover and title did not grab my attention but when I started the book, I could not stop and was enthralled by the focus on connection, creating an environment where people feel connected to one another, to their work, and to the larger mission of the organization.

Michael, thank you for agreeing to this interview about employee engagement and your book, Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity, and Productivity.

Q: Can you share with the readers why you decided to write this book at this time?

A: I discovered something that I thought would be valuable to everyone who works in organizations.  It all began when I was chief marketing officer for the private wealth management group at Morgan Stanley.  During that time, I was interested in motivating the team I led and in improving the client experience by firing up people on the front lines who worked directly with clients.  I knew that culture mattered.  As a former investment banker, I had observed great and not so great company cultures.  My experiences and research led me to believe that the only culture that produces sustainable superior performance is a “Connection Culture” in which people feel connected to their work, their colleagues and their organization.
 
Q: When I picked up the book I thought it was going to be full of motivational platitudes and team trick’s for leaders. It wasn’t that at all. It was about authentic and genuine connection to others, our work, and our organization. What does connection mean to you Michael?

A: Connections are part rational and part emotional. It’s the emotional aspect that’s so powerful.  When people feel connected, it’s extraordinary what they can accomplish together. All great leaders create Connection Cultures.  In Fired Up or Burned Out, we tell the stories of some of these leaders of nations, businesses, sports teams and social sector organizations. We also include a few stories of people who did not lead well so readers can learn from their examples as well
 
Q: Can you give us an example of someone who really connected with you at work and made a difference?

A: John Straus, former head of the private wealth management group and my first boss at Morgan Stanley, was great at connecting with me and I in turn felt a strong bond with my management team colleagues and with the people in the marketing department I was responsible for leading.  John gave me the authority, resources and autonomy necessary to get the job done.  We had a strong Connection Culture, it fired us up and as a result we doubled Morgan Stanley’s private wealth management business over a two and a half year period. 
 
Q: Who are you working at connecting with currently?

A: First of all, I’m always mindful of staying connected with my family members and friends.  I meet each Saturday morning for breakfast with a group of good friends.  I also meet most Wednesdays with a different group of guys for lunch.  Being around these friends energizes, challenges and encourages me.   I’m also actively connecting with people at our client companies and the non-profit organizations I’m involved in.  Because I’m an “achievaholic,” I wasn’t intentional about connecting with people in the past. I had deadlines to meett and deals to close. Now I am intentional about connecting and it’s made me happier and more satisfied with my life as well as more creative and more productive. 
 
Q: Your book is full of powerful stories, experiences, and examples. What do you most hope the reader takes away from this book you wrote with Carolyn Dewing-Hommes and Jason Pankau?
 
A: We want people to understand the tremendous effect connection can have, individually and for the organization, and become intentional about connecting with co-workers, family and friends.  I believe that achievaholism is widespread today and it’s sucking the life out of people.  We need to connect with other human beings and when we don’t, there is a price to be paid.  Absent connections, our physical and mental health suffer.  With abundant connections, we thrive.  Life at work can be as satisfying as life outside of work if we create Connection Cultures. 
 
Q: Can you explain what you mean by Knowledge Flow in the book?

A: Knowledge Flow is one of the key elements of a Connection Culture.  It exists when people freely share information, ideas and opinions.  In cultures with a high degree of Knowledge Flow, people feel their opinions are sought and considered.  They feel valued and more engaged because of this.  A high degree of Knowledge Flow also creates a robust marketplace of ideas that fuels innovation and helps decision makers become better informed and therefore make superior decisions.
 
Q: In Part 4 of the book you profile 20 great leaders from a variety of times and settings. Can you mention one leader from this section and one thing you learned by studying that leader?

A: This may surprise you but I think Warren Buffett is a great leader although most people don’t think of him in that way.  When you study him closely and meet him, as I have, you see that he embodies a passion for excellence in business and he cares for people.  It’s this combination in a leader that brings about both task excellence and relationship excellence in organizational cultures.  Buffett is confident but not at all egotistical.  He is driven to build something great rather than be the center of attention.  Of course, he gets a lot of attention but he doesn’t seem to seek it.  His passion is building Berkshire Hathaway and doing so in a way that’s fair, honest and good for society at large.     
 
Q: Michael, you are very open about what you learned at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City in 2004 as your wife went through cancer treatment. How did that influence your views of work and how is your wife, Katie, today?

A: My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in late 2002 and advanced ovarian cancer in 2004.  Today, she is in remission and feeling fine.  The Connection Culture we experienced at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City made us feel that we were more than just a number.  The doctors and staff cared for us and we could see they cared for each other and for their cause, which is “to provide the best cancer care, anywhere.”  The place had a great buzz of positive energy and it’s one of the leading cancer centers in the world.  Watching them opened my eyes to the power of connection.  Furthermore, the extraordinary support we received from friends and family members was enlightening to me.  Amazon.com just published the story I wrote about it entitled “Alone No Longer.”  It was a life-changing event for me that led me to dedicate my life to increasing connection in the workplace and in society. 

Thank you Michael.

I encourage readers of Employee Engagement to buy this book and get connected!
If you would like more information about Micheal book or company visit: www.fireduporburnedout.com.

David Zinger
 

The Monday Morning Percolator is a regular feature of Employee Engagement: Results That Matter. The purpose of the percolator is to start your week off with a post that gets you percolating for the remainder of the week.

At the start of the new year it is a good time to review the principles you believe and follow in employee engagement. What are your principles of employee engagement?

What are the key beliefs or perspectives that influence and shape how you look at the topic and how you act at work?

Here are 10 principles of employee engagement. I encourage you to determine your own or to add yours in the comment section.

Employee engagement is a human endeavour. Engagement is depersonalized when we refer to employees as human capital or human resources. I manage capital or resources, I work with people!

Employee engagement must create results that matter. This means results that are important to the employee, manager, leaders, organization, and customers. There is little point in having engaged employees if they are not contributing and creating significant results. In addition, if the results only matter to the organization and not the employee - or the employee and not the organization - employee engagement will not be sustained over time.

Employee engagement is connection. Connection is the key. Authentic employee engagement involves connection to our work, others, our organizations and ourselves. When we disconnect we disengage. Read this short post on employee engagement and connection.

Employee engagement is fueled by energy. We must pay close attention to mental, emotional, and spiritual energy at work. In addition we need to enhance organizational energy through meaningful connection and high quality interactions.

Employee engagement is more encompassing than motivation. Employee engagement embraces our emotions about work, how hard we work, how much we care about the organization, etc. I think it is a richer and more complex concept than simply using motivation to look at work.

Employee engagement is specific. We cannot sustain engagement all the time and everywhere. When we talk about engagement we need to ask: Who is engaged, with what,  for how long, and for what reason?

Employee engagement requires purposeful disengagement. We need periods of rest, recovery, and rejuvenation to sustain engagement over the long term. Theoretically we may be able to work 24/7 but practically we work best when periods of full engagement are punctuated with periods of disengagement from specific work or tasks.

Employee engagement makes a difference. Employee engagement can improve organizational performance while also contributing to individual performance and satisfaction.

Employee engagement is vital in recruitment, retention, and satisfaction. I believe the majority of workers want to be engaged and look for work that will engage them. People will often leave organizations when they feel disengaged. It may even be worse for all if they remain when they are disengaged.

Employee engagement is now. Look to the now. Don’t wait for some survey results or diagnosis from a management consultant. Look at the work you are doing right now and determine how you can engage with it more fully. Look at who you are working with and determine how you can help them to be more engaged. In addition, look at what you are engaged with now and make sure the results matter!

I encourage you to leave a comment about the principles you follow for employee engagement.

Photo Credit: Web Directions North by http://flickr.com/photos/andallthatmalarkey/389326015/

David Zinger is an employee engagement expert committed to moving employee engagement into authentic and significant workplace engagement with benefits for all.

I received John Miller’s newsletter on Selection: Hiring Character. John is well know for his work on the book, The Question Behind the Question (QBQ).  I believe when we have people who act with full accountability we have fully engaged people working with us.

The aggregate of traits that form the individual nature of a person including moral or ethical qualities such as honesty, courage, integrity.

Here are the 4 qualities or characters to seek out:

1. Coach-ability
2. Work Ethic
3. A Heart of Service
4. Accountability

I believe these 4 characters will contribute to a very high level of employee engagement. Accountability leads to an enriched level of employee engagement.

Click here to visit the QBQ website.

Photo Credit: Pick a Color, Any Colour by http://flickr.com/photos/stephenliveshere/488233599/

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Contact David Zinger to learn about how you can leverage employee engagement to produce results that matter for everyone in your workplace.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca ~ Phone 204 254 2103 ~ Website: www.davidzinger.com.

Don’t gamble on employee engagement? When work becomes a mindless addiction, employee engagement loses the power to enrich the person working.

I was at the casino in Halifax Nova Scotia this past weekend. It was amazing to walk around the casino and see people so engaged in gambling. They can sit at tables or in front of slot machines for endless hours. And we all know this is going on in thousands of casinos around the world.

You don’t have to be a keen observer to notice that so few of the gamblers are happy or enjoying themselves, unless they win big. Some of this demonstrates the addicting power of random intermittent reinforcement.

I know some workplaces would love to have people show up and sit at a machine for hours at a time pushing buttons and monitoring the screen. The employer wouldn’t even have to pay the person, the person would pay them!

Don’t gamble with your work. What I mean is, enjoy work and don’t let it become a mindless addiction. You might be working all the time but if work is not a source of pleasure or satisfaction I don’t believe you are truly engaged in what you are doing.

I say, to heck with letting the chips fall where they may – make a conscious deliberate craft of staying engaged with your work. When we are fully engaged at work we gladly chip in and that “chipping in” is a source of contribution to others, our organization, and a source of satisfaction for us. JACKPOT!

Photo Credit: Slot Machine by http://flickr.com/photos/kubina/347687569/

During the previous 5 weeks I engaged in leadership strength development through the application of StrengthsFinder 2.0. I encourage you to read the past 5 Monday Morning Percolators to follow the development and progress of this project.

Here was the schedule of my strength focus:

1. Maximizer (Week 1)
2. Strategic (Week 2)
3. Positivity (Week 3)
4. Ideation (Week 4)
5. Empathy (Week 5)

The process of working on strengths included:

• Complete the StrengthsFinder 2.0 inventory.
• Scan your top 5 strengths
• Study your first strength
• Outline strength based actions for the first week.
• Implement your action plan
• Review your progress
• Repeat the the process with the next strength on your list.
• Click here to download a one page PDF form to assist in your strength work.

Here are 10 leadership strength applications and methods I encourage you to apply based on the experience of the past 5 weeks:

1. We must go beyond listing our strengths to living our strengths. Many people have completed strength assessments but what happens after the assessment? Do your strengths get lost in the shuffle of daily demands?
2. The conscious application of strengths gives more power to projects and enthusiasm to efforts.
3. It is helpful to focus on just one strength a week rather than trying to apply all the strengths all the time.
4. In a future project I will dedicate each day to a strength: Monday - Maximizer / Tuesday - Strategic / Wednesday - Positivity / Thursday - Ideation / Friday - Empathy. You could even do this on an hourly basis during the day.
5. A powerful questions to leverage your strengths to specific tasks and encounters is to ask yourself: How can I use my signature strengths right here and right now?
6. Even with a conscious focus on strengths I believe that there were literally hundreds of times that my strengths would have helped me with situations that I simply overlooked.
7. Do whatever you can to be mindful of your strengths: write them down, study them, or make a commitment to yourself and others. Without being mindful of our strengths we can experience strength resource myopia - we have this resource but we fail to see it and leverage it.
8. I believe there is a huge untapped resource of strength application that lives within us  and between us calling for more focused and mindful application on a daily basis to help us achieve results that matter.
9. Strength focus and application is not a fluffy extra. I think conscious strength application is vital, especially for leaders who feel exhausted or demoralized by the constant and growing demands of leadership.
10. Focused strength application may be a strong prevention against a possible employee engagement implosion that is occurring in middle management. We must strengthen the middle of organizations before organizations topple over due to top heavy demands, decreasing levels of employee disengagement and a middle that feels they can’t hold it together.

Photo Credit: Backbone Rock by http://flickr.com/photos/pfly/201161868/

This is part 5 of a 5 part series on leadership strength development through the application of StrengthsFinder 2.0.

Click here to read the first article in the series.

Here is the schedule outlining my strength focus:

1. Maximizer (Week 1)
2. Strategic (Week 2)
3. Positivity (Week 3)
4. Ideation (Week 4)
5. Empathy (Week 5)

Here is a quick review of the process of working on our strengths:

• Complete the StrengthsFinder 2.0 inventory.
• Scan your top 5 strengths
• Study your first strength
• Outline strength based actions for the first week.
• Implement your action plan
• Review your progress
• Repeat the the process with the next strength on your list.
• Click here to download a one page PDF form to assist in your strength work.

Review Week 4: Last Week’s Strength (Ideation)

I was able to work a lot with my strategic strength during the past week. I found times before flying in airports an excellent time to use strategic thinking for the variety of projects requiring my attention. Two projects had a number of significant external developments and I was able to use this strength to navigate through some of the changes.

I believe that I may have missed some of my own strength resources had I not had a specific focus on this strength last week. It was a busy week and this series focusing on a specific strength gave some structure to ensure that the strength was applied.

Outline Week 4: This Week’s Strength (Empathy)

People who are especially talented in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others’ lives or others’ situations.

Empathy Action Plan

1. My background is in counselling psychology. Empathy is the key approach and skill in the practice of counselling. I will look at using the strength and skills I have developed in this area to other relationships.

2. I will apply empathy to get a close up view of how my customers view my services and ensure that I approach my interactions with them from this perspective.

3. I will consciously apply more empathy in general social situations and family relationships and ensure that I communicate more of my understanding from this perspective.

4. I will live my favorite empathy line: Seek first to understand and demonstrate that understanding before seeking to be understood.

Next Week: Conclusion and review.

Photo Credit: Empathy in a carton by http://flickr.com/photos/geoffjones/526861820/

Written by  David Zinger, M. Ed.

This is part 4 of a 5 part series on leadership strength development through the application of StrengthsFinder 2.0.

Click here to read the first article in the series.

Here is the schedule outlining my strength focus:

1. Maximizer (Week 1)
2. Strategic (Week 2)
3. Positivity (Week 3)
4. Ideation (Week 4)
5. Empathy (Week 5)

Here is a quick review of the process of working on our strengths:

• Complete the StrengthsFinder 2.0 inventory.
• Scan your top 5 strengths
• Study your first strength
• Outline strength based actions for the first week.
• Implement your action plan
• Review your progress
• Repeat the the process with the next strength on your list.
• Click here to download a one page PDF form to assist in your strength work.

Review Week 3: Last Week’s Strength (Positivity)

It was very beneficial to monitor my positivity-strength during the week. I would start the morning feeling upbeat and optimistic and watch some of this fade as challenges mounted and the day progressed.  It was helpful to capture how happiness can slowly dissipate away during the day and to renew my commitment to get the most from my strength of positivity.

In the future, I will plan a short “positivity” break to begin the afternoon. Over at Slacker Manager, a blog I co-write with Phil Gerbyshak, I am compiling a list of inspiring videos and I will make it a practice to watch one of these videos to start my afternoon.

Outline Week 4: This Week’s Strength (Ideation)

People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

Positivity Action Plan

1. I love working with ideas and combined with my Maximizer strength I can bring out the best in others. I need to ensure I have partners who can help me bring the ideas to life.

2. Because I can generate many ideas I also need the freedom to let the poor or weak ones go.

3. I am working on a leadership network and this will be the idea week to outline the benefits, features, and key ideas of the project. I will also be catching 7 flights this week and I will use all the waiting time to add weight to the ideas I generate for this project..

Next Week: Review of Ideation and Strength#5 - Empathy.

Photo Credit: Idea by http://flickr.com/photos/mazakar/1720761226/

Written by  David Zinger, M. Ed.

This is part 3 of a 5 part series on leadership strength development embracing the application of StrengthsFinder 2.0.

Click here to read the first article in the series.

Here is the schedule outlining my strength focus:

1. Maximizer (Week 1)
2. Strategic (Week 2)
3. Positivity (Week 3)
4. Ideation (Week 4)
5. Empathy (Week 5)

Here is a review of the process we are following:

• Complete the StrengthsFinder 2.0 inventory.
• Scan your top 5 strengths
• Study your first strength
• Outline strength based actions for the first week.
• Implement your action plan
• Review your progress
• Repeat the the process with the next strength on your list.
• Click here to download a one page PDF form to assist in your strength work.

Review Week 2: Your Second Strength (Strategic)

I was able to work a lot with my strategic strength this past week. I find the times before flying in airports an excellent time to use strategic thinking for the variety of projects requiring my attention. My ideas are flying long before the plane takes off.

Two specific projects had 4 significant external developments and I was able to use my strength to navigate through some of the changes that will be required because of development from competitors and the business environment. I believe that I would have missed out on my strategic strength resources had I not had a specific focus for this strength last week.

Outline Week 3: Your Third Strength (Positivity)

People who are especially talented in the Positivity theme have an enthusiasm that is contagious. They are upbeat and can get others excited about what they are going to do.

Positivity Action Plan

1. Keep enthusiasm alive for the variety of projects and initiatives and ensure that I communicate this with my partners and my students.

2. I will keep a focus on this strength to prevent a positive drain when I have too many demands or feel high levels of stress.

3. I will navigate around negative people who will not be responsive to a constructive or more positive outlook so as not to sap my own positivity.

4. I will also take time to express thanks and gratitude immediately after seeing something I am thankful for.

How did things go with the application of your second strength and what are your plans for to apply your third strength next week?

Next Week: Review and Strength#4 - Ideation.

Photo Credit: Free Running Belfast by http://flickr.com/photos/jettloe/1314858172/

Written by  David Zinger, M. Ed.

I invited you to join me in a 5 week strength building and training regime.

You won’t end up with more muscle but you will end up stronger and more engaged in your work.

Each week we will focus on one of our strengths from the StrengthsFinder 2.0 inventory. We will work at developing a greater understanding of the strength, determine applications of the strength for the following week, and review how we performed on the last strength before moving on to the next strength on the list.

I will use my 5 signature strengths as a springboard for you to work on your strengths in the next 5 Monday Morning Percolators.

1. Maximizer (Week 1)
2. Strategic (Week 2)
3. Positivity (Week 3)
4. Ideation (Week 4)
5. Empathy (Week 5)

Complete the StrengthsFinder 2.0 inventory and use each week to examine one of your strengths. To take the online version of the inventory you must purchase the book StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath. Enter the code you will find in the book at the StrengthsFinder 2.0 website.

After you complete the inventory get a list of your 5 strengths and review the following website resources:

• Strength Discovery
• Brief Strengths Discovery Guide
• Action Planning Guide

What are your 5 strengths? What is your first strength?

I have included a free one page PDF form to use for your five weeks of strength training. Click the link below to get a copy of this form:

zinger-strength-training-form.pdf

Use this form to record you strengths, determine applications, and assess your progress.

This week, focus on your top strength from StrengthsFinder 2.0.

For example my top strength is maximizer. According to the book and website:

People who are especially talented in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb.

After reading the description and looking at the ideas, I generated the following 6 step focused application of the maximizer strength for this week:

1. read and review the descriptions and ideas for my number one strength at least twice this week
2. determine what I am doing well and how I can make it better
3. reflect on the strengths of my partners and bring out these strengths in our projects
4. apply this strength to things outside of work
5. raise the bar on projects that are going well
6. remind myself of the strength by placing the phrase Maximizer: Take it to the Max in places I will see it frrequently during the week - without reminders we can lose sight of what we want to achieve because of all the things requiring our attention.

Join me on the journey for the next 5 weeks to delve into the details of your strength.

Grow strong along with me, the best is yet to be.

Photo Credit: Pole vault athlete in motion by http://flickr.com/photos/ftcb/100461465/

The last Monday Morning Percolator outlined 7 organizational inputs to foster employee engagement. This post will outline the key inputs into employee engagement from leaders and managers within the organization.

Engage yourself. Before you can foster or enhance the engagement of employees, never lose sight that you are one of those employees. Keep a focus on your own levels of employee engagement as you also champion engagement for others.

Hold engaging conversations. Avoid making employee engagement an announcement or policy. Ensure your employee engagement has a grass roots conversational quality to it. Talk with your employees. Doc Searls talking about conversational marketing stated: conversations are about talking, not announcing. They’re about listening, not surveying. They’re about paying attention, not getting attention. In many ways, employee engagement is less about what you put in and more about what you draw out of employees.

Be strong and strengthen others. Employees who work from their strengths and have work designed around their strengths are more engaged. As leaders, we must also talk with people about their strengths. There are many pathways to strengths. Click here to read my strength based leadership articles if you would like to learn more.

Apply the simple and significant. I am passionate about employee engagement and believe it makes a huge difference for all in the workplace and I recognize how many things the average leader must attend to. It is not my intention to make employee engagement an imposition in an already overcrowded day. I encourage you to find the simplest yet most significant thing you can do to advance employee engagement.

Engage the clutch. My experience with the majority of leaders in organizations is that they respond to the full slate of demands with an excess of engagement and hours worked. We must regularly engage the clutch and go to neutral. Engaged leaders also find time for rest, recovery, and renewal. The path to full engagement also involves periods of disengagement — our walk to the desert for renewal.

Contact David Zinger if you would like more information.

Picture Credit: Desert Leaders by http://flickr.com/photos/hamed/327939900/

To achieve full levels of employee engagement, efforts must come from organizations, leaders, and employees. This issue of the Monday Morning Percolator will outline 7 actions organizations can take to foster higher levels of employee engagement.

1. Assess and remove any roadblocks or hurdles to employee engagement. Ask employees what could be removed or lessened to increase their level of engagement with the organization.
2. Create a culture where employee engagement is valued, discussed, shared, and lived. Employee engagement needs to be both recognized and appreciated.
3. Ensure that the top leaders within the organization are committed to employee engagement, engaged themselves, and they are willing and committed to investing organizational resources into the engagement initiatives.
4. Move beyond measuring employee engagement to taking action on those measures. Attend to your metrics but focus on your people.
5. Help employees see the benefit of employee engagement for themselves and their customers. Don’t let your engagement initiatives become organizational manipulations to merely squeeze out more productivity and discretionary effort from employees.
6. Study your highly engaged employees to determine the vital behaviors they perform that contribute to their high level of engagement. Once those behaviors are determined work at spreading those behaviors to other people within the organization. Strive to make employee engagement a viral phenomenon for the organization.
7. Educate leaders and managers within the organization on how to foster employee engagement and help leaders understand and leverage their key role in employee engagement efforts.

The next Monday Morning Percolator will be: How leaders can contribute to employee engagement.

Contact David Zinger to learn more about employee engagement.

Picture Credit: Chicago from Above by http://flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/409484853/

Employee Engagement

There are a plethora of methods and approaches to fostering and enhancing employee engagement. Actions can be launched by individuals, leaders, and organizations. When all 3 are working together we move beyond simple employee engagement to workplace engagement with engagement for all!

Yet, the workplace of today is asking more and more from everyone with less and less time to stop and determine what to do and how to do it. If we are given too many things to do we may give up or avoid them simply because we are overwhelmed and there are too many things to do already. It can be a challenge simply to remember to focus on employee engagement.

I recommend a 2 x 2 x 2 design structure:

1. What are 2 actions organizations can take to enhance employee engagement?
2. What are 2 actions leaders can take to enhance employee engagement?
3. What are 2 actions individuals can take to enhance employee engagement?

When everyone is taking action and working together we move beyond employee engagement to workplace engagement with engagement for all. You also get the multiplier effect as 2 x 2 x 2 = 8. The multiplier effect from a systems perspective means: changes in one field of human activity (subsystem) sometimes act to promote changes in other fields (subsystems) and in turn act on the original subsystem itself. This becomes full workplace engagement when we are seeing actions from leaders, employees, and the organization.

In the next 3 Monday Morning Percolators I will outline the actions of each of these groups. In the interim I encourage you to think about what are the 2 most powerful actions you can perform to create high levels of engagement.

Picture Credit: 2 x 2 x 2 = fun by http://flickr.com/photos/bofh/30900799/

How do you create a breakthrough to achieve fuller employee engagement for yourself and the people you work with? Often we feel stuck or disengaged. We want a breakthrough. But we are not sure how to proceed or even get started.

Lisa Haneberg offers a solution in her book: Two Weeks to a Breakthrough.

Lisa moves beyond simplistic pop psychology or self-management and offers a very practical and explicit method to get fully engaged.

She recommends taking 2 weeks to create the breakthrough and gives you guidance each day on how to proceed. The daily practice is the key to move beyond dreaming of change and breakthroughs to zooming towards your goal.

Each day is configured slightly differently but the practice consists of 3 fundamental components:

1. Share your goal with others
2. Take action that support your goal
3. Make request that will help you move towards your goal

Share-Action-Request makes our breakthrough method public, tangible, and connected. I know one of the first times I tried this method I let the sharing part of the method slip. I thought I could just do it on my own. I now realize how important this was to create what I call an accountability allies - others who will both support and challenge me on my work.

Here is a short outline on the approach if you are a leader striving towards creating more engagement in your workplace:

• You will get specific about what you are trying to achieve.
• You will be talking with many people about your plans and actions to foster fuller employee engagement.
• You will be taking multiple actions to increase engagement.
• You will be requesting help - full employee engagement can not be achieved on your own.
• You can monitor the progress and results.

One thing I love about Two Weeks to a Breakthrough is how short it is. If you did not get the results you hoped for you can start again with a fresh two weeks and use what you learned from the last breakthrough approach to ensure more success.

Fostering high levels of employee engagement will be both a service and a contribution you make to your employees and the organization.

How about it? What are you planning to do for the next 2 weeks? I hope you make a break for full employee engagement.

Get Perking:

1. Read Lisa’s book: Two Weeks to a Breakthrough.
2. Visit and engage in Lisa’s breakthrough blog.
3. Learn from your own experience, apply the method and monitor results.

Do you hear what I hear?

Who are you listening to in relationship to employee engagement? You can listen to the work of management consultants or university professors but I encourage you to go to the source. Listen to the people in your family and workplace.

Here are 4 snippets I heard this week from family and friends in regards to employee engagement. I did not ask for any of these statements they simply came up in our conversations.

From my 15 year old son who washes dishes for a restaurant in Winnipeg

I really like working with that guy. We have fun, we don’t take it too seriously but we get the job done.

From a health care manager talking about a management colleague

She knows so much but she is letting the management of her staff get to her and treating them in a way that is creating more conflict rather than increased engagement. I worked in that unit and I had to make some unpopular decision but I kept informing the staff, letting them know the rationale, telling them how tough this was, and at the end they were even thanking me even though I had to ask so much extra from them.

From a real estate manager

I have a new direct report. He is good but I have to keep watching how I treat him. It took me a year to find him and I don’t want to have to look for someone else.

From my fifteen year old daughter at the end of 3 weeks of volunteer work with autistic children

I have learned so much from those children. They are so interesting and do such neat things. It is funny and a challenge but I love working with them.

Get Engaged:

1. If you really want to learn about grass roots employee engagement listen to the people in your family, social circles, and workplace every day. How engaged are they? What factors influence their engagement?
2. Listen to their perspective and determine how you can apply the learning to yourself or with other people at work.

Are you flying with a six pack of employee engagement?

In this case, I don’t mean half a dozen beers.

The six essential instruments in a light aircraft are often referred to as the six pack:

• airspeed indicator
• attitude indicator
• altimeter
• turn coordinator
• heading indicator
• vertical speed indicator

Do you monitor 6 strong “indications” of your employee engagement to get you successfully to your destination?

1. Airspeed indicator - how fast can you move towards your goal?
2. Attitude indicator - is everyone maintaining a strong and positive attitude and avoiding too much wobble?
3. Altimeter - how high can you climb with fully engaged employees?
4. Turn coordinator - are you responsive to change to turn back to employee engagement if you begin to drift off course? Can you feel exhilarated while making a steep turn?
5. Heading indicator - do you stay vigilant about where you are headed?
6. Vertical speed indicator - how quickly can you climb to new levels of employee engagement?

Grab a coffee, jump into the workplace cockpit, and prepare to take off with these indicators of employee engagement.

Of course, you could also grab a six pack of beer or root beer and have a down-to-earth discussion about employee engagement with the team of people you work with.