Employee Engagement: Monday Morning Percolator #19

Have you thought about how the world and work is changing and what this means to employees, leaders and organizations who want to foster and maintain high levels of employee engagement?

I encourage you to view these 67 slides on change – shiftHappens:

After viewing the slides what are you thoughts and ideas about fostering employee engagement?

Here are a few of my thoughts:

• Maybe being one in a million is not such a big thing.
• How unique are we and how much do we experience a sense of entitlement?
• How do we keep people engaged as they work in so many different jobs over their careers?
• We need to look beyond Canada and the United States to see what is going on. We need to look beyond today to know how to respond. We can look at history to notice that the landscape of work has changed. Are we open to changing approaches to employee engagement? For example, when you look at how engaged people are with text messaging are you creating a method to make use of this medium to enhance employee engagement?
• 50% of the workforce has worked for their company for less than 5 years. What does this mean for commitment and engagement?
• Are you visiting one of the largest countries —- MySpace?
• Looking at another type of engagement: 1 in 8 couples married last year in the United States met online. What are your methods to meet online with employees to foster employee and workplace engagement.

Now that you have focused on shiftHappens, how are you going to apply it to employee engagement?

As things keep shifting we need good questions much more than ready made answers.

Employee Engagement: Monday Morning Percolator #18

How about a short video with your Monday morning coffee?

Could you use a little help in getting higher levels of engagement at work? Does feedback trap you to the past and give you little idea about what to do next?

I encourage you to watch this 4 minute video of Marshall Goldsmith, one of the top leadership coaches, present on getting instant coaching. Not only will you get some coaching from Marshall he will show you how to solicit feedforward from others to move ahead. He has done this with thousand of participants in leadership coaching.

Marshall Goldsmith has such a caring and articulate way of presenting his top coaching concepts. Goldsmith adds some good rules to the exercise – such as let go of the past and develop ideas of the future without judging or critiquing the ideas.

You don’t get everything on this video but it is a start in understanding some of the contributions that Goldsmith makes that can make a difference in your level of work and employee engagement.

If you are intrigued by what you saw I encourage you to visit Goldsmith’s free library of resources. There are articles, videos, podcasts – a virtual plethora of resources you can use to develop your leadership, performance, and engagement.

A special thanks to Phil Gerbyshak for his ever watchful eye in spotting resources and helpful information to Make It Great!

Here is the strength of an authentic voice. Listen to Somewhere Over The Rainbow song by 6 year old Conny.

Let the world hear your authentic leadership voice.

Thank you Patricia Digh for posting this.

Bonus: Click into this post from Patricia if you want to hear another strong surprising voice.

Employee Engagement: Monday Morning Percolator #17

Today, I have the honor of featuring George Ambler and his leadership blog. George Ambler writes an insightful leadership blog - The Practice of Leadership: It’s only in the practice of leadership that we influence our world…

He has written a number of excellent short articles on employee engagement.

George summarized a study from PeopleMetrics:

…creating emotional connections to employees is what truly matters because this is where organizations can dramatically boost employee productivity and business outcomes….. Building an emotional bond with employees, … requires organizations to create a ‘sense of meaning and purpose’ among employees by connecting them to the ‘higher vision and purpose’ of the organization…. Equally, organizations need to build trust and confidence through regular dialogue with managers and senior leadership as well as celebrating successes, having fun and showing individual appreciation.

In addition, the study of 5,095 workers, across the United States found

• that Fortune 500 companies in the lowest quartile in profitability had 50% fewer engaged employees compared to those in the top quartile.
• high performing employees were twice as engaged as their lower performing counterparts

Kate Feather, PeopleMetrics Executive Vice President gave love and passion for one’s organization wings:

the concept of feeling love or pasion for one’s company is gaining ground because a passionately engaged workforce is becoming an important differentiator in the marketplace.

Get Engaged:

1. Click here to read 5 of George Ambler’s other employee engagement blog posts. If you read the Monday Morning Percolator on Monday you could read one of George’s post every other day during the week.
2. Make the connection with your employees and offer a valuable vision and purpose for the organization that they can connect with. Ask them to tell you what the vision and purpose is to see how well they understand what your organization is doing and why it is doing it.
3. Maintain constant and never ending dialogue with the people you work with. Celebrate success, have fun and voice individual appreciation.

Picture credit: Zen rock garden Portland Oregon by http://flickr.com/photos/canuck01/128562559/

If you read this blog on a regular basis you know that I believe strongly in identifying and living our strengths. Strengths need to go beyond listing and a 1/2 day workshop to living and leveraging our best.

According to the VIA Signature Strength Inventory, Humour and Playfulness are my number 1 signature strengths. I have been inspired to weave together this strength with my love of leadership.

I invite you to read my newest blog: Dr. Z’s Leadership Institute for off-the-wall articles on

• How to think like a leader
• The history of 360-degree feedback
• The top 5 time management principles
• 5 ways to be an authentic leader

Humor can lighten the load and leaders who laugh, last!

What is your top signature strength and how can you make it move alive and powerful for yourself and others?

Picture Credit: What’s the time mr wolf? by http://flickr.com/photos/monkeyc/324659432/