Sir Edmund Hillary died today. He was the first to climb Mount Everest with Tenzing Norgay.

On January 1, 2007 I themed the year of this site as The Brotherhood of the Rope. I am offering my post from January 1, 2007 one more time to honor Sir Edmund Hillary’s life – thank you Sir Edmund Hillary for your powerful and caring leadership metaphor.

I encourage you to think about the ropes in your life – your accomplishments, summits, and relationships:

2007: The Brotherhood of the Rope

2007 will be the year of The Brotherhood of the Rope in this blog. This also includes Sisterhood, or simply, The People of the Rope. I will use the term Brotherhood of the Rope to acknowledge Sir Edmund Hillary’s use of the term in 2006.The Brotherhood of the Rope refers to the psychological, social, and spiritual connection that mountain climbers share.

At times, climbers are physically knotted together for safe passage.In 2006 there were 2 powerful incidents during the spring climbs on Mount Everest. One climber after reaching the summit, ran into trouble after his summit. The next day 40 or more climbers trekked by him to summit the peak without stopping to rescue him. A week or so later another climber, in a similar situation, was rescued by 3 climbers (Mazur, Brash and Osborne) who aborted their summit attempt to assist the climber in need.Sir Edmund Hillary was angry that 40 climbers had not lived the brotherhood, instead choosing to achieve their own summit.

Here is a tidbit from a powerful Everest News article: Webster, like Hillary, said mountaineering has always consisted of a “brotherhood of the rope.” That brotherhood, he adds, would see climbers go out of their way to help other climbers, and scuttle summit attempts to mount rescues. It’s because of that tradition that Sharp’s death – and the lack of help from other climbers – has become so controversial.

As leaders we are seldom, if ever, faced with this magnitude of a decision between task and relationship. The decision was also made in thin air as the body, mind, emotions, and spirit are extremely stressed. I think it is important to summit and it is important to help others.

The Brotherhood of the Rope symbolizes the assistance we received from others in achieving our personal summits and our connections and debt to others as we travel together. It is our willingness as leaders to recognize and assist others — having a wide angle view rather than blinders only for results or personal peak performance.

During 2007, I will write more about The Brotherhood of the Rope. I will use stories and examples to move the term from a concept to an active leadership approach regardless of your location — near a mountain peak or raising your head above a cubicle wall.

Climbing tools:

1. Click here if you would like to read more about Mount Everest.
2. Click here if you would like to read more about the situation involving the Brotherhood of the Rope.
3. Reflection resolution: How strong are the “ropes” connecting you to the people you lead and to other people inside and outside your organization? How will you strengthen those ropes for 2007?

The Cluetrain Manifesto is about the end of business as usual. Conversations matter and human interaction is the key.

The authors present 95 theses about the changes in business. I encourage you to view the slide-show of the 95 theses and think about them in relationship to employee engagement and internal communication and marketing within the organization.

Here are 4 sample theses out of the 95 the authors have created:

3. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.

15. In just a few more years, the current homogenized “voice” of business — the sound of mission statements and brochures — will seem as contrived and artificial as the language of the 18th century French court.

16. Already, companies that speak in the language of the pitch, the dog-and-pony show, are no longer speaking to anyone.

21. Companies need to lighten up and take themselves less seriously. they need to get a sense of humor.

Are you on the cluetrain? Slide into the 95 statements below and determine what you can do to improve employee engagement within your organization.

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Employee Engagement – The Monday Morning Percolator #39

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.

Watch this employee engagement extra. The topic is not specific to employee engagement yet I believe this video can both inspire and enlighten you. I thought this was a very well crafted talk on passion. Think about how what she discusses could be brought to the lens of employee engagement in the workplace.

I encourage you to watch this powerful 18:02 talk by Isabel Allende, a storyteller, on: Tales of Passion. This is a TED talk full of humor, passion, humanity, and desire.  Isabel Allende addresses the topic of passion with humour, horror, and political acumen.

Here are a few points from the video:

• Isabel talks with humour and perspective on her experience as a nonathletic Olympic flag bearer at Turin.
• heart is what drives us and determines our fate
• ask questions, bend rules, take risks,
• nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters
• we need the power of feminine energy from both women and men
• work passionately in creating an almost perfect world.

Energy is the raw material of employee engagement.

This video briefly describes the key components of energy management for leaders:

• Physical energy
• Mental energy
• Emotional energy
• Sprititual energy
• Organizational energy

When you think about leadership or managing do you think about managing your own energy?

Click here to watch the video if the screen does not appear in this post.

Happy New Year. All the best to you in employee engagement for 2008.

This website is an example of integrated website publishing that offers you a rich array of information and a variety of pathways through the information on employee engagement.

You may be new to integrated website publishing so here are a 7 tips to help you maximize your benefit from visiting www.davidzinger.com during 2008.

1. Focus on Features: Select one of the 3 major features for the site by clicking on the link in the topcis & categories section in the middle column. The number in the bracket shows how many articles there are on that topic.

• Employee Engagement Chronicle (12)
• Monday Morning Percolator (34)
• Zengagement (27)

2. Subscribe: If you find the on-going content helpful and compelling, subscribe to the site. You do this by clicking on the button on the site or on your browser that looks like the image below:

3. Search: Use the search button on the top right hand side of the page to look for material in any of the articles or posts published on this site since November 2005.

4. Guest Leadership Spotlight: Each month I feature a guest leadership writer. See their image and a brief description of them in the right hand column. From there click on some of the current articles they are writing. I strongly believe that leadership experts should be connected to a community and that their website should not just be just about them.

5. Get Slack: Click on the Slacker Manager button on the right hand column to read the management blog that I write in conjunction with Phil Gerbyshak from Milwaukee. We each write 3 articles a week for this site.

6. Comment: Feel free to leave a comment on what you read. Was the article helpful? Do you have another perspective? Are you looking for something more? Make this an active site by engaging me and the other readers with your comments.

7. Contract with me for speaking, coaching or consulting: This site is an extensive resource on employee engagement that will keep you informed and entertained. I hope you maximize your use of this site and I encourage you to contract with me for speaking, coaching, or consulting services.

Photo Credit: happy new year 2008 by http://flickr.com/photos/mugley/2151374955/

David Zinger

Employee Engagement Expert