Did you juggle too many projects, priorities, and performances in 2008?

Were you busy simultaneously talking with a colleague, thinking about the next meeting, and listening to email messages bleep continuously into your blackberry?

At the end of the day, did you touch all the bases without ever getting down to the basics, getting the most from just one of the bases, or hitting a home run?

Do you have what it takes in 2009 to engage the one ball?

I believe we don’t need to keep so many balls in the air simultaneously and get flustered as they whiz around or get frustrated when one drops and rolls away from us and we drop all the balls as we lose our focus and concentration.

Engage with the one ball.

The one ball is a metaphor and method to limit our engagement yet to maximize our performance. It is through a single focus that we may maximize not only our engagement but also our results. If you have a ball close at hand, pick it up and juggle it for a while and notice how easy it can be when we juggle one ball.

The genesis of the one ball was watching rhythmic gymnasts perform their ball routine. They use such techniques as: catch, hold on, grab, roll, balance, rhythm, movement, and dance.

Let’s transfer these gymnastic techniques of the one ball to your work in 2009:

1. What do you need to catch?
2. How will you hold on and also let go?
3. How will you roll with your one ball in 2009?
4. How will you maintain dynamic balance and not try to juggle so much by bringing more balls into your routine?
5. What rhythm do you need to maintain to optimize your performance?
6. What kind of movement will we see from you by the end of 2009?
7. How will you dance and enjoy your work with the one ball?
8. Can you become a top performer with your one ball?

Watch the following video. As you watch Anna Bessonova work with one ball, imagine what your one ball is and how you could work with it more effectively in 2009.

Observe all the ways Anna works with the ball and begin to consider how you could maximize your performance with the one ball. If the video fails to open in this window, click here.

One ball reflections:

• What is your one ball?
• How easy is it to determine your one ball?
• What balls do you need to set aside or let go of to focus on the one ball?
• What can you do to sustain your focus on the one ball?
• Can other people you work with state with clarity and certainty what your one ball is?
• Can you transform your engagement with the the one ball into a performance art?

As 2009 unfolds, I encourage you to have a ball!

By the way, The One Ball does not mean that there is only one thing in your life or only one thing that is important. Rhythmic gymnastics have more routines than just the ball routine. We are multidimensional not uni dimensional beings. It can be very productive to have one major focus and to keep a focus on only one ball at a time.

Watch for future ONE BALL posts on: performance, effort, focus, play, Kaizen, bounce, catch, throw, etc. THE ONE BALL will be a regular weekly or biweekly feature of Employee Engagement Zingers to help you develop an exceptional level of engaged performance.

Photo Credit: SB 079 by http://www.flickr.com/photos/80522246@N00/441558786/

The One Ball images were created by Mr. John Junson.

Employee engagement thrives on love and gumption.

We need to put our hearts into our work and work into our hearts.

I don’t believe you simply just do what you love and the money will follow but if you don’t love what you do you will be contributing to your own disengagement. It is naive to believe that you will always love what you do but ensure that the majority of your time is devoted to work you love.

Remember that love is an art requiring actions not just a good feeling.

When we do what we love our work must offer value to others…otherwise it will probably just be a hobby.

Work towards having heartfelt and hearty work and don’t shy away from gumption. Erich Fromm reminds us in The Art of Loving that love is an art requiring discipline, concentration, and patience.

What is your level of (love) discipline, concentration, and patience at work?

Do your part, infuse your heart into your work.

Are you ready, willing, and able to focus, flow, throw, catch, bounce, and play in 2009?

The One Ball Series beginning on January 13th

Edmonton Alberta has proposed a bylaw that will fine drivers $250 if they “let their engines run more than three minutes when they aren’t moving.”

In engagement we don’t need engines running that are not moving.

I trust your employee engagement work is not idling with more talk than action.

I appreciated Johnnie Moore’s post: There is never nothing happnening. He included the following 1:46 second Python video from the Life of Brian. Enjoy it and ensure your employee engagement is not just idle discussion around the table.

Were you one of the 25% of Canadians who made a New Year’s resolution related to your career?

Read this result from the Workopolis Career Survey:

Canadians are prioritizing career planning higher for 2009 than in past years, a recent Workopolis poll conducted by Harris/Decima reports. Of the more than 500 working Canadians surveyed, 25 percent responded that they are contemplating a New Year’s resolution related to their careers. This figure indicates a significant rise since a similar study in 2006, when only 13 per cent of Canadians said they planned to make work-related resolutions.

Career development requires more than resolution. It requires engagement.

• What have you done in the first 8 days?
• What do you need to do in the next 357 days?

To be fully engaged means to also be fully engaged with your own career.

Photo credit: motion gears – team force by http://www.flickr.com/photos/17258892@N05/2588347668/

Tom Rath and Barry Conchie have just published Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow.

I was looking forward to this book for 2 reasons. I am a huge advocate of strength based leadership and I have always appreciated the contributions to employee engagement from Gallup’s Tom Rath.

If you have not taken the Strengthsfinder 2.0 inventory of strengths then the book is well worth purchasing just to get the code to allow you to take the inventory.

If you have read Strengthsfinder 2.0 or other books related to Gallup’s work on strengths, the book is disappointing as only about 40% of the book adds new content and most of the book rehashes Gallups 34 strengths themes and their application to leadership.

My expectations were raised when the authors declared the book was based on 20,000 in-depth interview with senior leaders, studies of more than one million work teams and 50 years of Gallup Polls about the world’s most admired leaders, and a study or 10,000 followers around the world. This level of research lead me to expect volumes of insights and strengths based leadership action.

I did not get the depth and breadth I had hoped for, but I did get a few insightful nuggets on strengths and employee engagement:

The most effective leaders

• are always investing in strengths.
• surround themselves with the right people and then maximize their team.
• understand their followers’ needs.

It was discouraging to read that only 30 to 32% of North Americans use their strengths every day.

I appreciated the quotation from Donald Clifton, Tom Rath’s grandfather and the grandfather of the strengths movement:

A leader needs to know his strengths as a carpenter knows his tools, or as a physician knows the instruments at her disposal. What great leaders have in common is that each truly knows his or her strengths — can can call on the right strength at the right time.

I also appreciated that when an organization’s leadership does not focus on strengths there is only a 9% chance of people being engaged in work but if an organization’s leadership focuses on strengths the level of engagement soars to 73%.

It was clever how Gallup situated the 34 strengths in the 4 domains of leadership: executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking.

It was insightful to focus on followers’ four basic needs of trust, compassion, stability, and hope.  It was not surprising but it was disheartening to read that the chances of employees being engaged at work when they do not trust the company’s leaders are just 1 in 12.

Once again, if you have not taken the StrengthsFinder 2.0 inventory than I encourage you to purchase the book and develop greater awareness of your own strengths.

In many ways this book should have been a perfect fit for my twin passions of employee engagement and strengths based leadership yet the limited amount of new material and the rehashing of the 34 strengths left me wanting something much more robust than I received given the volumes of research available to the authors.

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

THE ONE BALL post is coming on Tuesday January 13.

One origin of THE ONE BALL is from a post I wrote at Joyful Jubilant Learning on Success-Less Version 2.009

In 2009 I don’t want to be successful…I want to be success-less. Success to many means to add, to get more, to have. I will consider 2009 a success if I do more on less rather than more with less or more on more.

Photo Credit: All my superball in one mosaic by http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenore-m/463524583/

What are your 3 words for 2009?

How focused are you for the year ahead. This post will help you move into the year ahead with just 3 words. A post next week will focus on the Art of the One Ball.

Chis Brogan offered this advice on framing 2009 with just 3 words:

Look for three words that will help you frame your challenges and opportunities for 2009. Don’t think about where you are this exact moment. If you’re without a job, setting a goal in 09 to get a job might not be very useful. Once you’ve got the job, then what? Instead, you could think about setting the goal of “Alignment,” where you ask yourself, “does this fit with everything else I intend for myself in this year?”

Try setting your three words far out on the horizon, but such that they can lead you to your goals every day. Meaning, can you use the same word to get you started, but have it still be relevant when you’re almost at the big goal?

His 3 words for 2009 were: equip, armies, and needles.

If you need to see what dozens of other people declared as their 3 words or you would like to read the full article by Chris, click here.

My 3 words for 2009 are: authentic, connect, engage.

My 3 words even create an acronym: ACE. So my plan is to ACE employee engagement for 2009.

What are your 3 words for 2009?