18 Eclectic Engagement Zingers

Get ready to move from engaged leadership – being in command and out of control to what the Masters website can teach us for Enterprise 2.0 internal websites. Can you zigzag in your career and avoid the fundamental attribution error? Engagement can be found in suffering and there is a problem with being positive. And of course you know employee engagement is so much more.

1. Engaged Leadership. In command and out of control. Video interview with Paul Van Riper. http://bit.ly/aXL7nY
2. Leadership paradox. To be in command and out of control. Informative video. http://bit.ly/a70Zsq
3. Open Letter to Fellow Career Zigzaggers By Chris Bailey. We don’t always have to go the shortest distance. http://bit.ly/dwrxn9
4. “Jerks Are Not Born – They’re Made!” The Fundamental Attribution Error By Jerry Kail. http://bit.ly/9A8KPy
5. Erik Klein on the problem with being positive. I feel positive about what he wrote! http://bit.ly/bMw9Yv
6. A master of engagement was Viktor Frank. Ed Batista on Viktor Frankl on Love, Suffering and the Meaning of Life. http://bit.ly/9Vfs5S
7. Organizational Failure? Moving into Learning, Not Blame By Kathryn Britton. Well researched and practical. http://bit.ly/bMX8KB
8. Terrific manager guide to Aloha Management. Ready? Become an Alaka‘i Manager in 5 Weeks! By Rosa Say. http://bit.ly/cb3Uyn
9. Employee Engagement. Creating Workplace Flexibility: We’re All in this Together. Right on Kathie Lingle. http://bit.ly/aMF3ZZ
10. Healthy disengagement. I always pause and refresh with Elizabeth Perry’s daily drawings. Crabapple Blossom. http://bit.ly/a1UsQH
11. Employee engagement. Frictionless Work: How to Clear Your Life of Non-Essential Tasks. http://bit.ly/dkOaMj
12. Joseph Grenny looks at teacher “motivation” and showcases a reader’s wisdom. http://bit.ly/9HRZzl
13. Clary Shirky expounds upon the collapse of business models. http://bit.ly/bgDFTn
14. Employee Engagement. Cheryl Cran on future workplaces will share talent. http://bit.ly/bNDQFS
15. Michele Biddison from Kansas has joined the 2277 member strong Employee Engagement Network. http://bit.ly/cns0Zt
16. Tracy Shilobrit of StrateVantage Communications is a new member of the Employee Engagement Network. Visit her page. http://bit.ly/cbZmFi
17. Murat Philippe focused on surveys from Chicago joined the Employee Engagement Network. http://bit.ly/9uxTFt
18. An inspired post. The Masters Website: 5 Lessons for Mastering Enterprise 2.0 http://bit.ly/brCZJi

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David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant. He offers exceptional contributions on employee engagement for leaders, managers, and employees. David founded and moderates the 2270 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 posts/articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership. David is involved in the application of Enterprise 2.0 approaches to engagement and the precursor, creating engaging approaches to communication, collaboration, and community within Enterprise 2.0.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com

Ask this question 5 times: Are you well?

Rath and Harter. Tom Rath and Jim Harter are releasing Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements in early May. This is an advance review of the book and the companion website set up by Gallup.

The 5 Elements. Rath and Harter examine five elements of wellbeing:

1. Career wellbeing
2. Social wellbeing
3. Financail wellbeing
4. Physical wellbeing
5. Community wellbeing

In addition they discuss measuring what makes life worthwhile and offer tools and resources ranging from daily wellbeing to increasing wellbeing in organizations – the role of managers and leaders.

Great data nuggets. The book is full of nuggets and practical perspectives. There is a mix of new material and material that people who have read other Gallup publication would be familiar with. Here are just a few of the nuggets you will can digest:

• Only 20% of people like what they do each day.
• Actively disengaged employees are twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression over the next year
• When you use your strengths you are more engaged and more likely to feel energized for 40 hours a week instead of feeling burned out after just 20 hours of work.
• Managers can contribute in very strong positive or negative ways to an employees career wellbeing.
• We need 6 hours of socila time to have a thriving day
• Even 20 minutes of exercise during the day can boos t your mood for the rest of the day.

The role of leaders and managers. Leaders and managers who care about their employees have a significant impact on both employee engagement and wellbeing. they see the growth of their employees as an end in itself not just a means to an end. They know there is now way an employee will love an organization that doesn’t have a heart. Overall what is best for the employee is also best for the organization. Caring leaders and managers know that caring is not a feeling or noun it is a verb that requires they demonstrate continual caring for the people who report to them.

The Wellbeing website. In addition to the excellent book, purchasing the book gives you access to the wellbeing website. To visit the wellbeing website, click here. You will be able to do a full self-assessment and create an action plan to promote your own wellbeing.

Summer project to a well fall foundation. The book is due out on May 4th., 2010. I encourage you to purchase the book and make wellbeing your summer project.  If you put the ideas into practice I bet you’ll have a wonderful career, social, financial, physical, and community wellbeing foundation by September 2010. This will be good for you and the people around you.

Well? What are you waiting for?

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David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant. He offers exceptional contributions on employee engagement for leaders, managers, and employees. David founded and moderates the 2270 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 posts/articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership. David is involved in the application of Enterprise 2.0 approaches to engagement and the precursor, creating engaging approaches to communication, collaboration, and community within Enterprise 2.0.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com

Managers/Leaders: What have you done in the past 24 hours to be of service to your employees?

Tom Peters offers a 2 minute video on how the action of a servant leader to engage employees:

If the video does not load in this window, click here.

In addition, here is a copy of the transcript that Tom offers from his talk:

Servant Leadership

I’ve talked about the idea of servant leadership in the past. The notion, incidentally, stolen from a fellow by the name of Robert Greenleaf. But let’s get beyond the my-gosh-that-sounds-good servant leadership. Let’s get very, very practical about you. As a leader, what specifically—big word, “specifically”—what specifically have you done in the last working day, the last 24 hours, to be directly of service to your employees?

Long ago, Peter Drucker said that something like 95 percent of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get things done. Ha-ha. But also true. I have my own term, and my own term is Boss-as-CHRO: Chief Hurdle Removal Officer. Nobody’s asking you to do the work … and you shouldn’t do the work. But as the boss there are some things you can do to grease the way with the finance people or the purchasing people or whatever it happens to be.

And so, to go back to that original question: What specifically have you done in the last 24 hours to serve people, perhaps by getting, not a hurdle out of the way, but by getting a specific hurdle out of the way, which contributed to that three-person team achieving a planned milestone 24 hours or 48 hours earlier than they otherwise might have?

I think you also ought to say, “What have I done in the last week? What have I done in the last month?” and so on. But let’s cut the baloney about week, month, etc. What have you done in the last 24 hours specifically to be of service in the same way you’d be of service if you were a mechanic in a car dealer/shop.

Engaging the Meatball

Another meatball tossed

on our overflowing

spaghetti-like plate of work.

Before forking into our crowded strands of work

yet another

meatball is tossed on the pile

colliding with the meatball already there

precipitating an avalanche of meatballs

herding downwards

in all directions at once.

If work is to really nourish us

we must say no

even when we are told,

“It is just one more meatball.”

by David Zinger

Flickr Creative Commons Meatballs and Spaghetti

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant. He offers exceptional contributions on employee engagement for leaders, managers, and employees. David founded and moderates the 2255 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 posts/articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership. David is involved in the application of Enterprise 2.0 approaches to engagement and the precursor, creating engaging approaches to communication, collaboration, and community within Enterprise 2.0.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com

Employee Engagement Linchpin.

Indispensable. Rich Meyer has put together a wonderful slide presentation on linchpins and work.  A linchpin in an organization is someone who is indispensable to the organization. Although Rich called it marketing linchpins the lessons apply very well to employee engagement.

Key points. Rich dedicated the slide presentation to Seth Godin. You can also take a lot away from Rich’s presentation, such as these points:

• become indispensable
• be a provocateur
• be original
• be fearless not reckless or feckless
• manage complexity, inspire staff,
• etc.

Insert the pin. Go ahead and view the 37 slides now and get ready to not pull the pin but insert the pin to couple the organization and employees with customers and results:

Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants. And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?

Tom Jablonski wrote a power post about servant leadership and work. There are many direct implications for those of us involved in employee engagement. The quotation at the start of this post is from Tom’s article as he quotes Robert Greanleaf on the test of a servant leader.

Here is a reposting of Tom’s original work. Any item that is bold print was done by me to emphasize the point. To read Tom’s original article, click here.
Tom Jablonski

In the movie MOON, it is the near future and astronaut Sam Bell works a solitary job on the far side of the moon. His cooperate employer Lunar Industries is mining the answer to earths energy problems – Helium-3 from the moon’s rocks.

As he nears the end of his three-year contract to keep the operations running, he experiences an accident while trying to conduct repairs to the mining equipment. Waking up in the sickbay of the moon station, he is confronted by a clone of himself.

Sam and his clone discover that the cooperation has stockpiled a multitude of incubating clones waiting to be awoken to replace them when their bodies are worn out by the end of their three-year contract. By simply replacing the workers with clones, the corporation can avoid the high costs of sending new recruits to the moon and the extensive training that would be required to replace them every three years.

The corporations of today may not have reached the levels of unethical behavior portrayed by Lunar Industries, but they are driven by the same motive that fueled it – profit. Robert Greenleaf understood well the consequences of corporations driven by profit, or money above and beyond that needed to meet their needs.

In his essay “Spirituality As Leadership” from the book SEEKER AND SERVANT, he wrote, “Another aspect of money that concerns the quest for spirituality as leadership is the problem of those who have more money then their legitimate needs require, thus giving them power over those who have less money than they think they need, including those at or below the poverty level. The power exists whether they loan the money at interest, invest it for the return of rent or dividends, speculate in some venture, hide it in a mattress, or give it away.”

For Greanleaf, the only bottom line that mattered in an organization that practiced servant leadership was his best test of the servant-leader from the essay “The Servant As Leader” in the book SERVANT LEADERSHIP – “Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants. And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?”

Where this best test becomes a true test and where our current corporations fail is when you expand the concept of who is served by the organization. Who is served is not just the shareholders, it is not just the CEO’s, it is not just the management, it is not just the workers, nor is it just the customers of the corporation. Those that are served needs to include all those who are touched by the consequences the corporation’s actions and operating principles.

The key question “what is the effect on the least privileged?” really gets at the need to be aware of who is served and who and what are the impacts. These consequences need to include those from the supply chain, the environmental impacts on the ecosystem and our planet, and the social and cultural impacts on the community. Our globalized corporations’ serve the profit motives well by hiding the distant impacts. As we become more aware of the consequences of these motives on our people and our planet, moving corporate operations off earth and to the moon do not seem so far fetched.

To avoid such a future, it is time to stop cloning the profit driven motive of our corporate world and it is time to stop trying to eclipse their effects with terms like “corporate social responsibility” or “the triple bottom line of profit – people – and planet”. Instead, we need to create new models of operation where we can truly be aware of our actions and truly test the resulting servant-leader institutions.

We are all leaders and I encourage you to follow the  Servant Leadership Blog. Thanks to Tom Jablonski for giving me permission to repost this wonderful article. His post exemplifies and extends one of my most basic themes in our field: employee engagement for all!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant. He offers exceptional contributions on employee engagement for leaders, managers, and employees. David founded and moderates the 2255 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 posts/articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership. David is involved in the application of Enterprise 2.0 approaches to engagement and the precursor, creating engaging approaches to communication, collaboration, and community within Enterprise 2.0.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com

17 Employee Engagement Eclectic Resources

Great resources to foster engagement from Sean Doyle on employee engagement and gratitude to Tim Wright on employee engagement and intuition:

1. Employee engagement and gratitude: A Case Study By Sean Doyle. http://bit.ly/cXUhWI
2. Rosa’s Say on initative, humility and the local way. http://bit.ly/9vfCSl
3. The Dilemma of Workforce Engagement: Should I Stay or Should I Go? By Mike Cook http://bit.ly/9ijGEh
4. The Collaboration Paradox: Why E2.0 Efforts Fail By Steve Guengerich. http://bit.ly/b5QZRH
5. Clay Shirky on the collapse of complex business models. http://bit.ly/bgDFTn
6. Stuff won’t make you happy, experiences will. Are you ensuring employee engagement is an experience? http://bit.ly/cUdqo7
7. Trigger new stories and changing behaviours – “do the opposite.” http://bit.ly/bDeUKU
8. Steve Roesler on emotions work and employee engagement. http://bit.ly/a2Ae0z
9. Exploring shared leadership and employee engagement. http://bit.ly/9VvdgE
10. Employee engagement, managers, and brand. http://bit.ly/8XzWG6
11. How Enterprise 2.0 nurtures employees engagement. http://bit.ly/9YbCDM
12. Derek Irvine on the importance of engaging employees strategically and authentically. http://bit.ly/cM5wC8
13. Tim Wright on employee engagement and intuition. http://bit.ly/bTzFsd
14. Employee Engagement. Ed Frauenheim from Workforce Management on how managers matter. http://bit.ly/ckp4IN
15. Employee engagement. Everyone is a knowledge worker. HRB. http://bit.ly/dAL4Zl
16. Employee Engagement: Transform the Paper Shuffle Into a Story. http://bit.ly/cBEKrk
17. Dark Chocolate: A tasty way to handle work inertia. http://bit.ly/9zeCvv

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant. He offers exceptional contributions on employee engagement for leaders, managers, and employees. David founded and moderates the 2255 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 posts/articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership. David is involved in the application of Enterprise 2.0 approaches to engagement and the precursor, creating engaging approaches to communication, collaboration, and community within Enterprise 2.0.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com

Hit the paper trail with stories.

I saw the ASICS company story video on Shawn Callahan blog post about strategic stories.

We often get caught in shuffling papers in organizations and not telling stories. This excellent video tells a story by shuffling paper.

You may not have the production or paper budget to tell your organization’s story quite like this but are telling stories that foster customer and employee engagement?

Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant. He offers exceptional contributions on employee engagement for leaders, managers, and employees. David founded and moderates the 2255 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 posts/articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership. David is involved in the application of Enterprise 2.0 approaches to engagement and the precursor, creating engaging approaches to communication, collaboration, and community within Enterprise 2.0.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com

Dark Chocolate

Monday morning at 10:24

Work inertia

Restrained not rested

Feeling antsy and irritable

All inside

Wrapped in a brain fuzzy fog

Want to step out

Unpleasant realization

Need to step in

Not out

How sweet it would be

To nibble dark chocolate.

Close eyes

Breath in

Just be

The dark chocolate

Lingers on the roof of my mouth

I am ready to move on…

by David Zinger

Photo Credit from Flickr Creative Commons: The Chocolate Care 70% Dark Chocolate Little Bit.

Great resources to foster engagement from Jerry Kail on stop being original to Garr Reynolds on the secret to great work is play:

1. Stop being original. Explore Flex Support and Keith Johnstone by Jerry Kail http://bit.ly/cVmNY9
2. Kerry Patterson from Vital Smarts is a great story teller. The Gray Fedora. Take your time, don’t rush a story. http://bit.ly/db8jqa
3. Dick Richards gets “YOU” in trouble. I think it is you! http://bit.ly/bwIqjY
4. Peter Hart. Art from the heart. Taking care of employees is what managers do! http://bit.ly/bt8XoS
5. Workplace Trend Spotting: “15 to 30 Minutes is the New Hour” By Polly Pearson. http://bit.ly/cLcteF
6. When the Edge Becomes the Middle by ann v michael http://bit.ly/assD17
7. Listen to Lisa for 8 minutes on: Managers – Do your actions add up? (Lisa Haneberg). http://bit.ly/b2ywEg
8. Gratitude in a bowl by Curt Rosengren. http://bit.ly/ceAgmo
9. Positivity increases employee engagement. http://bit.ly/bwCzSk
10. Positive Influence: How to re-energize your behavior based safety process. http://bit.ly/cwSo3c
11. Half-hearted or whole-hearted helper? http://bit.ly/cMAx8A
12. Employee Engagement. Garr at Presentation Zen on the secret to great work is play. http://bit.ly/cdYNju
13. What 5 things did you learn this March. Read Rosa Say and determine your 5. http://bit.ly/d7N98g
14. Listen up to Johnnie Moore and others on agility. http://bit.ly/cZVILr
15. Dan Oestreich on solid at the core. Vulnerability as strengths. Courage to be who we are. http://bit.ly/bnaGZp
16. Performance Management and Reviews By Phil Wylie http://bit.ly/aKTp8F
17. Bad bosses (40%) and employee engagement. http://bit.ly/a3sUzu
18. Over 1/4 of companies acknowledge corporate culture not supportive of employee engagement http://bit.ly/cTmnpc
19. Employee Engagement – Marketing in the Age of Streams by Steve Rubel. An important read. http://bit.ly/bJ2Z16
20. Managing employee engagement is ‘challenge, demanding, and highly capable.’ http://bit.ly/96zpUk
21. Vanquish the Time-Management Villain by Luca Baiguini http://bit.ly/az6G4J
22. No now – no new! See Things as They Are—Then Change Them Dan Pallotta http://bit.ly/aUty66

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant. He offers exceptional contributions on employee engagement for leaders, managers, and employees. David founded and moderates the 2255 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 posts/articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership. David is involved in the application of Enterprise 2.0 approaches to engagement and the precursor, creating engaging approaches to communication, collaboration, and community within Enterprise 2.0.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com