Archives for July 2010

Working Zingers: Nourished at Work

July 10, 2010 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

Work as Soul Food: Fed or Nourished?

Pizza parties

piece of cake

cookies too

donuts dunked

in copious coffee quaffed

chocolates on desks

stacked in Inukshuk figures

guiding the way to the lunch room

weaving by assorted candies scattered

around the office like seashells at a beach.

The challenge is not

to be fed at work

it is to

prepare

and create work

that nourishes

stomach and soul

without heaping on the bonbons.

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David Zinger, M.Ed., works with organizations and individuals foster engagement. He is a writer, educator, speaker, and consultant who founded the 2700 member Employee Engagement Network. David’s website offers you 1100 free posts/articles on the engagement. David is committed to fostering a movement to increase employee engagement 20% by 2020.

Connect with David Zinger today to improve engagement where you work.

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

A Zinger Mini Rant: Don’t be Shabby, A Free E-book Should be Free!

July 9, 2010 by David Zinger 2 Comments

A Zinger mini rant on manipulating free information.

Don’t be shabby. Don’t state that your e-book is free if I have to pay for it by giving you my time and information.

Access denied. It irks me when someone states they have a free model or free e-book at their site but when you go to their site expecting to download a PDF you are confronted by a contact form to complete. Access is denied until you pay them with your time and contact information for their book. Why would you create a barrier to your wonderful offer of free information?

Bait and hook? It make me wonder how confident you are in your material if you create a barrier for me to access the material. It also feels like the old bait and hook technique. You bait me with a free resource but get your hooks into me by requesting my contact information. Come on, just let me click on the PDF and if you have value I will stick around or come back. Or invite me after I have looked at your information to offer my contact information to stay in touch with you.

Free means free. The Employee Engagement Network has 4 free e-books. Go ahead and click on them and you’ll get the PDF right away. Just help yourself. If they are helpful you’ll come back and if they are not helpful you didn’t have to waste your time and information to gain access to them. (P.S. I don’t like that you have to sign in to join our free network but this must be done to prevent spam. There is absolutely no need for you to register to gain access to one of our fabulous free employee engagement resources.)

What about you? Does it irk you to have to give time and information for “free resources” or am I just ranting a solo summer soliloquy?

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David Zinger, M.Ed., works with organizations and individuals improve engagement. He is a writer, educator, speaker, and consultant who founded the 2700 member Employee Engagement Network. David’s website offers you 1100 free posts/articles on the engagement. David is committed to fostering a movement to increase employee engagement 20% by 2020.

Connect with David Zinger today to improve engagement where you work.

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

Engage with these 100 Business Books

July 7, 2010 by David Zinger 1 Comment

What are you reading?

Here is an eclectic slide share presentation of some good summer reading. Here are some questions to consider:

What books have you read?
What books are missing from the list?
What is your favorite business book?
What is the best idea that you ever read about in a business book?

The 100 best business books of all time

View more presentations from Praveen Kumar G..

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David Zinger, M.Ed., helps organizations and individuals improve engagement. He is a writer, educator, speaker, and consultant who founded the 2700 member Employee Engagement Network. David’s website offers you 1100 posts/articles on the engagement reaching over 1,000,000 page views in the first 4 months of 2010.

Connect with David Zinger today to improve engagement where you work.

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

17 Eclectic Employee Engagement and Engaging Zingers (No. 22)

July 6, 2010 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

Engaging reads and views for the first week of July

What are you reading online?

Big Bag Big Boom Video. Great images. http://bit.ly/aMK7N
WILL? Setting your mind on a goal may be counterproductive. Instead think of the future as an open question. http://bit.ly/dzQhd9
Trying too hard By Viv McWaters http://bit.ly/98FtCu
Zen Habit: 11 Creative Ways to Avoid Becoming a Workaholic.http://bit.ly/cHzgPX
We’re All In-between Swims By Chris Bailey http://bit.ly/dyDUQp
WSJ: 6 business books to read at the beach. http://bit.ly/cDiSri
Government 2.0…it can be a reality By Stephen Collinshttp://bit.ly/bmcYAN
Make Work Great: The Doorbell is Dead: A Guest Post from Ed Muzio. http://bit.ly/aErQg9
Employee Engagement. Change Structure. Slide Into the Fast Lane. http://bit.ly/czRT2E a
Rock’n’roll start to your day by Eric Klein. http://bit.ly/cYGPTN
Guidelines for Engaging in Generative Dialogue (a.k.a. The Conversation) By Venessa Miemis http://bit.ly/bmlxQ8
Guidelines for Group Collaboration and Emergence By Venessa Miemis http://bit.ly/cjKbyG
Ten Ways You Can Be More Persuasive by Steve Roeslerhttp://bit.ly/c8owoS
Are you in search of a business story? Here are some great links.http://bit.ly/cHkymS
…a deep and abiding recognition that their people bring their humanity to work with them every single day. http://bit.ly/bkPuQM
Why “HR” and “Leadership” Should be in the Same Sentence!http://bit.ly/d7Z8re
Employee Engagement: Advice to New Managers | My Venture Padhttp://bit.ly/cTrXQ6

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Connect with David Zinger today to improve engagement where you work.

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

Employee Engagement: Advice to New Managers

July 5, 2010 by David Zinger 3 Comments

Engaging Managers/Managing Engagement

Excerpt from an interview with Niki Leondakis, chief operating officer of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, was conducted, edited and condensed by Adam Bryant. This is from the Corner Office series at the New York Times.

Before you start telling people where you’re coming from and what you’re about and what you’re going to do, listen first to what’s going on here, how do they feel about it, what are their views, what’s their input, what are their personal goals, and take note of all that they have to say, and then put together your version of “here’s where I’m coming from.” So, “listen and learn first” is a consistent piece of advice.

Q. So what advice do you give to new managers?

A. I would talk to a young manager about who they are, what they really believe in, and find the foundation or platform, if you will, to communicate consistently to the people you work with so they know what you stand for and what you believe in. And when they experience that from you, they understand the place that it’s coming from. Otherwise, they fill in their own blanks.

Q. What other advice do you give them when they become new managers?

A. I coach them to do a lot of listening. Listen first. I generally tell them that the best and most effective thing you can do is have both some group-listening environments, where you have employee meetings or department meetings with different groups of people, and one-on-ones and work your way through the entire team that you’re responsible for.

What advice would you give new managers to ensure they are engaged and engaging?

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Connect with David Zinger today to improve engagement where you work.

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