#employeeengagement — ENGAGE with David Zinger

Career Zingers #26: What’s Your Currency?

April 25, 2018 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

Money often costs too much. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

What’s your currency at work? Currency is a medium of exchange. We narrowly think of currency as being money. I am not saying money is unimportant, just that it is not as important as we think. Countless studies have demonstrated that on the list of important motivators and contributors to employee engagement money is lower on the list.

Pause right now, consider what do you truly exchange your time, effort, and self for at work?

Over the years, I have learned my personal currencies for work are:

curiosity,
connection,
creativity,
playfulness,
stories,
learning,
expression, and
contribution.

When work offers me these currencies I am engaged and motivated. I have said numerous times, “I can’t believe I get paid to do this work.” I forget I am getting paid in the currencies listed above. When you exchange your work for the right currencies, work will make you well.

Career Zingers #13: I can fly

January 29, 2018 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

Preparing for Flight

I was sitting at the gym and she came up to me, looked me in the eye and declared, “I can fly – you know.” Then she took off with two quick steps then leaped into the air for a flight of about 100 milliseconds and an elevation of 3 inches, landing, taking two more steps and taking flight again. The belief and the action of this enthusiastic two-year old girl was inspiring. In your career, when did you stop believing you could fly and when did you stop trying?

“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. Find out what you already know and you will see the way to fly.” ― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

David Zinger is a 63 year old career, work, and engagement educator and coach who has never stopped flying.

Employee Engagement: How to Make Someone’s Day

November 16, 2017 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

A personal experience with a small nudge for you to replicate this where you work.

I presented on employee engagement at the Employer Branding Summit in Sofia, Bulgaria last month. I had a wonderful day engaging with the participants and other speakers.

I was thrilled today to receive the following feedback from Nicole Georgieva of the To The Top Agency in Sofia. Nicole is the woman in the top left hand picture. Ralitsa Gencheva the woman in the center of the top right picture was the person who wrote the feedback and Georgi Georgiev, the conference host and organizer, is the gentleman in the top left hand picture.

David Zinger was our key speaker at the Employer Brand Summit conference which took place on 12th October 2017 in Sofia, Bulgaria. We were amazed by his professionalism, expertise, presentation skills and humanity. He was extremely well received by the Bulgarian audience – we gather feedback from each event and almost all participants who completed the feedback forms pointed him to be the speaker they liked the most and that made the greatest impact on the summit.

We faced absolutely no problems with him also on the organizational part – he is very disciplined, gave us all the resources that we needed in a timely manner and was so kind to shoot a promotional video before the event at our request. To The Top Agency will be delighted and is looking forward to working again with Mr Zinger and to have him here in Bulgaria again.

We highly recommend him!

This made my day and the key message I leave you with is to take time today to make someone’s day where you work by passing on your uplifting feedback about their work.

Knowing we are appreciated is the fuel and nourishment to keep us engaged for the long run.

…

David Zinger is a global work and employee engagement educator and speaker.

21 Reasons Why The New Employee Engagement Must Come With A Warning Label

November 7, 2017 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

Warning: The New Employee Engagement will Cause Change.

Be warned. If you focus on the New Employe Engagement where you work — work will change.

I believe employee engagement should come with a warning label for any organization or individual who is ready, willing, and able to undertake the journey into the New Employee Engagement.

The warning label is required because:

The New Employee Engagement is a revolution. Rather than the loose concept and idea of engagement revolving around work — work, management, and leadership will revolve around engagement.
The New Employee Engagement is predicated on the principle that everyone within the organization is an employee, including all managers and leaders.
The New Employee Engagement will change how we work and how we work together. Employees will be responsible for their own engagement and the organization will be accountable to employees.
The New Employee Engagement will result in higher levels of uncertainty and participation. Engaged employees do not sit passively and go along with the status quo.
The New Employee Engagement will change the organization as much as it changes the individual. We all must be open to both input and influence.
The New Employee Engagement will remove the cloak of employee invisibility and anonymity. Real recognition requires recognizing the pluralism of voices in the organization and who is voicing what so we can have conversation not interrogation.
The New Employee Engagement will demand that we take responsibility for our own engagement. Engagement goes with us and it is real time, not some annual antiquated measure of attitude.
The New Employee Engagement will require that we educate employees on how to engage not to chain them to the organization but to unleash their energy and engagement for their work contributions.
The New Employee Engagement will be much more about task than a warm fuzzy feeling for the organization and leaders must realize most of their task is building relationships.
The New Employee Engagement will demand that we are accountable for how we influence other people’s level of engagement.
The New Employee Engagement will require us to get very comfortable with the idea of work as an invitation and the contingent consequences for accepting or declining the invitation.
The New Employee Engagement will not be tethered to HR or Internal Communications – engagement will be everyone’s business.
The New Employee Engagement will demand that work makes us well so that both our work and our health are sustainable as we thrive rather than just survive.
The New Employee Engagement will not be about getting a higher engagement score rather it will install achieving results, building relationships, and cultivating wellbeing as the powerful troika of work.
The New Employee Engagement will not be about passive attitudes or emotions rather it will be about small and significant actions attached to what is significant and meaningful to individuals and organizations.
The New Employee Engagement will make us abandon programs and policy in favour of process and actions.
The New Employee Engagement will have us abandon slogans of being a great place to work in favour of actually being a good place to work.
The New Employee Engagement will force us to let go of thinking of engagement as something we do to or for employees into something we do with employees.
The New Employee Engagement will come to an end not as a fad that failed but because it integrates so well into how we work, manage, and lead that we don’t need the term.
The New Employee Engagement will abandon the antiquated focus of work/life balance for life/work infusion where our life contributes to our work and and our work contributes to our life.
The New Employee Engagement will create new ways of working that we are only beginning to imagine.

There, you’ve been warned. I think it is worth the risk to dwell and work in the New Employee Engagement but know what you are getting into before you engage. To learn about 4 courses for The New Employee Engagement, click here.

To get working on the New Employee Engagement email David Zinger at david@davidzinger.com and begin the engaging conversation with David to change work where you work.

12 Lessons From A Personal Journey Through Burnout and Engagement

August 3, 2017 by David Zinger 20 Comments

From confession to commitment – engagement to burnout and back again.

Engagement is the diamond in the heart of work and wellbeing.

This post is personal. Work is personal. This is not a vague theoretical outline of disengagement. It is also not a quick fix. This post outlines a challenging journey from disengagement to re-engagement. Although it is personal, I believe embedded in the experience are insights and approaches that have universal application.

Overall, my work had been steadily progressing in employee engagement for over a decade but on November 3^rdof 2016 I hit a work-related speed bump. It threw the meaning of my work up in the air, jolted me emotionally, and almost brought me to a complete stop.

On November 3^rd I was teaching my employee engagement course in Dubai when between 10AM and 3PM, three of the fully engaged participants suffered major economic and career setbacks that were out of their control. Engagement is no guarantee against the consequences of major economic upheaval. That same evening my wife phoned to let me know that she had been let go from the leadership position she loved. Susan had the highest level of work engagement I know but this was no guarantee of work, organizational appreciation, or career security. These two events on opposite sides of the globe hit me much harder than I first realized. I don’t believe burnout occurs in one day but November 3^rd crystallized many other experiences, perceptions, and emotions over the previous year or two into my personal D-Day or Disengagement-Day.

Since that time I have been showing classic signs of burnout: exhaustion, cynicism, and the belief that my work was not making a difference. I felt that my work on engagement was equivalent to putting lipstick on camels. It isn’t very pretty and the camel is still a camel!

For the past decade, I had focused all my work on employee engagement from founding and hosting the 7400 member Employee Engagement Network to education and speeches around the world, and writing four books on work. Imagine my befuddlement as I found myself disengaged from my own work. I felt even worse because I had comprehensive knowledge and methods to engage yet I was stuck. I believe work can make us well but I was not well at this time. In addition, I have a 30-year background as an employee assistance counselor and university counselor educator. I was naively arrogant believing this knowledge and expertise would make me immune from disengagement.

My sense of being engaged in meaningful work was blurred and my vigor, dedication, and absorption to both initiate and complete tasks were depleted. I did most of my work but not at the level I expected of myself, and a number of tasks languished on the proverbial back burner.

At 62, I contemplated retiring from work yet I know in my heart that there was much I still feel called to do and I am stubborn enough not to give up.

A month ago, I encountered and fully resonated with a new word: “inanition.” Inanition means being empty, lacking in enthusiasm, vitality, and vigor. It is a spiritual emptiness, loss of purpose, and exhaustion caused by a lack of nourishment. My work failed to nourish me — my energy was dwindling, and I was a living example of inanition.

My experience is personal but it also seems to have a sense of universality to it. Your causes of disengagement, burnout or inanition may be quite different than mine, ranging from job loss and unfair practices at work to a lack of psychological safety or major career setback, but the pathway out of inanition to full engagement may have commonalities.

Here are 12 points of navigational guidance if you should encounter burnout or inanition during your career journey:

Know that your career is a hero’s journey. In every hero’s journey there will be dragons (challenges and setbacks) and that’s what makes the journey so engaging, challenging, and rewarding. Of course you might also get scorched.
Be patient, kind and accepting. The road back to engagement may be longer than you think. It may ask you not to be so tough on yourself. It may demand acceptance without giving up or sinking into despondent acquiescence or depression.
Being resilient doesn’t mean you are a rubber ball that can instantly bounce back after being thrown to the ground. Infuse gentle tenacity and personal stubbornness based on your career purpose or calling into your human and fallible resilience. Embrace human resilience and authentic unfolding during your career quest.
Acknowledge that setbacks are inevitable and they do not signal the end of the journey.
When you are on fire because of burnout it is time to stop, drop, and roll. Determine what you may need to stop doing and what you may need to drop from your work and expectations. Once you have determined what you need to stop don’t freeze — determine how you will roll into re-engagement and healthy wellbeing.
Take personal responsibility for your own engagement without sinking into self-blame or guilt when things are not moving as fast as you hope or think they should.
Embrace impermanence. Nothing lasts. Know that change can, and will, occur. As one Zen statement declares: spring comes and the grass grows by itself. Authentic optimists know that setbacks are seldom permanent, pervasive, and personal.
Let others know what you are going through and ask for help. Depending upon the severity, duration and intensity of the experience consult with a career coach or employee assistance counselor. Every hero needs a mentor or Yoda.
Know that meaning at work and in life is not something we find, it is something we create and at times need to re-create. I will no longer put lipstick on camels but I can offer many contributions to make work better for individuals and organizations.
Overall in overcoming inanition, look more for trending than transformation. I wanted to wake up the next morning and have it all be gone and for me to be my old self but I now focus more on positive trending in a more engaged direction than magic cures or effortless engagement elixirs.
There are always lessons embedded in every experience. Inanition may not be the most welcome of work teachers but the lessons learned may be invaluable for the rest of your career. I am still very much in the process of determining what I have learned and how that learning will shape the remainder of my career.
Embrace life and work. Work is not a problem to be solved; it is an experience to be lived. Don’t miss it because you imagine or believe it should be something other than it is in the present moment.

Pregnancy and Rebirth. I trace back my challenges with burnout and engagement to November 3, 2016. Today is August 3, 2017. If November 3rd was D-Day than I consider August 3rd E-Day, the day of full re-engagement. This time frame of nine months seems very symbolic to me. I have gone through a very challenging pregnant pause in my work on engagement but it has given birth to a rebirth in engagement and burnout made stronger by the challenges and setbacks. I would be delighted to work with you and your organization to help you give rebirth to engagement while also preventing or alleviating burnout by focusing on everyday employee engagement.

I often offer a line in the conclusion of my writing and after writing this post, I know that this is as much a message to myself as to my readers: Engage along with me, the best is yet to be.

David Zinger is a human and fallible expert on employee engagement and believes that work can make us well, even if sometimes it doesn’t. He designed and delivers a powerful daily behavioural approach to preventing and overcoming burnout and installing authentic and powerful engagement. This education is offered in keynotes, workshops, courses, and masterclasses. David believes in the power of everyday employee engagement to make work better and to make us better.