J’aime Paris: A Heartfelt Plea for People Artistry

November 14, 2015 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

Written Saturday November 14th in Istanbul the morning after the Paris Massacre

People Artists Cover

We desperately need People Artists. We need people who bring out the best in others. We hear too much about the worst and fail to find, celebrate, and draw out the best. Please join me as a People Artist. Add color to your world to wash away the greyness of disengaged passivity and to obliterate the blackness of hate and terrorism. Be a person who brings out the best in others at work and everywhere else in life rather than a person who destroys, injures, and hurts. Life is too short – draw out the best.

Here is my plea…

Everyone is an artist. Don’t wither. Don’t go negative. Lay claim to the artist you already are. It is time to use your senses. It is time to move beyond yourself and make work matter by ensuring people know that they matter.

Artistry is a gift you give rather than a gift you have. People Artistry is a gift you give to others. It may even go beyond them and touch others you never see or never know. People Artistry is more than a pebble in a pond creating shallow ripples it is a positive explosion of recognition, gratitude, appreciation and engagement. It is connection that destroys mediocrity, passivity, and disengagement. And here’s the ironic thing, when you give the gift you receive the gift of moving beyond yourself and drawing out the best.

Accept the invitation. You don’t have to do this but why would you decline? Why would you ignore what brings out the best. This is your daily hero’s journey. Your dragons are ignorance, busyness, and fear. Your light sabre is to see beyond yourself and to connect like there is no tomorrow. Be like all the people who race to get on every flight at the airport, they can’t seem to wait to store their excess baggage and to claim their seat. Get rid of your excess baggage of fear and disconnection and race into a flight of People Artistry.

You owe a debt. Your debt is to the people who brought out the best in you. Perhaps your grandpa, your mother, your teacher, your brother, your friend, your co-worker, your boss. Don’t fail to pass the torch of drawing out the best from those who drew out the best in you.

You already have the tools. Your tools are not in a box or cabinet. They are you. You have a heart to care. You have ears to listen. You have eyes to see. You have lips to express. You have hands to give.

The time is now. Go ahead. Dwell deeply in the art of being human. Share your work. Enliven the blank canvas at work. Banish invisibility of others. Open your heart. Listen deeply. See beyond. Express fully. Reach far.

People Artistry is in your hands

start now,

embark on the journey,

don’t settle for anything less.

J’aime Paris

. . .

David Zinger is an employee engagement expert and speaker from Canada who is in Istanbul to speak on employee engagement. He is also a practicing People Artist engaged in drawing out the best in others. People Artists: How to Draw Out the Best in Others launches in Montreal and Winnipeg at the end of November.

Employee Engagement: People Artists Are Not Weary Travellers!

October 5, 2015 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

People Artists Use Their Eyes to See

People Artists Cover

On Friday I was returning to Winnipeg from Montreal. I had an hour before my flight and went to the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge. As I scanned the lounge the travellers looked so weary and seemed impervious to the hard work of the catering and cleaning staff’s constant work to replenish food and beverages and to keep everything fresh and tidy.

No one in any workplace should ever be invisible!

I always thank the staff as I move around the lounge but I took it upon myself to offer a little extra gestures of appreciation. I grabbed a business card and wrote a sincere note of appreciation for their work and how they made my journey easier and more enjoyable. As I left the lounge I said thank you to the last cleaning person I encountered and handed them my little note.

When I landed in Toronto to catch my transfer flight here is an email I received on my phone:

Thank You Note

Be a People Artist: As you travel through your workplace don’t be weary. Care, Listen, See, Talk, and Give.

David Zinger is an employee engagement speaker and expert and the co-author with Peter W. Hart of People Artists: Drawing Out The Best In Others At Work.

Turn People Artistry into Your Healthy Routine

August 13, 2015 by David Zinger 1 Comment

Do you have a recognition routine to draw out the best from the people you lead and manage?

People Artists

People Artistry is anything but routine yet paradoxically a routine is what can get you into People Artistry and sustain your work at bringing out the best in others for many years. In our time of energy depletion of having far too much to do and too little time to do it, intentional structure and routine operate as strong guides of behavior.

Watch for People Artists: Drawing Out the Best in Others at Work coming in October 2015.

David Zinger is an employee engagement speaker and expert who joined forces with Peter W. Hart, an expert on recognition, to create People Artistry – an approach to making workplaces better for all.

Employee Engagement: Empathy is not a Soft Skill it is Strong Stuff

November 8, 2012 by David Zinger 2 Comments

Employee Engagement: Empathy take engagement beyond ourselves.

The pyramid of employee engagement is a 10 block model of employee engagement. Here is a link to a 50 page booklet on the pyramid. After completing the strengths inventory, Strengthscope, from Strengths Partnership in the UK, I embarked on a systematic application of my 7 significant strengths to each of the 10 blocks of the pyramid. This will make my engagement work more robust while also enhancing personal wellbeing through the application of strengths in the service of others.

In previous posts, I have outlined how all 7 of my strengths can be applied to one of the ten building blocks of employee engagement. In this post I will outline how one strength, empathy, can enrich recognition. Empathy is a deep and communicated understanding of another person’s perspective and world. We leave our agenda and view behind to move fully into the the world of another. Empathy is a powerful way of demonstrating caring and caring can also be made tangible through recognition.

Empathy add strengths to recognition when we listen to how others want to be recognized and respond accordingly. Some people prefer more personal recognition and shy away from public displays of recognition. When we are empathetic in our recognition we do not give donuts to dieters or parking spots to people who ride the subway to work. I sometimes believe that the failure of not having more frequent and robust recognition stems from a lack of demonstrated empathy. Every day that people work they should be recognized at work. I believe anonymity is an engagement killer while empathy invites us out of disengagement.

When the intent of recognition is to communicate that you care about another person at work and that you are paying attention to them, your recognition can also be about gaps and variances in their performance. As you have an engaging conversation about their deficient performance many employees will tell you that it was a good experience to be seen and cared for with tangible help to improve because positive or negative conversations are less about the content of a conversation and more about the intent of the conversation. Empathy gives you good intent!

My strength of empathy defines much of my focus, approach, and method of working. In counselling psychology, I was schooled in the approach of Carl Rogers. I both practiced and taught with the strength of empathy:

“When someone really hears you without passing judgment on you, without trying to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good. . . . When I have been listened to and when I have been heard, I am able to re-perceive my world in a new way and to go on. It is astonishing how elements which seem insoluble become soluble when someone listens. How confusions which seem irremediable turn into relatively clear flowing streams when one is heard. “ Carl Rogers

London Workshop on Strength Based Approaches to Leadership – November 28

Plan to attend the London UK Strength and Engagement Workshop Wednesday November 28 from 13:00 to 18:00. I will be presenting/facilitating on the Pyramid of Employee Engagement and Michael Farry, HR Director for PhotoBox, will also be presenting on how to build a culture of positive leadership, collaboration and innovation through a systematic, practical and integrated change and development programme.

For a modest fee of £75 plus VAT, you will receive:

Entrance to the conference and networking over drinks after the event

An opportunity to take the Strengthscope360™ profiler and receive feedback

A free leadership book entitled “Stretch – Leading Beyond Boundaries”

Delegate pack containing proven and practical tools to help optimise workforce strengths and engagement at the individual, team and organisational levels

An invitation to join the Strengths HR Forum (over 1,300 members) and the Employee Engagement Network (over 5,000 members)

To register click here.

Next Post in the Series: Employee Engagement: Working with the Moments of Strength.

David Zinger is an employee engagement expert. He will be in the UK in late November to support the Go Live event for the UK Employee Engagement Task Force and to co-lead an afternoon workshop on the fusion of employee engagement and strengths for innovation and excellence.