Employee Engagement: Achieve Strong Results

Results: Strengthen the Pyramid of Employee Engagement One Block at a Time

I developed the 10 block pyramid of employee engagement model to demonstrate the keys to employee engagement. Here is a link to a 50 page booklet on the pyramid.

After taking the strengths inventory Strengthscope from Strengths Partnership in the UK,  I was determined to make a systematic application of my 7 significant strengths applied to each of the blocks of the pyramid. This will make the engagement work more robust while also enhancing my wellbeing through the application of strengths in the service of others. There will be 10 posts in this series. Not all will have the same bullet point format but all will involve  a structured application of strengths to engagement.

1. Achieve Results

At the apex of the pyramid of employee engagement is achieve results. We need to know and communicate the results we are trying to achieve. Our results should be engaging and we need to engage in the creation of results. To turbo charge results I am applying my significant 7 strengths from the Strength Partnership’s Strengthscope. The diagram at the top of the page shows “achieve results” embedded within my strengths of leading, enthusiasm, empathy, self-improvement, flexibility, creativity, and developing others.

Here are ways that my strengths can be, or have been, used to support and strengthen the “achieve results” block in the pyramid of employee engagement:

Leading

• Create compelling and inspiring results that lead others towards a specific destination.
• Ensure the people I lead are given opportunities to co-create results. I love the line, if you want to get everyone on the same page you must give them the opportunity to write on that page and the similar line from the field of positive deviance, never do anything about me without me. Leading does not mean telling people what to do and how to do it, leading means working together to determine destinations that benefit everyone.

Enthusiasm

• My result statements need to generate an inherent enthusiasm and I must bring my enthusiasm to those results.
• I want my results to have a sense of pulling me towards something of great value.
• I will ensure the crafting of meaningful results and celebrate the achievement of all  steps and progress towards results. These are not gala celebrations but moments taken after a chunk of work to feel the enthusiasm of accomplishment.

Empathy

• I will listen fully to others to learn from them and to learn their approach to results. I will embrace the Spice Girls’ line: “so tell me what you want, what you really really want?”
• I will check to see if the results stated and generated create passion and purpose for others.
• I will apply empathetic  imagination to determine the impact of results on all major stakeholders. As I develop results I can apply my empathy to thinking though the impact of each result on all major stakeholders.

Self-Improvement

• I will fuse  work results with wellbeing results to develop both personally and professionally.
• I will learn more about results by going back and re-reading Peter Drucker’s work on results and also reviewing JD Meier’s insightful approach to Getting Results the Agile Way.

Creativity

• I love creativity and even took each of my 7 significant strengths and made my own symbol for each of them with the help of my graphic designer, John Junson.
• Spend more time thinking about results and applying a variety of tools to create fresh or new thinking.
• Use the full power of daily results to create larger results.
• Start each day by crafting three result statement for that day phrased as mini heroic stories.
• Work at communicating results as stories to capitalize on the power of narrative results for both meaning and memory.

• Start conversations with others about results they are trying to achieve.
• Help others install and achieve results as a focus for their work and engagement.
• Enter meetings and courses with a clear focus on the results I would like others to achieve from our time together.

Exciting London Workshop – An Invitation to all UK and European Readers

Plan to attend the London UK Strength and Engagement Workshop Wednesday November 28 from 13:00 to 18:00.  I invite you to attend an afternoon workshop sponsored by Strengths Partnership on The Leaders Role in Optimising Strengths and Engagement to Achieve Innovation and Excellence. 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: Mastering Strong Performance.

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 on the fusion of employee engagement and strengths for innovation and excellence.