Unbound Ideas » employee relations

The Art of a Successful Partnership: Staying Engaged After Saying “I do!”

Camille Smith — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:15:14 +0000

Ahh, February, the Love month, host of Valentine’s Day. The day millions of us express our love with flowers, chocolates and those sugar hearts with goofy sayings. The day thousands will pop the question and become engaged.

If you’ve been engaged or just plain head-over-heels in love, I bet you can remember how great you felt: energized, empowered, able to leap tall buildings. All was right with the world. You may also recall when the bliss began to blister …and it took more energy, attention and communication to keep your promise to be the best partner ever.

It’s like that for us when we begin a new job. We’re energized, ready to give our all and contribute to our own and the company’s success. We’re open, listening, willing to learn. Then, as time passes, the bliss fades, the grind sets in. We become disengaged. We’re at work, but we’ve quit showing up as the contributor we promised ourselves we would be.

Disengagement is not an anomaly on the work front. In 2008, a study by The Gallup Organization estimated that 6 out of 8 American workers, almost 22 million, were extremely negative or “actively disengaged” at work and calculated the cost to the American economy of that disengagement to be almost $300 billion per year.

I think the cost to the American psyche is much higher. When we’re disengaged, our performance and satisfaction decrease. The more we stay disengaged and go through the motions, the harder to re-engage. It doesn’t have to be that way. Being disengaged happens. Staying disengaged is a choice.

Now, more than ever, each of us needs to re-connect with our values and re-engage at work, at home and in our communities. (Want to learn more about the impact of disengagement? View my free webinar: Values: The Energy Source for Employee Engagement, http://unboundideas.com/past-events/camille-smith/.)

When people have a heart-felt connection between what they value and the company’s purpose, they are naturally engaged. They are self-motivated (the only true motivation) and bring extra energy to their role. Who doesn’t want that?

How to stay engaged:

1. Know what you do and don’t value. What energizes you? What drains you? When our values are satisfied, we’re in our performance zone. When they aren’t, stress and poor performance appear. True, we can’t always do what energizes us. Knowing what does can help us make it through what doesn’t.

2. Satisfy your values on & off the job. Connect your values to your work. Where your job doesn’t fulfill a value, get it satisfied elsewhere. Volunteer. Get a hobby. Be creative.

3. Start today. Employees: Don’t wait for leaders to do this for you. They can’t. Leaders: Lead. It’s your job to provide opportunities for everyone, including yourself, to be engaged.

Being engaged is good for you, those around you and for your business. Plus, the feeling lasts way more than one sugar-coated day. Who wouldn’t want that?

Camille Smith understands what it takes to change at the individual, team and organizational levels. It’s not easy, it’s worth doing, and it’s required of everyone today, not just leaders. Specializing in transformational leadership, she provides the knowledge and coaching to teach others to create and sustain breakthroughs in performance. She doesn’t bring all the answers; she brings them out with you. Reach her at camille@wipcoaching.com.

Tags: Camille Smith, coaching, generations, leadership, millenials, values | Category: leadership, workforce | Leave a comment

Choose Civility

Lisa Nirell — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:38:45 +0000

Civility–the way we treat our fellow humans and our comportment–is on everyone’s mind these days. Events from Cairo to Arizona have heightened our awareness and frustration. Here are five things you can do to raise the civility standards in your organization.

While enjoying breakfast with a client in California last week, the topic of civility surfaced. We were strategizing on how he could accomplish his aggressive 2011 revenue goals. He is chartered with accelerating growth in their services division, but could not do it without support from a senior executive in Sales. His situation may just sound similar to one you have faced in your company.

Here’s how the conversation ensued.

Lisa: It seems like the only way you can attain $50M in additional revenues is by engaging a senior sales executive. What about Jeff?

Client: Oh, that won’t happen.

Lisa: Tell me more.

Client: One of our company’s core values is trustworthiness. And Jeff does not always demonstrate that.

Lisa: What happens?

Client: Our global executive team includes a mixture of Germans, Canadians, Filipinos, Japanese, Chinese, Americans, and Indians. And then there’s Jeff. He is not only brusque; he talks about people behind their backs in public meetings.

Lisa: Hmmm…based on what I know about your culture, his behavior must really stand out. And it definitely sounds like we need a different approach.

Client: Yes, and I expect that Jeff will continue to lose headcount because The CEO heard about this. In fact, the CEO has re-assigned most of the sales organization to another Senior VP.

Do you know someone like Jeff in your company? A solid dose of civility just might help restore the desired behaviors and culture you want. Here are some places to start:

1. During meetings, turn off your smart phone. Unless you are an ER doctor or are just waiting for someone to arrive, show respect for others in the room. High touch trumps high tech.

2. Learn table etiquette. While flying home from Southern California, a young professional woman was munching on a sandwich. In between bites, she continued to lick mayonnaise from her fingers. Imagine the impression she makes in business meetings. These barbaric gestures reduce one’s business prospects immediately and subtly. Besides, napkins and a quick visit to the restroom are more appropriate options.

3. Free yourself from whining and gossip circles. If you continue to find yourself getting sucked into the negative conversation vortex, visit www.nocomplainingrule.com and download your favorite free poster. Reinforcement helps. Sometimes you need to address a sticky financial or client performance situation and share bad news; that is understandable. But hourly kvetching by you and your team members is counterproductive.

4. Regulate the time spent watching network or online news. You may find this surprising, since I am a member of the media. But here’s the issue: many business owners and CEOs invest their precious time and energy in react mode. Think of the number of times you turn on the news (or worse yet, check your email) immediately upon awakening. Circumstances immediately draw you in, and trigger worry, false interpretations, and opinions. Instead, create new morning habits, such as writing down your daily tasks or gratitude list, an exercise routine, or journaling. The news will still be there thirty minutes later.

5. Never tolerate passive-aggressive behavior again. This appears in many insidious forms. Here is an example. You confirm a standing meeting time with someone and they are consistently late–or never show up. Or when you brag about reaching an important sales goal, the passive aggressor says “Oh, too bad you didn’t hit your stretch goal.” Confront them immediately and tell them how offensive their comment is. I promise you are one of the few who have ever said anything to them.

I have met many company leaders whose civility speaks louder than words. And their consistent positive business performance results are no accident. Although you may never change the Jeffs of the world, you can be the change you wish to see in the corporate world. Choose your actions wisely.

Lisa Nirell is the Chief Energy Officer of EnergizeGrowth®. She helps companies increase their wealth, improve their performance and attract great clients. Since 1983, Lisa has worked with Trend Micro, Zappos, BMC Software, Microsoft, IBM, and hundreds of entrepreneurs in nine countries. Lisa is also an award-winning expert speaker, business columnist and the author of “EnergizeGrowth® NOW: The Marketing Guide to a Wealthy Company.” To download your five complimentary educational bonuses and sample chapter, visit www.energizegrowth.com and register for EnergizeNews.

The Thriving Person

Andrew Thorn — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:39:06 +0000

I love to study organizational environments. I am especially interested in opportunities to work for the same company at different locations. I often see one location succeeding, while another location is struggling. Since they are both operating under the same corporate vision and values, I find myself wondering about the drastic differences.

What Makes The Difference

As you might suspect, the variances from location to location are mostly related to the people that work at each site. The behaviors of the leadership teams and the engagement of the employee bases are where the real differences are manifested.

This simple observation makes it easy to propose the theory that if we want to have a thriving organization, we better spend some time making sure we have thriving people. I am sure this is not the first time you have heard this theory, but what are the characteristics of a thriving person?

The Thriving Person

Most people I know, expect that the organization will create an environment where they can grow and thrive. Sadly, no matter what the organization does, it is never enough. That is because we are all individuals and we each need different conditions in order to flourish. As a result, it is difficult for any organization to create a “one-size-fits-all” program for personal development. The thriving person understands this and becomes accountable for their own plan.

Organizations that recognize this concept create cultures that foster the development of thriving individuals. This means that they value initiative taking, proactiveness, decisiveness and the encourage their people to take risks, even when some of those risks result in failures or setbacks.

Still, creating a healthy environment does not move the responsibility from the individual. He or she, must be willing to set meaningful goals, make decisions, walk with purpose, and demonstrate a willingness to move initiatives forward in the face of obstacles that threaten success. Most organizations value these behaviors, even when their cultures do not foster their development.

Permission To Grow

Do you get what I am saying? You are responsible for creating the thriving you. Nobody else can, and nobody else will. Do you understand that if you don’t like your current circumstances, you are free to change them?

I imagine that you do understand this concept, so I am inviting you to examine where you are. Consider your current circumstances:

What are you doing that is good? How can you do that better? What will it take for you to become your best?

Who can help you become your best? When will you ask then to help?

This is a great time of year to review your personal progress. The more time you spend undestanding your own needs, the more likely you are to be seen as a valued employee. Just consider the things you can do right now that will help you thrive and become your best. Then get busy. I love forward to seeing you thrive.

Live Today! Love Today!

Andrew Thorn
760-559-3548

The economy (and time) changes everything

Unbound Ideas — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:05:53 +0000

Much has been written and discussed about Gen Y in the workplace, including in our own webinar with Lisa Orrell. As this article in the Wall Street Journal shows, Millennials are becoming “good workplace citizens.”

What job slowdown? Not in health or education

Unbound Ideas — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:38:17 +0000

In most industries, the jobs picture is bleak. Unemployment is high and new opportunities are harder to come by across the board – almost. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, education and health services continue to project job grow that is much faster than average through 2016. In fact, they predict that a full 30% of all new hiring done will be in these sectors!

A significant cause of this growth is the overall increase in spending on heath and education related services relative to the overall economy. But another important cause is the aging nature of many of the workers – at all levels – in both fields. Education and health are ranked in the top tier among all industries that anticipate recruiting and retention pressure as their workforce begins to retire in greater than average numbers.

In these industries, which require postsecondary education for many employees, ensuring an adequate supply of appropriately educated workers now is critical to avoiding severe shortages in the future. In fact, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing worries that 500,000 positions per year could go unfilled.

Certainly, if the current economic condition persists for too long, workers who had planned to retire may stay on and new job growth will be lower, but relative to other fields these two industries will continue to require greater flexibility and skill from responsible human resource personnel.

For these and other reasons we are looking forward to Lisa Orrell’s webinar on How to Successfully Recruit, Manage, and Retain Our Next Generation of Young Professionals. Understanding the cultural differences that set the “Millennials” apart from other generations will be important for attracting the best talent, mitigating clash between the incoming and outgoing (Boomer) groups, and allowing their diversity, independence and optimism to shape an organization’s success. This will be doubly true in those fields that now have – and will soon lose – older workers in great numbers.

Marshall Goldsmith & Howard Morgan on succession planning

Unbound Ideas — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:47:12 +0000

Earlier today, Unbound Ideas hosted two top voices in the leadership and coaching industry. Dr. Marshall Goldsmith presented a webinar entitled Preparing Your Successor and Yourself for a Great Future. We were fortunate to have Howard Morgan act as the facilitator to coax additional insights from Marshall and add his own wisdom.

During this 90 minute event, which included some really interesting and thoughtful questions from our participants, we learned that there are concrete steps that any leader can undertake in order to have the transition of responsibilities go smoothly for the organization and the well-being of all parties involved. Marshall described the key findings revealed through his extensive research and engagement in succession planning with top executives from some of the world’s largest organizations. He illustrated some of the traps that these leaders often fall into as the reins are turned over. Importantly, he also described the hazards that successors face as they prepare for or anticipate an eventual transition.

Unbound Ideas is pleased to make this version of the webinar available to our community and hope it will be of use and interest. Please note that the video’s functionality and resolution has been reduced. If you are interested in obtaining a full version of the webinar, including slides, curriculum articles and increased after-event dialog, please contact us.

Being close to customers and employees matters. A lot.

Unbound Ideas — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:21:39 +0000

David Neeleman, Chairman and CEO of JetBlue presented the following lecture at Stanford University on April 30, 2002. His dedication to being a frequent customer of his company’s service and being so close to employees gives him unvarnished feedback that other leaders are sometimes too inaccessible to hear.

Sure, it’s an old video. But in challenging economic conditions it may matter more than ever.

What You Must Know to Retain Your Best People and Build a Culture Of Commitment, Engagement and Outstanding Contribution

Unbound Ideas — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:08:20 +0000

Yesterday, Dr. David Cohen joined us for a 90 minute webinar to discuss keeping so-called star performers. During down economic times, the risk of top talent being sought after and going somewhere else is higher than ever. During this presentation and the lively question and answer session, we learned:

David is the author of Inside the Box: Leading with Corporate Values to Drive Sustained Business Success, The Talent Edge: A Behavioral Approach to Hiring, Developing and Keeping Top Performers, and a columnist for Workplace News. Dr. Cohen is considered a thought leader in the design of integrated human resources processes consistent with the corporate vision, values, behaviors and business plan of each client.

You can listen to David’s presentation by pressing play below or you may download it here for use with your favorite media player. Be sure to download the session slides in pdf format to follow along too.