Making Monday the Best Day of the Week

New Years Resolution 2012

2011-12-27T12:49:00.001-05:00

The annual phenomenon is upon us. The change of the year brings upon the urge to create change in our life – a new start. Diets and fitness are always on the forefront of people’s minds. I was speaking to the director of a local fitness center and she said the month of January is the busiest month in a fitness centre. Everyone is eager to get into shape and change.

What about taking time to think about the change that you want to create in your career? It may be a simple change like being more organized or replying to messages and emails quicker or it may be more of a stretch like changing to a new career completely. We spend approximately 1/3 of our waking hours at work. The impact of engagement at work has a huge ripple effect on your personal life. Doesn’t it make sense to create positive change with respect to your professional life?

Here’s my resolution:

To turn up the volume on my message that it is possible to find personal fulfillment from your work. I will find more venues to pass on valuable tips on how to make positive changes in your perspective about work. I want 2012 to be the year of the ripple effect – where I pass the message on to people and they pass it on to others and so on.

Therefore my intention of this blog post is two-fold:

1. To ask for your help in spreading my message – that it is possible to be excited about work and be fulfilled from it. It comes from finding what intrinsically motivates you and bringing this into your work. My Career Discovery Program has successfully helped people do this.

2. To ask you to post on my blog how your job brings you fulfillment. By sharing your story with me and others, people will see that it is possible to gain a high level of personal satisfaction from their work. Work shouldn’t be work. Work should feel like a hobby. The day should pass quickly not because you are burdened with time deadlines and piles of work, but because you enjoy what you are doing and you get lost in your passion.

To all my friends and colleagues, I wish 2012 brings you successful, fulfillment and joy. I hope to hear from you all and thank you for being a part of my community.

Cindy

How relevant is Facebook information in the recruiting process?

2011-11-13T18:29:00.000-05:00

Recruiters and HR specialists have long used Facebook as a source of information about potential candidates. A few HR specialists that I’ve spoken to do check Facebook pages of potential hires, but are quick to admit that they use the information to a lesser and lesser extent. Can we really believe that someone who likes to get drunk during University parties would make a poor hiring candidate? Does the fact that a person has 1000 Facebook friends mean that they have people skills or relationship building skills?

A new website called “Identified” was launched Thursday. This site rates the workplace value of 50 million professionals worldwide for potential employers. Is there true value in this information or will recruiters begin to depend on the wrong inferences and miss out on some great candidates? Does a Facebook page tell us about the character of a person? Does your Facebook page and information provide an honest reflection of who you are at work?

For more about Indentified see an article in the Toronto Star – November 10, 2011 http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1084260--how-to-rank-the-market-attractiveness-of-professionals

Boosting Retention Through Non-Monetary Efforts

2011-10-20T15:15:00.000-04:00

Many studies have revealed that, for most companies, compensation is not the primary driver for employee retention. According to a recent BlessingWhite Inc. study, "The top reason employees give for jumping ship is: 'My career. I don't have opportunities to grow or advance here.' On the other hand, the top reason employees worldwide give for staying with their employer is: 'My work. I like the work that I do.' Career is the second-rated reason people stay.

So how should you use talent management to retain top talent in a cost-efficient way? First, create talent management programs that foster career growth. Second, ensure employees are fairly evaluated and compensated.

Let's take a look at some of the different areas of talent management and show how they can contribute to top talent retention.

Learning and Development
•Career paths using a common competency model: Documentation and resources around "career pathing," coupled with a common corporate competency model, will help employees own their career growth and feel supported by their company and manager.

•Support 70/20/10 development: Many companies utilize close to 100 percent class-based learning opportunities, while studies have shown that the most effective learning programs utilize only 10 percent class-based learning, coupled with 20 percent relationship-based learning (such as mentors) and 70 percent experiential learning (such as stretch assignments or project-based work).

•Accelerated leadership development: Giving top talent accelerated leadership development opportunities keeps them engaged.

Succession Planning
•Top talent identification: Utilizing talent reviews and succession planning to identify top talent early ensures focused attention on your highest performers and high-potential employees.

•Long-term development planning: High potentials like varied experiences, so taking the long view with your top talent when planning succession will help to increase retention.

Performance Management/Compensation
•Fair, objective and differentiated performance management/compensation: Unfair or undifferentiated performance management and compensation processes will cause your best talent to feel underappreciated, so make sure you get this one right.

•Manage underperformers: Keeping underperformers around will demotivate your top performers and keep them from maximum contributions.

Talent Acquisition
•Support for internal mobility: Keeping a talented employee from moving to a new position to learn something new is a sure way to prompt that employee to start looking for a job elsewhere. Ensure your leadership and management support the idea of internal mobility.

Keeping these principles in mind when designing your talent-management strategies and processes will have a much larger impact on retention than simply increasing salaries, allowing you to win the war for talent against your larger competitors.

SOURCE: Andy Rice, Newman Group, Los Angeles

Is it too late to focus on employee engagement?

2011-10-13T15:11:00.004-04:00

According to a poll by the consulting firm Right Management, some 84% of employees planned to look for jobs in 2011. This number is up from 60% in 2009. This is a very strong message about engagement and how employees are feeling over worked and under appreciated. What is happening is that more and more, people are willing to take jobs with similar titles and pay in exchange for small improvements in their quality of life such as shorter commutes or more stable futures.

This article from Fortune Magazine – October 17, 2011 “How to Make a Smart Lateral Move”
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/10/13/career-lateral-move/?section=magazines_fortune
not only gives employees reassurance that change is possible, but sends a strong message to employer that their workforce is fragile and to help them continue during these economic times, focusing on employee engagement is vital.

Career-limiting moves

2011-10-11T13:31:00.000-04:00

In the October 2011 edition of the CA Magazine, there was a summary of some career limiting moves that were noted based on a survey by US recuiter CareerBuilder.

Nearly 3,000 hiring managers were asked to name the personal attributes that would make an employee less appealing for a promotion. Here are their top responses:

Piercings  - 37%
Bad breath - 34%
Visible tattoo - 31%
Wrinkled clothes -  31%
Messy hair -  29%
Dresses too casually - 28%
Too much perfume or cologne -  26%
Too much makeup  -  22%
Messy office or cubicle - 19%
Chewed fingernails - 10%
Too suntanned - 4%

What would be the attribute that would get you to think twice about promoting someone?

Can Only Certain Jobs Bring Happiness?

2011-09-20T13:35:00.001-04:00

The article below called “The 10 happiest jobs” really brings to light our society’s dichotomy between personal fulfillment and work. By isolating specific jobs that can create happiest, engagement or fulfilment and those that can not, the author is creating a sense of hopelessness in the workforce. It’s time to start creating possibility! I have seen and assisted in bringing fulfillment and happiness to people in a variety of jobs, even the most mundane. Who could imagine that a person who paints walls for a living could love what he does? A painter I met told me how he loved his work because he sees it as creating a new environment for people to enjoy – the creation of beauty for his clients. This brings great fulfillment to him.

By understanding how your personal values connect to your work, new perspectives and attitudes can be generated. This can and does bring higher levels of engagement and happiness from work.

Please read the article below and share your thoughts about it with us. Also have a look at the video called “Unlocking better job performance and happiness” to learn about studies being done that show small changes in perspective can bring higher levels of engagement.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/management/talking-management/video-unlocking-better-job-performance-and-happiness/article2164333/?from=2172331

Isn’t it time bring passionate into your workplace?

The 10 happiest jobs

Steve Denning
Forbes.com
Published Tuesday, Sep. 13, 2011 7:09AM EDT

In my article on the Ten Most Hated Jobs, there were some surprises. There are also some surprises in the 10 happiest jobs, as reported a General Social Survey by the National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago. (I am indebted to Lew Perelman in drawing my attention to the Christian Science Monitor article.)

1. Clergy: The least worldly are reported to be the happiest of all.
2. Firefighters: 80 per cent of firefighters are “very satisfied” with their jobs, which involve helping people.
3. Physical therapists: Social interaction and helping people apparently make this job one of the happiest.
4. Authors: For most authors, the pay is ridiculously low or non-existent, but the autonomy of writing down the contents of your own mind apparently leads to happiness.
5. Special education teachers: If you don’t care about money, a job as special education teacher might be a happy profession.
6. Teachers: Teachers in general report being happy with their jobs, despite the current issues with education funding and classroom conditions. The profession continues to attract young idealists, although 50 per cent of new teachers are gone within five years.
7. Artists: Sculptors and painters report high job satisfaction, despite the great difficulty in making a living from it.
8. Psychologists: Psychologists may or may not be able to solve other people’s problems, but it seems that they have managed to solve their own.
9. Financial services sales agents: 65 per cent of financial services sales agents are reported to be happy with their jobs. That could be because some of them are clearing more than $90,000 dollars a year on average for a 40-hour work week in a comfortable office environment.
10. Operating engineers: Playing with giant toys like bulldozers, front-end loaders, backhoes, scrapers, motor graders, shovels, derricks, large pumps, and air compressors can be fun. With more jobs for operating engineers than qualified applicants, operating engineers report being happy.

It’s interesting to compare these jobs with the list of the 10 most hated jobs, which were generally much better paying and have higher social status. What’s striking about the list is that these relatively high-level people are imprisoned in hierarchical bureaucracies. They see little point in what they are doing. The organizations they work for don’t know where they are going, and as a result, neither do these people.

1. Director of Information Technology
2. Director of Sales and Marketing
3. Product Manager
4. Senior Web Developer
5. Technical Specialist
6. Electronics Technician
7. Law Clerk
8. Technical Support Analyst
9. CNC Machinist
10. Marketing Manager

The meaningfulness of lives

Why were these jobs with better pay and higher social status less likely to produce happiness? Todd May writing in the New York Times argues, “A meaningful life must, in some sense then, feel worthwhile. The person living the life must be engaged by it. A life of commitment to causes that are generally defined as worthy — like feeding and clothing the poor or ministering to the ill — but that do not move the person participating in them will lack meaningfulness in this sense. However, for a life to be meaningful, it must also be worthwhile. Engagement in a life of tiddlywinks does not rise to the level of a meaningful life, no matter how gripped one might be by the game.”

This is what underlies the difference between the happiest jobs and the most hated jobs. One set of jobs feels worthwhile, while in the other jobs, people can’t see the point. The problems in the most hated jobs can’t be solved by job redesign or clearer career paths. Instead the organizations must undertake fundamental change to manage themselves in a radically different way with a focus on delighting the customer through continuous innovation and all the consequent changes that are needed to accomplish that. The result of doing this in firms like Amazon, Apple and Salesforce.com is happy customers, soaring profits and workers who can see meaning in their work.

How to Know When Your Boss Is BSing You

2011-08-31T14:17:00.000-04:00

I came across this article on bnet.com. How is it possible to create highly engaged employees when there are so many bosses who are not transparent, honest and trustworthy? Do bosses really think their employees are that stupid or gullible? Do they really think they are outsmarting their employees? But what I wonder the most about is when will people start taking responsibilities for these types of actions and the impact they have on the people who work for them?

I would love to hear your comments and thoughts about this article.

By Steve Tobak
August 30, 2011
http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/how-to-know-when-your-boss-is-bsing-you/8303?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

Have you ever walked away from a meeting with your boss and wondered, did he really mean that or was he BSing me? Are all those reports your boss wants you to do to justify your existence really necessary, or is he just covering his you-know-what or justifying his existence?

How about that slick company press release where the CEO says, “We’re restructuring to better align our business with changing market conditions,” is that for real, or is it just spin for, “We’re laying off 20 percent of the company because our market’s gone to s**t.”

To put it succinctly, just how much of what your management says and asks you to do is disingenuous? Not to be jaded or cynical, but the answer is more than you think. We’re not just talking about formal communication that toes the company line, but even stuff that really counts, like direct feedback on your job performance.

Why is the corporate world so full of it? For the most part, it comes down to alignment, or more accurately, misalignment.

You see, in a perfect company, everybody’s goals and needs - management, employees, customers, shareholders - are aligned. Also, what you see is what you get, nobody has an agenda, and people don’t play office politics or stab each other in the back to get ahead.

The real world is a whole different story.

Here’s an example. When the American Dental Association recommends you brush twice a day, buy those expensive electric toothbrushes, and change the $15 heads every three months, you don’t really think that’s entirely for your health, do you? I mean, really.

And, if companies BS their customers - and you know they do - imagine how they treat their employees? It’s sort of like the boss in Dilbert telling everyone, “From now on, you’re all getting new job titles instead of raises” and everybody shouts, “Yea, new titles!”

Not that management is out to get you. Things are almost never that black and white in the real world. In fact, what benefits management and benefits the company sometimes benefits you too. And sometimes it doesn’t. Here’s how to know which is which.

How to Know When Your Boss is BSing You

Look out for “but” and “because” in a sentence. For example: “You’re doing a great job but you’re only getting a two percent raise because that’s all I could get for you.” Everything between the “but” and “because” is probably true; everything else is suspect. Maybe he’s blowing smoke up your you-know-what because he doesn’t want to deal with a pissed off employee. Maybe you are doing a great job but he’s a wimp who doesn’t fight for his employees. Just remember, before “but” and after “because” is usually BS.

Recognition without reward. If there’s money or a promotion in it, then it’s legit. If not, it’s BS. Simple as that. I don’t care how they spin it. Recognition or commendation without any reward is for one purpose: to make your management look and feel good. If that makes you feel good too, congratulations, you’re just the kind of employee companies love … to step on.

Consider the source and triangulate. Look, not all bosses are created equally, so if you really want to know the truth, you’ve got to cultivate some relationships and triangulate. Befriend a manager, even if she isn’t yours. Once you’ve got someone you trust on the inside, you send her on fact-finding missions to get the scoop. If you don’t, well, hate to be blunt, but you deserve what you get.

Justifying a layoff or RIF. I’ve seen and heard every possible spin on restructuring and layoffs. In fact, I used to write that stuff in my previous life. And I’m here to tell you that any positive positioning of a layoff is pretty much all spin, just like the “restructuring” example at the top of the post.

Drowns you with requests for detailed status reports and plans. The only time it makes sense for a boss to drown you with endless report requests is if you’re screwing up big-time and he’s trying to get you to quit. Otherwise he’s a micromanager, a control freak, or he’s got something up his sleeve.

360 degree feedback. This one’s tricky. You might be inclined to think it’s all good and, in a perfect world, you’d be right. But in the real world, all sorts of personal issues and agendas have a funny way of ending up in 360s. How to know if comments are legitimate? If they’re one-offs, ignore them. Pay attention to significant trends, but it’s not unheard of for folks to band together to tank your review. It happens.

Your boss is not BSing you … when he asks you to justify your job, project, or proposal. That’s usually real and, assuming you want to keep your job or increase your responsibility, staff, budget, etc., it’s a good idea to follow up and deliver. The same goes for technical or functional feedback, i.e. when your boss says your presentations stink or you’re getting more things wrong than right, listen up.

Are leaders’ perspectives limiting employee engagement?

2011-08-29T16:15:00.000-04:00

Surveys have found time and again that business leaders are fully aware of the benefits of highly engaged employees. They know that a high level of employee engagement has a positive impact on their bottom line and strengths the customer relationship and experience. Yet less than 1/3 of the workforce has been found to be highly engaged! If business leaders know the benefits, why aren’t more people highly engaged? Maybe it’s time to stop rehashing the benefits of engagement and start working to change the perspectives that lead to low engagement. Here are a few:

Low Engagement Perspective # 1 – There are some jobs that you just can’t get people excited about.

I’ve have heard time and time again from business leaders that not everyone can gain engagement from the work that they do. Mundane or repetitive jobs such as production workers, painters, call center workers don’t provide the opportunity to contribute to their work. These jobs are very task oriented and don’t require the employee to think very much.

High Engagement Perspective – People can be engaged in any type of job

Dan Pink talks about high engagement call centers where employees are empowered to respond to customers needs instead of following subscribed scripts. Toyota was well known for its highly engaged employees who were called upon to halt production at the slightest sign of a potential problem. Providing your staff the opportunity to be in control of their work while ensuring they achieve the desired outcome helps to achieve higher levels of engagement – no matter what type of work they do.

Low Engagement Perspective # 2 – There are some people who just can’t be engaged in their work.

Business leaders believe that there are some people who don’t want to contribute to the company and don’t want to give more than they have to. They do what they have to do to get by and don’t want to grow and learn.

High Engagement Perspective – How can we re-engage these people? What’s going on with them?

When a person is hired by a company, they are engaged and wanting to bring their all to their job. If this is not true, it comes out in the first few months of employment and should be immediately let go. Over time, things happen at work that lessens the level of engagement. Their needs are not being fulfilled by management and their level of engagement dwindles. These situations are hard and sometimes impossible to remedy. Change can come on a person by person basis if there is willingness by both parties. However, it is essential to undercover the causes for disengagement because more than likely, they have impacted others as well. This is the ultimate change that is necessary to work in order to stop the cancerous growth.

Low Engagement Perspective# 3 – We don’t need a vision or mission statement. Or, our mission and vision statement is on our website as a marketing strategy.

Many business leaders focus on the financial picture of the business and stray away from the big picture purpose of the company. Getting too focused on the bottom line can leave employees feeling insignificant and unappreciated. This has a strong negative impact on engagement levels.

High Engagement Perspective – Understanding the purpose of our company helps our employees see how they can contribute and provide meaning to others.

Codifing your corporate mission, vision and values reaps many benefits for all sizes of companies, especially in the area of employee engagement. Business leaders don’t always share their vision story with their employees. The employees never get to understand the driving motivating factor of the business – the impact it is striving to have on society. It is when a person sees how they contribute to a meaningful cause do they gain a sense of personal fulfillment. Engagement comes from gaining a sense of fulfillment from your job, having the ability to understand how your contribution supports the achievement of the corporation’s vision. This can happen with any type of work. It’s up to management to create the environment to make this happen for their employees. It’s also up to management to hire people who fit into the roles they are recruiting for.

What perspectives have you experienced that have limited employee engagement? I would love to hear from you.

Customer Experience

2011-07-22T11:27:00.000-04:00

Interesting questions come my way and I thought it would be of benefit to my blog readers to share some of these with you. If you have any questions relating to employee engagement, corporate culture or peak performance, please send them to me at cgordon@cultureshockcoaching.com and I would be happy to respond at no cost to you.

Question: Many people in our organization deal with customers and potential customers on a number of different levels. How can I ensure that they are treated well and consistently? I have some customers who only want to deal with certain employees and that’s not always possible. This signals to me that they get a different type of service from others when they fill in. What do you suggest?

Answer: The type of service or customer experience received when dealing with a business could make the difference in your company’s growth potential. High performing corporations such as Apple, Zappos.com and Four Season Hotels and Resorts have focused on creating their unique customer experience that represents the corporate culture and values. Their service experience provides them with the ability to consistently uphold their standard of excellence and provides staff with a foundation for the expectations of their behaviours when dealing with customers and desired outcomes. I feel investing time and resources in the development of your company’s customer experience objective would provide your customers with a consistent service experience and allow all members of your organization to deal with clients in the way you desire and intend.

• The senior leaders of the organization develop the detailed framework of the company’s customer experience. This depiction must be directly linked to the company’s mission, vision and values to maintain integrity and a consistent message. (This assumes that your organization has a codified corporate culture so support this process.) Use corporate values to create specific behaviours to be demonstrated on a regular basis by every employee. The model developed should be detailed and clear to allow intermediary or front line management to expand on these concepts to fit their specific customer profiles. Specific areas such as how should customers be greeted and communicated to, how often a customer should be contacted, product delivery and installation procedures would be some of the criteria to feature. Obviously specific details would depend on the nature of your business.

• Seniors leaders work with intermediary or front line managers to expand on the above step to create specific habits, strategies and employee behaviours to be implemented in locations or departments of the business. The model is translated into the actual day to day customer interactions the staff commonly have and the strategies that are needed to support the ultimate experience result. Use information about your customer profile, needs and wants to assist the further development of your customer experience mandate. For example, if you are a retail store in a predominately Portuguese neighbourhood, should there be signs in Portuguese? How many employees should be Portuguese speaking in the store and in what departments should they be working? Where should traditional foods be displayed or positioned in the store? What other products should this store be carrying that may not be sold in other locations?

• Communicate and train staff in the specific model created. Help them to express their personalities through the model to make it their own representation of the company. This will make the process more authentic and natural to them.

• Help employees to understand how the customer experience ties into the corporate culture and how they play an important component in the presentation of the business and its philosophies. This will lead to their understanding how they contribute to the bigger objectives of the organization and heighten their enthusiasm for the process.

• Create mentor relationships to effectively support the development of the customer experience. This will not only help to embed the model in the staff, but create strong peer relationships to support your objectives.

• Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the customer experience. Gaining feedback through financial data, observations and customer feedback will help to determine how on track you are and what additional support staff members may need. Stay open minded to potential enhancements that can be made to the initial plan. As well this evaluation process will provide a lot of positive feedback that can be passed onto to those employees who were struggling in the past.

• Create forums for employees to contribute ideas to enhancing the customer experience. They are the ones who will see the customers’ immediate reaction to the behaviours and procedures you have in place and are best armed to provide insight. This will not only work to provide valuable information, but will bring a stronger sense of purpose to the employees, increasing their level of job fulfilment and engagement.

The positive customer experience is the ultimate representation of your company. Without the proper guidance and structure given to your staff, objectives may not be met. The cost of the company can be severe – ranging from loss of customers, lost of potential growth and disengagement of staff. Investing in creating your ultimate customer experience will pay off over and over again.

Note: these questions and answers are of a general nature. Application of the above information to your business may require additional advice or refining of the information.

Research finds that Employees are Increasingly Disengaged

2011-06-24T14:00:00.000-04:00

New results released this month from a study performed by Mercer showed that Canadian employees are less committed to their employers and less satisfied with many aspects of the work experience as compared to the previous survey in 2006. The survey called “What’s Working” examined the views about work from 30,000 workers in 17 countries, including more than 2000 workers in Canada. Canada was found to have one of the highest levels of disengagement among the countries surveyed with a total of 58% “checked out” on some level. Slightly more than 1/3 of Canadian workers said they were seriously considering leaving their organization at the present time; while another 1/5 was ambivalent about whether to stay or go.

Engagement levels have been impacted due to changes in employee deals and the impact of the economic downturn on wages, cuts in training and promotions. The survey focused questions in seven specific categories. The findings were as follows:

My pay
Canadians indicated that pay is the most important part of their employment deal. Only 53% of those surveyed said they were satisfied with their base pay; while 58% felt they were paid fairly given their performance and contributions to the organization.

My Retirement
A good retirement savings or pension plan is the second most important element of the employee value proposition for Canadian respondents. While 62% of those surveyed said they are satisfied with their current retirement savings / pension plan, approximately 1/3 lacked confidence in being ready for retirement. This topic’s results were significantly influenced by the age of the respondent.

My Benefits
In general employees indicated that benefits were less important to them in their overall employment deal relative to other factors such as pay, retirement plans and type of work. This may be due to the fact that employers have not significantly modified benefit programs as a result of the economic downturn.

My Career
While it was found that scores improved around career development questions, the overall scores show that less than 50% of employees surveyed feel positively about their career prospects with their current employer and the success of employers retaining top talent.

My Company
Views about the stability of the organization had declined from 2006. Just over half of participants felt that their organizations were well managed and that their organizations offer them job security. Interestingly enough, about ¾ of the people surveyed had no doubts about the long term financial success of their organizations.

My Job
While employees felt that they have a clear understanding of how their job contributed to the corporate goals, there was a significant decline in the feeling that they are given autonomy to do their work, access to information and sufficient authority to be effective.

My Life
Approximately 2/3 of Canadian employees surveyed said there are able to maintain a healthy work / life balance and that the amount of work they do is reasonable. However, just over 50% said they were provided the opportunity to work flexibility in their job.

What is my take on this?

1. As I’ve consistently mentioned to my clients and show on my Hierarchy of Employee Needs chart (refer to http://www.cultureshockcoaching.com/Hierarchy.php) by fulfilling job security and safety needs and financial needs you’re not necessarily contribute to higher levels of engagement. However if people don’t feel safe and secure in their jobs (and this has a range of contributing factors) and if they don’t feel that they are being paid fairly in relation to the market, then engagement will be impacted. These are fundamental human needs that must be met. There are other factors that may override these needs. For example, an employee who has a very strong relationship with their direct manager and receives significant recognition and fulfilment from their work may accept lower than average compensation. The intrinsic value gained from other factors may compensate for the financial deficiency or a lack of job security. However, these are very specific cases and other higher level needs are often found to compensate. In general, meeting basic needs is fundamental component to working toward the improvement of employee engagement.

2. Employers have for the most part forgotten that their employees are their greatest asset. For most organizations, business philosophy has been reactive to issues instead of proactive – sales and profits fall so cut major costs. In most businesses, the largest overhead cost that is the easiest to cut are wages – salary reduction, head count reduction, incentives and bonuses. Highly successful leaders tend to take different approaches that empower employees to contribute to the needs of the organization. They believe in the power of every member of their organization as a contributing factor to the overall success. They communicate and maintain a high level of transparency with staff to create positive and successful outcomes. They stay out of the box. I believe that this approach must be embraced on a larger scale to impact overall employee engagement.

3. While survey results increased in some areas, there are still a large percentage of people who don’t feel valued by their organization. Whether it is around job security, receiving recognition for their work or feeling a sense of long term commitment, there is still a lot more work that needs to be done. It’s up to management to change the culture of the organization and their business and leadership strategies to make this happen

Employee turnover costs have been found to be in the range of 150 – 200% of an employee’s salary –depending on their job function. As the job market opens up, employers will find their top talent will be the first ones out the door. The level of morale within organizations will plummet and engagement levels will drop even more significantly. People want to enjoy going to work. Business leaders want to feel that they are getting value for their investment. More work needs to be done to bring these leaders and their employees onto the same path. Business leaders need to believe in the value and contribution their employees can have on the success of the company. Employees need to feel that they are cared for and respected for who they are.

The Emotion of a Communication

2011-02-03T15:09:00.003-05:00

I received an email from someone requiring me to perform a certain task. This email was also sent to a number of other people. As I read the email, I assessed the message, tone and the words used based on the knowledge I had of the sender. While there was an emotional reaction to the request, I put this aside to effectively analyze the intention and message. A few of the other recipients were very taken aback by the request and a number of confrontations occurred. We all had the same vested interest in the email sender and the topic. The array of reactions made me think - why did this communication have a different impact on me than some of the other recipients? Why did others take offence to the request when I didn’t? Why did confrontations arise?

The first thing that came to mind was the “fight or flight response”. The fight or flight response is our body’s primitive, automatic, inborn response that prepares the body to “fight” or “flee” from perceived attack, harm or threat to our survival. When we experience excessive stress – whether from internal worry or external circumstances – this bodily reaction is triggered. This response is hard-wired into our brains and represents a genetic wisdom designed to protect us from bodily harm.

Walter Bradford Cannon first described this response as “an animal’s reaction to threats with a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system, priming the animal for fighting or fleeing.” Looking back over history, we can relate this type of reaction to hunters, people at war and people who lived in countries with high rates of violence. These situations would require people to have fight or flight reactions. However, in our highly educated and safe society, what triggers this type of reaction?

My email situation is a very common example of what happens in business and personal life situations. The impact within the workplace can lead to significant ramifications such as: disharmony within employees or teams, higher rates of absenteeism and employee turnover and lower employee engagement.

How can we lessen the risk of communications being misinterpreted?

1. Get to know co-workers on a personal level.
Understanding who they are and what is important to them will help you understand what triggers their emotions.

2. Clarify communications from the onset.
This could be as easy as adding an explanation about the importance of the request or explaining the underlying need. Too often a request for help comes out as “I need you to work late tonight to finish that report”. This can easily spur feelings of anger or disrespect. By adding an explanation to the request – “The client has contacted me today and he is really pressing for our report. He has changed the deadline to tomorrow because of pressure from his executives to move forward.” The recipient will understand the underlying need for the request.

3. Communicate with emotion.
Show appreciation, consideration and humility when communicating to your staff. They will respond to the emotion and will be less likely to misinterpret the intention. Example – “I really apologize for the short notice and I hope it doesn’t conflict with other personal commitments. Please let me know.”

4. Take their feeling into consideration.
Ask things like – “How can I help you get it done?” “What do you need to help you get it done?” “How can I make it up to you?” “How does that make you feel?”

5. Communicate face to face as much as possible.
Depending on the nature of the communication, face to face discussions can increase the likelihood that you will pick up on emotional signals. These signals can be dealt with right away before they manifest into bigger issues.

In a perfect world, we would be able to take all of these steps and live in harmony. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. Here are some signals to look for in an employee that might help you uncover problematic situations:
1. Avoidance of eye contact

2. People stop talking when they see you

3. Short or curt responses

4. Agitation or tension from the employee

5. Quick tempered

The best way to avoid misinterpretations of intentions in your workplace is to be aware of the signs and deal with the situation when it arises immediately. Creating a safe, open and caring work environment can lessen the risk of an employee feeling insure or emotionally sensitive at work and getting the wrong message from your communication.

New Year's Resolution

2010-12-21T12:27:00.000-05:00

It is that time of year where we reflect on the past and look hopefully towards the future. The New Year provides us with a starting point for change opportunities. Research shows that 40 to 45% of American adults make one or more resolutions each year. According to Opinion Corporation of Princeton, NJ, only 8% of people are always successful at achieving their resolutions, with 24% failing every time. The rest of the population falls somewhere in between with 19% successful about half of the time and 49% achieving infrequent success.
What is also interesting to note is that men have a higher likelihood of success when they set very defined and specific measurable goals, (such as losing a pound a week instead just losing weight), while women succeeded more frequently when they make their goal public and get support from their friends.

The fact is that change doesn’t come easily. Even with the best of intentions, a person should have a plan or strategy in place to help support the achievement of their goals.

Here are some coaching strategies to help you get to your finish line:

Focus on the personal benefit change can have on your life. To often people try to gain motivation from external or societal factors instead of looking inward to find intrinsic motivators. Losing weight to look better or to fit into your clothes won’t necessarily lead to success. But if the reason is to be a better role model for your children, or to avoid life threatening health risks, you will be more likely to stay on track. People tend to achieve their personal goals when they do it for themselves instead of for others. Sometimes the first and foremost change needs to start with how you feel about yourself!

Break your goal into small steps. Instead of saying “I want to lose 20 pounds”, give yourself a smaller goal like losing two pounds each week. Studies have found that people who set a series of smaller goals had an average success rate of 35%. This also keeps you from being overwhelmed by the magnitude of your overall goal. Twenty pounds might seem like an impossible hill to climb, but two pounds a week can be very doable.
Set a specific timetable. By setting a timetable, you may be less likely to procrastinate. Some changes are highly supported by specific schedules. For example, if someone wants to exercise more, having set a specific workout schedule will give them the opportunity to see how it fits into their schedule while still having time for other important commitments in their life.
Keep a log of your progress. You don’t want to forget how far you’ve come along your path. It’s great to achieve your small goals, but the real motivation will come from the realization of how much you’ve achieved over time!
Keep goal reminders in visible areas. Reminders could come in the form of pictures, motivational quotes, or your short term goal. Use post-it notes to stick reminders in places you spend lots of time as well as in areas where you are likely to sway from your goal. Find what works for you.
Share your goal with a friend. Have someone close to you hold you accountable for the change you want to make. Make sure they are aware of the underlying importance of achieving your goal so they can use this as a motivator when necessary. Arrange regular check in calls where the only purpose is to talk about your progress and how you are feeling.
Don’t be hard on yourself. Remember that change doesn’t come easy. It takes time and there may be bumps along the way that lead you off track. Acknowledge that you are human, give yourself a pep talk (or turn to your support system) and get back on your path.
Reward small achievements. Set milestones along the way that are rewarded with small gifts. Give yourself something you won’t normally buy. Pamper yourself to show you appreciate your hard work. Many people are quick to give to others, yet rarely give to themselves. These rewards support the fact that this change is about you. Caring about your self is an essential ingredient in bringing about change in your life.
Don’t over burden yourself with resolutions. Change is not easy. It takes focus and dedication. By setting too many goals for yourself, you can easily get overwhelmed and this increases the likelihood of failure. Focusing on one goal and achieving it successfully will provide you with the motivation and drive to tackle the next one. Also remember that change can happen at any time during the year. It doesn’t have to come from a New Year resolution. Keep taking small steps and you won’t believe how far you get!

How Do You Inspire Others?

2010-11-24T15:06:00.000-05:00

We can inspire others in many ways. Usually we inspire by triggering a core value in someone.

I work to inspire my clients (personal and corporate) to gain a deeper awareness of their authenticity and to live their life/ run their business honouring their values and authentic self. From this, my goal is to have these people inspire others in their community to live and work authentically. Ultimately we would have a world where people are more accepting of each other’s differences. We would be free from judgement and discrimination.

Corporations have the opportunity to evoke inspiration in their employees and the public. It can start with the creation of a powerful and meaningful mission or vision statement and then followed through with actions and strategies that bring this message to life. I’ve been intrigued by the story of Guy Laliberté and his company Cirque du Soleil. Mr. Laliberté has recently been saluted as one of 25 living Canadians who have made a difference in the fields of business, science and technology, the environment, education, health care and community (see www.twentyfive.ca). Mr. Laliberté has built a world renowned organization whose mission is: “…to invoke the imagination, provoke the senses and evoke the emotions of people throughout the world.”

Cirque du Soleil has a very clear, meaningful and inspiring corporate mission. They have gained their status of success by fulfilling this mission with their shows and by continuously raising the bar on the meaning of their mission.

To emphasis my point, I thought I would show a mission statement that lacks inspiration. I didn’t have an example off the top of my head so I thought about a public company that has had continuous struggles with its operational and financial success. The first company that came to my mind was Air Canada (I really don’t know why this company came to mind and I’ve never looked at their mission statement), so I thought I would go with my intuition and see where it led. It turns out their mission statement is: “Connecting Canada and the World”

Wow – I don’t even know where to start. Let’s just say this mission statement doesn’t inspire me to do business with the company. Do you think this statement could inspire their employees? The public? Maybe it’s an industry thing. How inspiring can a mission statement be for an airline? Well, what about this one?

“The mission of … is dedicated to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a

sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride and Company Spirit.”

Can you feel the difference? This mission statement belongs to Southwest Airlines. The message of each mission statement is drastically different. Air Canada statement leaves me seeing an airplane flying to many places around the world. OK – that’s what they do – very specific, very corporate, very cerebral. Southwest Airlines mission statement evokes emotion. There is a drawing people have to this message because it’s about them – the customer. It’s saying “this is how we will make a difference to you and your life”. Southwest Airlines’ job is to continue to make this happen – to have specific experiences and strategies that show their commitment to customer service and like Cirque du Soleil, to continuously raise the bar on what customer services is. Air Canada’s job I guess is to continue to transport passengers between Canada and other destinations around the world.

Are you the Cirque du Soleils and Southwest Airlines or the Air Canadas? How do you inspire your customers, employees, family and friends? I would love to hear.

Camaraderie strengthens employee engagement

2010-10-29T14:42:00.000-04:00

Encouraging and building strong relationships in your organization can contribute to the success of the employees and the business. According to the Gallup Management Journal’s Employee Engagement Index 29% of employees are actively engaged in their jobs, 54% are not engaged and 17% are actively disengaged. This shows that there is a strong need for strategies to improve engagement. The Corporate Leadership Council 2004 Employee Engagement Framework and Survey found that a significant contributor to stronger employee engagement was the relationship between an employee and their direct manager as well as the relationships between peers. Strong relationships do promote the desire to communication with coworkers and teams members. Strong relationships bring people together and create an environment people want to come to and bring others into. This in turn will have a positive impact on the discretionary effort shown by employees.

Building camaraderie comes from the layering of experiences. It won’t happen overnight, but small steps can make huge contributions. Here are some simple and easy ideas:

1. Start by getting to know your employees. As the leader of the company, set the example. Make a conscious effort to walk around the organization more often and stop and talk to people. Invite other employees into the conversation to create connection. By sharing thoughts, we gain awareness of each other. This process will give employee permission to stop and talk during the day and understand that relationship this is a part of the corporate culture.

2. Create in-house committees. Maybe there is a not for profit organization the company is interested in supporting; or a new business system installation being contemplated; by getting employees involved in the investigation and execution of the idea, relationships can be built from the bond to the common topic.

3. Create mentoring programs. Not only are mentoring programs great to support the professional development of employees and demonstrate the dedication of the organization to its staff, it’s also a great way for people to get to know more about each other. The mentoring relationship organically builds from the sharing of learning and experiences. By encouraging the group of learners to connect, additional relationships can be created from their sharing of information and learning.

4. Cross train employees. This not only works in the company’s best interest to have people who can cover the responsibilities of their co-workers, but it also helps to develop relationships during the training and educating process. Time spent together can build bonds between peers and help to encourage a supportive team environment. Keep in mind that this concept must be implemented in an environment where employees feel no potential threat to the safety of the job. If an employee at any time feels that they are at risk to losing their job, the potential to create relationship will be lost and dissention will be created instead.

5. Encourage employees to add personal touches to their workspace. Family or holiday pictures will give others insight into their personal lives and may create awareness of common interests or bonds.

6. Create an internal blog where anyone can share their thoughts and opinions. Not only will this bring out new insights about the contributors, but it will enable others to share their comments and thoughts on the topic as well, opening employees up to similar interests and views.

7. Create social get-together opportunities. There is no need for elaborate social environments to create camaraderie, just make the opportunity to get together. It could be as simple as a corporate baseball game, or walking fitness group. Get staff volunteers to form a social committee to get the ball rolling and make this part of the company culture.

Make consistent and honest steps in encouraging relationships between employees. The results will be outstanding. Not only will you see the benefits from your staff, you’ll also see the payoff on your financial results too.

What's the difference between coaching, mentoring, conselling and training?

2010-10-14T09:45:00.000-04:00

I saw a discussion posting on Linked in asking this very question. There were not many responses, but those who did respond has a vast array of definitions. I thought it might be useful to share my perspective on this question on my blog.

Coaching – focuses on who you are today and who you want to be going forward. (The term “want to be” implies qualities and character of a person, not job titles or career achievements.) Coaching does not focus on the past – like counselling may. The coach acts as a catalyst for the client to gain a deeper understanding of himself. The client brings an agenda (little agenda) to the table e.g. be more organized, get better at managing time, and while the coach helps the client deal with their agenda, the overlying agenda (big agenda) is the personal awareness and growth of the client. Coaches know that the achievement of the big agenda goal will enable the client to handle all future little agenda issues that arise, thus bringing about more effective change and growth. Achievement goals can be used to help the client move forward in their growth process. The achievement or lack of achievement of these goals is used to help the client learn more about himself.

Mentoring – is a relationship between an individual with experienced in a particular field and a person within the same field who is looking for guidance to learn and grow in that field. The mentor shares his experience and knowledge, acts as a sounding board, advises. There may be achievement goals set by the mentor or learner. The achievement of these goals can bring about new goals to help the learner gain more insight and advance in their career. There may be some awareness of the character of the learner that comes out of the mentoring relationship, but this is not the focus.

Counselling – is the providing of direction or advice to another person on a specific course of action, in its very general sense. Counselling can be related to therapy based assistance that uses psychological methods (and sometimes tools and methods very similar to those of coaching). Counselling may use techniques that focus on the understanding of past situations to help deal with current situations. There is some understanding of who the person being counselled is (qualities and characteristics that arise in coaching as well). The counsellor tends to gain an understanding of the situation and the person, and then provides advice on next steps of growth.

Training – is the teaching of a specific task or objective. This is usually provided individually or in groups. The trainer may or may not have a further relationship with the trainees. The trainer provides specific instructional information regarding a specific topic. Training usually has specific steps or routines to follow in order to achieve the desired goals e.g. 5 ways to become a more effective speaker. It does not look at the intrinsic qualities of the trainees that could assist him in achieving the training objective. As well, very common with training, there is no follow up or accountability to see how the trainees are utilizing the information learned.

There are definitely overlaps between the various disciplines. To better serve our clients or employees, we should work to clarify when we are coaching, mentoring, counselling or training to help them gain the full benefits from each.

“Companies with the most effective Health and productivity programs experience superior human capital and financial outcomes” 1

2010-10-03T20:37:00.000-04:00

With significant experience in Human Resources and with the WSIB, Robert Smith has seen first hand how employee engagement can significantly impact workplace safety. He was kind enough to provide this very interesting blog post for us.

Today, in our competitive business environment, it is vital to have employees at work and actively engaged and this is fast becoming the primary global workforce. Proactive and progressive CEOs, CFOs and HR executives are now starting to examine different ways to tackle the challenges of rising health care and disability costs, lost productivity and high employee turnover.1

This means that leading companies are identifying the root causes of health care cost increases and productivity erosion and strengthening the link between health and employee effectiveness. A report by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHEM) estimates that by strengthening engagement, MolsonCoors saved more than $1.7 million in one year - citing one example where the average cost of a "safety incident" for an engaged employee was $63, compared with the average of $392 for a disengaged employee.

In their 2009/2010 Staying@Work Report, Watson Wyatt estimates direct and indirect health costs, including Workers Compensation, Long and Short Term Disability, unplanned and sick leave absences, medical costs, overtime, replacement worker costs, workstation modification and job accommodation and health management programs, account for 12.6% of total payroll costs.

While having engaged employees may not prevent workplace accidents, it is obvious that individual “incident” costs are most likely to be significantly less because your employees feel acknowledged, part of the team and want to stay in their work environment. It is clear that this is a strategy that influences many aspects of business performance and is well worth the investment.

1 2009/2010 Staying@Work Report Originally published by Watson Wyatt Worldwide

Robert Smith is the co-founder and managing partner of Injury Management Solutions providing claims management services from their Dundas location. ( www.InjuryMangementSolutions.ca)

A Wish Come True – Getting Paid to Do Nothing

2010-07-29T14:08:00.000-04:00

An article published in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 reported on employees of France’s governmental system being given good paying jobs, with little responsibilities and job requirements. (Please see below for a reprint of the article). They are basically paid to do nothing. One person interviewed said her work “amounted to between five and twelve hours a month of writing bland summaries of existing reports and helping councillors book first-class travel to destinations in Asia that had little or no relation to their business.”

As employee engagement specialists we work with our clients to develop an environment that challenges, rewards and fulfills their employees. We claim that this will make their employees happier and more motivated at work. In our movement to help the private sector, are we forgetting a huge majority of employees who work in the public sector? While the public sector has always held a reputation for employees who make too much money and don’t work too hard, should we the public start demanding a change in the culture of this sector? Is any work being done out there by engagement consultants with governmental offices?

I could stand back and say “People who take jobs in the public sector are looking for the easy way out anyways. They don’t want fulfillment or growth. They just want their pay checks and retirement packages.” I can’t. I believe that people want to thrive. They may not know how, they may be fearful of change or possibly they don’t have the needed support to help them. The reality is from positive work experiences comes positive life experiences. Happiness at work brings happiness at home.

Where do we go from here?

C’est la vie in French public sector – but the fight is on

Doug Saunders

Paris — From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Published on Tuesday, Jul. 27, 2010 10:38PM EDT Last updated on Wednesday, Jul. 28, 2010 8:35PM EDT

When Aurélie Boullet landed a full-time job two years ago as a mid-ranking fonctionnaire, or bureaucrat, in France’s regional government system, it was the fulfilment of the French dream, the culmination of six years of postsecondary education in government administration in one of the few countries where a permanent public-sector job is still considered the pinnacle of employment.

But the 30-year-old graduate soon found herself horrified by the realities of work in the French state. Installed in the Aquitaine Regional Council in southwest France, she was quickly told that her actual work amounted to between five and 12 hours a month, writing bland summaries of existing reports and helping councillors book first-class travel to destinations in Asia that had little or no relation to their business.

The French have a phrase for this cushioned world of public-sector employment: “le train de vie de l’Etat,” or the lifestyle of the state. President Nicolas Sarkozy, lagging behind other European leaders in facing up to his country’s debt crisis, has decided to confront it mainly by launching a commando mission to derail this first-class train.

Ms. Boullet paints a shocking picture of inefficiency and entitlement. One morning, she was brought into her supervisor’s office and told that she had produced a report in the wrong typeface. She was given a full week, without any other tasks, to solve this problem. The job took her about 25 seconds.

Most of her time at that job was to be filled with breaks, work-avoidance dodges, entire afternoons on Facebook and months of vacation. None of the 30 staff in her office seemed to have any real job; some were friends of councillors who were hired on lucrative contracts with the title chef de mission and no actual function. Across the government, she discovered, this was how life progressed.

“It’s true, I could have had a very nice life in there with good pay and an excellent pension and no work at all, but I was getting destroyed by my job, because I had nothing to do,” she said in an interview days after she was fired by her council for exposing its inefficiencies.

Mr. Sarkozy’s salvoes against the public service, however symbolic, hit where it hurts. One minister was forced to repay €12,000 of public money he had spent on Cohiba cigars; he argued that he had smoked €4,000 worth on official government business. Other ministers were forced to stop using chartered jets for visits home or flying first-class to unnecessary destinations.

Christine Lagarde, the Finance Minister and one of the authors of the money-saving proposals, was humiliated when Mr. Sarkozy’s office asked her to reduce her staff of highly paid personal assistants from 28 to perhaps half a dozen. She refused, saying her department was one of the few that produced revenue.

In order to avoid seeming to spare himself these lifestyle cuts, last week Mr. Sarkozy cancelled the Bastille Day party at the Élysée Palace, his official Paris residence, to save €780,000.

This may be a symbolic battle, but it means a lot in a country where 56 per cent of the work force is employed by government (the highest rate outside Sweden), where the largest and most revered corporations are fully owned or tightly controlled by the government.

France’s private sector has a huge and highly profitable footprint in Europe. The country’s cars, supermarkets, nuclear reactors and department stores are dominant sights from Tallinn to Lisbon.

France is very comfortable with the dominance of the public sector in its economy, but is unable to balance the books. At the same time, unemployment has leaped to 9.9 per cent, with millions of people excluded from the work force due to its restrictive entry requirements.

That has caused tax revenues to plummet. The government now takes in only €268-billion in income to cover €384-billion in expenses, leaving France with a deficit of 8 per cent of GDP, a full 5 per cent above the European Union limit. (That ranks France in the middle of the deficit roster; no major current member of the EU would qualify for membership if applying today.)

Because of this, stories of waste and inefficiency like Ms. Boullet’s are warmly received by the conservative government. Her workplace diary, published under the nom de plume Zoé Shepard with the ironic title Absolument Dé-bor-dée (Absolutely Snowed Under), became a sensation. This led her to be fired, and to become a champion of workplace efficiency.

“We are wasting money without any social gain – we can’t go on and on like this,” Ms. Boullet said. “We have to put a stop to this expensive system or it will destroy us.”

But the word “austerity” remains unmentionable among French politicians – it reeks of the Anglo-American liberalism whose very mention kills votes – so Mr. Sarkozy is proceeding slowly and symbolically even as his European neighbours hack away.

Two weeks ago, faced with a pension system that is unaffordable, a French parliamentary committee passed a plan to raise the retirement age to 62 from 60, a change that will not take place until 2018.

This followed plans to eliminate 100,000 public-sector jobs by not replacing workers who retire, for a saving of €3-billion. Mr. Sarkozy has hinted at far deeper cuts to public-sector expenditure to be implemented this autumn; economists say that far more will be required. Prime Minister François Fillon has reportedly told his cabinet that €45-billion will be slashed in the next three years, but details have not been announced.

Nevertheless, many observers feel that jobs like Ms. Boullet’s will persist because they are deeply ingrained in France’s political system – though not its economy.

“Why does France employ 500,000 more fonctionnaires than Germany, when its population is 20 per cent less?” asked Bruno Cavalier, chief economist at Paris’s Oddo Securities. “The answer is in the domain of politics. … To extricate ourselves from the dictatorship of the short term, we must ask what spending is really, truly necessary.”

Employee Engagement – Stop Trying to Buy It

2010-07-21T14:54:00.001-04:00

Every company has strategies to enhance employee engagement. Whether it’s a party, bonus incentive or telecommuting, employee engagement strategies are a part of the business’ growth plan. To what extent do business leaders and managers assess the effectiveness of these strategies? Some companies have formal evaluation or assessment processes to determine the impact of the strategies, and some may rely more on instinct. Whatever the method, insight is achieved.

I’ve noticed in my dealings with small and medium sized companies that the strategies they tend to use has a price tag attached to it. Benefits such as monetary bonuses and additional paid time off can increase motivation for the short term, but ultimately the benefit never covers the cost. What I've noticed is that when these types of initiatives are stopped, the level of engagement plunges.

What does this mean?

First of all, it shows that true employee engagement is not a commodity that can be bought. It has to be earned and nurtured. Like anything that has to be earned, it takes a consistent message and consistent reinforcement.

As discussed by Daniel Pink in his book Drive, The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us, financial reward works as a motivator for simple and short term tasks – e.g. I’ll pay you $100 if you move those boxes from point A to point B. For jobs that are more complex or complicated, Mr. Pink says that it is important to focus on intrinsic motivational factors. However, before you can look at intrinsic motivational factors, you must ensure that the employees are being paid enough and that they are treated fairly. If this isn’t happening, employees can’t be motivated.

According to Mr. Pink, intrinsic motivation comes from:

Autonomy – people are motivated by having a direct say on their own life;
Mastery – people are motivated when they make progress; and
Purpose – people like to know they are making a contribution to a broader purpose.

A study performed on hospital janitors whose role was to sweep and wash floors all day found that those who were able to sculpt their job and were encouraged to contribute were happier, more effective in their work and more likely to stay in their job for longer periods. Small changes such as giving them autonomy to decide when and where to clean (unless needed in a specific area) and encouraging janitors to talk to patients and help nurses were found to make significant shifts in engagement levels.

And what is so interesting, is that these strategies didn’t cost the organization any additional money!

These three motivators are very much aligned with our Hierarchy of Employee Needs (http://www.cultureshockcoaching.com/Hierarchy.php), which may put engagement strategies in more simplistic terms for business leaders. Here is how our Hierarchy of Needs compares to Daniel Pink’s conclusions:

Hierarchy of Needs Daniel Pink – Drive

Safety & security/ financial needs Paid enough and treated fairly

Relationship Autonomy

Recognition Mastery

Self-actualization Purpose

When people are paid enough and treated fairly, they feel safe in their jobs and their financial needs are met. A business leader will give an employee autonomy in his work when there is an awareness that the employee holds qualities such as responsibility, respect or determination. This comes from a strong relationship between an employee and their direct manager. To achieve mastery, employees require recognition for what they have achieved and what they can achieve. Progress in a job or career path will only occur when achievements are acknowledged. Self-actualization is gained through a sense of personal fulfillment. When employees understand the purpose of their work, and strive to achieve this purpose, fulfillment is gained.

How to incorporate intrinsic motivation into your engagement strategic plan?

1. Use the Culture Shock Coaching Hierarchy of Employee Needs to classify your existing strategies according to specific employee needs.

2. Look at the number of strategies in place that serve each need. Are you heavy in one area and light in another? How evenly are they disbursed? Do your strategies cover all areas of engagement needs?

3. Consider which areas need calibration – which areas need to be boosted, which areas need to be toned down?

4. Consider what strategies need to be set up to support this calibration.

5. Talk the talk – communicate this information on the staff. Talk about how important they are to the organization and their value to the team. Explain the strategies and your commitment to them.

6. Walk the walk – this is where the rubber hits the road. The consistency of your strategies is vital. If you decided to create a monthly news blast to acknowledge employee achievements and they stop going out after 4 months, your strategy will end up working against you. Commit to the strategies and make sure they happen. Get staff involved – it will add to their sense of purpose.

7. Repeat – make this process part of your annual strategic planning session. You will see the results on your bottom line.

Ontario’s Bill 168 –Violence and Harassment

2010-06-06T20:34:00.002-04:00

On June 15, 2010, Ontario’s Bill 168 will come into effect. The objective of this bill is to require employers to take steps to prevent workplace harassment and violence and have them:

Assess the risk of violence that may arise from the nature of the workplace and the type or work or the conditions of work;
From this assessment create policies and procedures to safeguard their employees from violence and harassment within the workplace;
Document these policies and communicate them to the employees or proper corporate health and safety representatives.

Definitions:

Bill 168 sets out the following definitions for workplace violence and harassment:

Workplace violence is:

1. the exercise of physical force by a person against a worker in a workplace that causes or could cause physical injury to the worker;

2. an attempt to exercise physical force against a worker in a workplace that could cause physical injury to the worker

Workplace harassment is defined as:
engaging in a course of vexatious comment or conduct against a worker in a workplace that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome.

Key Elements of Bill 168

Workplace Violence

Employers must assess the risks of workplace violence that may arise from the nature of the workplace, the type of work or the conditions of work.

Employers are required to develop written policies with respect to both workplace violence and workplace harassment and must review these policies once a year.
The program developed to implement the workplace policy must include measures
   to control the risks of workplace violence;
   to summon immediate assistance when workplace violence occurs;
   for workers to report incidents or threats of workplace violence; and
    that set out how the employer will deal with incidents, complaints and threats of workplace violence.
If an employer becomes aware or ought to reasonably to be aware, that domestic violence that would likely expose a worker to physical injury may occur in the workplace, the employer must take every reasonable precaution to protect the worker.

Workplace harassment

Employers are required to develop a program to implement the workplace harassment policy.

The program must include:

measure for workers to report incidents of workplace harassment;
set out how the employer will deal with incidents and complaints of workplace harassment;
make all employees aware of the harassment polices and programs available.

Unless there are less than six employees in the organization, the violence and harassments policies must be documented by the employer and be posted in a conspicuous place.

Bill 168 and Employee Engagement

According to the Hierarchy of Employee Needs (www.cultureshockcoaching.com/Hierarchy.php) workplace safety and security is very fundamental to employee engagement. Because it is so fundamental, its presence will not improve engagement, but its absence can lessen it.

Consider examples of an environment that does not provide safety and security such as: an employee who uses a broken ladder while performing his or her job; an employee who is regularly yelled at or demeaned by his manager; a workplace where layoffs are pending or job security is uncertain – how can an employee perform at their best. Their motivation levels are limited due to feelings of fear or uncertainty.

Bill 168 – while not necessarily motivated by engagement objectives can help to open employers’ eyes and become more proactive around the basic needs of employees. If safety and security are inherent to the workplace, then there becomes an implied culture of care. Employers can use this as a stepping stone to build on and use care as a corporate value for employees to model towards customers and peers.

In my view, Bill 168 is a good way for employers to become more transparent in their business policies. My hope is that employees will hold them accountable for these policies and start expecting a higher level of humanity within the workplace.

To view Bill 168, go to:
http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/bills/bills_detail.do?locale=en&Intranet=&BillID=2181

An employee perk based on mutual respect and a sense of responsibility – what is this world coming to??

2010-05-03T15:24:00.001-04:00

Seattle-based social media company Social Strata implemented in January 2010 a policy that allows all thirteen full time employees to take as much paid leave as they want. The CEO Rosemary O’Neill (of course it had to be a woman..) based this strategy on leadership theories developed by Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Built to Last. These theories support a culture full of self-disciplined people who take disciplined actions to achieve great results. To establish a policy where employees can take there must at least be some foundation of self-discipline within the workforce.

I’m sure many business leaders would think that such a policy would be a perfect opportunity for an employee to take advantage of the situation. However, it seems that Ms. O’Neill is relying on the strong relationship she has built with her employees – a relationship that is based on mutual respect and a sense of responsibility. With this at the heart of her company, she sees this new policy as an opportunity to stimulate higher levels of productivity.

I find this policy and the leadership style of Ms. O’Neill very exciting – and here is why (these are just my assumptions of course):

1. The corporate culture was created intentionally and consciously and is support by management’s actions and business strategies;

2. Ms. O’Neill has hired people who will respond positively to the culture - i.e: there was a focus on fit when recruiting;

3. There must be a strong level of communication within the organization;

4. The employees are filled with a sense of responsibility to the organization and to each other; and

5. Ms. O’Neill leads her employees – she doesn’t manage them. She creates the vision, she creates the mission and allows her employees to participate in working to fulfill them.

6. Employees are empowered at work. They are given the achievement goals and responsibilities. They create their environment to achieve them.

Some people might say because the company is so small that it’s easy to have these types of policies in place. I disagree. First of all, you don’t see many companies – of any size – with an unlimited paid time off (PTO) policy. I believe that a company which has a strong leadership team (senior and mid-management), and a strong and authentic corporate culture can also achieve this high level of trust, respect, discipline and commitment from their employees. I think that for the most part, too many business leaders are focused on the bottom line results and lose sight of the contribution their staff can make. Ms. O’Neill trusts her team’s commitment to the company. This comes in part from honouring them as human beings who have interests and lives outside of the office. People respond to this. If employees take advantage of the situation, then leaders should either looking into the situations that lead to this level of disengagement; looking at their hiring practices – are they hiring people who fit the culture; or looking hard at the intended culture and the culture that actually exists – chances are there are discrepancies.

Maybe if we focus more on creating workplaces where there is a belief that anything is possible – the growth of the business, employees and profits will be endless.

Cashing in on your corporate culture

2010-03-19T14:11:00.001-04:00

Everyday your culture impacts your actions, thoughts, successes and failures. Your culture represents the beliefs, behaviours and attitudes that you consciously live by. Parents work to instill certain values and beliefs in their children. As one matures, he learns more and more about himself. His life experiences and the norms and standards of society alter and refine his personal culture. Sometimes societal norms and standards play a larger role in the development of his culture than he realizes.

Corporations, like people, have their own unique culture. Commonly, the culture of an owner-managed company would significantly resemble the culture of the owner - whether good or bad. In larger organizations, there is a diverse and sometimes conflicting culture that runs through it due to the different characters making up the management team. As well, the corporate culture can be influenced by experiences and society - both positively and negatively, and sometimes unbeknownst to the management team. In any type of organization, a poor culture can lead to staff disengagement and customer dissatisfaction - two criteria that significantly impact the profitability of an organization.

By defining the corporate culture, management becomes accountable to the members of the corporation and the public to ensure their actions, strategies and business decisions support their intention. Corporate culture points directly to the strength of the leadership of the organization.

Both personal and corporate culture are comprised of three main components:

Vision
Values
Leadership branding

Vision

A vision is commonly presented in a corporate mission or vision statement. The corporate vision represents the foundation and focus of a business. It is an articulation of what the company's purpose is -beyond making money. It embodies the essence of what compels the company to thrive.

The development of a corporate mission or vision has become mainstream in the business world. It is commonly used as a marketing tool to inform the public about the company. Where management commonly fails to get the real benefit from this powerful form of communication is by:

Limiting its potential - when used as a marketing tool the words are developed to sell the product or service of the organization. It misses out on the potential to compel people to deal with the organization as a customer or an employee. When your statement is compelling, it draws a larger and more diverse audience and keeps them captivated with the company.

Not communicating the vision to their staff. The staff may take time to read the words of the statement, but they are not attuned to the feeling or passion that has motivated management to write these words.

Not aligning the staff's personal culture (i.e. what personally compels them) to that of the company's. There is a lost opportunity to show the employees how their job can bring personal fulfillment, bringing them to a higher level of commitment to the company.

Posting the vision on their website and forgetting about it. To gain the full benefit of the corporate vision, management must embody the words and use it as the basis for strategic planning and day-to-day decision-making. When clients see that the company's representatives don't live up to the expectations, they become disenchanted and there is a risk of them finding another supplier.

Through its established culture, Southwest Airlines has experienced soaring profitability and high levels of staff and customer engagement.

"The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit."

After 9/11, many travellers wanted to cancel or change their travel arrangements on pre-purchased tickets. While many airlines were charging fees to make these changes, the management of Southwest Airlines looked to their mission statement for direction. Their decision to not charge passengers for any changes or cancellation and offer full refunds if requested fully supported their culture of providing "the highest quality of Customer Service". While some passengers did request refunds, most did not. As a result of their actions, Southwest Airlines did more than survive one of the most challenging times for the travel industry. To this day, Southwest Airlines is known for its strong sense of Customer Service.

Powerful leaders throughout time have developed a vision that benefits not only themselves, but others as well. It is this type of vision that attracts others and makes them willing to work beyond the call of duty for that leader.

Values

Your values reflect the essence of who you are and what strongly enriches your life. Values come from the core of a person. When you live your life in honour of your values, your life is meaningful and rich. If you were to think of a memorable time in your life - an experience that brought out your extreme feelings, for example, the birth of a child, an exciting holiday, helping someone in need, what makes the event memorable is that somehow it activated an important value within you. Living your life honouring your values is what makes you jump out of bed everyday excited to start your day.

Values play a large role in the development of a strong business culture. The corporate values provide the essence of how each employee is called upon to represent the organization. When management spends time defining, discussing and acknowledging the corporate values, the behaviours and expectations of staff become clear and consistent. This leads to improved staff engagement and better-serviced clients. These factors have a significant impact on the corporation's profitability.

Once the leaders have identified and defined the corporate values, it is vital to help the staff discover how their personal values are validated when they perform their job in accordance to the corporate values. This alignment will make personal and corporate values increase staff engagement. Therefore, the employee gains more fulfilment from their job and is motivated to work harder, bringing their best to their work.

Corporate values greatly facilitate the recruiting process. Recruiters commonly look for a person who has the skills to perform a specific task. The human resource team use various skills to get a sense of how well the candidate can handle the responsibilities of the job, and how they would fit into the organization. In corporations where values are part of the corporate culture, the recruiting process takes on a new life. The process becomes one of uncovering the candidate's values and assessing how aligned they are with those of the corporation. There is no second-guessing. Using corporate values in the recruiting process can reduce recruiting time and costs. But best of all, it can increase the likelihood the new recruit will fit well into the organization and will stay with the company for a long time.

Leadership Branding

Branding is used by companies to establish an identity for their products or services. Product branding focuses on how the product makes customers feel.

A leadership brand represents the identity and reputation of leaders throughout the company. A leadership brand exists when leaders at all levels of an organization demonstrate consistent reactions to issues and strategies within the company. Successful leaders tie their brand identity to the changing expectations of customers, staff and stakeholders.

Firms with branded leadership enroll their customers through consistent and appropriate methods of meeting their needs. Customers develop a knowing of what to expect from the organization's representatives because their actions are congruent with the corporate values and vision.

The benefit of leadership branding also extends to the employees. When a consistent and effective leadership brand exists in an organization, employees know what to expect. This greatly enhances motivation and minimizes staff turnover.

Leadership branding is a valuable tool for organizations of all sizes. Even in an owner managed company, the development of a leadership brand can result in consistently dealing with issues in a way that alleviates their burden, allowing the owner more time to grow and develop his business.

Research has shown and experience has confirmed that organizations with a corporate culture comprising of a compelling vision, values aligned to all employees and a strong leadership brand can achieve higher profitability than organizations without. As a leader of a business, it is important to use your leadership skills to impact people. By enrolling staff, clients and potential clients into the vision of the organization and connecting to their personal values, the company is transformed from a tool for making profits into a creative, humane experiment for improving life.

Toyota’s Corporate Culture May Save Them in the End

2010-03-05T14:36:00.004-05:00

Toyota has had a strong reputation for producing high quality cars. This came from its long established corporate culture. To more effectively communicate this culture, in 2001, Toyota Motor Corporation created “The Toyota Way” – a summary of values and conduct for all employees to commit to. The Toyota Way works within two pillars – 1) respect for people and 2) continuous improvement. (At the end of this blog post, I’ve included a more detailed description of The Toyota Way). For many years, the company worked diligently to uphold these pillars through various business strategies. The results were seen in the continuous demand for Toyota cars, their customer satisfaction and loyalty levels and their financial success. The recent series of recalls has been attributed to, in part, to a shift from the Toyota Way culture.

In his testimony to the US Grand Jury on February 24, 2010, the President of Toyota Motor Corporation, Aiko Toyoda stated:

“… I fear the pace at which we have grown may have been too quick. I would like to point out here that Toyota’s priority has traditionally been the following: First; Safety, Second; Quality, and Third; Volume. These priorities became confused, and we were not about to stop, think, and make improvements as much as we were able to before, and our basic stance to listen to customers’ voices to make better products has weakened somewhat. We pursued growth over the speed at which we were able to develop our people and our organization, and we should sincerely be mindful of that….

http://www.c-span.org/pdf/Mr%20%20Toyoda%20Testimony.pdf

Mr. Toyoda infers that the Toyota Way was not being followed. The company’s focus was on growth (profit – in my words). The company became a mass producing organization, instead of a manufacturer whose primary focus was on quality. They strayed away from their core values. As a result, approximately 8.5 million cars were recalled in North America. The irony is that the growth of Toyota was due to the established culture of the company. Wasn’t it the Toyota Way that helped them achieve their continued growth and profitability? Wouldn't upholding their culture be vital, to remain a strong player in their market? I remember a time when people had to wait for Toyota cars. Toyota cars were outselling production volumes. Yet, this didn’t stop customers from ordering Toyota cars - and waiting for delivery - nor did it stop the company from sticking to their dedication to high quality.

By acknowledging this divergence from its intended corporate culture, I truly believe Toyota Motor Corporation has a chance to regain its status in the auto world. People want to get value for their money. People want reliability. Toyota has been known to deliver on these two areas. By assuring the public that Toyota will be more aware of what they stand for and go back to working within the Toyota Way, people are sensing that the high quality products will be available to them. Sales reports for February 2010, shows that even in the midst of all the recall turmoil, Toyota sales were up in Canada by 25%. Quite an impressive number.

A strong corporate culture benefits a company in many, many ways. As seen in the pre-recall era of Toyota, their consistent and deep-seated corporate culture had a very positive impact on the financial results of the organization; employee engagement levels; and most importantly, customer engagement and satisfaction.

As business leaders, what can we take away from this?
1. The investment of time, energy and money put into the development a clearly codified and meaningful corporate cultures pays off;

2. Safeguards and checks must be in place to catch strategies and actions that stray from the intended culture;

3. Consistently looking for and listening to early warning signs from customers and employees is vital. Even one complaint can have significant meaning and implications. These warning signs must be acted upon - no matter what;

4. Ensure strong communication channels are established and encouraged between employee levels and management. Employees bring a wealth of information from the front line. Empower them to be the eyes and ears of the organization.

I’m very curious to see how long it takes Toyota to heal this very deep wound with its American customers and what steps they take to prove their intentions.

How clear is your company's corporate culture? Is it well documented and communicated to employees on a regular basis? Do your business strategies and the actions of your business leaders model your intended corporate culture? How does your corporate culture impact your current and potential customers? Are you getting the highest financial return from your corporate culture? Don't fall into the same predicament Toyota did. Ensure your corporate culture is strong, authentic and consistently adhered to by all members of your organization!

The Toyota Way

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Challenge: We form a long-term vision, meeting challenges with courage and creativity to realize our dreams.
     • Value through manufacturing and delivery of products and services
     • Spirit of challenge
     • Long-range perspective
     • Thorough consideration in decision making

Kaisen: We improve our business operations continuously, always driving for innovation and evolution.
     • Kaizen mind and innovative thinking
     • Building lean systems and structure
     • Promoting organizational learning

Genchi Genbutsu: We practice genchi genbutsu: go to the source to find the facts to make correct decisions, build consensus, and achieve goals at our best speed.
     • Genchi genbutsu
     • Effective consensus building
     • Commitment to achievement

RESPECT FOR PEOPLE

Respect: We respect others, make every effort to understand other, take responsibility, and do our best to build mutual trust.
     • Respect for stakeholders
     • Mutual trust and mutual responsibility
     • Sincere communication

Teamwork: We stimulate personal and professional growth, share the opportunities of development, and maximize individual and team performance.
     • Commitment to education and development
     • Respect for the individual; realizing consolidated power as a team.

Source: How Toyota Became #1 – David Magee

Avatar - Why it's really an important movie

2010-02-03T12:09:00.000-05:00

I recently went to see the movie Avatar with my husband. I was excited to see what all the hype was about with respect to the technical advancements that James Cameron and his team made with this movie. I didn’t expect to enjoy the movie, as I perceived it to be a typical “battle” movie – not my cup of tea.

I was very impressed by how life-like the animated creatures (Avatars) were. But more so, I was blown away by the strong message this movie was sending out to its viewers and almost disappointed in the fact that this message was taking a back seat to the technology.

Yes – there is the good (the spiritual Avatars) vs evil (the greedy unconscionable humans) aspect, which we have seen time and time again. But what really connected with me were two things: First was the self-awareness one of the human characters experienced from his connection to the Avatars. In his “task” of learning the culture of these people in order to serve the greedy humans, he gained awareness of what was important to him. The story allowed us to watch him change from an unmotivated, detached person to someone who had a clear understanding of the meaning of life and who lived so connected to his emotions. This change empowered him to strongly take a position for what he believed in.

This character’s personal growth came from his experiencing the strong culture of the Avatar community. Their culture was so true and embedded in them they authentically lived it daily. The culture created a connection between the members that provided support and acceptance during both good and challenging times. It provided an unstoppable force against challenges. At no time did you believe that the Avatars wouldn’t be there for each other.

Why did this film impact me so strongly? Because my personal and business mission is to encourage and support authenticity. I have seen (and experienced) how people come alive when they live in accordance to their personal core values. I have seen organization flourish when their culture is so authentic and strong. Their employees are highly commitment. These employees go to all ends to support the success of the company. These companies are authentic to their culture and support the authenticity of their employees. Like the Avatars, they endure the challenges they are faced with. They survive these challenges and come out stronger than before.

Finding your authenticity and living in it is, to me, the essence of true success.

Are Employers Really Achieving their Engagement Objectives

2010-01-10T12:13:00.001-05:00

Year after year, much analysis is done to come up with a list of the country’s Top Employers. These organizations gain bragging rights to wear this illustrious badge proudly and use it to attract brightest and best people. But what really makes these companies stand out from the rest and make them a Top Employer? We looked at 5 random companies that made the 2010 Top 100 Employers in Canada list. Here are is a summary of what makes them stand out from the rest:

So it's seems to be all about what these companies do for their staff - those financial perks and benefits are the hook and bait to keep employees happy, motivated and committed to the organization. But are they really engaging these employees?

Defining engagement

Engagement is about commitment to the work and organization and the effectiveness of an employee’s day-to-day performance. I would tend to agree that all of these nice perks would lend to the ongoing commitment of an employee to an organization – unless someone provides them with a better deal, of course. But with the current trend of piling on the perks, is this the only rope you want your employees hanging onto to guarantee they stay with your organization?

What about the effectiveness of their performance? Are all these perks successful in improving efficiency, accuracy and quality of work? Will an employee give what ever it takes to deliver results and contribute to the growth and innovation of the organization (i.e. characteristics of a fully engaged employee) because they now have $1000 available to them to use at their discretion for fitness? I don’t think so!

I was talking about this with a friend of mine who has

a successful business of her own. One of her major

customers is on the list of the Top 100 Employers

in Canada. She was shocked to find out they were

given this honour. As she put it “When I speak to

the employees, they all say how they hate working

for the company, but the benefits are great, so they

don’t leave.” Are these the employees you would

want to have dealing with your customers? More so,

are you getting the intended return on your investment in the benefits and perks?

What does work to engage employees?

A high level of engagement comes from connecting an employee to their personal passion. Personal passions come from the honouring of our personal core values. When we align our personal core values to the work we are doing, we gain a sense of fulfillment. It is that fulfilment that provides us with boundless energy to give to our work. As termed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, we are in “flow” – the deep sense of awareness and connection to what you are doing.

How can employers make this happen?

Here are five easy steps:

1. Have your employees share success stories and peak experiences to draw out their personal core values. By sharing this in groups, you will also add the benefit of the team members getting to know and understand each other better. This builds relationship and connection which also contribute to engagement.

2. Have each employee work with a partner to define and codify these values, in order to get a clearer sense of what each means to him.

3. Have each person determine which of these values are important to connect to their work. Let go of whether it is possible or not at this point. Just leave it as a "wishing well" of opportunity.

4. Create strategies and timelines to realistically bring as many of these values to the employee’s current role and responsibilities.

5. Create accountability between the employee and their direct manager to ensure it happens.

Achieving a team of fully engagement employees doesn't have to cost a lot of money. Honouring who your employees are as people can make you (and them) richer than you think.

Dealing with disenchantment at work

2009-10-12T19:33:00.007-04:00

The Economist.com October 8, 2009 article called "Hating what you do - Disenchantment with work is growing. What can be done about it?" http://http//www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14586131 brings to light a very sad reality that people have gotten to the hopeless place of hating their jobs so much, they commit suicide.

For most of us, this level of disengagement is hard to fathom - even for those who don't like the work they do. What this article stirred up some questions: does management not notice disengagement and assuming they do, what stops them from doing anything about it? Do they really believe it will get better on it's own? It constantly astounds me when I see how many people at the management level aren't concerned with the level of engagement from their staff - "as long as the job gets done", and from employees who don't do anything about their disengagement - "nothing is going to change". What makes high engagement such an unnecessary commodity in the workplace?

Many business leaders don't know how to deal with disengagement. It requires them to move into emotional territory, which may bring a level of discomfort to them. There is a deep perspective in the business world that emotions and the heart don't mix with money and business. How can it not mix? Business is all about providing people with what they want or need. That creates revenues. By supporting the needs and wants of the people inside the company, you are supporting their emotional well being. When a person's emotional well-being is strong, he is more effective in what he does. It's that simple.

My sense is that if emotions played a stronger role in the business world, for example, having a corporate culture that stems from emotion and not logic, than engagement would be organic. People who connect to these emotions would be great candidates as engagement employees or loyal customers; there would be a clearer roadmap for handling internal issues; issues would be dealt with directly and not skirted around because of their emotional impact.

Here are some steps to start opening up the emotions at work:
1. Change your attitude around dealing with emotions - it doesn't have to be hard;
2. Communicate, communicate, communicate - the more management can share, the more people will understand;
3. Bring some home skills to the office - it may be easier to deal with emotional issues because of the vested interest of family. Use some of these skills at work and see the payoff;
4. Ask for feedback - you may not get honest feedback at the start, but once employees see how committed you are this will change;
5. Don't give up. This is an investment in the long-term and it takes time.

There is a belief that employee engagement comes from doing more for your employees - gifts, rewards, benefits. Human nature and psychological research proves that people look for emotional fulfillment to bring engagement. Start now - the little steps will be noticed - and appreciated.

Is Spying on your Employees the Answer?

2009-09-14T09:52:00.004-04:00

The Economist magazine published an article in its September edition called "Big Brother Bosses - More than ever, companies want to know what their employees are up to" (http://www.economist.com/businessfinance). The article talks about the booming business of employee monitoring. Yes - employee monitoring. According to this article, some employers are now using video monitoring for more than the potential of theft.

The article cites a recent report from a consultancy firm called Gartner, which found that spending on security software rose by 18.6% to $13.5 billion in 2008. The market for security information and event management software, which can be used to mine e-mails for keywords and security breaches, grew by 50%. The fastest growing area is network forensic software, which lets firms record and playback exactly what happens on employees' computer screens, and can even record keystrokes.

According to the article, these types of software are being used to protect the company from theft of sensitive data by embittered staff members; usage of the company network on unsecured websites and to monitor actions of employees with customers.

Looking at this article from the point of view of employee engagement, I start to wonder many things: what is the level of trust within the organization? How authentic and consistent is the leadership in relation to the stated corporate culture? What is management’s perception of the culture as compared to the employee’s perception? How does management see these techniques maintain a strong level of engagement? What’s it like to work in a fear-based environment where there is no trust?

Strong business leaders know that high employee engagement plays a huge role in maximizing financial results. Employee engagement comes from happy employees, being empowered to bring their best and being recognized for what they bring. When you know you are being watched as you perform your job or know that your actions are being monitored a feeling of control and mistrust is created.

Engagement drivers should fulfill a number of levels of employee needs such as:

1. Security and safety – if any employee feels threatened at work, or fears their job security is at risk, their level of engagement will likely be low. This tends to result in a higher likelihood of absenteeism or termination of employment.

2. Financial needs – when employees feel they are not being compensated fairly or adequately as compared to their peers and within the market, their level of engagement will be affected. Interestingly enough, compensation packages that exceed industry average don’t necessarily bring about continued high levels of engagement.

3. Relationship and belonging – people who develop connections and friendships with peers and especially with their direct supervisor have been found to have a higher level of engagement than those who have not developed relationships.

4. Recognition – when a person is acknowledged for his accomplishments, quality of service or achievements he feels good about himself. People like to be seen in a positive light. Who wouldn’t want to work in a place that acknowledges your hard work?

5. Personal growth and fulfillment – when a work place can provide a sense of personal fulfillment to an employee, a high level of engagement is achieved. At this point, the employee is aware of the benefits they bring to the company, and gain deep personal gratification from their work. They are true advocates of the organization.

When we look at a company who monitors the activities of their employees through cameras or computer software, the safety and security of the employees is now threatened. They may or may not be aware of what management is looking for, but the uncertainty it brings will disengage the employee. When fundamental needs such as safety, security and compensation are not provided, it is very unlikely that an employee will be able to develop healthy and positive relationships (especially with his supervisor), accept recognition for his achievements or gain personal fulfillment from his work.

I wonder what management's big picture objective was when incorporating these “security strategies" – or were they only looking at the trees?

Look for my next blog posting where I will delve further into these 5 levels of engagements and talk more specifically about strategic plans for each level.

The Right Career Choice

2009-06-24T09:57:00.002-04:00

Recently the Globe and Mail newspaper presented the results of a poll whereby they asked people whether they chose the right career. Of the over 5500 respondents, 15% responded "yes" while 31% responded "no". These results very strongly point to the fact that there are more people who do not like their current career path. What does this mean?

For the individual:
He or she is spending 1/3 of their waking hours doing something they don't enjoy. The lack of fulfillment and joy probably flows over to the rest of their life bringing lower energy and lower happiness to personal relationships and personal time. At this time, there have been no direct correlations to medical illnesses, but it would not be a far stretch to think that emotional issues relating to job and career dissatisfaction could increase the likelihood of depression and other health issues.

For the employer:
The costs associated to employees who are not highly engaged are staggering. Low productivity, personal internet usage, absenteeism and low morale have not only financial ramifications but a strong impact on other employees who may otherwise be enjoying their work. Small internal issues get magnified by unhappy employees and as the intensity of the issue grows through the staff, the overall engagement and reputation of the employer diminishes. The small fire gets fuelled by strong winds - taking over the environment and spreading the destruction.

What to do:

For individuals:
I have found that many people who are not happy with their current career path stay there because a) they are making too much money in their current job and they don't feel it is possible to make that much money doing something else; b) it's too late to start over; or c) they don't know how to start finding something better. Here are my thoughts on these three concerns:
a) if you are making that much money doing something you don't enjoy, how much money could you make doing something you love!
b) considering people are now working well into their 70s, are you willing to continue working at something you're not enjoying? Even if you are 50 years old, do you want to spend the next 15 to 20 years continuing to work at something you don't enjoy? It's true you've already invested maybe 25 years into your current career, but don't you deserve to be happy for the remaining time you'll be working?
c) people believe that finding something new would be hard. Stop thinking that way! You might be aware of the right career path for you and maybe it's just a slight variation of your current career. What I have found in my work is that we generally dissonate from a career path when it defies one or more of our core values. When something is important to you (e.g. a core value of inclusion - where you thrive when working with people, getting input from many to solve a problem) and your job doesn't include that, it can be a major influence on your job dissatisfaction. Therefore, start by connecting to your core values. Which of your values are present and honoured in your current career? Which aren't? Which core values need to be honoured in your career to bring a sense of fulfillment and joy to you?
Once you have gained clarity around your core values, look at your current career path. Is it possible to work with the Human Resource department within your organization to make changes to your role to give you with the opportunity to honour your values? Maybe it's an opportunity in another area of the company, or maybe even changes to your current role? Employers are looking for ways to improve engagement, so most likely they will be open to direct insight from you on how to make this happen. If this doesn't seem to be possible or appropriate, look for other job opportunities that will honour and allow you to express these core values.

For the employer:

Offer workshops that encourage people to explore their core values. Workshops should be offered to team members as the awareness that comes from expression of values increases the connection and strengthen relationships between participants. Just strengthening relationships within teams members and peers is a great step toward improved employee engagement.
With this deepened awareness, have participants create an action plan to incorporate their core values into their jobs. Participants should then work with their managers to create the scope and accountability for this action plan. This will help bring the action plan to life.
This formula has been used very successfully by Culture Shock Coaching in its workshop called The C.O.R.E. Project. Employees have expressed very positive feedback on the level of awareness the workshop provided and the concrete steps to make changes in their job.

People want to find work that they enjoy. Employers want highly engaged employees. It's time to make this happen!

Good Good Good - Good Vibrations

2009-06-12T13:54:00.005-04:00

Have you ever noticed how your mood and energy level changes according to the people you are with? If someone is very happy and giddy, their mood and energy seems to lift yours up, and conversely, your mood can be impacted by someone who is down or sad. People have said that moods are contagious.

How does this impact a business environment? Consider this scenerio - a departmental manager comes to work in a bad mood from an arguement he had with his wife. At the office, he snaps at staff when they ask him questions or provides short, curt answers. He spends most of the day in his office with the door closed. Everyone knows to stay away.

There is a high likelihood that the manager's mood and energy will have a great impact on the level of energy and motivation of his team. His mood will limit the interaction between team members and impose a "get to work" attitude. This type of environment will not lend to creativity, initiative or high motivation. What if a client calls? What is the likelihood that they will send the low level of energy the mood have brought? You can bet they will. The mood will transpire through the conversation with the employee. This type of low energy conversation may have an unconscious effect on the client and can impact their future business with the company.

Now let's look at the opposite situation. The team manager comes into the office with a high level of energy. He stops to briefly chat or joke with each team member before starting his day. He exudes optimizism and positivity that the day will bring great things. He is smiling at everyone and is very approachable. What will this do to the team spirit? To the energy? To the enthusiasm of each team member? How will the manager's energy lift the energy of each member of the team? The team as a whole will be uplifted. The positive outlook of the manager will spead to each individual. They will feel supported and confident.

As a business leader, it is vital to the financial well-being of your company to spread good energy. You would never consider being anything positive to your clients, so why not keep that philosophy with your staff was well.

Start each day with an energy level check:

1. Spend a few quiet minutes alone assessing how you feel today and what may be impacting your emotions (either good or bad. If something is affecting your emotions positively -e.g. a good joke, a hug from your child, you might want to use it as a resource on lower energy days)

2. Walk around your office and get a sense of what the energy level is. Are people just waking up? Does someone seem especially happy?

3. Assess what needs to be done to the existing emotional level. Do certain people need to be grounded? Are there any people who can support their peers?

4. Consciously choose how you want to be with your staff. Do you want to be the smiling listener today or the upbeat humourist?

Do this on a regular basis. Once you established a high energy environment as a part of your corporate culture, engage staff members to monitor the daily energy and take responsibility for it. Assign a monthly "Happiness monitor" to watch over people. Have quarterly recognition awards to acknowledge those who bring a high level of energy to the workplace. This will constantly keep employees thinking of how to raise the bar on positive high energy.

At the end of the day, you will have great work environment, employees who love to come to work and customers who are reaping the benefits from the quality and level of service they achieve. Who wouldn't want to work in your business???

Beware of time wasters

2009-05-20T14:54:00.003-04:00

In today's National Post Working section there was a commentary by Howard Levitt called "Beware of Time Wasters - How to monitor staff who say they are on outside calls."

He starts off by saying: "Employees surfing Facebook costs employers more than $5-billion a year according to a recent study." He continues his commentary by discussing ways employees steal time from their employers and the best ways of monitoring their activities. I bring this article to attention as it does greatly represent the concerns of many business leaders.

The topic of staff spending time on Facebook is more about their level of engagement than the money wasted on Facebook. Guaranteed if they were not surfing around Facebook, they would not be highly focused on their work. It is important for employers to get to the underlying issues around staff engagement.

Coincidently as well today, the Globe and Mail newspaper has an article called "The Real Deal on Why People Quit", by Tavia Grant. This article discussed the contracting views of why people leave a job. The article stated the top three reasons workers cited for voluntarily leaving an employer were: 1. Lack of trust in senior leaders; 2. Insufficient pay; and 3. Unhealthy/undesirable culture. The top three reasons managers say they think their employees left were: 1. Insufficient pay; 2. Unexpected job / career opportunity; and 3. Decision to change careers.

I believe to a great extent it is this dis-connect between staff and management that leads to engagement issues. People don't come to a job looking to slack off. If this was true, it would become evident after a few weeks. There are usually a number of events that slowly and surely impact the level of engagement of employees. From my experience, some of these events are:
- inconsistencies in behaviour by leaders (what they say isn't always what they do);
- poor communication from management - whether it is unclear communication of job requirements or little dialogue of corporate strategies, employees feel disconnected when they are not informed;
- connection / relationship with manager - when an employee is seen as just an employee and not a human being, their level of engagement declines. There could be many factors that impact the level of job satisfaction, but many research studies show that the absence a good relationship between staff and management could be the most severe.

Ms. Grant ends her article by writing "Senior leaders should try to build (or re-build) trust among their employees by being honest and transparent as well as having a clear vision and workable plan."

I agree with this. However, the first step to honesty for a leader is being honest with himself. Business leaders must start by being open to what is truly going on in their workplace. They must search out feedback from staff and use this as a truthful indicator of the engagement climate. The more they seek and appreciate feedback from staff, the wider the doors will open for more sincere information. This will pave the path for higher levels of engagement and a more productive workforce!

Appreciation

2009-05-08T16:50:00.003-04:00

As we start to see some positive signs in the Canadian and US economy, there is anticipation that the job market will start picking up again. With growth in the economy comes an increase in hiring. Employers, HR specialists and recruiters will soon start looking for candidates with strong technical skills, good work ethics and motivation to get ahead. This can put you at risk of losing your best people. It’s never too early to ensure your key people are committed to your company. One way to up the level of staff commitment is to ensure they feel appreciated for the hard work they do and sacrifices they make for your company. Now is a great time to look at each member of your organization and evaluate how you are acknowledging them on a regular basis. For some leaders acknowledgements are a conscious part of their day-to-day leadership skills, for others it may come only during annual staff reviews. The more consistent they acknowledgement (remember they must be genuine, not forced because you have to)

Here are some ways to acknowledge your staff:

1. Talk to them about their work and give them strong acknowledgements about the work they have been doing. Don’t make this a one-time meeting. These types of conversations should be a regular part of your interactions with staff;

2. Have a discussion about their growth path within the company. As them where they see themselves going in the company or what areas of the business they would like to experience. He might love the area his is in, and be very good at it, but don’t limit their growth because you feel this is where he fits or best serves the business. Guaranteed – it he wants to try a new area, he’ll find the opportunity somewhere else.

3. If you had to reduce salaries due to the economic turn, evaluate your financial results to gain a sense of when you will be able to start raising their salaries back to where they were. Even if you have to do it in stages, the staff will appreciate these steps. It will show them that you are aware of the sacrifices they made and are working to get their salaries back to normal.

4. Don’t forget to thank them (individually if you can) for al of their hard work when times were tough!

5. Share the financial results of the business. This is a very sincere way of showing the staff that they are “part of the family”. This topic is considered to be very confidential, so when information is divulged, people realize how important and trusted they are to the leader.(Sharing of financial results doesn’t mean you should sit down and review the financial statement of the company with your staff. It can be discussions in general terms of profit goals, overhead ratios and sales expectations.)

The more leaders can relate to their staff from their heart – sharing of feelings, concerns, joys – the more their employees will see themselves as an important part of the organization. This will undoubtedly impact their level of commitment to the organization and their level of motivation in their work. It’s a win-win result!

Changing perspectives

2009-04-15T10:41:00.003-04:00

In Vicky Essebag's blog post of Monday, April 13, 2009 www.cultureshockcommunications.blogspot.com she points to how our self perceptions can limit our ability to change certain situations. She provides some very powerful and specific questions from the Solution Focused Therapy model to move you toward finding solutions in a positive and supportive manner. In my posting today, I would like to build on Vicky's scenario by talking about how people can limit themselves within one perspective.

Have you ever said to yourself - "well, that's just the way it is." The type of comment helps us believe that you are powerless, you have no control and there are no other options. It becomes very hard and scary for one to open their mind up to the possibility that there are always other choices. As a certified coach, I have battled this demon with many (if not all) of my clients at some point in time. When one is faced with an issues - be it work related or personal, he gets stuck in one perpective that limits his ability to deal with the challenge. He loses control over his destiny and this lessen his self-esteem. By learning techniques on how to look for new perspective, you maintain a positive self-perception and this increases your likelihood of achieving success over your challenge.

There are various skills and tools one can use to help find new perspective.

1. Use various questions as provided by Vicky in her blog to focus in on what what lead to positive steps or results. The questions she provides helps you to focus on success, not failure which keeps you in a more positive self-perpective.

2. Physically move to a different location from where you are standing or sitting. The use of geography - standing vs sitting, facing a wall vs facing an open space - resets the brain and allows for new perspectives to enter your mind.

3. Focus your gaze on a picture or something outside your normal view. Looking at art, nature or even a family member's face can change your emotional level and move you to a more positive place. This can open you up to creating more positive perspectives on your situation.

4. Think about a great leader or person you highly admire. How would they handle the situation? What advise would they give you about this situation? By relating to these types of people, we put ourselves in a place of strength and this is very empowering in creating new perspectives.

The ultimate objective is to use a tool or method that helps you to clear your mind from the negative place you are in. Some people use exercise to clear their minds and allow new ideas to flow in. Whatever method you use, it has to start with the belief that there is no one solution to any problem. Once you believe that, the sky is the limit.

The Sweet Smell of Success

2009-03-25T11:06:00.003-04:00

We have been raised to strive for success. Whether it’s getting a good job; becoming a professional, or starting your own business, the underlying message is that success relates to money. No one however tells us how much money we need to be successful. Nor, does anyone tell us how money will make us feel successful.

The baby-boomer generation lived with the notion that “the one who ends up with the most toys wins.” I always wondered about this saying. When does this competition end - when the participants are dead? Well, if that’s the case, then how does the winner celebrate his victory? While these fierce competitors are working hard to amass all these toys, who is enjoying them? Maybe the true winners of this contest are the benefactors of all these toys – the spouse or kids. And are these people really the winners if they never have a relationship with their spouse or parent because he or she was never around – always working to amass these toys. Well, if that’s success, I’ll pass.

What if success wasn’t defined around financial reward? What if it stemmed from our personal values – the qualities that are deeply important to us? I have experienced this type of success personally and witnessed it with my clients. There is a deeper sense of success when it is connected to personal values. This doesn’t mean that there couldn’t or shouldn’t be significant monetary reward as a result of the actions that are taken to fulfill these values. But instead, it means that when success is fundamentally driven by personal values the rewards are much richer and more gratifying than if solely driven by materialistic objectives.

I recently asked a client (Charlie) for his definition of success. Charlie feels success is tied into not having to rely on his children for anything. In his explanation, Charlie relates his vision of success to two core values – independence and respect. Independence for him is the ability to support oneself financially, emotionally and spiritually. Respect is the appreciation that everyone has their own life and motivations and every person should be able to give their full attention to their own life. Charlie sees success as a daily achievement that is supported by both his financial level and his physical health, which are very intertwined. He uses his health to earn and save money that will be needed to support his independence when eventually his health declines. He works energetically to maintain both his physical and financial health to stay successful.

What is even more interesting is that Charlie brings his daily success into his workplace. Every morning he assesses and appreciates his success. This enables him to bring a positive energy and outlook to his staff to support their achievement of success. His awareness of his success has opened up conversations with staff to help them identify what their picture of success is. Charlie uses this information to strategize his employees’ career paths with them to increase the depth of their engagement and motivation. He has seen the financial impact of these steps on the business. There is very little staff turnover and staff are rarely sick or absent. The employees strongly support the growth of the company through the sharing of ideas and the championing of management’s strategies. Now to me that is success!

Take some time to start defining success. If it is to have $100,000,000 look for the underlying reasons why that vast amount of money is important. You might be surprised at what you uncover. Then bring this into your firm by opening up this conversation with your staff. This will definitely add to your success.

The Values of Collaboration

2009-03-13T15:16:00.002-04:00

In an economic address earlier this week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that Canada would come out of the economic recession “faster than anyone and stronger than ever”. The first thing that struck me when I heard this was if Canada is so economically dependent on other countries – especially the United States, how can we recover if they haven’t?

With the interrelationship of many economies throughout the world, what would be possible if there was more regular collaboration to resolve the global recession? Collaboration of strong-minded people from around the world working together, day-in and day-out on the financial improvement of all countries, not just their own can only bring powerful and positive results.

Napoleon Hill wrote about collaboration in his book “Think & Grow Rich” back in 1960. He refers to collaboration as “the Master Mind”. In his book, he talks about the success of Henry Ford.

“It is a well-known fact that Henry Ford began his business career under the handicap of poverty, illiteracy, and ignorance. It is an equally well-known fact that, within the inconceivably short period of ten years, Mr. Ford mastered these three handicaps, and that within twenty-five years he made himself one of the richest men in America. Connect with this fact the additional knowledge that Mr. Ford’s most rapid strides became noticeable from the time he became a personal friend of Thomas A. Edison, and you will begin to understand what the influence of one mind upon another can accomplish. Go a step farther, and consider the fact that Mr. Ford’s most outstanding achievements began from the time that he formed the acquaintances of Harvey Firestone, John Burroughs, and Luther Burbank, (each a man of great brain capacity) and you will have further evidence that power may be produced through friendly alliances of mind.”
Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill p.150

What is very interesting to me is that while collaboration with Harvey Firestone (founder of Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., one of the first global makers of automobile tires) would be a likely “fit” due to the synergies of their businesses, John Burroughs (an American naturalist and essayist contributing to the evolution of the US Conservative Movement) and Luther Burbank (an agricultural scientist) were also strong contributors to the success of Mr. Ford. This points to how great minds from many disciplines can powerfully contribute to the success of an idea.

What I ask is: whom do you have to be to create a powerful collaborative team? Are there specific personal core values that are needed to make collaboration happen?

My sense is that there are probably many values that need to be held by a person in order for them to want to collaborate with others. These values can range from curiosity to community to empathy, to name a few. I believe for success collaboration, the one quality that must be present would be humility. It is a very humbling experience to ask for help. It is a very courageous process to show a less than strong side, but yet how gratifying the results can be. These economic conditions may be the right time for business leaders to start collaborating with others outside their fields of specialty. Maybe taking a lesson from Henry Ford and start our own Master Mind groups might help drive businesses forward and generate new markets and business streams. Collaboration, in my eyes, does not only have the power to contribute to the financial growth of a business, but can add great heights to the personal growth of the participants, which in the end which at the end of the day makes each person richer than they ever expected.

Quick test on your ability to collaborate:

Do I listen to the thoughts and feedback of others?
Do I consider ideas provided by others for my business and spend time assessing their viability for my business?
On how many occasions have I used the ideas or concepts of others for my business?
Do I enjoy the team spirit?
How often do I initiate team brain storming ideas with my staff?
How often do I initiate team update meetings to let my staff know what I am planning?
Do I reach out to others to help them in their endeavours?
Can you name at least 5 people who have contributed ideas and strategies towards the growth of your business?
Do you engage in personal growth activities?
Have you engaged outside consultants or specialists for support?

If you answered “No” to most of these questions, chances are you are currently not a strong candidate for collaboration and are missing out on a valuable opportunity to gain new insight to your business.

Ideas to Deepen Staff Engagement

2009-03-05T10:38:00.005-05:00

During times of financial instability, high staff engagement can be one of your most valuable assets. The spirit, energy and excitement of your staff for your business can be a powerful tool to increase your customer base, develop new strategies and improve internal efficiencies. Here are some ways you can work towards making this happen:

Communication, communicate, communicate – during times of recession, the more management communicates to the staff, the better. Whether it is good news or not, it is important for the staff to be aware and informed. Don’t sugar coat the information but be sensitive to the emotions that might come out. Deal with the emotions in an honest and open way. Make sure your employees feel acknowledged and heard if they share their thoughts and feelings.

Ask for ideas and suggestions from staff – to offset the chance that staff may isolate themselves during these difficult times, hold team, group or company meetings where employees have the opportunity to share their business ideas. Use communication building techniques such as: “Yes and…” where an idea is supported and built on by others in the meeting. Not all ideas are initially winners, but many companies have gained valuable strategies from the combined efforts of the staff. These communication techniques also contribute to team building and stronger communication skills within the organization.

Merge the personal and business sides – corporate values of a company usually stem from the values of the business leaders. Because their personal values are being honoured through the business, the leaders stay highly engaged. Work with staff to gain awareness of which of their personal values are important for them to honour in their work. Have each employee create a concrete action plan to incorporate their values into their role within the organization. This plan must support current business strategies and objectives of management to increase the likelihood of success. This may entail having management approval or assistance in developing the plan. Have a system of accountability set up with their direct superior or a peer to ensure that each employee stays on track and follows through.

Remember to laugh – as they say: “Laughter is the best medicine”. Laughter has been found to boost the immune system, reduce stress, lower blood pressure and contributes to the overall well being of a person. This in itself can reduce the number of sick days, reduce anxieties within the workplace and create a calmer work environment leading to higher productivity. More importantly, it enhances relationships and creates stronger bonds.

Give back to society – choose a charity or cause for the company and its employees to support. Have company wide or team-by-team outings supporting this cause. Not only will you and your staff be doing a wonderful deed, but the emotional and spiritual bonding will bring a new energy to your workplace. It can also remind your employees how hard some people have it and how blessed they are!

Bring the cause home – tie this charitable cause to a corporate goal. For example, if your organization’s staff spends a weekend planning trees to save the earth, create an corporate goal to support saving the planet. Implement specific internal changes such as recycling more, going paperless, not using paper plates or Styrofoam cups and closing all lights and shutting down computers at the end of the day. This will bring the spirit of giving alive on a daily basis. Ensure these goals are celebrated and continuously challenged – for example – noting the monthly increase in weight of recycled goods and the reduction of garbage production. These goals become win – win situations for your business because while you are energizing and engaging your staff, you are reducing business costs.

Business Manners

2009-02-17T09:53:00.003-05:00

An article in CFO.com called Manners Maketh the Businessman - The economic crisis prompts an outbreak of politeness in business http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/13134738/?=rsspage talks about how the current uncertain economic situation has changed the previously brutish bankers, hedge-fund traders, private-equity chiefs into humble, polite caring people. The article says

"People have more time to be friendly when business is slow. Some reckon the new cordiality reflects a feeling that everyone is in the same boat: when some firms have to fire good performers as well as bad, no one is safe."

While these people are aware of the benefits of kindness and consideration, they are using it for future gain and not for the true intention of being nice. Niceness should not be a marketing skill. It should be a way of life, a conscious act of being. The actions of being nice from the position of this article sounds like a fear induced set of manners. Kindness and politeness stemming from neediness and self-serving motives. You can almost feel the underlying sense of greed. There is no authenticity to the kindness. There is no integrity or honesty in the kindness. The article continues to say:

"But if people at different firms are being nicer to each other, things may not be getting any nicer inside companies. At many, stress and in-fighting are on the rise because of the threat of job cuts. And as soon as things turn up again, all agree, the extra niceness will vanish."

This article paints such a sad picture of humanity. I'm not saying that this is the norm. I hold that people are generally kind and considerate, but there is the stigma attached to the business world of back stabbing, self-serving, power hungry people. This has to change. Business executives have to stop to connect to their values and start living with a high sense of integrity. A kind and caring society is what will get the economy rolling again, and create a safer world for everyone to live.

Leadership Authenticity

2009-02-11T12:00:00.002-05:00

Today at www.amazon.com there are 61 books that deal with leadership authenticity. The authors included some heavy hitting leadership experts such as Jim Collins, Warren Bennis, Ken Blanchard and Lance Secretan - all espousing the benefits of authenticity as a leader. What is it to be truly authentic?

According to the definition found in Merriam Webster dictionary http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/authentic, authentic means "true to one's own personality, spirit or character".

True to one's own personality, spirit or character - how many people are really always true to their own personality, spirit or character? How do we recognize when a person is true to their own personality, spirit or character? I think one step would be consistency - does the leader handle situations in a consistent spirit, personality or character? If an employee generates 20% more revenue than budetged are they treated the same as the employee who generates 20% less revenue than budgeted? Should the leadership skills differ? You might say yes - but what if the support and championing provided by the leader to the top performing employee helped to spur her revenues over the top. Maybe the leader didn't provide the same type of encouragement or guidance to the lower performer thereby almost abetting in the lack of achievement of this employee. Would you consider this leader to be authentic? I don't think so. More importantly, would the leader see himself as being authentic?

This thought process now leads me to take a step backwards. To what extent can a leader be authentic if they are not deeply connected to their core values? Isn't the logical first step in creating an authentic leader to help him connect to what is authentically important - his core values? Then have him lead the company from those core values. This provides a basis of expectation from staff, clients and potential clients which results in a richer involvement with the company. The bottom line of leadership authenticity is that consistent behaviour sets an example of the expectation for others within the company. If there is a sense of consistency in the way leaders handle situations, then there will be an expectation consistent behaviours from the staff. Deviations will stand out like a sore thumb and will not be accepted.

There are many wonderful leaders that lead from their authenticity. They have a natural connection to whom they are and what is important to them. They use this awareness to strategize for the company and make their company successful on many levels. However, the more that can be done to bring awareness to core values, the better. The better for business, the better for families and the better for our society as a whole.

Employee Productivity

2009-02-05T13:54:00.003-05:00

In today's New York Times there was an article called "Labour Costs Slow as Productivity Rises" by Associated Press. The article provided statistical information from the United States that showed an increase in productivity in the fourth quarter of the year with a reduction of labour costs. Productivity was defined as output / hour. Is this all good for employers? While employers should continuously strive to achieve high levels of productivity from their workforce, they should also be aware of what is stemming the productivity and what the true implications for the company may be.

There are no surprises in the reduction in labour costs. We have heard and are continuously hearing of layoffs, downsizing and benefit reductions within small, medium and large corporations. Unfortunately, it is common practice for business owners and leaders to cut labour costs and benefits during financially trying times. Employee wages and benefits tend to be the largest overhead cost to companies and the area management looks to first for savings.

The increase in productivity can be a result of a number of factors. First, because of a lower number of employees, the workload per person may be higher and therefore stimulates the employee to work harder, longer hours or more efficiently than before. Second, productivity might be spurred out of fear of losing one’s job. Another reason is that people were previously being underutilized and inefficiencies were being disregarded.

Regardless of what the factors leading to the higher productivity, the question for leaders is how do we maintain and stimulate higher productivity and motivation during hard economic times? How do we best utilize our staff to gain their best efforts to help sustain the business? How do we engage our staff to be strong advocates for the company?

The answer is by aligning employees’ personal values to their work. When someone has a personal connection to what they do, they commit themselves on a deeper level to the organization. This type of commitment goes far deeper than financial gain; it goes to the heart of a person. This connection is commonly found in not-for-profit organizations. Employees of these organizations generally engage in work at lower salaries than those in profit organizations but receive a non-tangible payment in the fulfillment they get from their job and their contribution. While not always articulated, they sense the personal connection.
To really show your staff that you are committed to them and want them to be committed to the company work toward finding the personal connection to their job and empower them to find ways to incorporate this connection into their work on a day to day basis.

Being Conscious Of Your Values

2009-01-29T12:32:00.005-05:00

When a person talks about their values, what do they mean? Some people interpret values as things that are important to them - e.g. friends, music and money. However, values are a great deal deeper than just "things". They point to the essence of what brings aliveness to a person's soul. While friends, music or money may feel that they do this - we feel good when we are with our friends, or come into a large sum of money unexpectedly, there are internal underlying criteria that are really sparking these feels. To take a deeper look at what values are please see my blog posting from January 21, 2009 - Personal Values and How They Relate to Your Work.

How do you become more aware of your values and what they mean to you? Some people do what you might call "soul searching". This is a introspective of what is important to you. An easy way of working on introspection is continuously asking yourself "why"?

The internal conversation may go something like this:
Why do I feel good when I am with my friends? Because I enjoy their company.
Why do I enjoy their company? Because they are nice people.
Why are they nice people? Because they really care about others.
Why do they care about others? Because they are empathetic and really feel the emotions of others and respond to them.

From this brief conversation comes a value called empathy. Now answer some questions around this value to deepen the learning of it. How you would define empathy? How do you show empathy? How do you feel when people empathize with you? Can you remember a time when you showed empathy for someone - not just felt it, but really embraced the essence of it and modelled it? Did it triggers strong emotions? How important is it for people to show empathy to you? Highly important? If so, the value of empathy would be a core value.

By having such conversations on a regular basis, more and more values will uncover themselves. The objective is to be more aware of what is truly important to you. This awareness serves in assisting you to make more authentic decisions.

Some tools I use with my clients that tend to unlock numerous values at once are:
1. Peak experience stories - a story of a very memorable experience or event that happen during any time of your life. These memories resonate with you because of all the values that were honoured at the time. These experiences or events brings you alive and fulfilled (and aren't always about positive experiences).

2. Stories about what makes you mad or angry - these stories are just the opposite of peak experiences. They highlight the values which were not being honoured at a particular time. The emotions that these situations stimulate are because what is deeply important to you is not be heard, is not being acted upon - whether by you or someone else.

Putting this information to use
Now that you have become aware of certain key core values what do you do?

The first thing is to choose 2 or 3 values which resonate stronger than the others. These core values are really calling to you to live now. Keep in mind that when you live a core value you are living it with respect to others AND with respect to yourself. In our previous example, if you don't hold the value of empathy for yourself and only towards others, there is no integrity to the value. A value has to be honoured both outward and inward.

The next step is to look at your personal and professional life and create an action plan of ways you can incorporate these values into your life. In our example around empathy, the action play may be to create ways to limit staff layoffs during recessionary times and on the personal side spend 3 hours a week helping out an elderly family member. The more this value is practiced, the more it becomes a part of who you are and the need for it to be conscious lessens over time. You move this value into the "unconscious" part of who you are. It becomes a natural habit to be empathetic and to expect people to be empathetic to you. You'll also become more aware of when people are not being empathetic to you - e.g. staff expecting pay raises when your business is struggling due to the economy. Awareness to values provide guidance to better understand why these types of situations are making you upset. It provides clarity to your emotions - this is known as emotional intelligence.

Finally, use these values in your conversations. When explaining to staff why raises won't be given, for example, communicate the level of empathy you are sharing for them and engage them in becoming empathetic to your situation. This type of conversation goes a lot further than "No raises this year - don't you know there is a recession going on !" Business leaders so rarely bring emotions and core values into the work place beyond the "marketing" need to having corporate core values. Highly engaging leaders use emotional tools and intelligence to create a stronger workforce which not only reduces staff turnover but increases motivation and productivity of staff.

Personal values and how they relate to your work

2009-01-21T13:39:00.003-05:00

What are personal values? Values represent who you are and what is important to you right now. When a person engages in an activity that activates a value, their experience is intensified and highly positive. A person tends to engage in activities that honour his values in his personal life - e.g.: volunteer work, the type of vacation he plans, helping friends or family, but what if they were honoured in his career?

For example, one of my personal values is individuality which to me means that everyone is unique and different from the rest; What worked for one person would only work for someone else if twigged to fit who they are.

When working as a Chartered Accountant, my clients would turn to me for advise on what they should do to improve their profits / business. I was the expert and should have the answers for them. Because of my value of individuality, instead of saying "This is what you should do .....", I would ask them questions to find out what they think they should be doing and provided them with insights on what others are doing and asked how this would work in their business. In my mind, I was providing great service. From my clients' perspective, they were looking for the strong expert advise and I came across as uncertain and wishy-washy. At the end of the day, I had unsatified clients and an unfulfilled soul.

I am one of the lucky ones. I found the profession - coaching - that now fills my soul and honours my values. Coaching lends itself to the premise that all people are different and everyone has their own answers within. Perfect! I now love what I do. I'm excited to start the day. This sense of love I have for my work filters to my personal life because of the happiness it brings to me.

What would your life be like if one of your most important personal values were honoured in your work? What would be different in your workplace if everyone had a personal connection to their jobs? How would this impact the energy level? How would this impact the profits?

Stay tuned next week, I will talk about how to uncover and start honouring your personal values.

What makes the work experience richer

2009-01-14T10:50:00.004-05:00

Too many people just go through the motions of work. They do it for the salary, insurance benefits, flexibility, work-from-home opportunity, but rarely for the love of it. We are more apt to see business owners putting their hearts into their work. What makes business leaders passionate about their work yet few employees feeling this way?

From my discussions with numerous business leaders, I always find some personal values that are directly connected to their work. There is some personal fulfillment that is gained through what they do. This personal fulfillment fuels them and brings a high level of energy, motivation and usually success. In the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, the author talks about how the love of computer programming fueled the success of Bill Gates. Mr. Gates' passion led him to practice and practice his skill, expanding his competency and knowledge in his field. This high level of competency opened up numerous opportunities leading up to the development of the Microsoft business. This high level of passion can also be found in professional athletes and performers, to name a few.

What if employees were also passionate about their work? Have you ever been to a store where the sales clerk loved what he did? How did his passion impact your purchasing experience? Chances are you either bought something then and there, or came back to the store to purchase something at a later date. Passionate employees create an air of excitement in the work environment. This excitement is contagious and spreads like wildfire to everyone they connect to. Who wouldn't want to have employees who are passionate about their jobs???

So what's the problem?
Employers use a multitude of costly staff engagement strategies to motivate and engage their staff. What ends up happening for the most part is that these strategies benefit the company for a short period of time. There is no real lasting effect of an extra week of vacation or better insurance coverage. People take these benefits for granted after a while, even though they are still costing the business a fortune!

Here are some easy steps to start making staff aware of their passion and helping them bring their passions out in their jobs:
1. Do some values mining. Talk about a peak experience that your staff had and see what values come out.
2. Talk more about personal interests. How do these personal interests relate to the work they do?
3. Find out what brings them to their job? What is it about their role do they enjoy? What would they like more of, what would they like less of?
4. Ask them what they would do if they won the lottery. It's amazing what little passions come out from this question.

Make sure the staff is give space to answer honestly. If they feel that they are "expected" to answer a certain way you're not going to benefit from the conversation. What do you learn from someone who says "if I won the lottery I wouldn't quit my job"? You learn that they are saying what they think their boss wants to hear. What do you learn from someone who says "if I won the lottery I would quit may job and become an artist"? You get a sense that this is maybe a creative person who has a desire to express himself. This sense could open up a fantastic conversation to find out if this is true, but to brainstorm ideas on how this creativity and desire for self expression can be brought out in their job. Wouldn't this ignite a fire inside the employee?