This morning I was a guest on Jim Blasingame’s nationally syndicated “Small Business Advocate” radio program. We discussed several topics including employee engagement, incivility and Gen Y in the workplace.
Monthly Archives: April 2010
Darden’s Leadership Sage
Jason Pankau and I were at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business this week to speak about our work on Connection Cultures, leadership, productivity, innovation and employee engagement. We gave a three hour presentation to students in the MBA for Executives program and briefly visited friends such as professors Marian Moore and Alec Horniman.
Darden has so much going for it. World class professors and a great culture. No doubt the business school’s culture benefits from Alec Horniman’s wisdom as a thought leader in the fields of leadership, organizations, change and ethics. Take a look at the excellent video of Dr. Horniman discussing the importance of ethics in business and you’ll see what I mean.
Career Potential Webinars
Interested in improving your career prospects? Check out Launch Summit: Conversations on Career Potential. This series of free webinars includes presentations from experts in diverse fields related to career. It begins tomorrow at 10:00 AM Eastern and continues through Thursday. I’ll be speaking about healthy work environments at 1:00 PM Eastern on Thursday, April 22nd.
Two Easy Ways to Boost Employee Engagement
Small things can make a big difference when it comes to employee engagement. Here’s a couple easy things you can do to help improve employee engagement. On a Friday at lunchtime, get employees together in a conference room for pizza and salad or go outside of work for an informal lunch and time to mingle. When you do this, take time to chat with your colleagues and ask them what their interests are outside of work. You’ll be amazed at the interesting activities your colleagues are involved in. Also, be sure to look for the loners and make a special effort to connect with them and help them connect with others. This time reduces stress and energizes most people.
Winning Workplaces’ Article on Connection
Winning Workplaces just featured an article that Jason Pankau and I wrote in its April newsletter and on its website. The article is entitled “To Boost Productivity and Innovation, Fire Up the People You Lead.” Check out the article and the Winning Workplaces website, it has great ideas, many written by one of our favorite bloggers Mark Harbeke. Mark is Winning Workplaces’ Director of Content Development.
Micro-Connections Enhance Energy, Enthusiasm
Years ago when I lived in West Texas and worked for Texas Instruments, I was surprised that frequently when I passed another car on one of the long stretches of highway, the driver would wave at me. People in that part of America typically make eye contact and say hello to passersby on the street. If you did this in most large cities, especially in the Northern parts of America or coasts where I presently live (i.e. Greenwich, Connecticut), people would think you were strange.
Small actions to connect with people around you are called “Micro-Connections.” These actions boost enthusiasm and energy in the work environment. Environments where people are friendly—where they make eye contact and say hello in hallways and elevators even thought they personally know one another well—are healthier and more pleasant environments. Another type of micro-connector is asking questions that are unrelated to work to learn more about an individual. Unrelated questions help us learn other people’s stories. Micro-Connections treat people as human beings rather than human doings. As Atul Gwande wrote in his book Better, asking questions unrelated to work “make the machine feel less like a machine.”
Little things can make a big difference. Start trying these Micro-Connections out and watch what happens.Over time you will be energized and you’ll build trust and esprit de corps in your organization.
Employee Engagement, Connection in the Movie “Departures”
While looking for a video to watch a friend recommended Departures, a film by Yojiro Takita that won an Oscar for best foreign language film. I highly recommend it. The movie touches on issues of employee engagement, connection, identity and human value that I raise in my changethis.com Connection Culture Manifesto. There were moments that this film reminded me of the beautiful book Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer.
When you watch the film you’ll see a myriad of situations that relate to connection, including the protagonist Diago’s connection to his father, his wife, his employer, his former occupation and his new one, his clients, and his friends and acquaintances in the community.
Connection and the character values that support it resonate deeply with the Japanese, a topic that I will elaborate on in an upcoming blog post.
Tom Peters, Top Leadership Blogs, and New Friends
Quote of the day: “Connection is the force that transforms a dog-eat-dog culture into a sled dog team that pulls together.” – Jason Pankau
It’s been a very good week. This morning I received an email that Tom Peters was following my tweets. In the early 1980s, as I young employee of Texas Instruments I read In Search of Excellence and went through a training program based on Tom’s book and ideas. I still have the audio tapes from his lectures! What I found so enthralling was that he described what was possible, a better work culture and an organization where people thrived individually and collectively. It put a fire in my belly not to settle for the current reality. For Tom Peters influence in my life, I am sincerely grateful.
Other good things that happened this week:
Jurgen Noop from the Netherlands recognized my blog as one of the top leadership and management blogs. Many thanks, Jurgen!
This week I thoroughly enjoyed speaking about the Connection Culture, Fired Up or Burned Out, employee engagement, leadership, productivity and innovation with Zane Safrit on his Blog Talk Radio program, Nathan Ives on the StrategyDriven Podcast, and Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown on their Real Recognition Radio program. What wonderful people to get to know. I encourage you to check out their work.
Yesterday, I spoke at an organizational development network conference on Long Island. It was a tremendous group with great energy and intelligence. I’m still buzzing from the experience.
And finally, I connected via email with Parker Palmer, author of Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. Jason Pankau, my best friend, business partner, and author of the foregoing “quote of the day,” gave me Parker’s book as a gift some years ago. It had a profound effect on me. I still revisit it periodically. It is a small book that’s packed with wisdom. If you’ve not read it, I highly encourage you to check it out along with everything else Parker writes about on the website for his organization The Center for Courage and Renewal. He is a man of remarkable wisdom and character.
Over the weekend I’m finishing the remarkable book Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas and working on an article with Howard Behar, the extraordinary leader who turned around Starbucks.
Have a great weekend!
Employee Engagement: Zane Safrit Show
On April, 7 at 10:30 AM Eastern, I will join Zane Safrit on his Blog Talk Radio program to talk about employee engagement, strategic alignment, productivity and innovation.
Launch Summit: Conversations on Career Potential
On April 22, I will be speaking along with several career experts as part of Krista Daeda’s Launch Summit: Conversations on Career Potential. Check it out.