I’ll be speaking with Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown of Real Recognition Radio on April 6 at 1:00 PM Eastern. We have a lively discussion about employee engagement and the importance of connection in store so I hope you’ll join us. To hear the program just go to this link.
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The Conference Board: Employee Engagement = Connections
The Conference Board does excellent research work on employee engagement thanks in part to John Gibbons, a Senior Research Advisor at the organization. After examining the myriad definitions of employee engagement, The Conference Board concluded that employee engagement should be defined as follows:
“Employee engagement is a heightened emotional and intellectual connection that an employee has for his/her job, organization, manager, or coworkers that, in turn, influences him/her to apply additional discretionary effort to his/her work.”
I like this definition. It is consistent with our research where we heard respondents consistently use the terms “connect” or “feel connected” to describe the emotions they experience in relation to their organization’s identity, the people they work with and their day-to-day work.
In our book Fired Up or Burned Out and in The Connection Culture Manifesto, we identify and describe the “force of connection” as
“a bond based on shared identity, empathy and understanding that moves self-centered individuals toward group-centered membership.”
After defining connection, we identify the “Connection Culture” as the environment that produces emotional and rational connections that, as The Conference Board’s definition says “influence [people] to apply discretionary effort to [their] work.” The Connection Culture meets universal human needs. Learn more by reading the manifesto or go even deeper by reading our book.
Organizational Development Network Long Island Conference
On April 8, I’ll be speaking as part of the Organizational Development Network Long Island’s Conference in Plainview, New York. The title of the conference is “Building a Holistic Approach for Workforce Competitive Advantage.” For additional details and to receive a discount on admission click on this link: OD Network Long Island E-brochure.
Reenergizing Employees Amidst and Following the “Great Recession”
Jason Pankau and I are delighted to announce we are presenting a webinar for Communitelligence entitled “Reenergizing Employees Amidst and Following the ‘Great Recession.'” The webinar will occur on May 5 from 2-3 PM Eastern. Here’s an overview:
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Research insights on what differentiates communications from engagement,
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The three factors that drive employee engagement,
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How to develop an inspiring corporate identity that makes employees feel proud of their organization,
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How to dial up the elements in the employee experience that make employees feel valued,
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How to eliminate the elements in the employee experience that make employees feel devalued, and
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Eight ways to keeping employees informed and give them a voice to share their ideas and opinions.
Additional details and registration information can be found at this link.
Duke Men’s Basketball’s Secret Weapon: The “Women K”
Duke men’s basketball team lead by Coach K are in The Final Four again. What’s their secret? According to Coach K, it’s what might be called the “Women K”: his wife Mickie and their three adult daughters. Read all about it in this fabulous article entitled “Follow Me” written by Michael Sokolove that appeared in the February 2006 edition of Play magazine, a supplement of The New York Times. If you read the article and Coach K’s books you’ll see that he clearly describes what we refer to as a Connection Culture, including its three elements: vision, value and voice.
Most leaders are intentional about developing task excellence but they are not intentional about developing relationship excellence. Not Coach K. Here are just a few of the quotes that appear in the article that show Coach K strives to develop relationship excellence via connection:
“Almost everything in leadership comes back to relationships”
“When he recruits a player, Krzyzewski tells him, ‘We’re developing a relationship here, and if you are not interested, tell me sooner rather than later.’ That word — relationship — os one he uses frequently. [He tells players] ‘If you come here, for however long, you’re going to unpack your suitcase. We’re going to form a bond, and you’re going to be part of this family.”
“Game day is not a day for long, drawn-out speeches. It is a time for interaction.”
“There’s an empathetic part of leadership, and this is what my wife and daughters have taught me.
When Truth is Victim of “Nice”
Take a look at this article about Ursula Burns, the new CEO of Xerox, and her efforts to alter Xerox’s culture. Anne Mulachy, the former CEO did a remarkable job pulling the Xerox family together to save the company when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. Mulcahy is a tough act to follow but I’m pulling for Ms. Burns to take Xerox to the next level. One way to look at Ms. Burns challenge is that she needs to frame Xerox’s success as being rooted in achieving both task excellence and relationship excellence. When a culture sacrifices truth to being nice (or more accurately to avoiding conflict) a company’s performance eventually suffer. Ms. Burns is performing a delicate dance. If she comes off too strong, people wil ear to spaek he truth. If she does nothing, it seems that the desire to avoid constructive conflict may eventually sabotage the companies performance.
If I were advising Ms. Burns, I would say “make it clear to your Xerox colleagues that we must be intentional about achieving BOTH task excellence AND relationship excellence in order to thrive. Sacrifice either and we will risk managerial failure for reasons I’ve written about in Fired Up or Burned Out.
Refugee Camp to Harvard: Mawi Asgedom, an Inspiring Intentional Connector
Yesterday I wrote about the incivility and indifference low status workers experience and how it contributes to today’s widespread employee disengagement. Mawi Asgedom is a friend who I admire in part for his passion to connect with people regardless of their status. Mawi graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1999 and was voted by his fellow students to be one of the Harvard’s four commencement speakers.
Standing before an audience of 30,000 Mawi gave a remarkable speech entitled “Of Snakes, Butterfies and Small Acts of Kindness.”
Your Corporation: Corpus or Corpse?
The root word of corporation is “corpus,” a Latin word meaning body. Does your corporation act like a healthy body where members support one another and recognize that harm to one is damaging to all. If not, perhaps your corporation is diseased with members harming one another through incivility or indifference. If so, your corporation is on its way to becoming a corpse (and its culture may be killing individual members, too).
Most corporations today are diseased. Corporate Executive Board research shows that 90 percent of employees today are either not engaged and giving their best efforts or they are not aligned with organizational goals. In this article that appeared this week in Hearst Newspapers entitled “Extinguising Employee Burnout” I spoke with reporter Scott Gargan about leadership, employee engagement, productivity and how to combat the growing problem of employee burnout that is literally draining the life out of individuals and organizations.
Employee Engagement Network, 2,000 Members
Congratulations to David Zinger who founded and has developed the Employee Engagement Network. It’s a must place to be for anyone interested in employee engagement.
Boost Productivity, Innovation: New Program with Linkage
Jason Pankau and I recently teamed up with Linkage to offer a course on our book, Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion. Creativity and Productivity. The course includes video with supporting participant and facilitator guides. Here is a backgrounder on the program entitled Fired Up Leadership to Boost Productivity and Innovation.