Jason Pankau and I spoke on a webinar for Linkage about maximizing employee engagement and alignment. You can see the 60-minute webinar at this link. You may also be interested in other free webinars offered by Linkage at this link.
Category Archives: Webcasts
Maximize Employee Engagement, Alignment and Productivity
Jason Pankau and I are speaking about maximizing employee engagement, alignment and productivity on several upcoming webinars. The webinars are based on ideas in our book Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity and Productivity (Thomas Nelson).
Here are the names of the organizations hosting the webinars along with the respectives dates and links to sign up:
December 7, 1:00 PM EST for Linkage
December 7, 3:00 PM EST for the Human Capital Institute sponsored by the ITAGroup
December 15, 12:00 PM EST for the New Talent Management Network
Employee Engagement: 2010 Research Insights
Employee engagement research this year produced several insights about serious problems we presently face in America. Now this may sound bleak to some but for wise leaders and organizations it presents a huge opportunity. Below, I’ll explain.
In January, our friends at The Conference Board published a report entitled “I Can’t Get No … Job Satisfaction, That Is.” The report’s subtitle, “America’s Unhappy Workers,” captured the essence of The Conference Board’s message. Consistent with the report’s tone, its cover featured a picture of an impending storm. The report stated that job satisfaction and employee engagement had fallen to the lowest levels since The Conference Board began surveying more than 20 years ago. The report explained that the decline in employee satisfaction and employee engagement began long before the Great Recession and should therefore not be viewed as cyclical in nature. Looking forward, The Conference Board expressed concern about the impact of declining employee engagement on American competitiveness.
In July, Hewitt released a report showing that for the quarter ending June 2010, 46 percent of the 900 organizations it tracks experienced declines in employee engagement versus 30 percent of the organizations that experienced improved employee engagement. Hewitt noted that this was the largest quarterly decline in employee engagement it has witnessed in the more than 15 years Hewitt has been researching employee engagement.
Free Connection and Employee Engagement Webinar Oct. 21, 22
Learn why U2, Apple, Pixar and other great teams and organizations thrive as Jason Pankau and I present a one-hour webinar on the force of connection and how it impacts employee engagement for Toolbox for HR on Oct. 21 and for individuals in Pacific time zones on Oct. 22.
The webinar will focus on the six universal human needs to thrive at work, the three elements of a Connection Culture that boost employee engagement and strategic alignment, and select best practices of great leaders who connect with and engage the individuals they lead. You can sign up for the free webinar at the links below:
Oct. 21 from 12:00 PM until 1:00 PM EDT: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/980065897
Pacific Friendly Webinar on Oct. 22 at 6:30 AM Friday (Mumbai), 12:00 PM Friday (Sydney), or Oct. 21 from 9:00 PM until 10:00 PM EDT (U.S.): https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/128615569
Podcasts, Webcasts, Articles on Employee Engagement and Connection
Tomorrow I will be doing a podcast interview with Rena Reese on her Soul Salon program. We will be talking about Connection Cultures, employee engagement, employee motivation and other ideas in Fired Up or Burned Out. You can listen live and call in to participate at 1:00 PM Eastern. Here’s the link.
We have podcasts and webcasts scheduled with organizations including Giant Impact (TBD), the New Talent Management Network (11/16) and the Corporate Executive Board’s Toolbox for HR (10/20). Soon we expect to announce podcasts or webcasts with the Human Capital Institute and HSM.
Just to mention it, several articles on Connection Cultures were published are now available in online versions.
Outlook Business for Decision Makers (India) “Connect with Them”
The Economic Times (India) “Has SAS Institute’s Chairman Jim Goodnight Cracked the Code of Corporate Culture?”
Leader to Leader Journal (U.S.) “To Boost Performance, Connect with the Core.”
Hiring Smart (Canada) “The Case for Connection at Work“
Best Practice Institute Employee Engagement Webinar
On July 14, 2010 at 12:00 pm EDT, Michael and Jason Pankau will join the Best Practice Institute to present a 45 minute webinar on creating a work environment to maximize employee engagement and strategic alignment. Following the webinar there will be a 15 minute period for Q&A.
During the session, Michael and Jason will cover:
- Six universal human needs to thrive at work
- Three core elements of a culture that motivates employees to give their all
- Best practices of leaders who energize the people they lead
- Why task and relationship excellence are necessary to achieve sustainable superior performance.
You can register for the webinar at this link.
Webinar: Jobs, Catmull, Lafley Have the “Connection Edge”
Jason Pankau and I are presenting a 60 minute webinar for Communitelligence about the “Connection Edge” that leaders such as Steve Jobs, Ed Catmull and A.G. Lafley employ to boost strategic alignment and employee engagement. The webinar will be held on June 9 at 2:00 PM Eastern. You can sign up at this link.
What Steve Jobs, Ed Catmull and A.G. Lafley have in common
Jobs, Catmull and Lafley connect with employees of their respective organizations, although they do so in distinctly unique ways. This is the topic of a webinar Jason Pankau and I will be doing for Communitelligence. You can learn more about it at this link. This topic is relevant today because Corporate Executive Board research shows that 90 percent of employees are either not engaged and giving their best efforts or they are not aligned with their organization’s goals. Research by both The Conference Board and the Corporate Executive Board shows that the solution to this problem to develop the emotional and rational connections that employee have with their organization’s mission and values, supervisor, colleagues and day-to-day work tasks. In the webinar, Michael and Jason show how great leaders do this.
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.
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!