Athenaonline.com sent me links to several video clips I filmed for its MyQuickCoach product that was voted one of Human Resource Executive magazine’s top training products of the year. Take a look and let me know what you think.
Relationship Excellence and Performance
Today, Athenaonline.com sent out an email newsletter to its clients to make them aware of the recent training videos I filmed for its MyQuickCoach program. In the email AthenaOnline included this video clip of me discussing the importance of Connection Cultures.
Athenaonline was voted one of Human Resource Executive magazines top new training products. It includes thought leaders such as Marshall Goldsmith, Ram Charan and David Allen on topics like leadership training and development, employee engagement, team building and time mangement .
For the AthenaOnline clients who are clicking through to check out my blog, I want to make you aware of the free, downloadable eBook I wrote that was published by Changethis.com. You can download it by clicking on employee engagement.
Last week Siemens paid a $1.6 billion fine for its bribery violations. The New York Times’ writers Siri Schubert and T. Christian Miller wrote an excellent article about it entitled “At Siemens, Bribery Was Just a Line Item.”
Corporate identity is a source of pride in the best organizations. It is a factor that contributes to connection and employee engagement. When a company’s identity is tarnished like Siemens has been, it rubs off on employees’ identities too. Siemens’ leaders can recover provided they develop a culture that places a high value on integrity, honesty and justice. If they do, it will improve employee and customer engagement. If they fail to do this, I would not be very optimistic about Siemens’ future.
I wrote about the Ritz Carlton’s Connection Culture in Fired Up or Burned Out. Here’s a great article from Gallup about it entitled “What’s behind the Ritz-Carlton Mystique?“
Recently I hosted webcasts with Traci Fenton, founder/CEO+designer at WorldBlu, and Kevin Eikenberry, Chief Potential Officer of the Kevin Eikenberry Group. You can see the webcasts on BrightTalk’s Leadership and Employee Engagement Channel. In the webcast with Traci, you’ll learn about organizational democracy and in Kevin’s webcast you’ll learn about how “Remarkable Leaders” create connection. I have tremendous respect for Traci and her work. Kevin, as you may know, is the author of an excellent book I reviewed entitled Remarkable Leaders. He is a first class thinker about leadership. I know you’ll enjoy both of these webcasts.
After some encouragement from Traci, I finally joined Twitter. Now I’m following both Traci and Kevin’s “tweets” (Twitter lingo for brief posts). When I read Traci’s tweets I learned about two great articles. One was written by Parker Palmer about creating movements rather than organizations and the other was a Fast Company piece about Cisco’s evolving culture of connection. I hope you’ll check them out.
I want to mention Kevin Eikenberry’s free teleseminar for individuals who want to improve their personal and/or professional lives. The seminar is entitled “Make the Next 12 Months the Best 12 Months.” It is offered at two times this Thursday December 18.
Finally, early next year I have some great webcasts in the works including with Tim Sanders, author of Saving the World at Work, and Kim Ruvolo, manager of Jet Blue’s brand. as soon as dates are confirmed I’ll post them on my blog and on my new twitter page.
During difficult times it’s natural for anxious individuals to retreat into isolation, a state that nearly always results in diminished productivity. When it comes to the amount of effort employees put in their work, research by the Corporate Leadership Council has shown that emotional connections are on average four times as important as rational factors. Emotional connections arise when employees feel: 1) proud of their organization’s mission, values and reputation, 2) valued by their supervisor and colleagues, and 3) informed and that their opinions and ideas about matters that are important to them are considered by decision-makers before decisions are made.
Recently I visited an impressive organization that is poised to continue performing well even through the challenging economic environment we are presently facing.
During the recent webcast I did for the American Management Association, participants submitted more questions than we were able to answer in the allotted 15 minutes for Q&A. The AMA sent me the questions so that I could answer them on my blog. Although I am not able to answer them all at once, I will continue to chip away at the list and post all the answers below.
Today the American Management Association posted a podcast I did with the AMA’s Dave Summers. The topic of the podcast is how to create Connection Cultures that increase employee engagement. You can hear the podcast and even download it on an iPod or iPhone by clicking on employee engagement.
Here are links below to follow-up materials for the participants in the American Management Association webcast I’m doing tomorrow. The 2,600 spots for the webcast were oversubscribed but the AMA is making the recording of it available on or around November 10. You can click here to sign up for an email to access the recording. Here are the materials:
Free download from changethis.com:
Connection Culture eBook
Free Getting Started Guide to Connection Cultures:
e-pluribus-partners-getting-started
Feel free to pass them along to anyone who might benefit!
On November 5th I’ll be doing a webcast for the American Management Association entitled “Fired Up Leadership: How to Make Your Team Thrive.” The webcast is already oversubscribed but the AMA will be making it available to the public at no charge beginning on or around November 10. To receive an email notifcation from the AMA when the webcast becomes available, click here.