Last Friday I was a guest on my friend Jim Blasingame’s nationally-syndicated radio program entitled “The Small Business Advocate.” In the interview Jim and I talked about employee engagement and why leaders need to clearly communicate their vision and values to the people they are responsible for leading. This is especially important during difficult economic times. You can hear the interview by clicking on the “listen now” below.
Category Archives: Inspiring Identity
Sad for Siemens’ Employees
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.
Q&A from My AMA Webcast on Employee Engagement
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.
My AMA Podcast on Employee Engagement (now on iTunes)
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.
Corporation: “to thine own self be true”
Inspired by Socrates advice to “know thyself,” Shakespeare penned the words “to thine own self be true” in Hamlet. From our research at E Pluribus Partners on employee engagement, leadership development and team building, we know that great leaders have a high degree of self awareness, i.e. they know who they are and who they are not.
Knowing oneself is also important to organizations. Why? Organizations today must differentiate themselves in ways that are relevant to customers in order to win in the crowded, noisy marketplace. You can learn how by watching a recent webcast I hosted with Larry Ackerman, one of today’s leading experts on corporate and individual identity. Larry is the founder and president of The Identity Circle. He is also the author of two excellent books I recommend entitled Identity is Destiny and The Identity Code. In his presentation, Larry explains how he helped the Global 500 company Norsk Hydro discover its identity. You can see my webcast with Larry Ackerman by clicking on employee engagement.
Book Review: Why is Everyone Smiling?
Paul Spiegelman, CEO of the Beryl Companies, has written a wonderful book about Beryl Companies and its extraordinary culture. Rather than write a review of Paul’s book, I’m posting the review written by the business maven and book reviewer extraordinaire Robert Morris (see below). On Monday at 11:00 AM Eastern, I will be hosting a webcast with Paul Spiegelman and you can sign up for it by clicking on employee engagement.
Robert Morris review of Why Is Everyone Smiling?
Do Your Company’s Mission, Vision and Values fall flat?
A well-articulated mission, vision and set of values increases employee engagement. It’s the responsibility of an organization’s leadership to understand and communicate mission, vision and values. Sadly, most leaders dismiss it as window dressing. Great leaders, however, are serious about this responsibility. Howard Schultz of Starbucks did a remarkable job when he wrote the book Pour Your Heart Into it. Here’s another outstanding example below from the commander of the nuclear submarine, the U.S.S. Montpelier. Next month Jason Pankau and I will holding a training session for managers at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics. They build nuclear submarines. When I recently read Montpelier Command Philosophy, my thoughts were on the people I’ve met and worked with at Lockheed Martin Aerospace and who build and maintain military aircraft and those I’ll meet who build nuclear submarines. Their work is so important to protect liberty on the world. I hope they appreciate it.
The USS Montpelier Command Philosophy
Will You Surf The Perfect Storm Ahead…or Be Drowned By It?
Following is a sneak peak of an article I wrote for the American Management Association’s Journal. It’s about the necessity for organizations to increase employee engagement (including leadership development, team building and talent management) as the forces of globalization and demographics collide.
A perfect storm is brewing that will threaten many a firm’s survival in the decades ahead. Market forces, like storm fronts, are colliding to produce volatile conditions. Companies that anticipate and prepare for these threats can convert them into major opportunities to leap ahead of their competitors. There’s plenty of evidence that savvy companies are already moving to gain a competitive edge. Rather than being crushed by the massive waves, these companies are effectively surfing them and will leave competitors in their wake.
Strip Joints, Salesmen and Employee Engagement
John (not his real name) read Fired Up or Burned Out and contacted me about a dilemma he faced. John is a salesperson. One evening following dinner with a customer, John’s boss said he was taking the customer and John to a strip joint. John’s boss does this regularly and views it as a legitimate best practice among salespeople. John’s wife learned about it and expressed her disappointment. She also warned that if it happened again, she would leave him. John understood her disgust. He felt disappointed too. John told me that frequenting strip clubs was against his values. He also disclosed that he had little financial resources as well as a wife and several children to support, some of them in college. He asked me for advice. What would you advise John to do?
Webcast with David Zinger, Employee Engagement Expert and Founder of the Employee Engagement Network
Join me tomorrow at 11:00 AM Eastern when I will host a webcast with David Zinger, employee engagement expert and founder of The Employee Engagement Network. David has a wealth of knowledge and wisdom, as well as strength of character. He’s an inspiration to me and to many other professionals who work helping organizations engage their employees. In the webcast David will share his thoughts about the diverse connections that help engage people. To sign up for the webcast, click on employee engagement. If you are unable to join the live webcast, you can still click on the link to see the webcast recording.