Wright Results

And so, a culture of engagement exam?

For years I’ve professed the value, the significance, and the critical weight of a business having its culture of engagement.

It’s been years since I’ve expressed concisely the actual meaning of that phrase, a culture of engagement.

It deserves definition because it is more than we think.

It’s more than encouraging employees to engage in their work, their teams, their company. It’s more than striving to increase that number of engaged employees. It’s more [...]

Managers can prevent turnover. Here’s how.

When the economy really turns around and recovery begins, holding onto talent will be on every manager’s priority list.

At least, it should be.

A sure sign of confidence in the economy is hiring additional employees. Increased opportunities for better work, different work, and simply other work will appeal, especially to a business’s true talent.

Employees choose to leave not just because of greater pay or better benefits. [...]

A real B.U.M. rap

A friend recently told me of being emotionally “beaten up” by their manager.

Normally, I share ways to generate positive engagement. This, however, makes me think it can”t hurt to look at the flip side. It is very easy for a Beat ‘em Up Manager (aka B.U.M.) to disrupt completely an employee’s engagement equation:

investment

+ commitment

+ involvement

Engagement

in his work, [...]

The creative circle to increased engagement

Here’s a victorious circle that involves creativity-at-work and employee engagement.

The more engaged employees are, the more creativity they bring to their work.

And the more creativity employees bring to their work, the more readily they engage in same work.

The more you invite, even invest in, your employees demonstrating how they may apply their creativity to their work, their workplace, the more engagement you will see.

One part of the ROI of [...]

As if we still need convincing…

So, maybe you’ve heard these six reasons before. Perhaps you’ve offered some of the half-dozen to your leadership team, your fellow managers, your employees already.

Or by chance, some of the following reasons it pays to boost employee engagement are new for you and your organization.

Employee engagement directly increases engagement by your customers, clients, and/or patients. They prefer to be engaged by those who serve them. Engaged employees [...]

Engagement pride: a list of opportunities

Yesterday I promised a list of ways you can encourage your people to share their pride in their own engagement.

Remember, the more they talk about the good their engagement does and the good it makes them feel, the more engagement you will see: from those employees and from their associates. That said, and knowing the benefits of an engaged workforce, there’s no reason not to try one or more of these:

E-mail Pride. Send out an e-mail invitation [...]

Who’s got engagement pride? How much?

Psychologists affirm these benefits of people sharing their successes:

Speaking of one’s good feelings from an accomplishment motivates the person to repeat the efforts, perhaps increase them. Hearing of a teammate’s accomplishment typically encourages a similar desire to achieve.

The conclusion I draw is this:

The more often employees express pride in their engagement–and what the engagement has produced–the more often such engagement will occur.

Note this slight change in that statement:

The more [...]

Employee Engagement: means what to whom?

Suppose you posted the question: Employee engagement! What does that mean to you?

Maybe on an inner-office bulletin board. Or via e-mail. Perhaps as the banner question on a staff-meeting agenda. What about printed on a pad of Post-It notes on everyone’s desk? Possibly a quick-answer survey.

Suppose your employees were given both the invitation and the motivation to answer that question. What might they say? What might [...]

What gets between leaders and employees?

Management, as we traditionally think of it, says Dan Pink, author of such works on work as A Whole New Mind, is a great way to get compliance. But it’s proved to be a terrible way to get engagement.

If leaders should be expected to define the culture that generates employee engagement, managers are responsible for taking that culture to the employees.

And if what Pink [...]

What’s ‘leadershift’?

Consider these sobering facts: At least two-thirds of organizational change initiatives fail; 90 percent of strategies are not carried out successfully; 95 percent of employees are unaware of or do not understand their organization’s strategy. For all our management expertise, planning, and strategizing, we’re too often unable to successfully implement strategic change. Wm. Pasmore

It doesn’t matter who’s to blame. What matters is what [...]