September 4, 2016 by 2 Comments

Training & Orienting Others

A big part of felt resilience in people is their sense of mastery in a given situation. Anyone can come to feel overwhelmed in a situation, especially one that is new to them, even if they are consciously competent in many other areas.

FullSizeRender (8)

The above is a metaphorical video example of how we support or demoralize the resilience in others in the way that we train, orient and hold accountability.

Remember: What we hear, we forget. What we see, we remember. What we do, we understand. (Chinese Proverb) Stats here

 Please Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Culture, Employee Engagement Tagged With: , , ,
August 27, 2012 by 1 Comment

Culture: an elite athlete perspective

I received permission to share an email (below) that one of my clients circulated among the staff of his organization…the day after an intensive culture workshop I facilitated. So often it seems that leaders are looking for a light switch process to “turn on” culture improvement…rather than go through the process. However, it is the process that works the depth of true transformation…painful though it may be.

At the start of a person’s journey from inactivity to elite athlete they have to expend high levels of their energy to do relatively little because they are not in very good shape. At the same time, they make big improvements in their fitness and ability to achieve in their sport.

As they get more fit, that same level of energy expenditure does quite a lot more and they improve noticeably. It’s a nice linear progression and as long as you only want to be good at the sport you can work reasonably hard and be in quite good shape.

However, if the goal is to be an elite athlete then moving from the 90th percentile to the 92nd percentile doesn’t take just 2% more energy, it takes almost as much energy as was expended to get from 0 – 90%. Getting a tiny bit better takes high levels of intense energy and focus. The work to go from 10th best in the world to on the podium is massive.

 Please Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Culture, Employee Engagement, Leadership, Team, Values Tagged With: , , , , , ,
August 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Growing Capacity

In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles and positions.

Margaret Wheatly

If you were to take a snapshot view of your organization, based on the perspective of what Margaret Wheatley suggests here, what would you see? Is there a great emphasis on the task at hand, while relationships suffer along? Are departments and/or individuals operating as silos; islands unto themselves? Is it possible that, if the organization were to invest some effort into the “capacity to form” relationships, significant progress would be made? What could your role as one individual be? How much impact could you create?

 Please Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Culture, Employee Engagement, Leadership, Team, Values Tagged With: , ,
July 17, 2012 by 2 Comments

Entitlement vs. Appreciation

I wonder if I owe employer-readers of SaskBusiness an apology. A few months back I wrote of how employers need to value their employees in a manner in which employees “feel” valued. A few weeks later, I noted that employees of one of my clients left this article folded and face up on the staff lunchroom table for over a month…the first of my articles to receive such promotion. While what I wrote remains true, it calls for a balanced perspective within the employer/employee partnership…one of appreciation on the part of the employee.

“People who are raised in North America may have a sense of entitlement simply because they have no idea how lucky they are. If you’ve never been hungry, never wondered where you would sleep, never had to go without shoes, then your sense of what is by rights your due may be askew… ”

 Please Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Culture, Employee Engagement, Values Tagged With: , , , ,
June 17, 2012 by 2 Comments

Vision: Fuel for Passion

Seasons come and go, and in them we ebb and flow…and that’s the end of poetry for this blog article.  🙂

I had a friend recently describe how she was lacking passion for anything of late. She described a season of “going through the motions” with little motivation. I found myself instantly pointing to vision as the culprit.

Vision leads to passion…or not. It depends on what we see. If we go to our work with a (even subconscious) view of having little change through our efforts, then why would we need passion?However, if we see great things happening as a result of our involvement, passion flows powerfully.

Let me mix in a metaphor: Boxing. Apparently if a boxer is to be successful, he/she must punch “through” the target…not simply hit it. They must see past the surface, and punch through for power and impact.

Maybe this is where we get hung up with passion. We see the surface of what we are dealing with, and it looks like not much changes. We need eyes to see past the surface to the depth of the change that could be…and aim for that. If we can get a glimpse of that level of impact, we can sense achievement (in boxing: victory!)…which lifts our passion to engage!

This principle does not just end with us as individuals. As we lead others, we must also be aware of opportunities to help them see the impact of what they are doing…the change that is happening below the surface, otherwise they suffer as we do in depleting passion.

What would it take to discover what you do not presently see? How might it feel to live with greater passion for your day?

 

Filed Under: Employee Engagement, Leadership, Team Tagged With: , , ,
May 28, 2012 by 4 Comments

Communication…Developing the Will to Understand

Communication between two people, departments, companies, stakeholders…is always a challenge. (maybe even solo…as I think my multiple personalities have trouble communicating within my singular being!)

Why?

Well, there are the many varied components, such as sender, receiver, message and mode of transmission. Then there are the mystical factors…such as the condition of the sender’s heart, the condition of the receiver’s heart, and the tone of delivery.

Then there is the issue of language, interpretation, clarity and interference or distraction.

It’s just plain amazing to me that we ever effectively communicate!

 Please Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Culture, Employee Engagement, Leadership, Team, Values Tagged With: , , , , ,
February 24, 2012 by 3,850 Comments

Value Recognition

People engage where they feel valued for their contribution.

Organizations don’t value people…people value people.

It is not so much that you “tell” people you value them…more that they recognize (sense) that they are valued. It may be that you have said, “we sure value your contribution here”…but a comment such as this may lead to feelings of being a “tool” – rather than valued as a person.

It is less likely that people really want to be an employee of the month picture on the wall…or have a parking space at the front door…this may actually work against other people on your team recognizing the value you have for them.

How do you feel valued?

Filed Under: Employee Engagement, Team Tagged With: , , ,