Start Your Day With a Leadership Boost!

As we track the patterns of growing traffic to our web site, we continue to see the vast majority of visitors come to read through my archive of nearly three hundred articles, book excerpts, and columns . Comments like this one from Luís always make my day! His feedback also lets us know that our goal of making www.clemmer.net a major resource for practical material on personal, team, and organizational leadership is on track.

“Congratulations on the clear and simple way in which you have based your sharing of the thoughts that your experience have made you get to.

Their reading has been, for the past two years, a very good way to start my days, and I have to express my agreement to most of them.

Thank you for sharing all these experience-based thoughts!”

Luís Cochofel
Portugal

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Even The Maple Leafs Can Use Some Advice

For those who don’t know, Toronto’s hockey team, the Maple Leafs are having a terrible year…again.

Recently there has been a lot of talk about the future of the team’s General Manager and Coach.

In this morning’s Globe and Mail, there’s a story in the Management Section, where I’m quoted in regards to the situation.

Lessons from the Ferguson brouhaha: Put up or shut up
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071130.CACOACH30/TPStor

Leaders as Storytellers - 3 Tips

In this post, Cheryl Cran talks about leaders as storytellers,
and offers three tips to engage your employees with storytelling.

The most inspirational speakers I have ever seen have developed a wonderful ability to tell stories in a compelling way. I have been blessed to be on the same platform as some amazing storytellers and it is their stories that always make the biggest impression on me.

Stories can be a bridge that reaches across all generations and cultures.

When I worked in the corporate world as a young leader in my twenties I had a boss who was a wonderful coach. Her name was Carol and she first introduced me to the power of telling stories in order to involve my team and get them on side.

For the past thirteen years that I have been a professional speaker I have carried forward the power of using stories in my presentations and have noticed the impact they have on the audience. People do not usually remember facts but they do remember stories.

Here are 3 tips on how to use stories in your role as a leader:

Tip #1- When you want to communicate a change or a new idea think of how you can relay the message with a story. Some questions you could ask yourself to help are:

When did I or the team go through a change similar to the one that is coming?

How did I feel about it? How did I manage? What were my challenges?

When you convey the story add your personal percpeption and your feelings to let the team know how you felt and how you managed.

Tip #2- Use stories of co-workers or team members. Stories don’t always have to be personal. Often telling a story about someone overcoming a challenge can be highly inspiring. It builds a sense that if ’someone else’ could come through so well then perhaps we can too. Make sure you ask permission to use someone else’s story and mention that you think their story will help others.

Tip #3- Encourage sharing of stories. Work teams that share positive stories about their work progress or creative problem solving have higher levels of morale. Stories build connection and weave a common thread among the team. At your weekly or bi-weekly meetings have some time set aside for ’storytelling’.

The power of stories to connect us and inspire us is a unique gift. Do not underestimate the power of storytelling in the workplace.

ZENgagement: To Love Or Be Loved

What might it be like to awaken each day into an increasing sense that being loving is even more important than being loved? ~ Stephen Levine

Photo Credit: i heart u by http://flickr.com/photos/littlegoldwoman/860925091/

Employee Engagement Chronicle #5

David Zinger’s Employee Engagement Chronicle is your primary source for current news, views, reviews, and research on employee engagement. Each entry includes a link to an article or post with a short verbatim tidbit from the article. If you are intrigued, click on the author or source name at the start of each summary to study the full article. The Chronicle begins with a bullet point for each of the following articles:

Get The Point:

• Trust is a must or employee engagement is a bust.
• Find the people who make a difference and integrate their story into your engagement culture.
• When it comes to employee engagement know your score.
• An employee engagement gulf.

The Canadian Managment Centre focused on Human Resources Management Tip - A Trusting Relationship Retains Key Employees. The article looks at the importance of trust in keeping employees. The article includes a top 10 list of how managers can build trust including: (1) Spot an employee’s unique talent or skill and coach him/her to get the very best out of that. (2) Do not micro-manage; give employees space to find their own solutions. (3) Provide important information rather than holding on to it for political reasons.

Michael McKinney wrote about turning the difference makers into cultural stories based on Quint Studer’s book on Results that Last: make a conscious effort to look for and collect the stories of those people that go above and beyond and know when to break the rules in order to make a difference. Then retell them over and over to make them a part of the organization’s culture. The stories should have a behavior-oriented point and help people to connect their situation to that of the heroes in the story. “Finding your heroes and recognizing their behavior is key because recognized and rewarded behavior is repeated.”

Scorecard Metrics for HR focused on Some Useful HR Metrics for Large Organizations. Here is a snippet on employee engagement: Another important aspect of HR to measure is what is known as employee engagement. This refers to the relationship between employees and the management. High employee engagement would mean that employees tend to value their employment, and hence stay with the company as productive members. The metrics in this category take the form of employee survey results that can gauge employee satisfaction. For instance, the percentage of employees who look forward to coming to work is a useful metric, as is the percentage that feels comfortable with current management practices.

Gulf companies fail to engage employees for the long-term. Here are a couple of statistics from a November 2007 study in the Gulf: Fewer than half of Gulf employees think their organisation manages to attract the best talent or engage them to perform once they are inside the corporation. Even fewer (just over one third of employees) think their companies are good at holding on to the best talent.

Employee Engagement - Monday Morning Percolator #35

Employee Engagement - Monday Morning Percolator #35

This is part 5 of a 5 part series on leadership strength development through the application of StrengthsFinder 2.0.

Click here to read the first article in the series.

Here is the schedule outlining my strength focus:

1. Maximizer (Week 1)
2. Strategic (Week 2)
3. Positivity (Week 3)
4. Ideation (Week 4)
5. Empathy (Week 5)

Here is a quick review of the process of working on our strengths:

• Complete the StrengthsFinder 2.0 inventory.
• Scan your top 5 strengths
• Study your first strength
• Outline strength based actions for the first week.
• Implement your action plan
• Review your progress
• Repeat the the process with the next strength on your list.
• Click here to download a one page PDF form to assist in your strength work.

Review Week 4: Last Week’s Strength (Ideation)

I was able to work a lot with my strategic strength during the past week. I found times before flying in airports an excellent time to use strategic thinking for the variety of projects requiring my attention. Two projects had a number of significant external developments and I was able to use this strength to navigate through some of the changes.

I believe that I may have missed some of my own strength resources had I not had a specific focus on this strength last week. It was a busy week and this series focusing on a specific strength gave some structure to ensure that the strength was applied.

Outline Week 4: This Week’s Strength (Empathy)

People who are especially talented in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others’ lives or others’ situations.

Empathy Action Plan

1. My background is in counselling psychology. Empathy is the key approach and skill in the practice of counselling. I will look at using the strength and skills I have developed in this area to other relationships.

2. I will apply empathy to get a close up view of how my customers view my services and ensure that I approach my interactions with them from this perspective.

3. I will consciously apply more empathy in general social situations and family relationships and ensure that I communicate more of my understanding from this perspective.

4. I will live my favorite empathy line: Seek first to understand and demonstrate that understanding before seeking to be understood.

Next Week: Conclusion and review.

Photo Credit: Empathy in a carton by http://flickr.com/photos/geoffjones/526861820/

Get the Corner Office (5 Secrets for Gen Xers)

In a recent post I mentioned that Gen Xers are feeling frustrated with the ‘boomer ceiling’ that is preventing Gen Xers from moving up or getting the senior management jobs.

Here are 5 secrets specifically for Gen Xers on how to get that corner office promotion:

1. Dont get bitter get better- sit down with your boomer boss and ask him or her what you need to do to get to the position you want. State your goals and your willingness to do what it takes to get there.

2. Don’t threaten - do offer your persepective- there is nothing worse than an employee who threatens to go elsewhere if they don’t get the promotion or the recognition they feel they deserve. You are far better off to offer your opinion on your value to the company and then be honest about the options you are considering. If you are thinking of going elsewhere be up front about the opportunities you see and ask what your current boss thinks will be available for you and in what time frame.

3. Don’t compete-cooperate- Gen X energy can be very energetic, optimistic and to some weary baby boomers over zealous. The boomer can view your exuberant energy as direct competition to what the boomer has accomplished and they may feel threatened by your style. It is far more valuable to offer yourself as an ally and a resource to your baby boomer colleagues and position yourself as someone that is invaluable to the company. Expend your energy in helping your boomer boss look good and state your willingness to cooperate on mutual success. The boomer is likely to want to reciprocate or help you out after noticing that you have been cooperative.

4. Don’t begrudge the offspring- have a succession discussion- I have a dear friend who owns a very large publishing company and both of his daughters work for the company. My friend did not just give jobs to his offspring- they both had previous schooling and experience that would prove a huge asset to his company. Boomer entrepreneurs and owners want to involve their family in their businesses if the family members add value to the organization. Sit down with your boomer boss and discuss the realities of succession and ask them to be honest about the possibilities of executive positions available keeping in mind the possible family dynamics of the business.

5. Don’t be pushy- be patient- your timeline for promotion may be six months ahead of the boomer timeline or the company timeline. Remember that many boomers had to work ten to fifteen years before they got the privilege of senior management. Often the boomer boss will want to push back on your urgent need for promotion. Gen Xers are wired for speed of decisions and their impatience can back fire on them. Give yourself a deadline for the specific promotion you are aiming for. Make sure you have all of the attributes that are needed for the role- education, experience and skill set. State your goals for the position, ask what else you need to do to stand a chance and then apply for the promotion. If you do not get it- ask for constructive feedback as to why and then from there make your decision of whether you can wait for the next opportunity or whether you want to explore other avenues.

ZENgagement: What is new is old (Self-Reliance)

Is Employee Engagement really a new topic?

Here is a wonderful snippet of poetry from Ralph Waldo Emerson written in 1841, 166 years ago, on self-reliance:

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, 1841.

Photo Credit: do what you are afraid to do… by http://www.flickr.com/photos/m_e_l_o_d_y/350575931/

Gen X Are Ready To Be Executives

Enough about Gen Y and the Boomers- Gen Xers are saying once again “What about us?”
Recently I was a keynoter on board a cruise ship with business owners who were attending sessions on succession planning. I was asked to present my research and expertise on generations in the workplace. The keynote was a hit and afterwards a Gen X approached me and asked, “Why didnt you spend as much time on Gen X?” First I told her that she was being true to her generation by asking and then I admitted that I did focus more on Boomers and Gen Y and that was because the current issues around recruiting were focused on the Gen Y group. This feisty Gen X wouldnt let me off the hook and said, “we are the ones ready to take over and be executives and we need to be allowed to take the reins.”
She is right, many Gen X ers are resentful that the Baby Boomers are not helping them get to the upper ranks. In fact a Newsweek survey stated that 1 in 4 Gen X’s feel that Boomers are holding all of the good jobs. Gen X is ready to step up and in to the higher level roles and if they are not able to see the possibility within a few years they are looking elsewhere for organizations who are progressive and working on succession planning.
We do need to focus on Gen X in a big way, if they dont see leadership roles avaiable they are highly entrepreneurial and will head up their own companies.
This doesnt mean Boomers need to step aside it does mean they need to actively include, groom and provide a timeline of career advancement to Gen Xers.
So here’s to the Gen X - the squeezed generation- the generation who WILL be heard.

The 10 Simple Laws of Employee Engagement

Can you make employee engagement simple?

John Maeda. a professor in MIT’s Meida Lab, is the master of simplicity. He wrote a compelling book, The Laws of Simplicity.

In this article I apply Maeda’s 10 laws and 3 keys of simplicity to employee engagement.

TEN LAWS

1. REDUCE. The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. What can you reduce from work and the organization that can enhance employee engagement. Perhaps you can remove constricting policies or physical barriers between people.

2. ORGANIZE. Organization makes a system of many appear fewer. There are many variable influencing employee engagement. Strive to organize them into effective categories. For example I like to organize employee engagement interventions into 3 dimensions: organizational, leadership, and employee.

3. TIME. Savings in time feels like simplicity. Where can time be saved to make work simpler and yet more productive and powerful?

4. LEARN. Learn all you can about employee engagement. Learn what engages you. Learn what experts offer. Mostly in a leadership position, learn from the people closest to engagement - yourself and the employees!

5. DIFFERENCES. Simplicity and complexity need each other. Engagement must be interspersed with periods of disengagement.

6. CONTEXT. What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral. If you want to enhance engagement look to change the context of work or the working environment and watch behavior change because of this “peripheral” change.

7. EMOTION. More emotions are better than less. Emotion is the motion of engagement. Create emotions of caring and satisfaction and belonging. Let employees know they matter.

8. TRUST. In simplicity we trust. Employee engagement must be based on trust and belief. Effective employee engagement is based of mutual purpose and benefit for all.

9. FAILURE. Some things can never be made simple. As you strive to simplify employee engagement keep your eyes open for failure and what can be learned from this.

10. THE ONE. Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful. What obvious drudgery can be removed from work so that the most meaningful of efforts can be added to the employee’s effort and experience.

THREE KEYS

1. AWAY. More appears like less by simply moving it far, far away. Can you keep the less urgent and unimportant disengaging work far away?

2. OPEN. Openness simplifies complexity. Make your organization open to employees. Open book management has been a powerful way to gain engagement from many employees as they become a real business partner in an organization. Can you use the tools of Web 2.0 to create an open environment — open to communication from all levels and equally open to change because of this communication?

3. POWER. Use less, gain more. Empowerment can be a pathway to engagement and reduction of hierarchical power can create more power within employees to power up their own engagement.

I encourage you to read Maeda’s book and focus on how you can design simple employee engagement at your work.

Photo Credit: Simplicity by http://flickr.com/photos/justintosh/576342875/

David Zinger, M.Ed

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