Destination: Success | It's Time to Engage
If you want better team engagement, you better engage as a team. If you want better employee engagement, you better engage the employees. If you want better personal engagement, you better personally engage.
You know, we hear a lot about wanting more and or better team, employee, and personal engagement…and that is the problem, we hear a lot more talk about engagement rather than seeing active engagement.
For example, in your organization, is employee engagement really only talked about prior to and for the 45 days following the annual or bi-annual “employee engagement survey”, with little to no sustained follow-up beyond that? Does your culture “branding” mention a lot about team(s); things like “Together we win.”, “We are one.”, et cetera, but the actual daily “performance environment” is driven by functional silos, task-focused, and managed performance with very few opportunities to actually engage as a high-performance, employee-led team?
With a lot of talk about engagement and little to no focus on activities that cultivate and support true organization and or team engagement, do you find it personally difficult to actively engage? Lastly, do you feel like employees are just coming in with a purpose to achieve daily/weekly tasks instead of coming in each day to achieve a purpose?
If this is the case, the next three Destination: Success blogs will give you actions and best practices you can personally do and learn from to lead active engagement right where you are.
But don’t wait until next week, let’s start by looking at your sphere of influence so we know where the greatest opportunities for you to more actively engage exist.
https://www.cornerstonelearning.com/news/2018/01/30-authentic-relationships-1
https://www.cornerstonelearning.com/news/2018/02/06-not-all-relationships-created-equal
https://www.cornerstonelearning.com/news/2018/02/13-take-action
Destination Success: It’s time to engage!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
What's the Purpose?
Why do I do what I do day in and day out, and to what end? Ever ask that question?
You know, most people unfortunately get up in the morning with the main purpose of going into work and delivering on a set of predetermined tasks, responding to the inevitable urgent fire drills and going home at whatever time you can complete that days' tasks.
It is no wonder that according to the most recent State of the American Workplace study conducted by the Gallup organization only 33% of U.S. employees are truly engaged at work. While 16% of employees are actively disengaged, that leaves 51% of us not engaged, showing up to work and existing to complete our daily tasks.
If this is the case for you and or your organization it is time to find your purpose! If you want better personal and organizational engagement you better get engaged! Once engaged, dig deep to find your personal purpose and then align it with your organizations purpose.
Unfortunately, often the main purpose heard throughout an organization may sound like, “Our purpose is to; (and you pick from the options) make a profit, drive shareholder value, or possibly be the best, low cost provider in the industry.” Now, while these are vitally important to any organization, they don’t drive engagement, they often do contribute to compliant, task-driven cultures and behaviors.
If you want better personal and organizational engagement, you better get engaged!
Without true engagement you and the organization will lose that “reason to believe” in the future and, over a period of time, the opportunity to sustain a profit and drive shareholder value will be lost while best and brightest talent leave to go to organizations that have a compelling purpose and connect it to everyone.
So what is your purpose? What do you believe in? What does or will excite you when you come into work each day? Do you believe that what you do makes a difference, if not, how can it? And finally, does the work you do help contribute to your personal purpose?
Without answers to these questions people and organizations tend to drift. Like a rudderless boat we drift from one wave to the next letting random currents steer our path.
So move from drifting like nearly 70% of the workforce, get engaged, define your personal purpose, actively work on an employee engagement team that defines, or refines your organizations purpose.
With a purpose, anything is possible!
To find out about purpose look to the fourth shift “From Drifting to Purpose” in the new book LeaderShift on sale now at Amazon.
Upcoming Posts
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AUGUST 29 - From Customer Duty to Customer Passion
SEPTEMBER 5 - From Fighting Change to Guiding Change
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Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in developing a dynamic and customized blue print to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
What is the purpose in your tasks?
Work your daily tasks with meaning and purpose even if they seem menial to you or others.
Working on a line creating and delivering sandwiches to customers at lunch may not sound exciting to some, but what if as you were putting ingredients together on that sandwich you made someone’s day by just saying hi, engaging in a fifteen second conversation and making them smile on what could have been a difficult morning for them. Or, as you are working on those end of month accounting closing statements you reach out to a co-worker to help them get to their child’s first dance recital or little league baseball game, or just let them talk about what is important to them for those fifteen minutes.
While each of us has our tasks to do no matter where we are in an organization, deliver those tasks with and for a greater purpose. If things in your department are drifting, step up with a purpose to make a positive difference this week. Intervene in the drift with options and suggestions for improvement. Take time to reach out and cultivate more authentic relationships with those around you, and finally, lead change from where you are in a positive way, don’t just accept the status quo.
Find purpose this week in the tasks you complete! Where can you make a difference?
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in developing a dynamic and customized blue print to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
The LeaderShifts
There is a shift going on with leadership today. In fact there are two shifts underway; both are evolutionary and require time and support to cultivate. In the first shift occurring, everyone must develop as a leader and lead where they are no matter where they reside in the organization. Leadership can’t be limited to a select few in organizations any longer. With intense competition, true globalization, and the rapid advances in disruptive technologies, waiting for formal leaders to build a plan, make hierarchical decisions, and manage people and outcomes is a business model that time and competition is rapidly passing by.
Every individual in the organization must take a leadership role in planning, executing, and owning their performance activities and results. Everyone should be trained and expected to lead change instead of reactively managing it. They should see possibilities for change and positive disruption in everything, instead of obstacles and barriers. And finally they should take a leadership role in displaying personal and team accountability even on teams and in organizations that seem to always lack accountability. So LeaderShift one – Everyone developing as a leader.
The second Leadershift is in the management model for leading those people. To lead a team of individual leaders requires new leadership skills and behaviors to be effective. The old management model that has been around prior to WWII of planning, directing, controlling and managing is quickly losing its impact. For instance, no one wants to be managed any longer, just ask them. The most effective leaders of people in the future will be making the shift to leading by inspiring, energizing, facilitating, and developing the leader in everyone.
There are major shifts occurring in leadership whether we like it or not. Are you and your organization planning for and developing the leader in everyone and enhancing the effectiveness of your organizations leadership to take advantage of these powerful LeaderShifts? If not start today!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in developing a dynamic and customized blue print to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Sustained Success - These two organizations know how to enable it!
By any standard of measure two of the most successful organizations that consistently show excellence year in and year out are the Pittsburg Steelers and the New England Patriots. And if you get past the fan passion and get down to the undeniable success on the field and how that is accomplished, I think you can gain real insight on sustaining success by reading this ESPN article.
Bottom line, each organization enables their success with C.A.R.E. Senior leadership is visible and connected with their C.A.R.E. They define their culture and they live their culture. Leaders support the culture and the players lead it on the field. If you want sustained success that stands the time of time, then how effective is your organization at C.A.R.E?
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in developing a dynamic and customized blue print to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
