Deciding whether a company’s work environment is engaging or not is a highly personal experience according to researchers at The Ken Blanchard Companies. In a new article for Chief Learning Officer magazine the researchers identify that employees experience their environment differently—even when they are looking at the same set of circumstances. Take, for example, the…
In an article for the May issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine entitled The Leadership-Profit Chain, authors Drea Zigarmi and Scott Blanchard identify the impact of leadership behaviors on employee passion and customer devotion. Their research shows that organizations can’t treat employees poorly, put pressure on them, and then expect them to perform at high levels. Sometimes organizations…
Earlier this year, I wrote about the importance of making sure that everyone in an organization understands their role and feels some ownership and pride in what a company does, or produces. For some reason, this posting has remained quietly popular throughout the course of the year. With very little fanfare, it has continued to…
Organizations want their employees to be more intrinsically engaged at work. They want their employees to be more creative, more innovative, and to take more risks. One of the ways organizations are supporting these initiatives is through the use of incentives. While incentives can be a good way to drive short term behavior, you have…
An in-progress, online survey by Sean Silverthorne of Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge newsletter shows that 82% of respondents indicate that “Yes, the crisis is sapping my enthusiasm.” (Econ Crisis Making Middle Managers Miserable) Silverthorne also reports that 27% of middle managers find their current roles less meaningful and exciting than before the economic crisis,…
We just published the latest installment in our ongoing research on employee passion. The focus of this latest paper was to look at the process people go through in deciding whether their current company deserves their full commitment or just enough to get by. We found out something really interesting to keep in mind…
What’s the best way for leaders to impact their organizations after a layoff, merger, or acquisition? If you had to choose between focusing on your people, financials, or customers, where would you begin? We asked that question to 700 frontline, mid-level, and senior executives who attended our webinar on Revitalizing the Downsized Organization this past…
One of the biggest challenges that organizations face is how to improve coordination among team members. While most teams are aligned to some degree, they are often not aligned to the degree that they could be. Check this out in your own organization. Ask individual team members independently what the top three strategic imperatives are…
There are a couple of different measures that always matter. Productivity is one of them. You have to hold people accountable to deliver upon the goals and tasks that they are asked to accomplish. The other piece that is not as heavily managed is people’s discretionary energy. That’s part of what I found out…
Many employees feel they are not getting enough recognition and their work environment is not providing career growth. That’s what we found out in our new white paper From Engagement to Work Passion which takes a further look at the concept of employee passion. This is a continuation of our research which identified eight basic…