Tomorrow we are starting our annual 2-day all company meeting. Over 300 Blanchard employees from around the world are meeting together to celebrate last year’s accomplishments and discuss this year’s strategies for succeeding in a tough economy. A couple of us are doing presentations (including yours truly.) I’ll be talking about engageable moments and…
The current economic situation can have either a positive or negative impact on motivation. The pessimist will see these difficulties as de-motivators. However, the optimist knows that difficult times can bring us together in a common effort and goal. It all depends on how you look at it. Findings from the 2008/2009 WorkUSA…
If you want your organization to move forward during tough times, everyone has to feel some ownership in the process and feel that they can make a difference. I was reminded of that fact when I saw an article about Ben Zander, the highly regarded conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. Both Ben and the…
I had an interesting experience in a pilot class on employee engagement that shows the importance of keeping the focus on individuals and resisting the urge to roll-up data. During the class, we anonymously polled the ten participants on the degree to which they were getting their needs met in our eight employee passion areas:…
Colleen Barrett, past president of Southwest Airlines, was asked about some of the techniques she used to keep morale high at her company. One of the things she shared was how she spent time every day writing personal notes to employees recognizing them for accomplishments, noting milestones achieved, or just saying thank you. After she had…
I’ve just fallen in love with a new television series that I’ve discovered online. The program is called Kitchen Nightmares and it features world-class restaurateur Gordon Ramsay, most famous for his television show Hell’s Kitchen. In this series, Ramsay works with struggling restaurants all across the United States to see what he can do to…