• Recent Comments

  • Dan McCarthy on The importance of philosophy to great leadership
  • Jyvgkzyx on The importance of questioning your work
  • balabo_ck on Change fails when employees don’t grasp the rationale for the change
  • balabo_ei on Change fails when employees don’t grasp the rationale for the change
  • What Leadership Demands - Philosophy & Legacy on The importance of philosophy to great leadership
  • suria on Leaders vs. Managers….. Are they really different?
  • Boom Daniel on Leaders vs. Managers….. Are they really different?

• Blogs I Read

  • All Things Workplace
  • Be Excellent
  • Employee Engagement: Results That Matter
  • Extreme Leadership
  • Leadership Now
  • Leading Questions
  • Life 2.0
  • Phil Gerbyshak Challenges You to Make It Great!
  • Servant Leadership Blog
  • Slacker Manager
  • The Changing NHS
  • The Question of Leadership

• Spam Blocked

  183,924 spam comments

  blocked by
  Akismet

I’ve posted before on the importance of engagement (here, here and here). I recently stumbled across an interesting article “The ten C’s of employee engagement” from The Ivey Business Journal which provides a number of insightful pointers as to what’s required to improve employee engagement. The authors describe an engaged employee as a person who:

“….is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work…… Engaged employees care about the future of the company and are willing to invest the discretionary effort exceeding dutys call to see that the organization succeeds.”

The shocking part of the employee engagement challenge is that research indicates that only between 17% and 29% (depending on the research) of employees are actively engaged in their job at any one time. This would mean that if you were a soccer or football team only 2-3 players on the team would be 100% committed to the team’s success. It seems to me that the odds of winning a game with only 2-3 players 100% committed to a teams success are pretty slim!

So, “How can leaders engage employees’ heads, hearts, and hands?“, by starting to apply the following 10 C’s of employee engagement:

1. Connect: Leaders must show that they value employees. Employee engagement is a direct reflection of how employees feel about their relationship with the boss.
2. Career: Leaders should provide challenging and meaningful work with opportunities for career advancement. Most people want to do new things in their job. For example, do organizations provide job rotation for their top talent? Are people assigned stretch goals?
3. Clarity: Leaders must communicate a clear vision. Success in life and organizations is, to a great extent, determined by how clear individuals are about their goals and what they really want to achieve. In sum, employees need to understand what the organization’s goals are, why they are important, and how the goals can best be attained.
4. Convey: Leaders clarify their expectations about employees and provide feedback on their functioning in the organization.
5. Congratulate: Exceptional leaders give recognition, and they do so a lot; they coach and convey.
6. Contribute: People want to know that their input matters and that they are contributing to the organization’s success in a meaningful way. In sum, good leaders help people see and feel how they are contributing to the organization’s success and future.
7. Control: Employees value control over the flow and pace of their jobs and leaders can create opportunities for employees to exercise this control. A feeling of “being in on things,” and of being given opportunities to participate in decision making often reduces stress; it also creates trust and a culture where people want to take ownership of problems and their solutions.
8. Collaborate: Studies show that, when employees work in teams and have the trust and cooperation of their team members, they outperform individuals and teams which lack good relationships. Great leaders are team builders; they create an environment that fosters trust and collaboration.
9. Credibility: Leaders should strive to maintain a company’s reputation and demonstrate high ethical standards.
10. Confidence: Good leaders help create confidence in a company by being exemplars of high ethical and performance standards.

Looking at the above list it seems that many of the characteristics are about practicing effective leadership. To me employee engagement is not really about the employees, it’s really about effective leadership.

How engaged are the employees in your organisation? Are you leading effectively?

Technorati Tags: Engagement, Management, Leadership, Winning, Business, HR

Leaders are responsible for creating a compelling vision, I’ve previously posted on the key elements of a compelling vision as consisting of; a significant purpose, a picture of the future and a clear set of values. Many organisations have a compelling vision, in that they can check off the above three items, but is their vision working? Just having the components of a compelling vision doesn’t make it effective, many organisations have great visions, but how many are working?

I judge the effectiveness of a vision by the action it generates. Is the vision generating action with the people? James Kouzes and Barry Posner in their book “The Leadership Challenge” illustrates this principle as follows:

“Imagine you’re driving along the Pacific Coast Highway heading south from San Francisco on a bright, sunny day. The hills are on your left; the ocean, on your right. On some curves, the cliffs plunge several hundred feet to the water. You can see for miles and miles.
You’re cruising along at the speed limit, tunes blaring, top down, wind in your hair, and not a care in the world. Suddenly, without warning, you come around a bend in the road and there’s a blanket of fog as thick as you’ve ever seen it. What do you do?
We’ve asked this question many, many times and we get the same answers:

• I slow way down.
• I turn my lights on.
• I grab the steering wheel with both hands.
• I tense up.
• I sit up straight or lean forward.
• I turn the radio off so I can hear better.

Then you go around the next curve in the road, the fog lifts, and it’s clear again. What do you do? Relax, speed up, turn the lights off, turn the radio on and enjoy the scenery.”

I found this a great illustration on the importance of a clear and compelling vision. As leaders we’re not able to do everything ourselves, we rely on others to act on our behalf and vision is essential to help us align the action of others. A clear and compelling vision gives people the freedom to take action.

A vision works when it enables others act……… A vision works when it creates motion from others…… A vision works when it inspires action…….. A vision works when the next steps become clear….

So, how’s your vision working?

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Business, Vision, Purpose, Strategy, Values

I think that Keven Eikenberry in this post, hits that nail on the head! What is the most important aspects of a presentation? His conclusion…. it isn’t the slides….

• It isn’t the slides, it’s the stories.
• It isn’t the PowerPoint, it’s the passion.
• It isn’t the data, it’s the dialogue.
• It isn’t the Bullet points, it’s the belief you instill
• It isn’t the Action Steps, it’s taking action.

So, where is your focus for your next presentation?

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Business, Communication, Presenting, Powerpoint

Seth Godin has a great post on “Sheepwalking” which he defines as:

the outcome of hiring people who have been raised to be obedient and giving them a braindead job and enough fear to keep them in line.

This is true of many organisations today, looking for people who can “fit in”, get with the programme and not rock the boat. Conformance to the organisation’s expectations is what’s required. Seth goes on to say that…

“many organizations go out of their way to hire people that color inside the lines, that demonstrate consistency and compliance. And then they give these people jobs where they are managed via fear. Which leads to sheepwalking. (”I might get fired!”)…… What a waste.”

The solution…..?

“Step one is to give the problem a name. Done. Step two is for anyone who sees themself in this mirror to realize that you can always stop. You can always claim the career you deserve merely by refusing to walk down the same path as everyone else just because everyone else is already doing it…… The biggest step, though, comes from anyone who teaches or hires. And that’s to embrace non-sheep behavior, to reward it and cherish it.”

I think that this post impacted me because I see sheepwalkers at work everyday! People content to conform to the expectation of management. In so doing we lose, in that we settle for second best, we trade our passion and vision, for the perceived safety and security of a job. The result is wasted potential, we fail to fulfill our purpose, we live a life of mediocrity and apathy. I think the price we pay is huge. It’s definitely a greater price than I’m willing to pay!

“As long as we wish for safety, we will have difficulty pursuing what matters” - Peter Block, “The Answer to How is Yes“

Recognise that You Are Powerful Beyond Measure

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be - brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so small
that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in us, it’s in everyone.

As we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

- Marianne Williamson, 1992

So, Are you a sheepwalker?

Technorati Tags: Hiring, Leadership, Management, Culture, Business, Quote, Sheepwalking

An Fast Company article “Things Leaders Do” provide insight into Jeff Immelt’s, 10 keys to great leadership.

1. Personal Responsibility. - “Enron and 9/11 marked the end of an era of individual freedom and the beginning of personal responsibility. You lead today by building teams and placing others first. It’s not about you.”
2. Simplify Constantly. “I always use Jack [Welch] as my example here. Every leader needs to clearly explain the top three things the organization is working on. If you can’t, then you’re not leading well.”
3. Understand Breadth, Depth, and Context. “The most important thing I’ve learned since becoming CEO is context. It’s how your company fits in with the world and how you respond to it.”
4. The importance of alignment and time management. “There is no real magic to being a good leader. But at the end of every week, you have to spend your time around the things that are really important: setting priorities, measuring outcomes, and rewarding them.”
5. Leaders learn constantly and also have to learn how to teach. “A leader’s primary role is to teach. People who work with you don’t have to agree with you, but they have to feel you’re willing to share what you’ve learned.”
6. Stay true to your own style. “Leadership is an intense journey into yourself. You can use your own style to get anything done. It’s about being self-aware. Every morning, I look in the mirror and say, ‘I could have done three things better yesterday.’ “
7. Manage by setting boundaries with freedom in the middle. “The boundaries are commitment, passion, trust, and teamwork. Within those guidelines, there’s plenty of freedom. But no one can cross those four boundaries.”
8. Stay disciplined and detailed. “Good leaders are never afraid to intervene personally on things that are important. Michael Dell can tell you how many computers were shipped from Singapore yesterday.”
9. Leave a few things unsaid. “I may know an answer, but I’ll often let the team find its own way. Sometimes, being an active listener is much more effective than ending a meeting with me enumerating 17 actions.”
10. Like people. “Today, it’s employment at will. Nobody’s here who doesn’t want to be here. So it’s critical to understand people, to always be fair, and to want the best in them. And when it doesn’t work, they need to know it’s not personal.”

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Business, Role Model, Lessons, GE

The nominations for the 3rd Annual South African Weblog award is open. So if you enjoy reading this blog why not nominate me by clicking the “Nominate Me” button below….!

Nominations are open from 12 February 2007 to 26 February 2007. Thanks for your support…!

“Good thinkers do not necessarily think harder, longer, or more exactly; they have simply learned to think in directions that are more likely to be productive.” - Unknown

What is the quality of your thinking? I recently stumbled upon the book “Marketing Genius” by Peter Fisk, who describes the following insights into how a genius thinks:

1. Original Thinking: A genius starts with an open mind, uncluttered by conventions, taking new perspectives, deconstructing a problem the reassembling it in better ways.
2. Creative Thinking: A genius is always open to possibility, seeking to solve problems by hypothesis, taking a mental leap and then seeing whether it proves to be true or not.
3. Analytical Thinking: A genius will work though a problem or idea progressively and rigorously, as well as creatively, challenging the mathematical or scientific logic.
4. Observational Thinking: A genius has an exceptionally high state of consciousness, a greater awareness of what is going on, and looking for patterns like forensic detective.
5. Dual Thinking: A genius can think in parallel, to tolerate apparent ambiguities, to bring together opposites and connect the unconnected.
6. Holistic Thinking: A genius can take a broader perspective, to see the holistic problem in the context of its environment and piecing together its many parts.
7. Volume Thinking: A genius searches for many solutions rather than just one, building on or challenging each other, constantly searching for a more perfect solution.
8. Pragmatic Thinking: A genius recognises that ideas and solutions are of little use in the abstract, that the theory or concept must be made real, that it must be practical and useful.
9. Visual Thinking: A genius is able to express their ideas more clearly, typically visually through diagrams and analogy, to make sense of complexity in comprehensible ways.
10. Conviction Thinking: A genius must have the inner strength, belief and confidence to stay strong to what they believe, while conventions and colleagues will challenge them.

How holistic is your thinking…..? Deliberately practice using one or more of these thinking styles in your day-to-day problem solving over the next few months.

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

“Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.” - George Bernard Shaw

Technorati Tags: Leaders, Leadership, Management, Books, Business, Book, Thinking, Genius

Next Page →

• Welcome to The Practice of Leadership!

  Get updates by RSS

  Get updates by e-mail:

  
  

• Link to Our Supporters

  • Performance Management
  • Staffing & Employment Leaders
  • purell hand sanitizer
  • Paul Asplin - CEO of DAS
  • Succession Planning
• 
  

• Explore More Leadership Topics

  Attitude Book Reviews Career Change Character Clarity Collaboration Commitment Communication Conflict Context Conversation Creativity Culture Decision-Making Definitions Dissent Energy Engagement Execution Experience Failure Feedback Focus Framework General Getting Things Done Goal-Setting Growth Innovation Inquiry Inspire Lance Armstrong Leadership Development Leadership Practices Leadership Succession Learning Lessons Management Meaning Meetings Mental Model Observe Paradox Passion Personal Leadership Philosophy Planning Practice Purpose Questions Quotes Reality Reflection Relating Research Resources Results Risk Role Models Self-Awareness Self-Knowledge Sensemaking Strategy Strengths Style Success Systemic Talent Teamwork Thinking Thought Leadership Time Management Transition Trends Trust Values Vision

• Quote of the Day

  “...we forget that in its essence, leadership is about learning how to shape the future. Leadership exists when people are no longer victims of circumstances but participate in creating new circumstances”
  -- Peter Senge

• What I support...