Business Leadership « Small Fish Business Coaching

The Top Tens of Employee Engagement

I ran across a very useful e-book today: The Top Tens of Employee Engagement.

It’s a huge number of “top ten lists” from various writers, all with ideas about how to increase the passion and engagement of your workers.

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Staff turnover will return with a vengeance!

This morning I had a chance to read a powerful article by Bob Kelleher, entitled The Storm is Approaching: Staff Turnover Will Return with A Vengeance!

Loving what you do

Today, we understand that motivation — and therefore engagement — comes from loving what you do. You love what you do when you are in the right job, feel valued and are given opportunities to grow. Get your people to love what they do, and they are yours — fully engaged.

- Terri Kabachnick

I’m going to take this discussion in a different direction than you might expect, given this quote.

The concept that Ms. Kabachnick conveys here is true, but … limited. It’s true that loving what you do leads to engagement.

Continue reading Loving what you do

Leadership principle #6: Recognition

It’s vital that your people know that you value the contributions they’re making. But this is a trickier issue than you might expect!

There’s been a backlash lately against the idea, promoted in the 1970s-1990s, that our kids need to develop high self esteem. Some would say that we’ve created a generation of spoiled adults who need to be constantly fed praise and recognition, even when not warranted. There may be some truth to this, but it’s not my point. I’m talking about a timeless human need, which is much deeper than being praised for the tiniest flicker of initiative.

Continue reading Leadership principle #6: Recognition

Leadership principle #5: Trust

The momentum and true excellence of your team will not be built without a basis of trust. Your people must trust you, and you must trust your team.

Simple, but not easy.

The problem is that you’d like trust to be something that you can instill with a little bit of effort, and then not deal much with it after that. Kind of like setting pay levels, it’s something you often only have to revisit only under exceptional circumstances – but not daily.

Continue reading Leadership principle #5: Trust

Leadership principle #4: Clarity

Your people can only be productive if they’re applying their full efforts to what they should be achieving, and avoiding other distractions.

This is really, really hard. You have to be able to clearly say YES, and more important, to clearly say NO.

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Signs of the upturn in jobs

Two bits of news coincided this week:

An AP article: More Employees Quit Their Jobs As Economy Improves
A Gallup report: U.S. Workers Report Most Job Creation in 19 Months

These point to an actual upturn that I’ve been talking about in previous articles (Preventing a race for the exits, Fear is not engagement, The impending crisis in employee retention). It’s time to pay attention and take action!

Continue reading Signs of the upturn in jobs

Take time to celebrate!

Part of the principle of having variation is that there’s a time for joy as well as a time to mourn. For me, today is a day to celebrate, as I have finally achieved my status as Certified Leadership Coach from The Forton Group. My wife and I went out and had chocolate. Decadent chocolate. And it was worth it.

In reality, this is more of a major step for myself than for my customers. In the world of coaching, customers ask more about experience and expertise than they do about certifications – at least in the US. But it’s a milestone for me.

What do we learn for the world of leadership? Great question.

Continue reading Take time to celebrate!