14 Management Dos And Don'ts To Motivate Employees#slideshow-start#slideshow-start

14 ways to keep your workers engaged
Barely a fifth of U.S. workers in a recent employee survey said they were "highly engaged" with their jobs, and that's a sign that corporate leaders are getting something badly wrong, writes Martin Zwilling. Boost engagement and motivate your employees, Zwilling recommends, by being warmer, more honest and less quick to anger. "Your team will judge you by your action, moods, and behaviors, not by your intent."
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14 Management Dos And Don'ts To Motivate Employees#slideshow-start#slideshow-start

Low engagement levels threaten economic recovery - Talent Management News from The Grapevine Magazine Online

A continuous lack of employee engagement is threatening the economic recovery, according to new research. An analysis of reward, benefit and savings programmes in UK multinationals by Mercer has found a disconnect between employers and employees on the perception and value of their organisation’s reward and development programmes.

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Low engagement levels threaten economic recovery - Talent Management News from The Grapevine Magazine Online

CSR – FedEx builds into employee engagement

FedEx belief in CSR strategy

Whether charity, community or environmentally based, a comprehensive CSR initiative has the potential to motivate team members and impact a company’s internal reputation.

However, a well thought out CSR strategy is also a powerful tool in engaging external stakeholders. A company’s ethical reputation can increase customer loyalty and attract investment, thereby increasing its profit margins. Yet, a company’s commitment to corporate responsibility must be advocated from the inside out.

For a company’s CSR strategy to truly resonate among its team members, they must be considered at every stage to ensure that it is in-keeping with their own principles, as well as the company’s overall business objectives.

Ultimately, without the support and active participation of the company’s team members in a CSR strategy, the initiative would falter. It is only as strong and credible as its employees’ dedication and belief in the cause.

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CSR – FedEx builds into employee engagement

Employee Engagement: Capturing the Human Spirit - DiversityInc.com

For Benito Cachinero-Sánchez, corporate vice president of human resources at ADP, No. 49 in The 2010 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity^®, the whole premise of employee engagement is about making companies more human.

To illustrate his point, Cachinero-Sánchez began his presentation at DiversityInc's learning event in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 8 by showing a Microsoft commercial that aired in the United Kingdom, where a Black woman states, "It's nice to be heard."

"How many of us feel that sometimes, we are not heard?" Cachinero-Sánchez asked the audience. "It's nice to be heard. Imagine an organization where it's nice to be heard and, more importantly, imagine an organization where you have a kernel of an idea, a small idea, a silly idea, an improvement on a work process … and they take it on. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful because the default assumption … is that you were not going to be heard."

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Employee Engagement: Capturing the Human Spirit - DiversityInc.com

I’m Sabotaging My Employees’ Job Searches Through LinkedIn Connections | BNET

Do you try to trick recruiters to get rid of problem employees?

Don't lie to recruiters and give stellar recommendations for workers in the hopes they'll get the job and leave -- or be evasive about the skills of a top worker in the belief it will keep him or her on board, Suzanne Lucas writes. "Instead of undermining your good employees and lying about your bad ones, how about you work to develop your bad employees so that they can take the place of your good employees?," Lucas writes.

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I’m Sabotaging My Employees’ Job Searches Through LinkedIn Connections | BNET

General Tso, Meet Steven Covey - BusinessWeek

Hugs all round for Panda Express employees

Panda Express is using team-building exercises lifted from self-help manuals to boost both morale and companywide sales. The fast-food chain's employees -- known as the "Pandas" -- share tearful stories about their upbringing, and plenty of hugs, before discussing ways to improve efficiency and boost profits. "You grow as a person, and then you will grow in business. That's how you go forward," explains co-CEO Andrew Cherng.

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General Tso, Meet Steven Covey - BusinessWeek

Don Morel develops a team approach at West Pharmaceutical Services by grooming new leaders - How to train everyone at your company to think like a manager

Don Morel, chairman and CEO of West Pharmaceutical Services, says he likes to question young job candidates about current events to see whether they might make good managers. "We might ask a young college graduate what they think of health care reform and what they think the downstream implications will be," he says. "It's not a right or wrong answer that we're looking for. We're looking for that clear indication of whether they are up to speed with what is going on in the world, whether they can think in a pressure-packed situation."

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Don Morel develops a team approach at West Pharmaceutical Services by grooming new leaders - How to train everyone at your company to think like a manager

Why Leaders Should Try to Be Overwhelmed - Peter Bregman - Harvard Business Review

Embrace the chaos to turn your workers into leaders

Sometimes the best way for a leader to bring out their workers' hidden strengths is to allow themselves to become completely overwhelmed, writes Peter Bregman. By taking on so much work that you can't possibly handle all of it personally, you force your workers to step up to the plate and assume pro-active leadership positions of their own.

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Why Leaders Should Try to Be Overwhelmed - Peter Bregman - Harvard Business Review

Live from AWEA’s fall symposium: Colin Powell’s lessons on leadership | SmartBlog on Workforce

6 leadership lessons from Colin Powell

Successful leadership encompasses a number of core attributes, said Colin Powell, a former secretary of state, national security adviser and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to attendees this week at the American Wind Energy Association Fall Symposium in Phoenix. Instilling trust in people you command is crucial, he said, and it must be clear that you're serving the greater good. "Increasingly, our people want to see leaders who are respected, leaders who are selfless," Powell said.

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Live from AWEA’s fall symposium: Colin Powell’s lessons on leadership | SmartBlog on Workforce

Leadership & Loyalty | N2Growth Blog

Fear and loathing in the C-suite

Too many bosses seem to believe that their job is to instill fear in their workforce, writes Mike Myatt. That may work when it comes to achieving short-term goals, but it'll make your workers hate you -- and the moment they sense weakness, they'll abandon you in droves. "If you believe that instilling fear in your employees is a good thing, you may be a tyrannical bully, but you are certainly not an effective leader," Myatt writes.

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Leadership & Loyalty | N2Growth Blog

Job perks begin to reappear in workplaces - USATODAY.com

Miss the free office soft drinks, commuter subsidies — and yes, even those year-end holiday parties? Don't despair. The workplace perk is beginning to make a comeback.

During the recession, many cost-conscious companies furloughed fringe benefits such as holiday fetes, bonuses and free snacks. But now that the economy is improving, some perks are slowly being reinstated.

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Job perks begin to reappear in workplaces - USATODAY.com

Are your company values important enough to fire people over? > Trust Matters

To strengthen your company's basic values, start sacking people

If you offer your workers incentives to adhere to your company's basic values then you're doing something wrong, writes Charles H. Green. Rather than cajoling workers into following the rules, start sacking people who don't personally cherish and abide by the values your company stands for. "Values are Jacks for openers, table stakes," Green writes. "If you're not motivated to live by your company's values, your company should tell you that you've got the wrong company."

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Are your company values important enough to fire people over? > Trust Matters

How Molson Coors brewed up stronger engagement | SmartBlog on Workforce

Molson Coors engages employees using plain English

To improve engagement, Molson Coors Brewing started at the top by encouraging leaders to communicate with employees in a concise, jargon-free way, says Jill Hollingsworth, the company's director of employee communications. The "Our Brew" program, which aims to create a common identity within the company, also includes an intranet for sharing stories and a town-hall initiative to keep the CEO accessible to employees.

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How Molson Coors brewed up stronger engagement | SmartBlog on Workforce

The High Cost of Avoiding Conflict :: Refresh Leadership | Fresh Ideas for Today's Business Leaders

Why avoiding conflict can cost you in the long run

Leaders can't avoid addressing conflict or it will breed distrust and resentment within a team, Brie Hobbs writes. "Find a way to resolve the issue in a way that reinforces respect, value, and security for every individual involved so instead of paying for it, you all learn from it and move forward," Hobbs writes.

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The High Cost of Avoiding Conflict :: Refresh Leadership | Fresh Ideas for Today's Business Leaders

Live from Orlando: Frito Lay gets creative communicating with frontline employees - Miri McDonald

How Frito Lay improved engagement with far-flung employees:

To reach its 50,000 workers spread out over some 35 sites -- and the majority not on a computer every day -- Frito Lay found that the best way to communicate with workers is by using customized methods for each audience, says Katherine Ritchey, Frito Lay's director for internal communications. Some successful strategies include print newsletters with localized content for employees and podcasts for senior management.

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Live from Orlando: Frito Lay gets creative communicating with frontline employees - Miri McDonald

Fistful of Talent: Just Throw Strikes. Worst. Management. Practice. Evah.

Managers often give "useless advice" in performance reviews, such as telling an employee to "write better" or "be more helpful," Paul Hebert writes. Everyone wants to do well, and offering such feedback doesn't help anyone. "You need to dig into the issue and find out 'why' the outcome isn't happening," Hebert writes.

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Fistful of Talent: Just Throw Strikes. Worst. Management. Practice. Evah.

Most Americans Totally Stressed Out, Study Finds

Does it seem like most people are just a tad on edge lately?

According to the findings of "Stress in America," an annual survey conducted by Harris Interactive in conjunction with the American Psychological Association, three-fourths of the American population suffer from unhealthy levels of stress.

"America is at a critical crossroads when it comes to stress and our health," Norman B. Anderson, Ph.D., CEO and executive vice president of the American Psychological Association, said in the report's press release. "Year after year, nearly three-quarters of Americans say they experience stress at levels that exceed what they define as healthy, putting themselves at risk for developing chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and depression."

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Most Americans Totally Stressed Out, Study Finds

Lessons on innovation from DuPont’s Thomas Connelly | SmartBlog on Workforce

 

The key to making sure employees are engaged and moving toward the same innovation target is continually communicating what is expected for "this month, this quarter, this year," and the role they need to play, says Thomas M. Connelly Jr., DuPont's chief innovation officer. While there is a "healthy rivalry" within the DuPont innovation ranks, he says, the teams "are very focused on delivering, and collaboration is a key tool in accelerating results."

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Lessons on innovation from DuPont’s Thomas Connelly | SmartBlog on Workforce