The Engaging Brand

Top 5 Reasons Employees Felt Valued

I was digging through some letters from employees that I received after taking over an underperforming department and turning the performance from the worst in the company, to the best within 12 months.
Here are the top 5 reasons for the change in the level of employee engagement

1. Anna walking around and talking to us, like real people. Talking to us about the issues and taking action.
2. The fact we are thanked for working hard, working overtime and management now recognize our contribution.
3. We now have a clear idea how we contribute to the company's success.
4. We are listened to, if we have to live with a situation it is explained to us why.
5. There is a fun side to work. Targets are now not just numbers but themed for the month, team briefings are themed and managers now smile and take the time to have a joke.

Interesting that none were related to pay, none were related to huge changes. Just outside the top 5 was development. New and existing employees were put through development plans and monthly training. All of this delivered in house at no cost. The improved performace dropped £1million to the bottom line....not a bad return on investment ratio!

Often people think that employee engagement needs money, needs large budgets. Obviously money helps! However, in my experience feeling values is about day to day interaction with managers and leaders. How people are dealt with, how they are treated as individuals. Employee engagement sounds a grand phrase...in reality it is treating people with respect and like the talented adult that they are....

Murphy's Law of Employee Engagement

You know the idea of Murphy's Law - if anything can go wrong, it will. Well I was thinking of it, in relation to business leaders and employee engagement. Here is my take on the old adage

1. The more you try and control the conversation, the less likely it is, that there is a conversation.
2. If you believe the employees cannot be trusted with social media, you are creating a culture that will be hurt my social media
3. The more money you throw at employee engagement, the less engaged the people will be....happier maybe in the short term but not necessarily engaged. Do you think Google employees are engaged because of the free meals or because they believe they have a chance to make a difference (and a freedom to make that difference)?
4. The more personality you show as a brand, the less personable you will be to the masses. (However, the more personable you will be to your niche audience)
5. Opening the dialogue, opens the floodgates....but I would rather be ready with my waders than marooned on my own!
6. Engaged employees are harder to deal with - they give more, but then expect more from the leadership. They are demanding - they want to achieve more. To keep the 'followers', a leader needs to keep further ahead.....the motivation switches from you having to motivate disengaged employees, to motivating yourself to stay ahead as a leader of people.
7. The more you put in place simple measures of engagement, the more complex you will realise engagement is....However, ALL engagment CAN be measured.

Employee engagement occurs when you have people who are motivated to come to work, and understand how they are part of achieving the strategy. They know how they fit into the whole picture, they know that they will be recognised and valued for their unique contribution.
Murphy's Law No 8 says the more you do at a corporate leve,l the less likely people will feel it at the individual level.....think personalisation for identity with the overall corporate brand.

Recycling knowledge can be good...Being a Green Leader

I think often we are so keen to create the future we can forget some great things from the past. What if you learned to recycle as a leader in a positive way?

R =  Re connect with all those people that you have collected business cards from over the years, met at university, school etc. Social networking sites make this easier than ever..and who knows how you could help each other now?
E = Ensure that you know the skills of people outside of work and see if you can reuse them inside work. I remember managing someone who turned out to be a rap singer at night, he sang the month end results at the next team meeting...it was fantastic!
C = Create an ideas folder - I use a moleskine and keep ideas that you don't use, keep reading them because they may just be not right today...but who knows tomorrow....
Y = You learn a lot from "failures" and successes. Have a lessons learned session at the end of a project, season, launch, year end etc...then read them before embarking on the next. Recycle the good, dump the bad!
C = Create a talent folder for people that you meet, people that come for a role that isn't right for them but you want in your organisation.
L = Learning through history. Write down the history of your company, the stories, the characters, the successes, the failures...and keep the story alive in presentations. Helps people understand the values of the company the why the company exits.
E = Ensure that you desire to keep things fresh does not change things for the sake of it. If people enjoy something, are motivated by it..stick with it! Recycle positives...

Any other ideas?

What it is like to work at Google...

I came across this post by Avinash Kaushik at Occam's Razor on what it is like at Google - is it me or do you just want to go and knock their door down and say "Give me a job!"

Key from this post for me is how important it is that your environment reflects your values....and the balance between Google branded and personalisation within that space.

Engaged Staff Key to Share Price

I often face Directors who believe that employee engagement is a "touchy feely" activity for new age companies. I am always amazed by that thinking. The Daily Telegraph has a great article about how "Happy Staff is are Key to Share Prices"

Engagement is not merely a nice thing to do, it is a MUST for companies that want to succeed in delivering their vision. Engagement comes when you

• Attract talent that shares the values of the business
• Motivate talent by seeing them as a respected individual with personal needs and dreams, that need to be satisfied so they can work at their optimum.
• Inspire talent by explaining how they can use their talent to achieve business success
• Engage talent by giving them clear responsibilities and the freedom to "get on with it"
• Recognising and rewarding their achievements

Although, it is not definitive as the report says, companies that treat human capital as an important investment are more likely to succeed. As UBS says

"Investing in companies that have a strong record in employee satisfaction can significantly increase returns because it is a key factor in whether a company is successful or not."

8 Random Things About Me

I was tagged by the wonderful Larry Hendrick of Flags Bay - his podcast was one of the first 3 that I ever downloaded! I honestly believe that if you are going to engage people then you need to give a little about yourself, in fact each time I send out a facebook message to The Engaging Brand Facebook group I give a little snippet...so here are a few that I have shared this year

1. The only exam I have ever failed is art....can you tell from my logo :)
2. I love cheese....more than life itself!
3. I also write a blog for widows which looks at how to cope with change and depression.
4. I have 3 cats - all by accident!
5. I have broken 6 bones in my body during my sporting life
6. My passion is music.
7. I read one book a week - I love to learn
8. Person I would most like to interview on the podcast...Dame Judi Dench...bet that surprised you :)

So let's find out more from people I have connected with this year Karen DowelL from Wiggly Wigglers, Ronna Porter, the delicious (!) Paull Young, Mark Sanborn, Andy Kaplan, Gayla McCord, Ann Rusnak, Ivan Pope

Thinking about Engagement in Business

I am in Brighton today at the European Widget conference and it has made me think about engagement. Engaging people in your brand has 4 steps

• Grabbing their attention
• Creating Engagement
• Gaining their trust and permission
• Creating a response

Whether you are talking about social media tools, building a brand or attracting talent..the steps are the same. To do this you need to understand who you are trying to attract....how can you understand, better than your competitors, what is really important to them... so that you create value for them during their interaction with you.....and then how can you consistently build relevance and trust over time so that they come to rely in your delivery of that promise.

I think often we can grab attention in the short term but it is consistently delivering value over time to build trust and loyalty. Answer for me, is to see your 'consumer' of your brand as the centre of your world...be it an employee to your leadership brand or a consumer of your service....then in everything you do see it from that consumer perspective, learn to see through their eyes, their lives rather than your own. In doing this you gain...not from being unselfish but a selfish need to succeed. Any thoughts?

Recipe for Business Success

I often get asked about how to 'create employee engagement', now as much as I don't believe you can create it, I believe that there are elements that encourage and develop the right environment for it to flourish. Here is an initial Engaging Brand recipe, but watch out for improvements...feel free to make suggestions!

Ingredients

2oz 'Zest' of a Future Vision and a Zest for action
2oz 'Self Raising' Development for all the Talents
2oz  Eggs...emplary living to the values by the leaders
2oz Clarity Oil (To coat the accountability, objectives, vision and  measures of success)
2oz Raising agent for ideas.
2oz Undiluted Appreciation for great work

Mix a diverse set of people who share the values and the desire to the achieve the vision. Leave to ferment ideas and encourage collaboration by mixing continuously. Keep testing the mix and add talent as appropriate. Keep the mixture as flat as possible to allow responsibility and accountability to grow. Keep an eye on the heat and cool when required, but don't let the mixture cool completely as the heat will allow the mixture to bind together. Once the ingredients are ready, cook immediately before the flavour is lost or diluted

When each batch is completed, arrange a party to celebrate the achievement but keep focused on ensuring that the mixture is refined and remixed to improve the recipe of success. 

Please note local palettes will have local tastes refine the cooking times and balance of ingredients for the local culture.

Success tastes great.....the ingredients are there for you....understand that the recipe of success is a mix of many talents..respect each ingredient for what it brings to the final taste.

Age of Conversation Revisited

Many of my wonderful American friends are celebrating Thanksgiving, a time when friends and family come together, much like a project that I contributed to earlier in the year.
The Age of Conversation was a book that 103 authors gave their time and content free of charge to create a wonderful book that has raised over $11,000 raised for Variety the Children's Charity. Fantastic...and tribute should be paid to Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton for all their hard work.

We all want to raise even more money for charity - and therefore some news

As of November 30th...

• The hard cover version of the book will be discontinued.  (You can still buy it in bulk)
• The paperback version of the book will no longer be available directly through Lulu.com (again, can still be bought in bulk)
• The e-book will remain on Lulu.com for the same price

All of that makes way for:

The paperback version will appear on Amazon and other book sellers throughout the world.  (at an increased price to cover the book sellers' commissions.)

If you want a great book and also help to raise more money for charity then consider Age of Conversation both for yourself and even a present for Xmas! The list of authors is impressive

Gavin Heaton, Drew McLellan, CK, Valeria Maltoni, Emily Reed, Katie Chatfield, Greg Verdino, Lewis Green, Sacrum, Ann Handley, Mike Sansone, Paul McEnany, Roger von Oech, Anna Farmery, David Armano, Bob Glaza, Mark Goren, Matt Dickman, Scott Monty, Richard Huntington, Cam Beck, David Reich, Luc Debaisieux, Sean Howard, Tim Jackson, Patrick Schaber, Roberta Rosenberg, Uwe Hook, Tony D. Clark, Todd Andrlik, Toby Bloomberg, Steve Woodruff, Steve Bannister, Steve Roesler, Stanley Johnson, Spike Jones, Nathan Snell, Simon Payn, Ryan Rasmussen, Ron Shevlin, Roger Anderson, Robert Hruzek, Rishi Desai, Phil Gerbyshak, Peter Corbett, Pete Deutschman, Nick Rice, Nick Wright, Michael Morton, Mark Earls, Mark Blair, Mario Vellandi, Lori Magno, Kristin Gorski, Kris Hoet, G.Kofi Annan, Kimberly Dawn Wells, Karl Long, Julie Fleischer, Jordan Behan, John La Grou, Joe Raasch, Jim Kukral, Jessica Hagy, Janet Green, Jamey Shiel, s, Dr. Graham Hill, Gia Facchini, Geert Desager, Gaurav Mishra, Gary Schoeniger, Gareth Kay, Faris Yakob, Emily Clasper, Ed Cotton, Dustin Jacobsen, Tom Clifford, David Polinchock, David Koopmans, David Brazeal, David Berkowitz, Carolyn Manning, Craig Wilson, Cord Silverstein, Connie Reece, Colin McKay, Chris Newlan, Chris Corrigan, Cedric Giorgi, Brian Reich, Becky Carroll, Arun Rajagopal, Amy Jussel, AJ James, Kim Klaver, Sandy Renshaw, Susan Bird, Ryan Barrett, Troy Worman, S. Neil Vineberg, C.B. Whittemore, Mack Collier, Andy Nulman

'Starck' Advice on Employee Engagement

Philippe Starck, the world famous designer, when asked what he did said "I am just a producer of surprise"

Philippe, possibly best known for his spider juicer, has in essence summed up key to engagement.

Many people would have said "Design a new juicer...you got to be joking, it's a juicer...how can you be creative with a juicer...."

Those same people would say "Meetings they are just meetings, how can you be creative with meetings or financials, or strategy or appraisals, or a reception area, etc etc"

Philippe Starck is a producer of surprise...those others are a producer of work.

So are you a producer...a manager....a bog standard plastic juicer...

Or are you a spider juicer......a leader of surprise, a manager of surprise.....one who engages through keeping the work fresh....keeping the team on their toes...constantly redefining their  leadership brand.