October 17
by Torben Rick
Categories: Culture
Tags: Culture Change, Employee Engagement.
Most companies claim they want enthusiastic, engaged employees – and with good reason. Employee engagement and financial performance are connected. A recent study by Aon Hewitt, for example, found that companies with high levels of engagement outperformed the stock market in 2010.
And yet Gallup research indicates that more than 70 percent of employees in the typical company are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged.”
What’s the reason for this failure? In my view, it boils down to a startling disconnect between how companies try to promote engagement and what truly inspires and motivates employees.
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October 11
by Torben Rick
Categories: Culture
Tags: Corporate Value, Employee Engagement, Leadership, Strategy.
The very phrase “company values” is enough to make some business owners – and many employees – groan and roll their eyes. For many businesses, corporate value statements are little more than vague motherhood statements that sound nice but bear little relation to way business is done.
But that’s not that case in every business – values can be made to work when they are a genuine part of a company’s culture.
The company values of Atlassian are bold and in your face. Proclaimed on the company’s web site, Atlassian values are:
- Open company
- No bullsh.t
- Build with heart and balance
- Don’t f..k the customer
- Play as a team
- Be the change you seek
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October 8
by Torben Rick
Categories: Change Management
Tags: Change Management, Culture Change, Leadership.
Leaders are confronted with an increasing rate of change and complexity and need to find ways to deal with it. Leading your company through change has become different from how it was ten to twenty years ago.
We live in times of change. Shifting powers between West and East, technological evolutions, emerging countries and changing economic landscapes, financial systems that are under severe pressure, new innovative companies that change market places.
Mobilizing employees, engaging them successfully, motivating them, informing them, using the talent and potential of people and teams, it all is crucial.
12 change management resources you may have missed:
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October 1
by Torben Rick
Categories: Strategy
Tags: Corporate Value, Employee Engagement, Strategy.
This may come as a shock but most employees do not leap out of bed in the morning excited by the prospect of making more profit for their organization that day. Profit may motivate senior executives but it rarely does so for the front-line unless they are shareholders too.
No, what motivates employees is feeling connected to the brand promise. That can be ‘Delivering Happiness’ as in the case of Zappos or “saving the planet” as in the case of the World Wild-Life Fund.
If you ask employees of Umpqua, the community bank based on Oregon, what their brand promise is, they will tell you ‘making customers feel dealing with Umpqua was the best thing that happened today’. Quite a tall order for a bank!
Connecting people to a purpose is an important way of helping them feel good about your company. Why? because there is a very high correlation between the way your employees feel about the company and the way your customers do.
6 good reasons not to use profit as your primary purpose:
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