Employee Engagement Archives

May 19, 2015 — Tracy Lloyd

Cooperation vs. Collaboration for a Meaningful Workplace

Successful businesses in the future will share a common characteristic: a cooperative approach to employee engagement, morale and gratification. Stowe Boyd is a super-smart researcher and author who focuses on “The future of work, and the tectonic forces pushing business into an unclear and accelerating future.” In his work he has made the following observation: “In the collaborative business, people affiliate with coworkers around shared business culture and an approved strategic plan to which they subordinate their personal aims. “But in a cooperative business, people affiliate with...

April 3, 2015 — Tracy Lloyd

Getting Employees to Live Company Values

“People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou. The goal of employee engagement is to drive employee attitudes, behavior, morality, and ethics in such a way as to improve their productivity, morale, satisfaction, and usefulness within the organization. However, many companies have struggled with converting their proclaimed values into compelling, work-changing experiences for their employees that reach through to their brand strategy. Often, the problems have been that the values are typically expressed...

March 11, 2015 — Jerry Holtaway

Should Your Business Embrace a Purpose-led Brand Strategy?

Purpose-led The notion of purpose-led does more than make brands appealing to people – it makes money for the businesses that embrace the concept. So claims the chairman of Deloitte, an active evangelist for the “squishy business attribute” called purpose. Why invest in a woolly, emotional, and squishy idea like purpose? Won’t it be hard to get everyone in my organization and all my customers to understand and embrace it? What is it really beyond a set of words? What value does brand strategy deliver? These are the questions I often confront as a proponent of empathy, purpose, and emotion....

January 21, 2015 — Jerry Holtaway

Why Every CEO Should Pursue a Purpose Beyond Profit

It’s textbook management practice to formalize a company’s “mission, vision and values.” And while these are important steps in helping form a direction and way of being for a company, many CEOs are nonetheless challenged with a litany of business issues: Unengaged employees An inability to attract the new talent needed Customer defection Lack of marketplace differentiation Dissatisfied shareholders This list goes on and on, doesn’t it? Behind each of these business challenges is a big question: How can my business matter more to people? When your business truly...

June 12, 2014 — Jerry Holtaway

Using Company Values to Build Engagement and a Meaningful Workplace

“People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou The goal of employee engagement is to drive employee attitudes, behavior, morality, and ethics in such a way as to improve their productivity, morale, satisfaction, and usefulness within the organization. However, many companies have struggled with converting their proclaimed values into compelling, work-changing experiences for their employees that reach through to their brand strategy. Often, the problems have been that the values are typically...

March 26, 2014 — Jerry Holtaway

Purpose Becomes Ambition

“Ambition” is the new “purpose” “The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.” – Socrates Workplaces become meaningfully relevant when employees see the point of what they and their employers are out to do: the company’s “why”, it’s reason for being, it’s meaningful ambition. When presented in a credible, inclusive and authentic way, the company’s meaningful ambition is respected, admired and embraced by employees because it aligns to their personal values and answers their desire for meaning. Employees can see themselves within the company’s...

March 17, 2014 — Jerry Holtaway

Connecting the Dots That Produce All Around Results

In a brilliant blog post, Tom Asacker posed a series of questions, the answers of which add up to two surprising results. http://www.acleareye.com/sandbox_wisdom/2014/03/theres-your-brand-strategy.html] “So ask yourself, what are we doing to motivate people, to feed their hungers and desires? Are we helping them achieve?  Are we feeding their hungers to be recognized, to be liked and loved?  Are we connecting them with like-minded people and empowering them to empower others?  Are we providing a beautiful, pleasurable, and engaging experience?  Are we providing a sense of control, full...

March 13, 2014 — Tracy Lloyd

Which Comes First? A Strong Corporate Culture or a Meaningful Workplace?

There’s a virtual cornucopia of so-called “culture decks” finding its way across the web today. These glitzy slideshows present the values that supposedly drive each respective company’s workforce. A quick scan of these decks shows that many of the companies are mimicking another. They are using clever language to make things sound really sexy. And of course they employ design that makes your mouth water. These cultural displays are all well and good, however one has to question them on several levels: To what extent are they honest, credible and accurate...

March 4, 2014 — Jerry Holtaway

Meaningful Workplace – Getting Employees to Respond Positively

Meaningful Workplaces are built by companies that aim to produce a more meaningful outcome from, and for, their people. To become meaningful, these companies adopt a new stance vis-à-vis their relationship with their employees. They strive to reduce the distance that’s been imposed through organization structures and prevailing attitudes. They seek stronger emotional connections up, down, and across their enterprise. They see their task as making their company fit for the future by making it fit for humans. They create a Meaningful Workplace master plan that defines their compelling reason...

February 3, 2014 — Tracy Lloyd

The Value of Values

Why don’t companies value their values? This question comes up for us often because we’re engaged with brands at an emotional level, not just intellectually or strategically. We’re working hard to connect brands to humans who make lasting emotional decisions a lot faster than they can come to logical ones. One of the strongest emotional binders for human beings is shared values – they’re the basis of religion, among other things – so it’s logical to conclude that companies with strong brands put a lot of value into their values. But often, they don’t. More likely, they neglect them for long...

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Employee Engagement