Category: Musings

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There’s No “I” in Engagement … or is There?

I’m not talking about “I” as in “individual” – people are responsible for their own engagement. I’m talking about “I” as in “inertia.” You can’t have an engaged workplace in the presence of management inertia.

Engagement is a two-way proposition that involves both the employee and the organization’s management. However, people can show up at work fully engaged and yet their initial enthusiasm and energy are chipped away over time for a variety of reasons. In other words, once engaged doesn’t mean always engaged. [While personal issues at home can also negatively impact employee engagement, my focus here is on organizational rather than personal factors.]

Management’s role is to foster a climate of engagement in which people know that their work and the results of their efforts matter. This includes managers’ own engagement – if they’re not committed to the organization, how can they expect their employees to be committed to it? Or to the managers themselves?

Clearly, engagement cannot co-exist with inertia. But when management practices “intentional” engagement, it’s an entirely different situation.

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My Father’s Day Tribute

In honor of Father’s Day this Sunday, I wanted to share a little bit about my beloved father and what he taught me about marketing – without realizing it at the time.

My father was a tailor who operated a small alterations and dry cleaning business. When I was little, I loved visiting him at the store to watch him work on a treadle sewing machine that was surrounded by rainbows of thread neatly stacked on shelves. Sometimes I would accompany him while he picked up and delivered his customers’ dry cleaning.(Home delivery of services was the norm when I grew up, including doctors making house calls.)

Reflecting on my childhood, I learned a lot from my father amid the colored spools of thread and smells of dry cleaning solvent. I especially loved how customers loved my father. My father was not only a craftsman when it came to sewing, he was a master of relationship marketing. Whenever customers came into the store, my father would warmly greet them, inquire about their family, and then get into the specifics of their clothing alteration needs. He took as much care with the customers as he did with their clothes. And they kept coming back, while referring new customers to him.

The term “relationship marketing” didn’t exist back in the 1950’s-70’s when my father ran his tailor shop. It was just an intuitive way of how he did business. I was blessed to be his daughter and learn from him.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad! Thanks for a wonderful legacy.

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Don’t Forget What’s Really Important

In the midst of the holiday shopping frenzy and over-the-top consumerism, I wanted to share this message from business & life coach Steve Davis.

Instead of accumulating more “stuff” and being overwhelmed by it all, Steve advocates that we learn how to better use what we really need.

He says:

“Unconscious compulsions for “more input” seldom satisfy our true needs. Nor will having piles of unread books and magazines ringing our desks reduce the nagging sense that there is some piece of information that will really change everything for us.

Satisfaction comes from fully digesting and extracting the fine nutrients from what we already have, and making choices for new input based on our true values and passions, not our casual likes and vague interests.”

This is an excerpt from his excellent article, Assimilation vs. Accumulation – The practice of getting full nourishment from everything in your life. It’s worth reading to learn how we can better assimilate what’s important such as: relationships, customers, ideas, information, and experience. While Steve wrote the article for facilitators, his message is applicable to everyone.

Best wishes to all for a happy & safe holiday!

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A Thanksgiving Tribute

It’s appropriate this Thanksgiving that I share the following story from Carol Henn, soon-to-be-retiring Executive Director of the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation. Reflecting on a successful career in community philanthropy, Carol recently shared her experience about visiting Central Europe in 2000 where she met with government and community leaders to assist them in establishing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and public-private partnerships. The trip was sponsored by the U.S. Information Agency and the Foundation for a Civil Society.

Among her reminiscences, Carol described:

“… guards with rifles at border crossings, gruffly demanding to see our passports and papers, then taking those documents away and causing me to wonder if I would ever see those records again. ‘Toto … we’re not in Kansas anymore.’

“… business and civic leaders at a luncheon, telling me that it was unheard of to offer time, work, or financial assistance for community or non-profit projects. They wanted me to assure them that this would become acceptable over time and that they would not be punished for it. The concept of a Chamber of Commerce astonished them.

“… leading late night planning sessions for community activists in a grim industrial area known as Petrazhalka. Participants meet in secret because of the stranglehold that crime syndicates and former Communist ‘enforcers’ have on the thousands of poor, blue collar workers in the area. The doors to our meeting room burst open and a big, brawny man with an ill-fitting wool jacket walks slowly down the row of seats, making sure that we see his shoulder holster and revolver. The room is numb and silent. No one dares speak. Most heads are lowered, some women are whimpering. If he won this confrontation, my work would be in vain and the group might never attempt to meet again. My anger is overwhelming. I walk over to the man. My translator is too afraid to follow me. Eventually she stands behind me and relays my words:

‘If you have come to participate and help us to make this a better community, you can stay. If you have come to frighten or intimidate us, you might as well leave because I am not afraid of you or your gun. We are not  afraid of you. Your days of power and brutality are over. You can stay and understand that this is a new day or you can leave.’”

Carol continued:

“He stayed. A few brave souls responded to my questions and continued with the planning we were outlining on flip charts. Within a year, the presence of a strong community council and its committees dramatically reduces crime and drug trafficking, improves the look of the concrete apartment buildings, establishes youth centers, and plants community gardens. ‘We are not afraid anymore,’ they write to me. I never told them that I shook with fear that night all the way back to Bratislava.”

We truly have a lot to be thankful for in our country, including the courage and conviction of people like Carol Henn and the many freedoms we enjoy to improve our local and global community.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

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Recognizing Administrative Professionals – Past & Present

As a solopreneur I often debate whether or not I should treat myself during Administrative Professionals Week. (Note: this year’s “holiday” is being celebrated April 24-30, 2011.) I could justify it – especially given my recent “employee of the month” nomination. (LOL!)

Early in my career that was spent in several bank marketing departments, I was fortunate to work with a number of wonderful women who provided administrative support: Barb, Kathy, Jacque, and Gerry. (Back then few, if any, men held clerical positions.) I appreciated these women and their incredible work ethic, spirit, and support then … and I fondly think of them now, even though it’s been more than 20 years since we worked together.

So here’s to you Barb, Kathy, Jacque, and Gerry, wherever you are! And here’s to administrative professionals everywhere who continue your good work!

Terrific person award

 

 

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Celebrate Volunteers

Happy National Volunteer Week!

Special appreciation goes to all volunteers and the valuable support they provide to the organizations they serve.

And for nonprofit managers, here are three great resources on volunteer engagement and management:

What are you doing to engage and honor your organization’s volunteers?

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Wading into the Social Media Pool

An update on my progress with social media:

I recently started tweeting (finally!). My initial concerns about getting into Twitter involved time & technology (yes, I’m a bit of a technophobe). So I’m taking my time to get comfortable with learning how to post & re-tweet … making new connections … and seeing what other relevant, interesting information is out there.

What I find overwhelming is the amount of information on Twitter – I’m concerned about adding to information overload (especially when I see people frequently tweet quotes as a way to maintain a Twitter presence). To help manage my anxiety in this area, I rely on these words of wisdom:

  1. Tweeting content in response to ‘What’s got your attention?’ rather than ‘What are you doing?’ [Gleaned from a number of Twitter how-to blog posts and e-books.]
  2. Focus on contributing to the knowledge base, rather than contributing to the noise. [Thanks to my friend Debra Semans for this advice.]

I’d love to hear from other social media veterans and newbies: How do you deal with information overload on Twitter?

 

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Giving Thanks

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward

This year, I’m especially grateful for:

  • celebrating happy occasions with family and friends (weddings, births, and other special milestones)
  • reconnecting with hometown classmates and campmates via FB (along with a few mini-reunions)
  • getting together with friends and colleagues at conferences and workshops
  • continuing to work with wonderful clients
  • experimenting with new technology (including my new company website, home to my first e-book, and teaching my first webinar).

And, as always, I’m most thankful for the love and support of my family and friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

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Learning About Enterprise Engagement

I learned so much at the recent Enterprise Engagement Alliance Networking Expo – including the fact there’s a LOT MORE to learn about the emerging field of enterprise engagement that “focuses on achieving long-term financial results for organizations by strategically aligning the management of customers, distribution partners, employees, salespeople, and all human capital.”

The staggering cost of employee disengagement

The financial impact of engagement was discussed throughout the conference. Employee engagement studies find that engaged workers typically perform better in serving customers, co-workers, and the overall organization, whereas disengaged workers drive higher operational costs resulting from low productivity and high shrinkage, absenteeism, and turnover. No surprise there … but I was shocked when I heard the Gallup survey estimate that “the lower productivity of actively disengaged workers cost the U.S. economy about $416 billion in 2009.”

Enterprise engagement training for managers

The Enterprise Engagement Alliance (EEA) feels so strongly about enterprise engagement as an organizational imperative that it launched an educational initiative to develop a formal curriculum and certification program on the topic. This program will be designed to:

“address the need for today’s executives and managers to understand engagement both in terms of their personal leadership skills and their ability to integrate the elements critical to engagement: leadership, training, multi-platform communications, technology, rewards & recognition, incentive programs. and more.”

You can find the latest updates on this educational initiative at EEA’s website along with a variety of enterprise engagement articles and resources.

 

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What a Decade!

All the media’s Best/Worst lists of the previous decade prompted my own look back at 2000-2009. It was a great decade for me professionally and a mixed one personally.

Professional Highlights

  • My book on internal marketing, Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care, was published in 2007 by WME Books.
  • My business, Quality Service Marketing, reached a milestone in 2008 – 20 years in business!
  • I met wonderful people who attended my speaking engagements & training workshops throughout the U.S. and Canada. This travel also enabled me to reconnect with many dear friends and colleagues.
  • I started this business blog in 2005 as my first foray into social media, and it allowed me to establish new relationships around the globe.
  • I expanded my learning and expertise from my work with terrific clients and support from colleagues.

Personal Highlights

  • The profound loss of my beloved parents, brother, and father-in-law (April 2006 through December 2007)
  • Celebrating 35 years of marriage with my husband Michael in 2009, and I’m looking forward to the next 35 years with him!
  • Son Jason’s college graduation in 2004 (even with his moving back home) and his recent engagement to Ashley (which means we’ll return to empty-nest status sometime soon?!)