Ten Questions To Help Drive Engagement

"The challenge for the organizational architect is to systematically create the blueprint for an organization that consciously connects everything to purpose," explains author  Clive Wilson, in his new book, Designing the Purposeful Organization. "The product of doing this are measurable results and, importantly, a felt sense of success.

Wilson's book is packed with case studies and activities that help you put to practice in your organization the learnings from the book.

Clive Wilson

My favorite part of the book is the "10 Questions on Engagement," that all start out with, To what extent...

1. ...does your organization facilitate opportunities for engagement within and between all stakeholder groups, so that they may share perspectives, learn and grow together in support of the organization's purpose?
2. ...do people come together to examine the way things are done, criticize processes and behaviors with a view to evolving a shared best practice?
3. ...is attention paid to establishing a positive culture for engagement, so that criticism is welcomed in a spirit of openness and shared learning without blaming or diminishing individuals?
4. ...has the organization established the key skills for the engagement of those involved in its work and formed this into a curriculum of learning that is effectively tuned to its purpose?
5. ...are there opportunities for people to come together at critical times, such as strategic changes, team forming and development, project alignment and problem solving?
6. ...are learning programs and critical events systematically timetabled and well facilitated so that engagement is translated into commitments to action?
7. ...when people make commitments to action do they then receive managerial support and coaching to ensure action is taken?
8. ...is there systematic follow-up of commitments arising from group engagement to celebrate the gains made and to share associated learning?
9. ...does the organization have suitable systems in place to store knowledge airings from engagement that also facilitates ongoing engagement with and evolution of the knowledge to keep it alive and effective?
10. ...does the organization have a communications strategy that facilitates and supports engagement in alignment with the organization's purpose?

How To Be A Good Coach

Former Verizon Wireless CEO, Denny F. Strigl offers these tips for how to be a good coach to an employee. He explains that good coaches help performers by:

• Keeping them focused.
• Giving them objective, helpful feedback.
• Acting as a sounding board for new approaches.
• Identifying blind spots that may be holding the performer back.
• Reinforcing key values, principles, and behaviors that improve performance.
• Recognizing positive behavior and performance.
• Providing encouragement after setbacks and failures
• Setting "stretch" goals.
• Acting as an accountability partner.

Strigl believes that some managers fail in their coaching roles because they:

• View coaching as babysitting.
• See coaching as only correcting performance.
• Don't spend enough time with their employees.
• Are reluctant to criticize.
• Have social relationships with their employees.
• Have a "sink-or-swim" philosophy.
• Believe coaching is not helpful or meaningful.

"Coaching may actually save time by preventing extensive retraining or intervention to get a failing employee back on track or keep the person from falling off course in the first place," explains Strigl in his book, Managers, Can You Hear Me Now?

Every conversation you have with an employee has the potential to be a coaching conversation!

How To Infuse Your Organization With Entrepreneurial Energy

This month brought the release of the new book, Achieving Longevity: How Great Firms Prosper Through Entrepreneurial Thinking, by Jim Dewald.

"I wrote this book because I am concerned that businesses in general, and business leaders in particular, have lost touch with the all-important entrepreneurial spirit that drove growth and prosperity in the past," says Dewald.

Jim Dewald

Dewald also believes that today's business leaders put too much emphasis on efficiency and commoditization rather than innovation.

"The long-term survival of a firm depends on its ability to engage corporate entrepreneurship to adapt to changing markets, technologies, and/or social-cultural factors," adds Dewald.

In his book, Dewald explores for the reader three distinct questions:

1. What is driving the renewed interest in entrepreneurship -- specifically, corporate entrepreneurship? Are we entering a new era in which corporate entrepreneurship will become essential, even for short-term success?
2. How can existing business firms best prepare themselves to be entrepreneurial?
3. What are the pitfalls or barriers, and how can firms and managers best prepare for these unexpected concerns?

You'll also learn about:

• the changing (or not so much changing) economic environment and the role of strategy and entrepreneurship in understanding firm longevity and firm failure.
• true strategic entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking and how to apply both to  your decision making.
• the framework, tools and culture necessary to foster entrepreneurial thinking.

Dewald shares this quote from Donald Kuratko and David Audretsch:

"A strategy at its essence, attempts to capture where the firm wants to go and how it plans to get there. When entrepreneurship is introduced to strategy, the possibilities regarding where the firm can go, how fast, and how it gets there are greatly enhanced."

Dewald is Dean of the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary.

Thank you to the book's publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Business And Life Lessons My Father Taught Me

My father passed away 15 years ago this month. What he taught me has served me well in business and in life. Even lessons I learned when I didn't at the time necessarily realize I was learning from him.

So, I thank my dad for teaching me the following business and life lessons:

Listen - Growing up, I thought my Dad was perhaps shy or quiet. Really, he was just a great listener. I believe that's what made him so wise. He would listen to anyone. Young or old.  New acquaintance or friend.

Provide - My Dad provided for me. Music lessons. Vacations. Summer camp. Boy Scouts.  He gave. He put others' needs first. Today, I find in volunteering likely the same satisfaction he felt when he provided.

Educate - My Dad's passion was education. He loved to learn. He loved even more to teach. He lived to help other people learn. In the workplace, providing learning opportunities is one of the most powerful things you can do for an employee. Mentoring is equally powerful.

Train and Prepare - All those years of hearing, "Have you done your homework?" and "practice your trombone," served me well.  I fully understand the need to prepare for presentations, meetings, interviews, etc.

Dress The Part - I admit. When I was younger, I sometimes didn't understand why my Dad dressed the way he did. Now I understand the value of dressing appropriately for the situation and circumstance.

Respect And Accept - My Dad showed respect to and acceptance of people different from himself.

Inject Humor - I would consider my Dad to have been a serious kind of guy. More serious than many other fathers in the neighborhood where I grew up. So, when he told a funny story, sang a silly song, or acted goofy, it was particularly memorable. At work, I inject humor to diffuse stressful situations. And, to build stronger bonds with my colleagues.

Thank you, Dad, for teaching me these valuable lessons by setting such a good example. I miss you.

The Courage Solution

The Courage Solution, a new book by Mindy Mackenzie, is all about the simple truth that the only thing you can reliably change or control is yourself. So, that is why Mackenzie wrote her book -- to teach you how to take actions that ultimately will improve your impact on the job and increase your happiness and fulfillment in your career.

Mackenzie's quick-read strategies focus on these four key areas:

• Part 1: You First offers techniques to take ownership and accountability for creating a career and life you love.
• Part 2: Lead Your Boss describes proven techniques to transform your relationship with your boss.
• Part 3: Lead Your Peers provides methods for accelerating positive peer relationships to improve business results.
• Part 4: Lead Your Team gives approaches for generating and creating the most effective teams and having more fun while doing it.

Mindy Mackenzie

A preview of Mackenzie's advice on  Leading Your Boss includes:

• Intensely study your boss to get to know the human being behind the mask.
• Understand the company you work for, the business you are in, how the company makes money, who the end customer is, and how what you do every day fits into the strategy of the company.
• Get the boss-employee relationship basics right.
• Make a concerted effort to elevate your thinking to an enterprise-wide perspective.
• Get in tune with your boss by knowing exactly what they are wrestling with on a weekly basis.
• Provide, honest, positive praise and affirmation to your boss--to them directly, and to their superiors and others.
• Be smart preparing your boss for your pushback, challenges, and disagreements.

Mackenzie emphasizes that this advice is not about giving your boss a pass. Rather, by leading your boss in the manner outlined above, you will have the best chance of creating a positive engagement with your boss. And, when that happens, everything around you at work will also change for the better.

Thank you to the book publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

How To Be A Category King

"The most exciting companies create. They give us new ways of living, thinking, or doing business, many times solving a problem we didn't know we had -- or a problem we didn't pay attention to because we never thought there was another way," explain the four authors of the dynamic new book, Play Bigger.

They add that, "the most exciting companies sell us different. They introduce the world to a new category of product or service." And, they become category kings. Examples of category kings are Amazon, Salesforce, Uber and IKEA.

Play Bigger is all about the strategy that builds category kings. And, to be a category king you need to be good at category design:

• Category design is the discipline of creating and developing a new market category, and conditioning the market so it will demand your solution and crown your company as its king.
• Category design is the opposite of "build it and they will come."

Key traits of category design, explain the authors, are:

• A strategy that starts with your CEO and his/her leadership team identifying the right category to create.
• A combination of both product and ecosystem design. A product that provides the solution to an urgent and giant problem. And an environment around that product that wins loyalty and gratitude for that product and your company.
• Being sure your category design is part of your company culture.
• Creating a powerful and provocative story that causes customers or users to make a choice. A story that evokes something different from what came before, not just better.
• A combination of marketing, public relations, and advertising all focused on conditioning the market to desire and need whatever you're giving it.
• Ensuring all of the above components work together, in lockstep, feeding off each other.

"Category design is a process. One thing leads to another and it builds on itself," explain the authors.

Play Bigger provides you the playbook you need to learn how to become a category king. It's essential for entrepreneurs wanting to change the landscape. And, a must-read for CEO's who want to reimagine their businesses.

As you read the playbook, you'll learn:

• Why it takes courage to build a category.
• What makes category king companies enduring and attractive to investors.
• How category kings have changed the way Venture Capitalists invest in new companies.

And, you'll learn the answers to these questions:

• In what way does Apple work like the 165-year-old glass company, Corning?
• Why was Elvis not just the King, but a category king?

The authors of the book are: Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead and Kevin Maney.

Thank you to the book publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

How To Project A Professional Image

From Jay Miletsky's book, 101 Ways to Successfully Market Yourself, here 10 tips for projecting an effective professional image:

1. Discipline yourself to be positive and enthusiastic.
2. In tense situations choose positive responses by maintaining perspective and getting along well with others.
3. Acknowledge mistakes and shortcomings and learn how to correct them.
4. Develop a reputation for being a resourceful problems solver.
5. Leverage your strengths and expertise to have maximum impact on the decisions you make.
6. Be organized, efficient, flexible, and self-motivated.
7. Master your tasks and fully expand your area of expertise so that you can boost your output.
8. Keep up with the latest developments in your company and in your field.
9. Cultivate unique talents that give you a definite edge.
10. Gain visibility by taking the kind of action that will propel you into the right sights of management personnel.