This is a key trait that I look for in all candidates whether they are working at Inspired Work or with one of our clients. If they work with me, there are several more. You see, in 1990, when I was designing what became Inspired Work, I began redesigning my own work based on a new standard: Happiness. Not just any happiness would do. I wanted Irrevocable Happiness. In other words, if I were in an unrelenting state of happiness, what would my life look like? I find that when we raise the bar that high, the answers become deeply personal. One of the answers to that question changed my professional life forever.

“I would only work with brilliant and loving people.”

It seems that human nature is such that we don’t write out many words like this because something inside of us believe greatness isn’t possible. But that day, brilliant and loving became a standard and hence, it changed my life.

Let’s return to gratitude. I find that many employers and hiring managers look for either a great functional fit (technical skills, motivation, culture fit, etc.) or someone who fits their bias (someone they are comfortable with). But, once we have defined that a few candidates are good fits, what about gratitude?

When somebody embodies gratitude, they uplift everyone else. With gratitude we become more contributive and practice a higher degree of courage to protect a valuable state-of-mind.

Let us also suggest that gratitude is just as important to develop amongst hiring managers and organizational cultures. How do we see this?

Robert Maurer, the Director of Behavioral Science at UCLA Medical School has long studied success behavior and he tells us that successful people are generous in both giving and receiving praise. Expressing our gratitude towards others is optional in a mediocre culture but it is essential to a great culture. And, as others praise us, it is equally important to accept the praise graciously. When we tell someone, “Oh, it was nothing,” what are we actually saying?” Think about this. We are telling them don’t look at me, don’t give me attention, and don’t reward me. Unfortunately, people who run from attention are often the first ones to be laid off.

Grateful employees, leaders, CEOs, partners, colleagues, and bosses fuel good in others.

So, when you are lucky enough to have several great candidates to choose from, ask your hiring influences a few questions:

“Which one will be so grateful to be here he or she will do whatever it takes to succeed?”

“Which one will love our tribe so much, they actively learn the skills to stay competitive and effective?”

“Which one will tell the world about us with enthusiasm and joy?”

“Which one will I be most grateful to include in our tribe?”

You see, gratitude is a practice that can transform mundane days into remarkable experiences. It can elevate a routine job into a turning point. Gratitude can take what looks like an ordinary job and have it turn into a home.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2018, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post The Single Most Important Trait in a Hire? Surprise! appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

We frequently select many mid-managers because they get the job done quickly and accurately. We then promote them to manage others or to use that core strength to finish an important project. However, few receive management or leadership skills training. Instead, they are elevated because they were more productive than their peers. Quite often, they continue with their previous workload, sometimes even increasing until they break or leave. Ongoing restructuring, the elimination of career ladders to the executive ranks, and persistent insecurity have diluted the mid-managers loyalty.

In my book, The Workplace Engagement Solution (Career Press), disengagement is viewed as a trance, so persistent that many leaders view it as impenetrable. However, for CEOs, business owners, and organizations that set engagement as a standard, we can solve the problem through culture change and by showing everyone how to change and engage. Engagement is learnable. From my experience, mid-managers need the most help.

In 2012, Harvard Business Review indicated that almost half of the Gen-Xs, which represents the largest segment of mid-managers, planned to leave their jobs within two years. A year before, Bersin & Associates released the findings of their research and indicated that: “Middle managers have fewer resources, manage more people, and are less engaged than all other employee groups.” This is backward! If we think so little of them, why do we let mid-managers lead and motivate the organization’s largest number of workers, usually the ones that directly touch our customers?

Take a moment to consider all of the managers in customer service call centers, grocery stores, department stores, service centers, specialty retailers, schools, insurance agencies, healthcare, and government. As consumers, we complain about the poor customer service we experience and wonder, “How did it get so pervasive?” The problem has grown to the point that many companies routinely do nothing because the competition is exactly the same.

When a CEO or business owner commits to full employee engagement, mid-managers are no longer given the short shrift in development. Mid-managers simply must be given the kind of development that:

• Teaches them how to change, reflect, sell, network, influence, and actively learn
• Shows them how to elevate the use of their time from frenzied activity to value
• Holds them just as accountable for engagement as senior executives
• Moves them from taskmasters to strategic leaders, talent developers, and problem solvers

If there is any doubt about the value of this quest, start adding up the times you encounter a brand ambassador that you remember as a positive stand-out, a look you in the eye and do whatever it takes to make you a satisfied customer.

Why don’t we make that kind of engagement the new normal?

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2018, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

To discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes, Here.

The post Mid-Management. Engagements Final Frontier appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

For many years, organizations have literally protected sexual harassment through settlements and non-disclosure agreements. Consider the message this sends to everyone. Time and time again, we have indicated that money is more important than human dignity or “doing the right thing.” It is time to shatter this practice and for any organization that is reluctant to do so, take a look at how quickly the entire public learns of illegal behavior. But, this is also the time for many women to stop participating in the old system of hiding the crime. I think of the many human resources executives and labor attorneys, all women, who have negotiated these agreements only to have the same executive become emboldened to continue. When we protect revenue generation over protecting our own people, it is time for everyone to know. That is not a threat, it is a simple outcome of modern living. Transparency will only grow. Technology has turned most everyone into a reporter.

I know how the old game works from personal experience. In my early 20’s, I came out of as a gay man. Coming of age in the 80s led to the realization that gays and lesbians had to make themselves visible if we were ever to have equal rights. I shielded myself from getting fired or picked on by always becoming the top revenue generator. But, while I was going down that road to fight for equality, other revenue generators have used that profitability cloak to protect themselves from getting fired or going to jail after a sexual assault. Consider for just a moment how perverse it is for any organization to behave like that. But, we have done this with well-thought-out risk management routines.

I praise the Board of Directors of Comcast for firing Matt Lauer on-the-spot. That one act perhaps signals a shift in how all studios respond to what is in essence, a crime. If we want all women and men to be protected from assault, we must end the practice of paying people off rather than showing perpetrators the door. And, with rapidly growing transparency throughout our culture, this is the time for human capital executives, labor attorneys, CEOs, business owners and board members to re-examine their values. At the beginning, ending all attempts to sweep challenges like this under the rug might feel a bit conflicted. But, consider the probability that we no longer have a choice.

In the last few years, so many women, who signed non-disclosure agreements that were foisted on them to keep their mouths shut have stepped forward to speak out. Think of the courage it takes to do that when they have been they have been warned of financial ruin. All too often, they are taking that stand because the perpetrator has done it again, sometimes with greater violence and harm. The days of protecting a bit of profit by hiding illicit behavior as more and more organization suffer staggering losses in reputation and shareholder value are coming to an end.

Live and work with nothing to hide.

A transparent world sees that.

We are better than we used to be.

Let everyone know that.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2018, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

To discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes, Here.

The post Shattering the Business of Sexual Harassment appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

For example, let’s use employee engagement as an example of the breakdown.

The CEO walks into the human resources office and tells the human resource executive to “fix the employee engagement problem.” By the time the CEO has hit the door, he or she is disengaged. The chief human resources officer launches an engagement program. The employees look past her or his shoulder to the CEO and witness “business as usual.” The organization conducts an employee survey. The results make the managers feel even more inadequate in producing engagement. A consulting organization suggests it is their fault. Leadership is sent to another development retreat. They come back enthused and the employees respond, “so what.”

Does any of this sound familiar?

If only 13% of the world’s workers are engaged we can presume that many CEOs are also disengaged. CEOs have a wide variety of responsibilities on their plates. For many, it has been all too easy to completely turn issues of culture to the human resources group. As a result, the employees don’t change. Successful engagement requires a fully democratic approach to the problem. Full engagement requires an awakening and growth almost always includes discomfort. We find that disengaged people must learn how to change in order to engage. Many of our workers are so out-of-sync with change, they are simply going through the motions.

When a CEO turns culture and engagement leadership to human resources, progress is more difficult than pushing an egg up a hill with one’s chin. In this scenario, when the culture change fails, who gets thrown under the bus?

Much of our consulting industry does little to change this pattern. For years, talent development has been reserved for the high potentials. America’s employers spend a fortune on leadership but little on transforming everyone else’s behavior. As a result, employee engagement becomes a chronic illness.

Organizations that make it to Fortune’s “100 Best Places to Work” issues make culture number one. And, we find CEOs that embrace the reality that category leadership requires a fully awake and enthused population. They recognize that employer brand has become more important than consumer brand. They often have the reality and humility to be coached by the chief human resource officer on messaging, responsibilities, and engagement accountability.

Here are a few suggestions for human resources executive who are seeking a new opportunity.

• Ask the CEO about his or her philosophy of human capital.
• What role do they play in culture definition and leadership?
• How receptive is the CEO to your coaching?
• How does the CEO envision your partnership?

The answers will probably tell you exactly what to expect.

Happy holidays.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

To discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes, Here.

The post When Do Human Capital Executives Take a Fall for the CEO? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

We can gauge the “attitude toward gratitude” by watching and listening. Gratitude is often displaced by consumerism. For example, the great actress Elizabeth Taylor was once asked to describe her spiritual philosophy. She laughed and responded, “More.” Taylor wrestled with demons throughout her life. But, she overcame them by practicing gratitude. In the last 30 years of her life, she was a great force of good in our town and throughout the world. But, the point of her remark holds up the reality that when we always want more, we fixate our way out of the present. We are not enough. The people around us are not enough.

The grateful tend to be generous in praising others and generous when someone praises them. In our programs, we often discuss how gratitude and praise are skills that help us build and sustain effective support systems.

This dynamic is vital in building and sustaining effective support systems. We didn’t need a lot of support in the old industrial revolution workplace – clocking-in and clocking-out seemed to be sufficient. But in today’s rapidly changing workplace, we need the right help all of the time. The praise-filled workplace is a helpful and engaged place to work. Let us be clear, I’m not suggesting hiring soft people or individuals who cast aside strong critical thinking. Years ago, there was a career development book on the market entitled, Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow. I never bought the premise. Andy Warhol’s outlook was far more realistic when he said, “Do what you love, you can always sell it.” Gratitude is one of the single most common characteristics of our greatest salespeople. Many described Warhol as one of the most grateful people they ever met.

Gratitude can have a great impact on a brand. A few years ago, we were delivering engagement programs to one of our largest clients. They went through a significant reorganization, the first in many years. Senior management came to me and asked Inspired Work to handle the outplacement. We turned them down on the spot. In large organizations, word-of-mouth is the single most effective way to grow our work. We had built enormous goodwill at the organization, which would have been irreparably damaged if we took the project.

With our individual clients, we find that getting someone onto the right path, finding the work they were born to do, and solving a seemingly unsolvable problem with their work produces gratitude and a turning point. On the other hand, when someone comes from, “It’s just a job” everyone around them suffers.

Earlier this year, I went through an extremely difficult period. We lost my brother-in-law. He was 54 when the police found him slumped over the wheel of his car – gone in an instant. The evening after his memorial service, my partner and I went to the Diana Krall concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It was one of those sublime concerts that transported most everyone. As we walked down the hill, I stepped on a grease spot, flew, sprained my ankle and tore a six-inch hole in my favorite slacks. The following morning, I woke up in physical and emotional pain. There is a spiritual support group near our home at the beach. I hobbled to my seat. But, as I sat there watching the waves roll in and the speaker gave a moving gratitude-filled message, I realized that all the challenges in my life are high-quality problems. It is a high-quality problem to fall after a Diana Krall concert. It is a high-quality problem to wrestle with all the love in my life. It is a high-quality problem to have fatigue because I’m running a business and doing a media tour. It is a high-quality problem to grieve the loss of a great human being. Gratitude has saved and improved my life many times over.

This is the nature of gratitude. Instead of dealing with survival, we get to work on becoming better human beings. The challenge is no longer how to get through the day, it is how to be kinder and more loving by the end of the day. The focus isn’t just making more money and power. It is about how many lives we can touch, how much we can improve the world, and how we can help others be their very best.

When we praise someone who is grateful, they do not respond with, “Oh, it was nothing.” When someone does that, she or he is telling us, “Don’t notice me.”

Years ago, we moved our business and my home into a spectacular location in the city. We invited our clients and friends to a big housewarming party. One of my clients couldn’t be there. That afternoon, a sizeable crate was delivered to the front door. Her name was on the return address. When we opened it, there was a collective gasp. It was a gorgeous work-of-art. I knew the artists and realized how much time and money went into finding the perfect gift. I got her on the phone with very specific praise. “It is clear to me that you put so much thought and love into this beautiful gift.” As I continued, she got choked up. I reacted, “Why are you crying. I’m the one that ought to be crying.” She simply said, “You so get it. Thank you.”

Candidly, this highly successful CEO treats her employees, suppliers, vendors, delivery people, and customers with the kind of gratitude that has led to one of the finest workplaces I know. Her genuine gratitude makes most everyone around her bend over backward to do their best and be their best.

Raise the standard of hiring to requires this one trait. Years ago, I was redesigning my career around the standard of happiness. I wrote down one statement that changed my entire life:

“I will only work with brilliant and loving people.”

There are many organizations that have big doses of the cynical, the self-serving, the angry, the bitter, and the disengaged. Hire the people who not only have the skills that you need. Hire the one who says things like,

“I can’t believe I get paid to do this.”

“I get to work with the best people in the world.”

“This is the best job I’ve ever had.”

Otherwise, keep looking!

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

To discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes, Here.

The post The Single Most Important Trait in New Hires Might Surprise You appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

That said, does this growing avalanche of disclosure demonstrate an even far bigger trend?

It does.

Many of our most famous perpetrators grew up in a time when the rich and powerful were led to believe they could get away with just about anything. It is difficult to imagine anyone would have been so brazen had they realized that transparency would transmit his or her actions into the minds of millions.

The transparency revolution is also throwing open the doors to great, mediocre and nightmarish employers. Today’s employment candidate can quickly learn enough to know whether a hiring manager is telling the truth or lying. Many of the worst employers are complaining that Indeed and Glassdoor are a fad that is “ruining their candidate pool.”

Two years ago, the beginning transparency revolution unearthed banking giant Well’s Fargo’s criminal deeds towards its customers with over 1.5 million unauthorized accounts opened and charged to customers. Apparently, the delusion and the need to exploit isn’t getting through to the shuffled senior managers. This past month, the public has heard of two new scandals at the bank, all based on trying to bilk even more out of mortgage and auto loan customers.

Transparency is shining a light so bright on organizations, leaders, politicians, and celebrities, who’s next? Well, let’s be candid. All of us have lost our privacy. For example, when I decided to look for my birth mother, we found her in 6 hours.

The most successful and modern employers practice transparency at all levels. Everyone’s performance is in the open light. Employee engagement is practiced and led by the CEO. Teams are so engaged that anyone who falls behind is quickly pulled forward. Hiding is quickly becoming the game of amateurs and con artists.

In conclusion, here are a few simple suggestions with big payoffs:

• Live life with nothing to hide
• Run your organization with nothing to hide
• Get rid of silos
• Whatever you want your employees to do, do it yourself
• Provide everyone’s performance in the open
• Practice total integrity in marketing and service to your customers
• Instead of making payoffs, get rid of any sources of malfeasance

Really? Here is a little case study from just this morning. We have been getting complaints about the high-speed Internet that is installed in our office and house. We have been paying a sizeable premium for this service. So, our technology consultant measured its speed, which turned out to be lower than the basic Internet provided by Spectrum. Ah, Spectrum, a child of Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications. The two parents of Spectrum made so many “most hated companies in America” lists that Paul Allen had it spun off and they slapped on a new name. After getting our readings on Internet speed, a few strokes on Google led us to the class-action lawsuit taking place right now against Spectrum for bilking its customers by lying about Internet speed and adding dozens of charges with a price that is, on average, five times the amounts advertised on Television. Some will respond, “But, that’s the norm.”

No, it will no longer be the norm. Today’s technology has given us the capacity to transmit bad and/or criminal behavior at the speed of light. Millions of whistleblowers hold recording devices in the palms of their hands. One story now gives births to other stories in an eye blink. In many ways, I believe the story of transparency is as important for us to tell as the tipping point against sexual harassment. Now, is the time to let vendors, employers, clients, co-workers, stakeholders, and others to hear today’s very important reality.

We see you.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

If you would like to discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes, Here.

The post Today’s Sexual Harassment Shock Wave & the bigger revolution behind it appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

Recently, HBR published, “It’s Time To Blow Up HR and build something new”.Sounds like consultant-speak to me. Much of the consulting profession puts a great deal of energy into making senior management and human resources talent feel unsure of themselves. For example, here is a quote from the article:

Recent complaints about the HR function have touched a nerve in a large; sympathetic audience, particularly in the United States. The most vocal critics say that HR managers focus too much on “administrivia” and lack vision and strategic insight.”

Does the HR profession deserve a verdict or help? Like all professions, human resources is undergoing convulsive change. I haven’t really witnessed a greater willingness to change with CEOs. Why would HR be any different? In my new book, The Workplace Engagement Solution (Career Press) we discuss the life skills that were always needed to support a unique career path. Today, everyone needs the same skills to thrive in a world of accelerating change. Two of these life skills include the ability to draw healthy attention to oneself as well as the skills that build customized and effective support systems. We can ill afford to continue dismissing them as “soft skills.”

It takes courage to build these skills. Regardless, as the cycles of change speed up, the need to get help, information, mentoring, access, coaching, partners, and other resources grows even more quickly.

After years of being treated as an expense, a human resources professional has to be even more mindful in understanding how to build a community that backs our success. In our Inspired Work Programs, we have witnessed many HR professionals connect with a syndrome I call, “Losing One’s Life Through Competency.” In areas treated as overhead, support systems do not grow as quickly as areas that produce direct revenue growth. For years, HR was fixated on solving problems and completing tasks. As the skills grew, the number of problems also grew. But, the support system rarely mirrored that growth. Many of these professionals came into our programs depleted because they had not strategized and voiced their own needs to be supported. As we hand-off tasks and logic-based problems to software and technology, many human resource professionals are stuck in presenting activity as their primary value rather than value itself. Compare the narratives. “I managed compensation and salary, quarterly reviews, insurance processing, and onboarding” versus “In the last two years my team developed a highly successful employer brand. As a result, goodwill towards the company skyrocketed. We cut talent acquisition costs with a dramatic increase in retention.”

As tasks fall-away, the changes facing human resources center around strategic thought, business intelligence, the ability to curate technology, and presentation skills, give and receive high-quality attention. This critical life skill is often viewed with fear. When we draw attention to ourselves, we increase the probability of getting hurt. When we decrease the amount of attention we are drawing to ourselves, we increase the risk of starving. Sounds like a conundrum doesn’t it? Many people draw just enough attention to themselves to get by but not enough to get hurt. I have met so many valuable employees who contributed a great deal but still got laid off because no one knew they were there.

Yes, presentation and consultative sales skills help every profession become more engaged and effective. If you want a line worker to take ownership of his or her work, ask them to make presentations about their work. Building extensive support systems requires doing far more than collecting connections on LinkedIn. And, instead of building connections with people like ourselves, it takes more courage to find the mentors who can show us how to succeed in this wildly new world of work.

Harvard Business Review’s article includes the following statement:

“Recent complaints about the HR function have touched a nerve in a large; sympathetic audience, particularly in the United States. The most vocal critics say that HR managers focus too much on “administrivia” and lack vision and strategic insight.”

I will give one more example of the shift and the courage needed within modern talent executives. Here is what typically how an engagement initiative is launched. The CEO walks over to human resources and tells them to, “fix the engagement problem.” By the time he or she hits the door, the CEO is disengaged from the engagement problem. Human resources start pitching employee engagement to employees. They look past that person’s shoulder to the CEO and see business as usual. They send out a survey that only serves to make managers feel even more ineffective. We send them to a retreat center and the leaders come back enthused. The employees respond, “So what?” Later, the human resource executive is shown the door for not fixing the engagement problem.

Modern talent professionals must develop the kind of leadership skills and the courage to tell a CEO, “If you don’t lead this culture and you turn that leadership over to me, we will not succeed.”

From another vantage point, many human professionals want a seat at the table but they are not especially comfortable getting there. I support organizations such as SHRM and PIRA. But, they are not showing their members how to develop strong strategic voices, to build bearing and authority, and to present their views with clarity and objectivity. In the next ten years, robotics and artificial intelligence will change how we live and breath. For many, the most valuable skill of all will be in developing one’s voice.

Today’s most desired and effective human resource professionals coach the CEO. They link talent to business strategy. They tie the need to invest in human capital to business outcomes. They have the courage to do the right thing. For example, how many women human resource professionals have quietly paid off other women who were the targets of sexual harassment, rather than showing the perpetrator the door? I am not suggesting they didn’t want to. I am suggesting that it is time to develop the courage to speak up, to tell others that if we pay this person off, we are setting the stage for harassment to happen again and again. When we give 2 million to an ex-employee, we are not telling her that she is that valuable. We are showing the perpetrator he is that valuable.

The most cynical human resource professionals believe work requires continual compromise. The most successful talent executives that I know do the right thing, speak up, and make such a strong business case with that message that positive change takes place.

I believe that articles that point out what is wrong with a particular category of work are only perpetuating the blame game. What the human resource profession needs courage, strategic thinking, and letting go of tasks.

In one of our client companies, there is a talent management executive who lives and breaths the ethos. At the beginning of every year, she gets a new assistant. One the first day of his or her work, she sits them down and tells them, “You have one year to either get promoted or to leave the company.” With that kind of commitment, she is telling them they have to rise above the tasks and the job. Her company is filled with directors, producers, department managers and executives who started as the assistant.

Todays’ workers and especially our executives cannot afford to settle for the job.

Live life as if your hair is on fire.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

If you would like to discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes, Here.

The post Blow Up HR Again? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

I work with individuals on their careers and organizations that want to become better places to work. Here are a few practical suggestions about sexual harrassment. If it happens, document everything. Write down the circumstances, what was said and done. Establish context around what triggered the event. Inform several people near you and outside of work. Contact human resources. Document their response. If it continues, or escalates, contact an attorney. Be sure to research and find an attorney with a track record of plaintiff employment law and positive results. If the harassment has escalated to assault, call the police at once. Remember that predators seek out people they feel are easier to pick off. This statement isn’t about blaming the victim. However, I suggest that if you are the target of harrassment, this could be the ideal time to evaluate how you can shed any hint of being a victim.

On a bigger scale, here is what I propose. I am prepared to take flack for it. Our culture seduces many of us into becoming victims. One of the fundamental reasons people negatively reacted to my jokiness about being sexually harrassed is that we are given no room to smile when someone responds to harrassment with creativity and a sense of power.

When I became involved with civil rights in the 80’s and 90’s, the most homophobic people that I met were gays and lesbians. If you question my linkage to internalized homophobia to this topic, remember that quite a few women voted a sexual predator into national office. I invite women to stop embracing any form of victimhood because that is essentially voting against yourself. But, no one is going to do that for you. We are at a tipping point and the final “tip” will come out of women responding to harrassment, when it happens, with power and dignity. Call it for what it is on the spot. Recognize that if someone like Harvey Weinstein can have the world turn against him so quickly, that the world around women is much more aware and supportive of just how wrong it is.

This is the time to shed the last vestage of victimhood. But first, let us recognize there are payoffs in our culture for being victims. Many of those payoffs are shielded with righteousness. Perhaps this is the time to shed that weakness because there is no longer a reason to settle for anything less than great. If we wait for more evidence, we slow down the equality that everyone has earned. Many of my readers expect my articles to be linked to sound research. But, tipping points rarely offer up research. No, this narrative is coming from my own history and my gut. Civil rights, employement law, culture, attitudes amongst men, diversity and access to information are offering us a turning point for women. Enough of us are in your corner.

The rest, is up to you.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work Services Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

If you would like to discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes Here.

The post Is This Man A Tipping Point for All of Us? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

Last year, organizations spent millions on employee engagement initiatives with surveys, management training, executive coaching, dining rooms, gyms, retreats, and beach parties. But, only a small percentage of these organizations have succeeded. In those winning environments, everyone is engaged. It is quite that simple and yet unusual. We can also project, quite simply, that if everyone is to be engaged, then everyone gets the same kind of developmental support in building an engaged culture. This approach runs counter to an entire consulting industry where high potentials are only too happy to sign off on development dollars that support them but leave out everyone else. This is one of the reasons that the consulting industry treats disengagement as a chronic disease. We treat bits and pieces of disengagement, forever. Business leaders are told, “You have to become a better business leader. We will train you, make you more competitive, and help you become stronger.” Sounds good, but the mid-managers and the frontline workers get left behind. They are the people that touch the nation’s customers. But, we leave them out of it. The high potentials get sent to retreat centers, they come back excited and everyone else responds, “So what.”

Engagement only works as a democratic commitment, policy, and practice. In a democracy, everyone is responsible for the results. In a democracy, we don’t treat elite members of the population and leave everyone else with the same old outlook. In a democracy, we don’t have CEOs turning the culture and employee engagement over to other people. In a democracy, the CEO is just as responsible for personal engagement as the new college grad who just hired got hired in the marketing department.

It is futile to expect an awakening when we use the old hierarchical model of pushing leaders to become skilled at drawing engagement out of talent. Impolitely, let’s call that manipulation. Most workers need and crave personal involvement and individual transformation. But, in a caste system, the belief is bolstered that executives are more engaged than the rest of us. I have met line workers who are more engaged than some of the leaders in charge of engagement programs. When we allow entire categories of workers to disengage while admonishing the rest to “wake-up,” nothing will change. Because, becoming fully engaged can be a personally challenging and frightening process. Getting people to care more about their work requires shifting them out of a trance and into the light. One of the most important reasons we have so much disengagement is because workers are being asked to change and they don’t know how or don’t believe they can or are hostile to the entire idea. This is because personal change requires honesty, transparency, and self-inquiry. Plus, sustained engagement requires the skills of connection, which, for many, requires a bit of courage to develop.

Organizations have typically failed in defining what it is that we need to do in order to thrive within the rapid, disruptive and transformative change we find ourselves in. By extension, much of today’s talent has obsolete work skills and few new life skills. They become overwhelmed in simply trying to keep up with incremental change. We need to help them close these gaps. The CEO can no longer expect positive change by ordering up engagement and than routinely doing the same old thing. Employees can smell it. The trance, the going through the motions of work, is contagious.

It is time to dismantle the elitist approach, the machine we have built, in leadership development. Pouring funds into senior executives helps them grow but it will not produce engagement. Ordering people to wake-up has proven fruitless. People are moved when they see everyone walking the same walk. Trader Joe’s is famous for its deeply engaged culture. The first person to arrive at a store is typically the one who cleans the bathroom. Many employees see their general manager scrubbing floors and cleaning toilets. Everyone pitches in. Yep, cleaning toilets together is an example of democracy. More pointedly, the manager doesn’t sit in an office waiting for someone to do the work.

I am suggesting a change of heart. Years ago, The University of Southern California called us in for a meeting. They had heard about our leadership development programs. But, the first words out of their mouths were, “We don’t want another leadership program where we send the executives to a program and leave everyone else behind.” I laughed and responded, “Well, you are talking about employee engagement. Let’s give everyone the same process. Let’s treat everyone as equals.” Up until that point, most organizations were afraid to give everyone our processes where people define their truth, their relationship towards work, and how they are going to get the lives they want to lead. But, the numbers and results speak for themselves. Immediate breakthroughs in engagement were not only produced because of a sound curriculum, the team members did it together.

Somehow, when we treat everyone the same way, when we expect engagement from every single person and when we create a fully level playing field, the whole game changes.

No one is left out. Everyone gets the tools to engage. Everyone learns the skills of self-change. Everyone shows up together. Everyone is responsible.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work Services, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

If you would like to discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes Here.

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United Airlines or Southwest?

Google or Yahoo?

Vons/Safeway or Trader Joe’s?

Consider the following. Whatever talent you attract is what your organization becomes to the world and to the consumer. If you can’t attract the best talent in your industry, you will never achieve category leadership. Your employees will actively or passively practice disengagement. Customers will have lower rather than higher expectations when they deal engage with your organization. You will be in charge of a commodity where expectations are low, everyone expects mediocrity and slim profit margins.

Everyone knows this. With the advent of Glassdoor and Indeed, any savvy employee can find out what it is like to work for you. They know if your internal treatment of employees is vastly different from the promises in your ads. If you think an employer brand isn’t a big deal, think of the segment of workers that aspire to work at certain organizations and the workers that view work as “just a job.”

Once the word gets out, the premium talent runs when they hear your name. As CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, in a now legendary act of desperation, spent over a billion dollars acquiring smart start-ups. But, she wasn’t pursuing unique technology or new markets. She couldn’t get the premium talent required to turn Yahoo around. Think of it. When Stanford’s best graduates hit the market they might be thinking, “Google, Apple, or entrepreneurship?” But Yahoo? Some of the world’s best candidates would view a stint at Yahoo as a career killer where they would join a tribe of stagnant stakeholders that torpedoed change, where getting anything done is like trying to get fresh bread in Russia.

Many employers give little if any thought to an employer brand. This aimlessness begins with talent acquisition processes that generate poisonous feelings throughout the market. The damage begins with organizations that treat candidates without courtesy. If you have engaged in a sizeable job search, you know exactly what I am referring to. Word gets around.

This past year, United Airlines reminded millions of consumers of the cynicism and contempt that permeates their culture. How many of the industry’s brightest and best woke up the next morning and aspired to join that company? Delta, Alaska, Emirates, Southwest and others will benefit from their behavior for years to come. Most consumers that I know will only board a United plane where there simply is no alternative.

Uber might have been one of the country’s most successful start-ups in many years. But, their contempt towards female employees and drivers has led to perhaps the first time in business history where consumers are mindfully selecting Lyft because its spiritual and moral principles are superior.

Why has the employer brand become more important than the consumer brand?

Because the consumer brand is what we sell.

The employer brand is what we become.

Brought to you by David Harder – Founder & President, Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, David Harder – (All Rights Reserved)

Get your copy of The Workplace Engagement Solution here.

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