Alan's Note: I'm happy to post a guest blog today by Army Sergeant T. J. Trent. I want to take this opportunity to thank him for his service--and for the personal story and leadership insights he is sharing with us. If you think being a leader in the ...
Author Archives: Alan Allard
Creating a Culture of Engagement: Why It’s Both Simple and Hard
Creating a culture of engagement isn't a matter of rocket science--it's pretty simple. It's not that we don't know what to do to solve our employee engagement problems--it's that we fail to do what we know. For instance, most every leader knows how important it is to:
- Have a ...
Who Owns Employee Engagement?
Nationwide CEO Steve Rasmussen was recently interviewed by businessjournal.gallup.com on employee engagement and said, "Engagement is a state of mind. People either are engaged or they're not. You can feel it. I can walk into any company, and I can tell you in 15 minutes whether people are engaged or not ...
Leading an “Employee Engagement” Revolution
A consulting colleague told me today about a four day leadership meeting he facilitated. Everyone was excited. The CEO had been talking the event up and made sure everyone knew he would be there ready to participate. But the leadership event came and went--without the top leader--and without any explanations ...
Employee Engagement: Where Do We Start?
"Employee engagement" is a hot topic in the workplace today--and for good reason. More and more "employees" are feeling stretched beyond their capacity, feeling under-appreciated and under-valued. (Please note that I didn't say "under-paid." For the most part, money isn't the problem and more money isn't the solution to the ...
The Myth of “Letting Go of the Past”
How often have you heard a therapist, coach or friend give someone the advice, "You need to let go of the past." It sounds good, doesn't it? The only problem is it doesn't work. Huh? No, really, it doesn't work. How many times have you tried to "let go" of ...
Is “Stress Management” Stressing You Out?
“Stress management.” I don’t know about you, but there’s something amiss when it comes to the idea of managing your stress. It’s not that toxic stress isn’t a big deal – it is. Toxic stress cuts deeply into our happiness, health, and overall well-being. At work, it is responsible for ...
Progress, Not Perfection!
A few years back I had a phone appointment – but not just any phone appointment. I was scheduled to be interviewed by Matt, a reporter for The New York Times for a piece he was writing on influencing others at work. I have to tell you, I was excited about being ...
Happiness at Work?
How would you like to go work for a company, be treated to four weeks of incredible training, and then be offered $2,000 to quit? Crazy, right? Not according to Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos and the author of Delivering Happiness. There’s a method to his madness: Hsieh only wants ...
Work Hard or Work Smart
(This post first appeared on www.womenworking.com where I am a frequent guest coach and blogger.)
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