James Bullock's Discussions
Keeping Employees Engaged in Spite of Repitition
Replied Feb. 25, 2008
James Bullock's Groups
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Manager Tools for Empl...
194 members
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Employee Engagement Wr...
79 members
James Bullock's Page
Profile Information
- Who are you?
- Software and IT development consultant, manager. I do "Conscious Development", helping people notice how they are doing the work, so they can change that if they want to. Coeditor of two books.
- What is your interest or involvement in employee engagement?
- Since building IT and software systems is thinking work, engaged employees are kind of required.
- Where are you located?
- Seattle
About
Latest Activity
The presentation went off really well. The demonstration of the network went really well too. So far 25% of the staff have signed up. Regrettably, there is virtually no activity on the network yet. I feel that there is a lot of hesitation in start...
Understand every member of your teams motivation, align their aspirations to a clearly communicated business direction, give them all the tools to do the job and then empower them to deliver.
Care for people around you and get to know who they are, what strengths they bring and what's important to them.
Every day do a quick maintenance check. Do people know Why?, How?, When? and What? they are doing and are they free to ask these questions of you?.
Check your own engagement regularly. You need support, recognition and inspiration as much as your employees, in order provide an environment that will engage your people fully.
Engagement is a relationship that requires regular maintenance.
Start from where they are at.
Reach out to their hearts and values. Look beyond the Employee ID number and make a genuine effort to see and hear the person.
Open yourself to influence by others and they will open themselves to your influence.
Don't just listen to your people but also act on what they're telling you.
Only hire people with passion for what they do; create a work environment that fosters and facilitates the expression of that passion and use a communication style that makes it safe to stretch, fail and grow.
Assist each employee to understand the deeper purpose of his or her work - who or what cause is it helping - and why.
Be congruent and transparent, say what you mean and do what you say.
Managers or Supervisors can engage employees by demonstrating little acts of kindness for absolutely no reason at all. eg. Can I help you carry that? Is there anything I can get for you? etc. etc.
Engagement should be treated as newborns! Everyone takes place in the growing process and they should never be left unattended.
For great managers, the path toward engaging employees and keeping them engaged begins with asking them what they want and what is important in order to be effective in their roles.
Groups
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Manager Tools for Empl...
194 members
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Employee Engagement Wr...
79 members
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Research on EE
79 members
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Employee Recognition
74 members
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Engaging Books
72 members
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Social media in the wo...
60 members
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Engaging Quotations
54 members
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Canada
49 members
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UK
48 members
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Personal Engagement
33 members
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Comment Wall (3 comments)
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I see you joined the Manager Tools group. Welcome!
Terry
Easiest place find out more about me is LinkedIn. Is mentioning that tacky here?
I've "turned around" several departments in Software Development & QA, and several more IT & Software projects. "Employee engagement" is so far one of the things that was causing problems every time. It's relatively easy to "turn around" the results you get compared to a group that's had their engagement and commitment beaten out of them. Give them the slightest chance to contribute and they're all over it.
I hope to learn by hanging out with other folks who've discovered that particular secret sauce.
I am glad you joined. I hope you let us know more about your interest/background in employee engagement. I love the image and would love to learn more about you.
David