With many of us enjoying a festive long weekend, both here in Canada as well as in the United States, I was reminded about the inspiration behind one of my most popular posts from the last several months, that touched on the connection between having a fun time and employee engagement. For recent readers of my blog, I’m sure you’ll find this an enjoyable and inspiring read. And for those of you who have been reading my blog for the last year or so, this will be a pleasant reminder of how to encourage collaboration and engagement within your team.
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Inspiration can be a curious thing.
I’m always amazed at how seemingly unrelated pieces can stir up new ideas or perspectives about our world and the way we live and conduct ourselves within it. Take, for example, this commercial released on YouTube last week by Coca-Cola called the “Happiness Machine”.
While the commercial is effective in creating this idea of Coca-Cola being a source of happiness, there’s also a valuable lesson here that can be imparted to business leaders in how they interact with their employees.
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This past Tuesday, I had the opportunity to appear as a guest on the Real Recognition Radio show, which airs every Tuesday at 1PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on the VoiceAmerica Business channel. In this week’s episode, titled “A Better Workplace Conversation”, hosts Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown interviewed feedback expert Sonia Di Maulo and myself on the issues of leadership, workplace interactions and fostering motivation in employees (Sonia has written a follow-up piece about our interview on her blog. I invite you to check it out and find out what key points stood out from this discussion).
For those who didn’t get a chance to hear the radio broadcast, or who’d like to hear the show again, you can listen to the interview using the audio player below. Or if you prefer, you can download a MP3 copy of the show from the Real Recognition Radio show web page.
Some of the topics discussed during this show include:
Why giving positive feedback is critical to creating a productive workplace.
How listening can foster opportunities for growth.
Why the best leaders are those who focus on serving those they lead.
The importance of praise and recognition in the workplace and how we can start implementing it today.
How we can engage our employees in these tough economic times.
Why leaders should encourage a more emotional workplace.
What are the most important opportunities facing organizations today.
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I want to take this opportunity to thank Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown for inviting me to appear on their show. It was a pleasure to share my insights on leadership and motivating employees with your listeners. And I look forward to hearing your thoughts about this conversation on leadership and motivating employees.
What ideas resonated with you and what would you add to the discussion on these issues?
I’m always amazed at how seemingly unrelated pieces can stir up new ideas or perspectives about our world and the way we live and conduct ourselves within it. Take, for example, this commercial released on YouTube last week by Coca-Cola called the “Happiness Machine”.
While the commercial is effective in creating this idea of Coca-Cola being a source of happiness, there’s also a valuable lesson here that can be imparted to business leaders in how they interact with their employees.
In my previous piece “Validation – The First Step Starts With Us“, I spoke of how giving praise or showing appreciation to others serves to validate what people intuitively know about themselves, that it creates the understanding that they are being recognized for what they do or how they feel. While the piece gave rise to some wonderful comments and discussions here on this blog and elsewhere, it also brought to light some interesting experiences relating to the act of acknowledging those around us. After reading my piece on validation, some of my readers shared with me their stories of showing appreciation to others and how the reactions they received from the act were mostly that of indifference and in some cases even wariness or suspicion.
These experiences understandably left them doubting their ability to offer validation to those around them, if not the value of their words and actions. It also left a few of them asking the question of how can one help validate others if they don’t value what you’re trying to offer. To answer this question, I want to first look at two reasons why the act of offering praise or appreciation is not having any beneficial effect on those receiving it. Click here to continue reading »”Believing In The Power Of You”
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