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The Amplified Moments of Every Single Pitch and At Bat

He threw heat like a wild man, his bulging arms and legs flailing from wind up to release. Every third pitch winged my at-bat teammates causing them to duck, or swing their midsection backward or forward. And every time he threw his mad-hatter ball, he smiled a mouthful of perfect pearly whites.

Sometimes we hit his fastball, and sometimes it hit us. Four and a half innings into six of our Little League playoff baseball game, our team, the Indians, trailed the Yankees by one run with only one out.

The Yankee parents hurled insults at ours; the Yankee players hurled insults at us. They were known for being poor winners and every losing team felt their wrath. We, the reserved underdog Indians, cheered each other on, and our coaches and parents echoed the positive affirmations…

KWG Indians Baseball

…I had been on deck, and after yet another wild pitch and a walk, the bases were now loaded. I remember how palatable my fear was walking up to home plate; I was thin and not the strongest hitter on our team. My throat cramped gritty and dry and it felt like a baseline chalk on hard-packed dirt in the hot sun. The Yankee catcher laughed at me as I approached.This memory came to me recently when a co-worker’s son played on a team that made it to the Little League world series. Every day there was an update on our internal social network of who his son’s team played, and whether they won or not – and win they did. Over and over again. While this winning buzz only excited a small group of us following along online, I imagined the electric thrill his son felt and all his teammates, the coaches and the parents, the local crowds, game after game after game while…

“This ain’t no hitter,” he called out to the wild man on the mound. “Easy out, easy out.

I looked up at our coach who gave me an intricate string of baseball signs, all of which translated into one action…

…and that’s when my co-worker posted the fact that they were in the final world series game against South Korea, which was always a tough opponent because…

…he wanted me to bunt. Bunt?!? I thought. If I turn into that fireball I’m a dead man. But step into the batter’s box I did. Wild man wound up, released the ball and then…

…two days later the news that they won the whole kit and kaboodle was posted, which was huge, and I kicked myself for not watching it on TV, the electric thrill of elevated Little League play and amplified moments of every single pitch and at bat…

…when I squared into the baseball hurling toward me, the Cheshire Cat smile ear to ear on wild man’s face, I realized instinctively that the ball was nowhere near my bat – it was headed at my chest – but instead of rolling out of the box away from the pitch, I put my hand up to stop it…

In the end, we lost that playoff game, and thankfully I kept my hand intact without it breaking. It was sore, yes, but my teammates and I left that game happy with our performance because we had played together with supportive coaching and parenting around us, abuzz with that playoff feeling that lifted our heart and soul.

Patrick Antrim, former professional baseball player with the New York Yankees and founder of leadership & coaching firm LegendaryTeams.com, told us on the TalentCulture #TChat Show that leaders and employees alike should aspire to that championship game feeling every single day in the workplace.

Even if once and a while you get hit with the ball, which will happen kids. No doubt.

But if we can replicate just a smidge of that playoff feeling, focusing heavily on the employee-customer relationship first and foremost, performance always fares better in driving the amplifier effect of winning outcomes. This means the business impact of driving deeper levels of employee engagement is dramatic.

For example:

The data don’t lie, which is why the amplified moments of:

  1. Every single pitch. It’s a bitch to sustain pitching accuracy inning after inning, but in the near- and long-term, it’s the collective strikes and outs that make all the difference between your players and your competitors. We all want to win, we really do, and we all want to string that feeling together as much as we can year round. Just as long as your “team” understands what the strike zone is and gets guidance and practice to throw heat like a mad man and woman.
  2. And At Bat. Deeper engagement from amplified “at-bats” drives better talent outcomes and better business outcomes. When your “players” make the hits, and when they ultimately have individual and group wins, even when they’re the incremental wins during the regular season, they feel more capable and confident, and that translates into happy major leaguers who are then more likely to be candid in communicating and advancing the business and driving innovation.

This is the stuff of legendary teams. And the best companies – the winners – that aspire to that championship game feeling every single day in the workplace perform nearly two times better than the rest of the world. That’s a world of work sports fact.

“Put me in coach, I’m ready to play, today…”

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#TChat Recap: The Extraordinary Potential Of Values Based Leadership

The Extraordinary Potential Of Values Based Leadership

What does it mean to be a leader? It is about being the one who gives the orders? Is it about building relationships with people through values? This week’s #TChat topic: The Extraordinary Potential Of Values Based Leadership, shares a very unique perspective on what leadership should be all about. Fortunately for us this week, our guest: Mark Fernandes, Chief Leadership Officer of Luck Companies, a global Values Based Leadership (VBL) organization, is an expert on this highly buzzworthy topic. And why it shouldn’t it be buzzworthy? Leadership is responsible for managing people and their level of engagement with their organizations.

Mark kickoffs #TChat with explaining what Values Based Leadership means to him, but what it should mean to others:

Mark brings up two intuitive points about leadership: give your people something to believe in, and help them grow. Value Based Leadership brings leaders and employees together to share a common goal and purpose. Leadership plays a pivotal role in how employees develop, and how the tone for workplace culture is set. Mark believes that:

Leaders that truly lead, inspire their employees to do great things. They understand that attitude, motivation, and productivity around the office is reflected on how well they lead. Creating a stimulating culture and climate for employees to thrive in has to come from personal self-realization of what it takes to lead. To be a leader, you must:

Yes, self-realization of who you are and taking the time to learn about those around you is why leaders are who they are. How can you expect people to follow you if you don’t know anything about them? How can you expect to inspire greatness? As a leader, you must remember:

Values Based Leadership takes the time to value people, to hear their needs, and build a culture shared around a common goal. Making a difference starts with these steps. Few put in the effort and those that do see the huge benefits. If you want value, then you need to create it, and then share it with the rest. Because today’s workforce want to work for a common purpose. They want to build a better tomorrow. So give them the opportunity to do so. 

Want To See The #TChat Replay?


 

Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

Thanks again to our guest: Mark Fernandes, Chief Leadership Officer of Luck Companies, a global Values Based Leadership (VBL) organization. Click here to see the preview and related reading.

#TChat Events: The Extraordinary Potential Of Values Based Leadership

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#TChat Radio — Are you plugged in to #TChat radio? Did you know you can listen live to ANY of our shows ANY time?

Now you know. Click the box to head on over to our channel or listen to The Extraordinary Potential Of Values Based Leadership.

Note To Bloggers: Did this week’s events prompt you to write about trends on the engagement experience?

We welcome your thoughts. Post a link on Twitter (include #TChat or @TalentCulture), or insert a comment below, and we may feature it!

If you recap #TChat make sure to let us know so we can find you!

We Want To See You On TalentCulture. Become A Contributor Now!

Sign up for the newsletter to get the scoop on next week’s guest, topic and questions!

Save The Date: Wednesday, July 23!

Join us for next week’s #TChat!

The TalentCulture conversation continues daily on #TChat Twitter, in our LinkedIn group, and on our new Google+ community. So join us anytime on your favorite social channels!

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Talent Engagement and the Dissed-Engaged

What to do with a productive outlier?

Especially when she’s a smart problem-solver, who is sometimes collaborative and works well with others, but who’s also a headstrong, impulsive, independent, opinionated and throws tantrums like baseballs from a wild fast pitcher, tantrums that take what feels like an inordinate amount of time to extinguish; a fuse lighting itself over and over again like a trick stick of dynamite.

One minute she’s figuring everything out, and the next, she’s blowing up.

Sizzle. Hiss. Ka-boom.

Of course, she’s only four years old and my youngest daughter. Wait, what? You didn’t see that coming?

According to the Positive Discipline developers, it’s not easy for most of us (children and adults included) to verbalize our feelings when we’re are upset, and there are those of us who can’t verbalize their feelings at all at any time. Children (and unfortunately still too many adults) haven’t learned how to articulate what they need and want. Temper tantrums often occur when children feel controlled.

Yes, I’m going somewhere with this…

Positive discipline doesn’t mean being so completely permissive that there is no discipline at all, but it does mean we need to “both kind and firm in our actions. Kindness shows respect for the child. Firmness shows respect for the needs of the situation and for parents. Spanking and punitive time outs are not kind.”

Punitive time outs are not kind. And neither is freezing out, the adult alternative.

Recently I watched a harassment and workplace safety video that included an “acted out” story about a valuable but “pain-in-the-butt-complaining” employee who no one, not even her immediate supervisor, wanted to deal with. So, another manager recommended to just “freeze her out” and eventually she’d hopefully just leave the company.

Of course, the correct answer here was not to freeze her out, but instead was to deal with the situation head on to attempt to rectify it, maybe even figure out where she could go elsewhere in the company to maximize her skills and expertise.

Then I heard from a friend who experienced the freeze and who eventually left because she saw “the writing on the wall” – who even overheard another executive in the company insist that this was her way of dealing with employees she no longer wanted around, that is was easier that way. (We can save the really fringe HR nightmares for another time.)

These are the dissed-engaged (a reality twist on disengaged), the outliers of productive talent engagement that we ignore today in the world of work.

Hey, you think workplace bullying is bad? Being ignored is even worse, especially when it’s coming from all facets in the organization. For example, for a recent study in Organization Science, the University of British Columbia’s Sandra Robinson and her team analyzed surveys that compared and contrasted the consequences of workplace ostracism with workplace bullying. We’re talking alienating co-workers rather than abusing them, and the results suggest that alienating is much worse.

The Research Shows

The research showed that employees whose co-workers often neglected them by leaving them out of conversations, ignoring them in the hallways, etc., felt unhappier, disliked their own work more, and even more frequently left their jobs than people who were bullied.

Now, juxtapose that with this – according to a 2014 Employee Engagement survey by Human Capital Media Advisory Group, the research arm of Talent Management, even though “recognition and work-life balance programs are among the leading methods to promote engagement, both techniques were among the least-valued factors by HR managers when measuring engagement.”

In fact, “when it came to the values and behaviors companies say they evaluate in measuring engagement, overall job satisfaction (64.1 percent), excitement about one’s work (60.9 percent) and opportunity to grow and improve skills (60.9 percent) top the list, according to the survey, roughly in line with last year’s results.”

This certainly makes sense to me, but for the dissed-engaged, there eventually is no excitement about one’s work, nor is there an opportunity to grow and improve skills.

And as we learned this week on the TalentCulture #TChat Show, the talent management strategies of the past no longer work, and our guest, Jeff Carr, CEO and President of PeopleFluent, shared that the top talent challenges he hears from customers include developing leaders and developing vibrant and engaging workplace cultures. Not easy tasks for even the most progressive of organizations.

Today people work differently, are motivated differently and are engaged differently. They want:

Opportunity. Employees want ongoing growth opportunities, workplace flexibility, tools and systems that encourage collaboration, and commitment to a reciprocal climate of support and encouragement, all of which lead to payoffs in employee retention, satisfaction, and overall business performance.

And Closure. This means exhausting all avenues on how to maximize existing talent while working through trick fuses and other trouble spots, even if the end result is that the individual must go, or will go. Otherwise, “freezing out” behavior seeps into the drywall like toxic mold.

To avoid the toxic mold, it’s critical to drive higher levels of contribution and deeper engagement through better “people management” experiences that can and will lead to better and more lucrative business outcomes. Amen.

The dissed-engaged deserve it. We all do.
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#TChat Recap: It’s All About The Talent Engagement Experience

It’s All About The Talent Engagement Experience

Too many times we find ourselves asking such questions as, “How do we get the most out of ourselves?” or “How can we be more engaged in what we’re doing?” These are questions that that leaders have to always ask themselves. As always, #TChat participants showed up to voice their opinions on this week’s topic: The Talent Engagement Experience. And what we heard, and what we learned, is talent engagement can no longer afford to live in the past. It needs a shining new coat of armor if it is to face today’s modern day challenges when it comes to managing people. This week, #TChat was joined by Jeff Carr, CEO & President of PeopleFluent, who knows all about what talent engagement means to the livelihood of an organization.

Understanding how to engage today’s talent begins with knowing why management practices of the past no longer work. Because every generation of workers are different. It requires constant fine-tuning to keep up with managing talent needs and wants. According to Jeff Carr:

Jeff brings up an excellent point about “…how and where people work is important to them.” And why shouldn’t it? Work takes up a significant portion of our lives. How and where we work should mean something to us. And it has to mean something for organizations as well. Because:

  By eliminating that “What’s in it for me?” mindset, then great things start to happen. People have to feel like they are part of the conversation if you want your organization to mean something to them. Realizing your employees matter is one thing, but allowing them to develop and contribute is another. And if you want people to contribute then you need to:

Because creating value throughout your employees day is what creates talent engagement. And you need your employees engaged. It’s critical to your success. Smart talent can sniff out when your culture stinks. It can happen during interviewing. It can happen whenever. Your candidate experience is part of your talent engagement experience and:

Talent engagement is about knowing how to manage people, because people come with all different types of motivational buttons that you need to press to keep them engaged. Take the time to find out what your talent is made of and give them the opportunity to succeed. The talent engagement experience is about managing character, motivation, and recognition. Give your people a chance to succeed by investing in them. Remember, investment doesn’t just mean financial reward.

Want To See The #TChat Replay?

 

Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

Thanks again to our guests (add guests, and twitter links). Click here to see the preview and related reading.

#TChat Events: It’s All About The Talent Engagement Experience

TChatRadio_logo_020813

 

#TChat Radio — Are you plugged in to #TChat radio? Did you know you can listen live to ANY of our shows ANY time?

Now you know. Click the box to head on over to our channel or listen to It’s All About The Talent Engagement Experience.

Note To Bloggers: Did this week’s events prompt you to write about trends on the engagement experience?

We welcome your thoughts. Post a link on Twitter (include #TChat or @TalentCulture), or insert a comment below, and we may feature it!

If you recap #TChat make sure to let us know so we can find you!

We Want To See You On TalentCulture. Become A Contributor Now!

Sign up for the newsletter to get the scoop on next week’s guest, topic and questions!

Save The Date: Wednesday, July 16!

Next week’s #TChat Topic: The Extraordinary Potential of Values Based Leadership

The TalentCulture conversation continues daily on #TChat Twitter, in our LinkedIn group, and on our new Google+ community. So join us anytime on your favorite social channels!

photo credit: aaronisnotcool via photopin cc

Lemonade Stands And The Cadence Of Two Easy Steps

“So Beatrice, what are you going to make today?”

“Lemonade.”

“And what’s the first ingredient?”

“Lemons.”

“And what’s second?”

“Sugar.”

“And then what?”

“Um…ice.”

“Yes, ice, but also water, right?”

“Yes, and water!”

And that’s how it went on my oldest daughter Beatrice’s final Pre-K share and leader day recently – three easy steps – just like Special Agent Oso from Disney Junior teaches toddlers to do. Actually, four easy steps in this case, only because when Bea makes lemonade, it’s always too warm for her and so she wants to add ice to cool it down, along with adding the water.

Three (to four) easy steps to learning something new. In a fun way. A way you’ll always remember and that helps the learning stick, without much inhibition and a full-throttle curiosity of how things work that can be insatiable. To know is to do, again and again and again.

And the kids, well, that’s where they have us beat. Us being the adults in the room. According to a recent Freakonomics podcast titled Think Like a Child, Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of California-Berkeley and the author of The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life, has done some fascinating research on children’s cognitive processes and development. In this podcast, Gopnik describes how modern research shows that kids are much more than just underdeveloped adults:

Think of the kids as being the research and development division of the human species. And we’re—adults—we’re production and marketing. So from the production and marketing perspective, it might look like the R&D guys are really not doing anything that looks very sensible or useful. They sit around all day in their beanbag chairs playing Pong and having blue-sky ideas. And we poor production and marketing people, who are actually making the profits, have to subsidize these guys! But of course, one of the things that we know is that that kind of blue-sky, just pure, research actually pays off in the long run.”

 

Those are my girls for sure. But first, there’s a goal. There’s always a goal.

Bea-Lemonade

“Beatrice, do you want to learn how to make lemonade?”

“Yes, I do. It’s yummy.”

There you go. The goal. To make lemonade. Mercy, all we gotta do next is put a lemonade stand together out front and we got ourselves a lil’ business. It is nearly summertime, you know.

The main goal. The three easy steps to reach that main goal, and the goals around completing the three easy steps. A baby-steps business model. A cadence that includes reaching said goals, establishing new ones, and learning something new each and every time that leads to growth and success.

To know is to do, again and again and again.

Unfortunately, this ain’t the case for many companies. Unhappiness and employee turnover are still all too common challenges for organizations of all shapes and size and industries. It’s an overgrown and thorny path that leaders and HR teams walk bare foot daily, with no compass to guide them, no “where the wild things are” curiosity driving the cadence of learning and growing (personally, professionally and monetarily).

This unruly, wild west “talent cycle” can create poor climates and cultures where your people are forced to scramble and hire reactively each time an employee makes a move toward the door.

Listening to Andre Lavoie, CEO and co-founder of ClearCompany, talk about how companies and business leaders need to establish values and primary goals (or reestablish them), aligning cascading goals and developing and managing a cadence to get all the business at hand done successfully and continuously, certainly inspired me to share the lemons-to-lemonade backstory.

Us adults in the room have killed the childhood R&D, and in the same last gasping breath, talent management strategies of the past no longer work. Today people work differently, are motivated differently and are engaged differently, and want their performance measured differently. Millennials may have pushed all the employer flexibility buttons, but now every generation is demanding more.

For example, employees want ongoing growth opportunities, workplace flexibility, tools and systems that encourage collaboration, and commitment to a reciprocal climate of support and encouragement, all of which lead to payoffs in employee retention, satisfaction, and overall business performance. Organizations can no longer afford to simply “manage people,” because the people demand more – they want aligned business goals that they’re part of and that are attainable and evolve collaboratively over time.

We want lemonade stands and the cadence of two easy steps:

  1. Recognize. Organizations need to provide attractive corporate and employee cultures that recognizes the individual, while promoting innovation, learning, collaboration and connections. They need a visionary talent engagement experience that is orchestrated around people and people goals, not processes. The key now is to drive a higher level of contribution, deeper engagement through a better “people management” experience.
  2. Experience. These attributes – the aligned goals, the learning, the development, the sound business model, the full-throttle curiosity of how things work – all culminate in delivering an amplifier effect on talent contribution and success. Organizations that provide a more engaging experience can better gain adoption of the talent initiatives throughout the company, and align individual objectives to business goals to improve performance, retention, and productivity.

This “amplifier effect” of people’s contributions upon aligned, accomplished goals has a rapid and lasting impact over time. Positive business outcomes become the norm.

Just add sugar and ice, right? It’s yummy indeed.

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