FranklinCovey Blog | February, 2011

Interview on BlogTalkRadio: How to Create Your Ultimate Job

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 | Great Work, Great Career | No Comments

Here is a link to an interview with Jennifer Colosimo on BlogTalkRadio discussing the topic ”How to Create Your Ultimate Job”.  Check it out!

http://tobtr.com/s/1475968

Building Your Village article in India’s Business Standard

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 | Great Work, Great Career | 5 Comments

Engage Yourself

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 | Leadership | No Comments

If you are personally disengaged, diagnose why.  Think about yourself as a whole person—body, mind, heart, spirit.

1.  Body:  Do I get results?  Do I get them in a sustainable way?  (e.g., I build trust with others, I am physically and mentally healthy, my personal life is not falling apart).
2. Heart:  Does my work tap into my talents and passions?
3. Mind:  Am I learning and able to use my intelligence and creativity in the majority of my working days?
4. Spirit:  Is there some larger sense of meaning in what I do?  The meaning could be found in the impact of your product and service to your community/world or it could be found in how you achieve results and develop people or it could be a simple gut check that says, “This feels right.”

Based on your answers, you have choices.  Is there anything you can take responsibility for to impact your engagement?  Is there a need in the organization you could fill that could also re-engage you in your work?  Before you polish your resume figuring it will be better somewhere else, be sure that you have done everything you can based on where you are on the engagement scale—if the problem lies with you, it will unfortunately follow you to your next employer!

 My next blog:  What leaders/managers can do to create the conditions for engagement. 

To hear more, come see Jennifer at Training 2011.  http://www.trainingconference.com/session_details.cfm

Tags: Leadership Training

Why Leaders and Those Who Train Leaders Should Care About Engagement

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011 | Leadership | No Comments

Think of posing this question to your people:  “How many of you think you possess far more talent, intelligence, capability, and creativity than your present job requires or even allows?”   What if the majority answer, “yes?”  Does it make a difference to your bottom line results?

It does.  Engagement is a function of being a valued member of a team working toward an inspiring goal—tapping into many capabilities on a regular basis.  And engaged employees are more productive employees.  They work harder, more effectively overcoming barriers to success, and they stay.

Not only that, but work is such a huge part of life—learning who we are, how to get things done in a group; in fact, there is no greater opportunity to develop focus, patience, and empathy than at work—it is just better to have some sense of meaning.  Of course, since it is work, there is no meaning without margin!

The problem:  2010 Gallup fund found the number of people self-reporting as actively disengaged went up 21% last year.  Deloitte found the 30% were working the job market, ½ would consider leaving.

Three simple suggestions:

1.        Fully engage yourself.  To ignite the talent and passion of others, you must be fully engaged yourself.

2.       Train/coach/evaluate leaders on ability to create conditions for engagement.

3.       Teach individuals how to take responsibility for their own engagement and their careers.

My next blogs will focus on detail on these three suggestions!

To hear more, come see Jennifer at Training 2011.  http://www.trainingconference.com/session_details.cfm