How many of your people, on average, REALLY care?

How many employees do you have?

How many of them care, REALLY care, about your organisation?

Write down the % that you think are motivated, passionate and enthusiastic about working at your place.

Global gurus in employee engagement, Gallup Consulting, have research that shows that in Australia, on average, only 24% really care. That's less than one in four. I don't know about you, but I reckon that is SCARY!

Why does it matter? Well, Gallup's research shows a direct link between high levels of engagement and organisational outcomes like higher productivity, profitability, growth, quality and safety. If you want your organisation to be successful, you should care about the level of engagement (or Care Factor) of your people.

It is the leader's job to create an environment where people feel connected to the organisation, that they care about it succeeding and, as a result, they give their best.

We are helping organisations improve the 'Care Factor' of their employees by encouraging them to do the following

• making the expectations of their employees crystal clear
• giving regular and honest feedback on performance
• sharing the vision, key result areas and actions plans with employees
• giving opportunities for growth and development
• creating an environment where people feel valued and a part of a team.

I'll come to your place to SPEAK FOR FREE about how to increase the 'Care Factor' of your employees. Click here for us to connect.

WHY YOU SHOULD SAY "NO" MORE OFTEN

In his book Essentialism, Greg McKeown encourages us to discern 'the essential few from the trivial many'. He recommends focusing only on essential tasks, those things that make the highest value contribution to achieving our vision or purpose. (By the way, its a great read / listen. I highly recommend it).

In order to make your highest value contribution, you need to say "No" more often.

You should say 'No" when ... you are saying "Yes" just to be nice or please someone else. We all want to be liked, but we will create a difficult situation if we become a "Yes person". Leaders need to get comfortable with not being liked.

You should say 'No" when ... you know that saying "Yes" will set you up for failure. When you know you can't deliver on what is being asked, you have to either decline or negotiate a different time frame. This isn't being rude, just assertive.

You should say 'No" when ... you know that the task is not your highest value contribution to your vision or purpose. You have a responsibility to be as productive and efficient as possible and being caught up with tasks that someone else could do defeats this purpose. Delegation is the key here.

You should say 'No" when ... being authentic is important to you (and it should be). Saying "Yes" when you know you should be saying "No" means that you are compromising your values. Being authentic sometimes means pushing back.

You should say 'No" when ... you need time to think, create, plan, recharge. We can't be at our best when we are too busy. We need to eliminate non essential activity and focus on 'protecting the asset', as Greg McKeown puts it. Don't feel guilty about looking after yourself.

Saying "No" to a lot of things means that you are saying "Yes" to just a few, but it is the laser sharp focus on the most important stuff that the best leaders apart.

ARE YOU GETTING ENGAGED THIS YEAR?

A hot topic at the moment is ‘employee engagement’.  What is it and how important is it?

When two people become engaged it means they are making a commitment to each other. It means that they intend to be loyal and loving into the future. It means that they care, deeply, about each other.

How I explain employee engagement is whether your people care about the organisation they work for or not. What is their ‘Care Factor’?  This could range from ‘Care Factor Zero’, where, as a someone recently told me “They couldn’t give a sh#t”, to ‘Care Factor 100’ (the name of my next book), where 100% of your people are 100% engaged.

There is strong worldwide evidence (Gallup Consulting) that high levels of engagement correlate with positive organisational performance. Organisations where the ‘Care Factor’ is high experience better profitability, productivity, growth, safety and quality.

Think about this question. What is the ‘Care Factor’ of employees at your organisation? How much do they care about your organisation? Where, on the scale between ‘Care Factor Zero’ and ‘Care Factor 100’, would you employees be?

It’s our goal in 2017 to help as many people get engaged as possible! We want both employees and organisations to care more about each other, so there is loyalty, happiness and greater organisation outcomes.

Can we help you to achieve ‘Care Factor 100’?

WHAT ARE YOU GRATEFUL FOR? NOW IS A GREAT TIME FOR THIS SIMPLE EXERCISE.

I strongly believe that our lives are better when we are more aware of those things in our life that we should be grateful for. In a busy, sometimes stressful world, a great way to do this is simple exercise where we list the positives in our lives followed by a short 'why'.

There are no hard and fast rules, but here is a format that works for me and the people I work with. Take a clean sheet of paper (or screen), write in the middle in a circle 'What I am grateful for'. Simple fill the page in other circles with the things that you appreciate in your life. For example ...

'What I am grateful for'

• My family. Why? They love me and I love them.
• My partner / wife / husband. Why? If we are lucky, they are our best friend and someone to share our life with.
• My health. Why? Without it I can't be there for my family and live a full life.
• My work. Why? It allows me to fulfill my life's purpose.
• My friends. Why? They add value to my life and I add value to theirs.
• Where I live. Why? It allows me to live the life I want to live.
• The ability to make decisions about what kind of a life I have.

By the way, the exercise isn't over until you have done two more things.

• Expressed thanks for each of the things that you are grateful for. Eg, tell you family you love them.
• Identified what you need to change to have a better situation in some areas of your life.

This time of the year is a great time to reflect and take an hour to complete the exercise.

YOU ARE THE AVERAGE OF THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU SPEND MOST OF YOUR TIME WITH

American author and speaker, Jim Rohn is known for his motivational quotes. I am a fan of many of them, but this one is my favourite. “You are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.” Let’s unpack that a bit as it has implications for all of us, particularly if you want to get better at leadership.
 
If you spend most of your time with negative people, it follows that your mood might also be brought down. If you spend time with positive people, you probably feel uplifted by them. Jim Rohn reckons that if you could measure either the negativity or positivity of all five, you would be the average of the group. I’m not aware of any scientific evidence to back the claim up, but I certainly believe the sentiment of it.
 
If you want to be fitter and healthier, start hanging around people that value fitness and health. If you want to be a speaker or an author, find groups of like minded people and spend time in their company. Many of us, by the nature of our chosen careers, spend time with fellow work mates and colleagues, so it may be a challenge to spend time with others beyond this group. But this is a choice that we can make if we want it bad enough.
 
People who aspire to be more effective in their leadership need to spend time in the company of others who want the same thing. Here are some ideas and options that might result in you widening your current circle of contacts.

• Find a coach or mentor and have some one on one sessions to challenge your thinking and create a bigger picture.
• Join your professional industry association and attend regular meetings and conferences.
• Become a board member of a charity or not for profit. Your fellow board members are there because of the expertise they bring and you will learn from them.