engagement

How Can We Engage “Actively Disengaged” Employees?

In my experience, the most actively disengaged employees are ones who are suffering from deep disappointment in their organization. They are often people who really invested their hearts and hopes in the past and were massively let down, by destructively poor management, by abandoned change and improvement initiatives they passionately supported, reorganizations that took them away from work/projects/services they loved, and the like. These folks are actively protecting themselves from investing in the organization again to avoid the real pain they’ve felt when they have put their hearts on the line in the past, either in this organization or some other place in their lives.

(more…)

Leading Multicultural Teams: Authenticity+ Permeability+ Contingency+ Consistency

By Sanchez / Tennis|2017-01-13T11:27:51-07:00February 28th, 2012|Tags: contingency leadership, creativity, culture, difference, diversity, engagement, inclusion, innovation, leadership, multicultural, race, team development|

I recently came across a question in LinkedIn about leaders adjusting their style to work with different cultures. What is raised for me is the dilemma of authenticity + permeability + contingency + consistency. As our teams grow increasingly diverse, we are all challenged to find a way of colleagueship and leadership that is open to other ways of seeing the world, approaching problems, and formulating solutions. At the same time, we also need to be true to ourselves and the strengths we bring to the party. This argues for an openness to growing through our daily interactions, generally through an action/reflection learning cycle where we are openly engaged in considering how we manifest our own cultural set and exploring with others their alternative values and approaches. If we engage in this collaborative exploration with our colleagues, we can move toward greater understanding of each other’s styles, as well as how we each can draw on the other’s strengths and perspectives for team and organizational success.

(more…)