StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 26 – An Interview with Omar Khan, author of Liberating Passion
StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.
Special Edition 26 – An Interview with Omar Khan, author of Liberating Passion examines how executives and managers can liberate their organization’s passion; tapping into the workforce’s inner energy and commitment to deliver breakthrough results. During our discussion, Omar Khan, author of Liberating Passion: How the World’s Best Global Leaders Produce Winning Results
- organizational characteristics, conditions, and cultures that kill employee passion
- primary passion liberators and their underlying principles
- actions executives and managers should take to liberate their employees’ passion
- passion liberators that help build a diverse and inclusive organization as well as one that rewards personal achievement
Additional Information
In addition to the incredible insights Omar shares in Liberating Passion
Final Request…
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About the Author
Omar Khan, author of Liberating Passion
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B-R-E-A-T-H-E™ In The Workplace Saves Dollars And Lives
In our current economic crisis, workplace wellness programs have become essential to maintain the health of both the employer and the employee. Stress in the workplace has been shown to increase absenteeism, hostility, mistrust, and attrition rates, and decrease company morale and productivity. In addition, workplace stress increases rates of anxiety, depression, and cardiovascular mortality. Recent studies have shown how workplace wellness programs focused on diet, exercise, and stress reduction lead to decreased absenteeism, improved productivity, and substantial cost savings.
In a recent issue of BusinessWeek, the CEO of Johnson and Johnson discussed how investing in their large scale health promotion and disease prevention programs served to reduce benefit costs and improve worker productivity. Data from a study of their program also showed how improvements happened quickly and were sustained over time.
[wcm_restrict]Over the past fifteen years, I’ve personally witnessed how emotional stress directly impacts the hearts of my patients. Studies show that workplace stress creates two specific types of emotional stress that are hazardous to our hearts. The first deals with increased physical strain, or feeling like you have too much to accomplish in not enough time. The second involves a type of stress created by feelings of isolation and loneliness, which occurs when employees feel unappreciated, unacknowledged and as though they have little or no chance for career advancement. I often hear complaints of how the demanding pressures at work, coupled with the lack of time to decompress at home, are exhausting.
The reality is, we all experience rising pressures to perform under increasingly more demanding schedules. So I set out to develop a solution, and developed the BREATHE™ technique, a seven-step exercise that helps reduce stress and heal your heart. BREATHE™ combines two proven forms of relaxation – guided imagery and breath work – and puts a modern spin on ancient wisdom. Both of these techniques elicit the “relaxation response” which is opposite the “stress response”. When practiced regularly, like toning your muscles in the gym, you’ll develop a special neural network that will help you focus and find a sense of calm when faced with one of life’s unexpected stressful challenges.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]
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About the Author
John M. Kennedy, M.D., is the medical director of preventative cardiology and wellness at Marina del Rey Hospital, and author of the new book, The 15 Minute Heart Cure: The Natural Way to Release Stress and Heal Your Heart in Just Minutes a Day
Succession and Succession Planning Best Practice 2 – Rotational Development Plans
Integral to every succession plan is the ready supply of qualified talent to replace outgoing position holders. While some talent will come from outside the organization, many should come from within.[wcm_restrict plans=”40935, 25542, 25653″]
More senior positions within every organization necessarily demand an increasingly expansive knowledge and experience base commensurate with the role’s span of control. For truly senior positions, the needed knowledge and experience becomes multidimensional; covering several functional areas. In order for internal succession candidates to be successful, they need to gain this multidisciplinary knowledge and experience earlier in their careers. One way to accomplish this for those growing up within the organization is through rotational assignments.
Consider the position of plant manager. This individual is typically responsible for all production and administrative functions associated with the plant’s operations including:
- production
- maintenance / work management / outage management
- engineering
- facilities management
- supply chain management (procurement, inventory management, and warehouse management)
- finance
- human resources and training
- information technology
- administration (communications, document and records management, business planning, administrative support)
Subsequently, the plant manager must have some minimum level of knowledge and experience in each area in order to be able to effectively oversee the various functions and execute effective decision management.
Rotational development plans help ensure a continuous stream of talent receives the experiential opportunities needed to make each succession candidate ready for their next assignment. Without a deliberately executed plan, an organization risks not having individuals with all of the requisite experience needed to fill a vacant senior position. Some considerations for developing a rotational development plan include:
- rotational assignments should be substantial leadership positions, either the group manager or assistant manager
- 2 year tenure in each position (based on the author’s personal experience and that of the many organizations for which strategic staffing practices have been evaluated)
- candidate should demonstrate strong performance in each position held
- time spent in both operational and support functions is important
- corporate roles are beneficial for site managers prior to assuming that position
- rotational development plans should be communicated to the maximum extent possible with all those involved
- inclusion in the succession and rotational development plans does not guarantee promotions or assignments
Final Thought…
An individual need not hold every subordinate position prior to assuming a senior role. Rather, it is intended that the individual have enough knowledge and experience to fully appreciate the intricacies, complexities, and interrelationships between all of the subordinate roles so to enable the individual to provide proper oversight – to be able to recognize and ask the right questions – to ensure successful organizational performance. As such, rotational assignments can be augmented with other developmental opportunities, such as managing select projects/initiatives and participation in a significant role within an industry and/or professional association(s), to ensure the prerequisite experience is obtained.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”40935, 25542, 25653″]
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The Ten Commandments of Workplace Motivation
Unmotivated employees have rightly been called “the black holes of the business universe.” Fortunately, motivation is not something a person is born with or without. Applying these Ten Commandments can go a long way to helping existing employees find their motivation.
1. Commit with all thy heart so others might follow
Before you ask your employees to commit, you must be fully committed yourself. Throw your heart over the bar, make that complete commitment, and others will follow.
2. Call it tight on dysfunctional behaviors
Declare a zero-tolerance policy for dysfunctional behaviors. People saying one thing and meaning another, giving lip service, gossiping, backstabbing… Enlist a company-wide commitment to stop every one of these.
[wcm_restrict]3. Show that you care, in every way
Show those around you that you care, not just about their productivity, but about them, with a kind word or a “good job,” a pat on the back or a question about someone’s health.
4. Celebrate every victory
Recognition of achievements is high on the list of employee motivators. Every Big Project consists of scores of little victories along the way. Celebration builds confidence, and confident people are open to feedback and willing to grow.
5. Clean up thy messes
You WILL make mistakes. It is critical to clean up your messes as you make them. Acknowledge the mistake, then make a commitment to put things right and prevent a recurrence.
6. Use powerful and positive language
Say what you mean, clearly and powerfully and positively. It can do INCREDIBLE things for employee motivation when people know what is expected of them and why.
7. Be unreasonable with thyself
Being “reasonable” doesn’t bring out the best of who you are. Show that you are willing to forego the excuses and happily do what needs doing, regardless of how “unreasonable” it seems, and your people will rise to the unreasonable themselves.
8. Reprogram thy limiting beliefs
We all come equipped with self-doubting mechanisms. Begin living “as if” you are smart enough, good enough, and up to the challenge, and guess what – suddenly you will be.
9. Choose joy
When you develop a habit of interpreting things as good instead of bad, it actually alters the neural pathways in your brain, and your brain finds it easier to interpret things as good. You have rewired your brain for happiness.
10. Give, Give, GIVE
Life gives to the givers and takes from the takers, and life has a perfect accounting system. If you want your employees to shower your company with success, it’s time for you to dig in and give like crazy to your employees.
Give them your committed heart. Give them a functional environment. Give them care, celebration, integrity, clarity, and a vision of the impossible made possible. Give them a model of life without limiting beliefs. Most of all, show them the way by choosing joy.
Do these things and you’ll all end up in the Promised Land together.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]
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About the Author
Roxanne Emmerich’s Thank God It’s Monday!: How to Create a Workplace You and Your Customers Love
StrategyDriven Podcast Episode 29 – Retaining Your Best Employees
Given the current economic recession, it’s surprising that 87 percent of employees are considering leaving their organizations. Even more astounding is that recent surveys indicate 54 percent of the American workforce is actively planning to leave their organizations and that this number jumps to 71 percent among 30 year olds.
The dawn of a new year represents one of those few unique times that individuals tend to become more receptive to change. Subsequently, now is the perfect time for organization leaders to act to further enhance their workplace environments such that they become more engaging and more productive; helping to retain the best employees.
Episode 29 – Retaining Your Best Employees explores how to create a workplace environment that retains its best employees and simultaneously improves productivity. During our discussion, Roxanne Emmerich, President and CEO of the Emmerich Group and author of Thank God It’s Monday!: How to Create a Workplace You and Your Customers Love
- adverse primary and secondary impacts this condition is having on businesses
- steps leaders can take to:
- motivate less productive employees to increase their work output and
- better engage the 87 percent who are disenfranchised so that they remain within the organization as productive employees
Additional Information
In addition to the exceptional insights Roxanne shares in Thank God It’s Monday!
Roxanne discussed her insights on creating an engaging and motivating workplace environment with us during our StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 18 – An Interview with Roxanne Emmerich, author of Thank God Its Monday!. Her book, Thank God It’s Monday!
Final Request…
The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.
Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!
About the Author
Roxanne Emmerich, author of Thank God It’s Monday!
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