Blog Posts

How to Improve Company Culture: 5 Tips

how to improve company culture

Are you trying to improve company culture in your organization? Check out these five tips on how to do just that: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Management guru Peter Drucker said that years ago and wow, was he spot on. Thousands of companies have wrestled with how to improve their company culture, in the hope of improving employee engagement, talent attraction, and talent retention. This blog will show you how to improve company culture, including five tips that will make a real difference at your organization.   1. Develop a Shared Vision and Mission for the Organization and its ...

11 Things You Need to Know About Generation Z

Generation Z

Millennials, Millennials, Millennials.  Very much in line with Millennials’ insatiable desire for recognition, it seems like the last ten years of articles, videos, and speeches, were all about Millennials. As the first surge of Generation Z enters the workplace, organizations may be surprised at how different they are from Millennials (also known as Generation Y).  Organizations, human resource leaders, and managers will need to learn about, and fully understand, this unique generation especially since they may be the solution to the never-ending talent attraction and talent retention challenge.  Thus, employers will need to also adapt and bring ...

The Power of Recognition

The Power of Recognition

There are hundreds of millions of workers worldwide who feel unappreciated in their jobs and have not heard a “thank you” from someone for a very long time, if ever. This video illustrates the importance of, and best practices on, the number one driver of employee engagement: Recognition. Is your organization properly and fully leveraging this key driver of engagement? Find out. ...

7 Employee Engagement Takeaways From Our World Champion Chicago Cubs

The Cubs' Way

I have been a Cubs fan all of my life. Some of my fondest memories of Wrigley Field were shared with my step-grandfather Victor, who has long since passed away and never got a chance to see his Cubbies win a World Series. I brought him with me in spirit to Game 3 of the World Series this year. While at the game, I also teared up seeing the many father and son duos in attendance, in addition to the many octogenarians who had waited their entire lives for this moment in time. Is it a coincidence that there are ...

9 Lessons on Employee Engagement From Willy Wonka

Lessons on Employee Engagement From Willy Wonka

I was saddened to hear the news of Gene Wilder’s passing on August 29th, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease, a terrible illness that my Father has as well. Born on June 11, 1933, in Milwaukee as Jerome Silberman, Gene Wilder touched the hearts of millions as the character Willy Wonka, in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Although the film was not a commercial success, it later gained a cult following and an Oscar Nomination for Best Score. Wilder also earned a Golden Globe award nomination. In Wilder’s memory, I’d like to highlight nine best practice lessons on employee engagement ...

The Manager’s Employee Engagement Checklist

Gallup’s recent State of the American Workplace Study highlighted the single greatest thing you can do to increase employee engagement: hire the right managers. In fact, the study said that if you hire a manager who is disengaged, the workgroup they manage is three times more likely to be disengaged. So even if you hire the right, highly engaged managers, they still need to know, and do, the most effective things to bring their work group to higher, and hopefully best-in-class, levels of engagement. And even if they know these engagement management “to dos,” they often forget to implement them, ...

Mile High Employee Engagement

As an author, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing someone reading your book. The first time I witnessed this was on an airplane, when the woman sitting next to me pulled my book, Building a Magnetic Culture, out of her bag and started reading it. Needless to say, I smiled widely. I then asked her, “How do you like that book?” Thankfully she said, “I love it. It’s full of neat and new ideas that we are implementing at our company to build and foster employee engagement.” She then asked me if I had read it and ...

“Re-Casting” Employees into the Right Role

Miss Betty

The following passage is from my New York Times Best Seller Building a Magnetic Culture: RECOGNIZING TALENT - MISS BETTY’S STORY She is more than just a greeter to patients and guests at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, Louisiana; she is Miss Betty, an always smiling, forever cheerful, burst of positivity and enthusiasm. The Louisiana hospital group first recognized Miss Betty’s positive attitude and ability to connect with patients and their families when she started working as a housekeeper 30 years ago. She was in that position for many years, but Senior Leaders thought her people skills could be ...

Coworker Satisfaction — The Unsung Hero of Retention

“It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and I’m wearing Milk Bone underwear.” —Norm Peterson, the TV show Cheers Even if you don’t work at the bar where everyone knows your name, some of the longest-lasting friendships are oftentimes formed in the workplace. Considering the sheer number of hours spent together on the job, this is not surprising. We spend a significant portion of our lives with coworkers, likely even more time than we spend with our family. So given that it is time to make New Year’s resolutions for change, it behooves all organizations to commit to encouraging more ...