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Tim Wright

Tim Wright

Healthy. Happy. Holistic. 13 years teaching junior high/middle school after graduating Washington & Lee University 18 years in corporate L&D: sales and service and an MBA from NYU Stern 10 years an entrepreneur: professional speaker/coach/facilitator with expertise in Employee Engagement and Culture Improvement 3 years (and counting) back in corporate L&D: sales and technical If you're adding the numbers, don't worry. 65 years in this body. A mind that enjoys the ricochets between 25, 38, 47, 56 and what's next?. A soul that is eternal. Married. Pet owner. Daily exerciser: running, swimming, golfing, doing the gym routine. Prayer chaplain/spiritual leader.
Tim Wright

Tim Wright

Healthy. Happy. Holistic. 13 years teaching junior high/middle school after graduating Washington & Lee University 18 years in corporate L&D: sales and service and an MBA from NYU Stern 10 years an entrepreneur: professional speaker/coach/facilitator with expertise in Employee Engagement and Culture Improvement 3 years (and counting) back in corporate L&D: sales and technical If you're adding the numbers, don't worry. 65 years in this body. A mind that enjoys the ricochets between 25, 38, 47, 56 and what's next?. A soul that is eternal. Married. Pet owner. Daily exerciser: running, swimming, golfing, doing the gym routine. Prayer chaplain/spiritual leader.

Tips To Make Time For Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement: individual’s investment of wisdom, skills, energies, creativity and time in the work assigned. This is the last of 5 articles exploring specifics of employee engagement. We’ve examined Wisdom, Skills, Energies and Creativity. Using Time as a factor in employee engagement is more than merely “time management.” Let’s see how. What Time Means (Definition) Concerning “work,” Time is the limited period or interval (of minutes, hours, days, etc.) between two successive events and considered distinct from other periods. We think of work in terms of time required: a day, a week, a quarter. And we know time in terms of deadlines: by tomorrow, by

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Tips To Bring Creativity To Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement: individual’s investment of wisdom, skills, energies, creativity and time in the work assigned. This is No. 4 of 5 articles exploring specifics of employee engagement. We’ve examined Wisdom, Skills and Energies. Let’s look at Creativity, a talent every individual can engage in unlimited ways. What Creativity Means (Definition) Creativity is the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods and inspiration. For business, creativity is not “fine arts.” It is the ability to look at standard ways of doing things and standard things produced, and to see something different. That novel thinking is creativity. Every business

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Tips To Bring Energies To Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement: individual’s investment of wisdom, skills, energies, creativity and time in the work assigned. This is No. 3 of five articles exploring specifics of employee engagement. We’ve examined wisdom and skills. Now let’s look at energies, which are resources every employee needs and are efforts engaged employees put forth. What Energies Mean (Definition) Energies: the capacities for vigorous activity, available power; the habits of vigorous activity, vigor as a characteristic. We apply the definition to work situations: energy drives and demonstrates action for the purpose of job completion, output, productive results. We distinguish three types of energy: physical energy, mental

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The Connection Between Skills And Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement: individual’s investment of wisdom, skills, energies, creativity and time in the work assigned. We have explored wisdom. Now let’s explore employee skills and their connection to positive engagement for job, team and company. What Skills Mean (definition) Skills means application of knowledge, wisdom, and dexterity to specific elements of one’s work assignments. The transition from product economy to service economy has not lessened reliance on skills. Companies hire specific abilities that achieve profitable results. These include manual or intellectual, technical or social, mathematical or linguistic skills. What Skills Bring (value) Productivity. Refined skills generate employee productivity. Productivity combines effectiveness

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Tips To Bring Wisdom To Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement is an individual’s investment of wisdom, skills, energies, creativity and time in the work assigned. Each of my next five posts will explore one of those components: wisdom, skills, energies, creativity, and time. For easy study, each article will follow a pattern: What It Means (Definition), What It Brings (Value), and How To Bring It On (Actions). What Wisdom Means (Definition) Wisdom is the ability to think and act utilizing these factors: knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight. Wisdom impacts decisions, plans and actions for our business. That’s true for new products, site opening, market expansion, and personnel

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What Talent Management, Engagement And Culture Share

Company success links directly to what talent management, employee engagement and organizational culture have in common. The causal link among the three elements is powerful. It’s much like a rowing crew’s connection among rowers, oars, and scull. Previously defined, talent management is an organization’s commitment to recruit, retain, and develop the most talented and superior employees available. That commitment is enhanced by effective employee engagement, a buzz-phrase for the past several years. Employee engagement is the individual’s investment of her/his time, energy, skills, knowledge, and creativity in the efforts and directions set by the organization. Organizational culture contributes to a business’s

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5 Ways Manager Engagement Spurs Employee Engagement

I am pleased Joe Folkman’s article Workers Aren’t Engaged points the finger in the right direction: “Everyone appears to agree that the primary problem of engagement is a management one, not a worker one. If there is an employee engagement problem, it lies squarely at the feet of the managers and the organization that tolerates ineffective managers.” (Italics mine.) It comes down to manager engagement. Of course we want employees engaged.The stronger an organization’s employee engagement, the better for the organization’s results. That is on both the revenue side and the expense side. Results include: Increased productivity; Greater customer satisfaction, loyalty; Reduced tardiness and absence; Greater

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Leadership and Management

Effective Leaders And Managers – Different Yet Complementary

Every company needs people who can lead and people who can manage. They don’t have to be the same. They are likely not the same. Some of the best leaders cannot manage very well. Some of the best managers are not even good leaders. Yet both stimulate good-to-great performance. Both generate successful, profitable results. Both contribute to an employee engagement culture. So how are they alike? How are the different? And when it comes to employee engagement, so what? Here are three key areas where your leaders should demonstrate specific style and skills. In those same areas, your managers should demonstrate different

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3 Sparks To Recognize And Engage Employees

Employee recognition is meant to boost an employee’s performance. It should motivate. It should reward. It should satisfy. Too often, however, management attention stops at deciding what the recognition will be. After that it’s just waiting for the performance to happen, for the recognition to be offered, and for the planning for the next go-round. That’s a shame. Effective employee recognition includes employee engagement. Effective employee recognition does not end with the recognition; it creates and reinforces an ongoing cycle of performance>>>recognition>>>better performance. Effective employee recognition is a component to a successful employee engagement strategy. Successful integration of recognition and engagement requires

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Talent Engagement: 5 Keys That Engage Employees

“Talent engagement” and “employee engagement” are distinctly related phrases. Talent engagement means bringing on board the talent desired. Employee engagement means workers’ emotional and intellectual investment in their work and their company. A company wants to engage true talent so it can maintain true employee engagement. The simple view: talent engagement leads to employee engagement. The complex view: employee engagement contributes to ongoing talent engagement. Here are five distinct Talent Engagement Keys to improve a business’s talent engagement strategy. I encourage you to follow the link associated with each Talent Engagement Key. There’s a great deal of support information out there.

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3 Ways Creative Engagement Hatches Employee Engagement

Creative engagement and employee engagement are the chicken and the egg. Or the egg and the chicken. Impossible to know which comes first because they so strongly reinforce each other. And that’s why it’s a good idea to strive for both! Employees with the opportunity to express their creativity engage more fully in their work. Work places that encourage creativity enjoy engaged work forces. Recognition of creativity that contributes to specific successes stimulates further creativity, and so more employee engagement. Creative Engagement: Freedom When employees feel free to approach problems from creative perspectives, they take creative risks. When they allow themselves creative

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6 Ticks To Better Time Engagement

Let’s replace “time management” with time engagement. Time is a C.O.R.E.* resource for successful employee engagement. We want employees to invest time in their work assignments. We also want them to engage in the most effective, energetic, and enjoyable use of time. If they do that, they’re more likely to be engaged. Time engagement beats time management hands down. Three reasons: The attempt to manage time creates a competition. Like taming a lion or repairing a lawn mower. Engaging time, on the other hand, is partnering with a resource, allowing it to support (rather than control) our efforts to succeed. The reason for time management is

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Escalate Success With These 3 Employee Engagement Opportunities

Employee Engagement Opportunities make engagement happen. It helps to know what you want to happen. Every expert has a definition for “employee engagement.” Too often those definitions lack substance, measurable actions, and specific behaviors. I offer this and invite your responses: Employee Engagement: the individual’s investment of her/his time, energy, skills, knowledge, and creativity in the efforts and directions set by the organization. The idea that perks, rewards, and prizes motivate employees to engage is partially true. They provide temporary motivation. The missing phrase is “until the reward is earned or taken away”. Then the mindset becomes, “Let’s cool it until the next incentive appears.” Monthly perks,

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Communication

3 Bites To The Core Of Communication… And Engagement

At the core of successful employee engagement is communication. You likely think I mean communication between manager and employee. Your thinking is spot on. The most common reason an employee leaves a job is the employee’s manager. And the most common element is the communication — or lack of — between manager and employee. There are plenty of other aspects of communication and how it can boost employee satisfaction and engagement. But for this writing, let’s look at 3 core “bites” that will have communication contribute to employee engagement. Share Expectations. An employee who knows what is expected experiences less doubt, less confusion. Knowing the weekly report must include

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Corporate-Culture

Pay Attention: 3 Corporate Culture Shaping Techniques

Employee Engagement (defn.): employee’s investment of time, energy, creativity, knowledge, skills and abilities to fulfill expectations of work assigned. Business/Corporate Culture (defn.): the philosophy, values, behavior, dress codes, etc., that together constitute the unique style and policies of a company. The above phrases are defined numerous ways by numerous sources. The above definitions include the factors that comprise Employee Engagement and Business/Corporate Culture. They are offered because culture and engagement are causally related. Business culture stimulates the quantity and quality of employees’ engagement. This means engagement in performing their individual job. It means engagement in contributing to team projects, objectives, and

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Teambuilding

6 Ways To Build A Better Team

Every company wants increasing employee engagement. Engaged employees are good at communicating and putting forth extra effort to fulfill expectations. I’ve recently seen articles about student athletes becoming great employees. Therefore, having an athletic mentality can help grow employee engagement. You may not want flag football in your office hallway or field hockey in the foyer. Still, it’s worth translating athlete mentality to worker mentality in your workplace. Athlete / Worker Mentality 1: Communication Success in any sport depends on communication. Same is true of business. Communication between the coach and the player is critical in the game’s final minutes when victory is on the

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Growing-Employee-Engagement

5 Thought Changers To Grow Employee Engagement

Would you rather think differently than others or differently than you’re used to thinking? Chances are good that doing the second will get you the first. Adapting our thinking to others’ patterns and processes is normal. We work together more smoothly. We agree more quickly. We experience comfort more often. And it may stultify. Look to the habit of mental exercise outside the routine of crossword puzzles. The exercise changes thinking; the thinking stimulates employee engagement. Look closer. See more. When you notice something–a cloud, a broken pencil, a discarded Starbucks cup, a phrase–pause to notice more. Make the time to see it

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