In the coaching of entrepreneurs and business professionals I come across women and men who begin to look closer at working in their business and who strive for doing more enjoyable and more GREAT work. The kind of engaging work that makes you feel that you are contributing value to others and at the same time living your dream.
Business relationship development involves engagement of the whole team.
Related to this is a 2008 survey of 90,000 employees in 18 countries that found that only 20% were fully engaged – thus 80% of the workforce is not fully engaged in the role they have.
All of this translated directly to the bottom line.
The companies with the most engaged employees reported a 19% increase in operating income and 28% growth in earnings per share. Also 90% of these employees have no plans of leaving.
Those with the lowest levels of engagement had a 32% decline in operating income, and their earnings dropped more than 11%. Also 50% of these employees were considering leaving.
Certainly something is not working as planned or as it has in the past!
There is a new book out by Tony Schwartz, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance, that provides practical wisdom about what to do about doing Business as Usual. (Amazon affiliate link, item 4. Productivity….)
Tony along with Jim Loehr, also created the best selling book, The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal- When I read this book a few years ago it provided me with many great insights and actions for full engagement in the work of life.
The book considers 4 core needs that come after the basic survival need.
Sustainability – Body: Being able to regularly renew and take of myself, so I’m healthy, fit and resilient.
Security – Emotions: Feeling appreciated, cared for, valued for who I am and what I do.
Self-Expression – Mind: Freedom to develop and express my unique skills and talent.
Significance – Spirit: What I stand for and believe in – what gives me a sense of meaning.
Our ability to move rhythmically between activity and renewal in each of these four dimensions is the key to building our capacity to generate more and more value over time.
To quote Tony, “Our first challenge is to become more aware of how we’re feeling at any given moment. The more we can observe our feelings, the more we can choose how to respond to them. The second challenge is learning to intentionally and regularly renew the positive emotions that best serve high performance.”
(I’ll cover more of this productivity related topic in future blog posts….)
Here’s a video chat between Johathan Fields, author of Career Renegade and Tony, that I encourage you to watch. It’s about 20 minutes and there’s a lot of useful wisdom shared in the discussion.
In the following video Tony, The Energy Project CEO, explains why we need a new way of working. In this short 2 minute video he states, “The more continuously we work, the less productive we become.”
What tips have you found helpful to be productive in doing more GREAT work?
