Leaders should seek to know their employees WIIFM. Not criticize it. When leaders know their employees WIIFM, they can show their employees how their unique WIIFM and the business goals are aligned. Employers take note: employer-employee alignment.
Leaders maximize potential through alignment.

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The Chief Culture Officer (COO) can help the organization's leaders smooth out the rough patches in direction, culture, and employee engagement, from on-boarding to retirement. Smoothing out the rough patches can get the organizations members past some of the internal frustration and angst to move the organization to a higher competitive plain. In economic times like we are currently experiencing, organizations have slowed their hiring and are asking more from those who are currently employed. ...

Maslow explained motivation through a hierarchy of needs. In Maslow's theory, people are motivated to self-actualize in their current job. Is it possible that there is another theory? Possibly the "Other Theory": Employees remain in low security, low pay jobs, to support "other" areas of their life where they can or want to self-actualize. If this is the case, then the job gives them the funds necessary to provide for their survival and security needs so that they can pursue ...

It is one thing for the organization to have a goal to motivate and retain good employees and another to have the supervisors onboard for that initiative. Baseline supervisors must be onboard before the initiative will stand any chance at success. From my experience, baseline supervisors do not know how they can effect motivation and retention because their supervisors never showed the, by example, how to motivate and retain good employees. For most baseline supervisors, motivation and retention ...

Unmotivated organizations have leaders who do not display a care for the employees or a drive for success of the organization.  Motivated organizations have leaders who openly display a concern for employees while at the same time display a drive for organizational success. Motivated leaders understand the link between organizational success and employee success and articulate that success with the employees. Employees in unmotivated and motivated organizations can have issues that ...

Do your recent hires, those hired in the past two to three years, appear to be de-motivated?  The culprit could be your organizational culture. Or, it could be the employee. In the current economical times, with few jobs available and many people out of work, I believe people are applying for jobs with organizations where they may not agree with the organization's culture. They apply for the job because it is a paying job. Once hired, these new employees may think that ...

In early 2011, I had a conversation with an organization's leaders who were discussing employees who decline promotions, employees who leave organizations so that they do not have to accept promotions, and an organizations policy that states employees must move up or get out.   Imagine that; there are employees who choose to leave an organization rather than increase their income and level of responsibility. Why would an employee pass up a promotion?   Leadership never asked so the answer unknown. ...

When was the last time you heard your supervisor say something like, you need to treat our customers like they were guests in your home. When I worked in retail, I used to hear that quite often. What struck me as odd was that my supervisor did not treat me the same way as I was expected to treat the customers. I found this very frustrating. Have you ever experienced that situation?  What did you learn from it?

Several years ago, I was hired to go to Las Vegas, Nevada to work with a communications organization. This organization is very similar to your local cable or Telephone Company. Part of their job is to install telephones and provide network connectivity to their customers. My new boss and I coordinated my arrival to the exact date and almost exact time. In other words, he knew when I would arrive. Upon my arrival, my boss told me that he did not know exactly where I ...

Early this month, December, 2010, Right Management, a division of Manpower Inc., released the results of a survey that they conducted in which 84% of employees who responded stated they plan to actively look for new jobs in 2011. Why will they be looking? They will be looking for another job because they not satisfied with their current job. While there may not be enough new jobs to support the large number of job seekers, leaders and mangers should use this survey’s results ...