The Key to Higher Employee Engagement

February 13, 2017

In today’s post we will be talking about the manager/employee relationship and how that affects workplace engagement and productivity.

TODAY’S TIP: Career Development = Quality Relationships = Employee Engagement

Remember Jeffrey from our previous post? His challenge was to keep people engaged who had worked at his company for more than three years. He realized that the Nexus, that place where an organization’s goals and people’s passion meet, creates optimal performance for both the organization and the person, and that this is the best answer to employee engagement and company success.

Jeffrey discovered that the best way to reach the Nexus was for his organization to focus on the quality of relationships between managers and people. Quality relationships happen when mangers actively coach their people on their career development path, and this lead to high levels of engagement.  Career development happens on the job, when people have challenging assignments and managers that coach effectively.  The outcome: higher employee engagement and people’s willingness to give their extra time and energy

Why?

People long for coaching and mentoring, especially when it comes to feeling good about their work today and charting their future path.  In fact, career development ranks as the top reason why people switch jobs, especially Millennials. Show your employees you care, and they will show you that they care. When employees get grounded in their personal values, they perform better, says author Amy Cuddy. Career development activities, such as having employees create a personal vision to guide their life and work,empower people to uncover their passion and take charge of their careers.  


KEY TAKEAWAY:  Actively mentoring your employee’s career development path is the surprising key to building quality relationships and engaging employees.  Stay tuned for our next post which will give you tips on moving people to the Nexus in your organization.

New Year’s Goal? A Win/Win Year

February 7, 2017

At this time of new year renewal and resolutions, I am very excited to launch the Prior Consulting blog. My goal is to bring practical tips and the latest trends on leadership and culture so you can increase your personal performance, efficiency and effectiveness.

TODAY’S TIP: Focus on the win/win at work to achieve more together

If you are like most of us, your list of resolutions is long and daunting. Here’s a tip to ensure success this year: whether you work for yourself or for someone else, focus on the win/win – this is the intersection, or the Nexus, between your personal goals and the goals of your organization.

The Nexus is the place where your performance and passion meet. It is the zone where your best-self aligns with your organization’s goals, to achieve big goals in 2017.  Developing a role at your company that targets your talents and passion creates the most satisfaction – and happiness -as you and your company work together to achieve audacious results.

Here’s an example:

Jeffrey had a problem. As head of Human Resources of a successful, Cambridge-based biotech firm, he found that people with more than three years of experience with the company were losing passion for their work, popping into his office voicing their dissatisfaction. Managers didn’t know how to develop people. People were unsure how to take charge of their careers. Managers complained that people seemed disengaged; work quality could be higher. What was the source of the problem?

Jeffrey and company managers were searching for the Nexus, where company business goals and people’s passion meet for optimal performance. Visualize a Venn diagram with two overlapping circles, with company mission and goals on one side, and people’s career vision and capabilities on the other. The bigger the overlap between these circles, the greater the outcomes for both the company and its people.

What moves a company and its people into the Nexus?

KEY TAKEAWAY: optimal performance is achieved when company business goals and people’s passion meet.  

Stay tuned for our next post to learn more about Jeffrey and how he helped his managers and company achieve more together.

 

Prior Consulting Gets a New Website

November 23, 2014

Welcome to the new Prior Consulting website. Months in the making, this website was created with you in mind.

When I first began thinking of creating a new website, I knew I wanted one with robust tools and other content that people could use to help change themselves, their departments, their business units or their entire organization. This new site is the first step toward that dream.

Here you’ll find:

New Advice Section — This is the piece I’m most excited about as I plan on adding to it significantly over time. For now, you’ll find articles, reports and e-books, and this blog. I’m currently working on a new P/M/L Self-Assessment survey which should be live soon.

Virtual Career Coach — Coming in late Winter/ early Spring is my new Virtual Career Coach self-assessment workbook. A dynamic tool, this self-assessment will help you chart your career path.  We’ll let you know as soon as it becomes available for sale on Amazon.

Expanded Services Information — To help you better understand how I can help your organization achieve its goals, you’ll find information about each of my services. These have broken into three tracks: Coaching, Consulting, and Workshops.

Take a peek through and let me know what you think!

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