for the plebs

This post by James D reminds me of an experience I had doing KM at a global consulting firm. I was working with a colleague on a proposal toolkit - a set of templates and tools that consultants working on proposals for telco clients could use. It would basically say what we did and why that was great - so they could (hopefully) spend more time tailoring the proposal to the clients needs (because we never created cookie-cutter proposals, oh no).

Anyway she had gone to show this to one of the senior partners. And he had said: "That's of no interest to me, I never write proposals." The reply to this guy is obvious: "It's not for you, dickhead, it's to stop the 6 grads you've got writing these things 18 hours a day from going insane and popping a cap in your over-golfed ass."

This bloke obviously thought employee engagement* meant someone proposing to their PA. Though a fair bit of that happened too from what I recall. What is that turns middle-aged men with too much money into walking cliches?

*It might look like the postings on this blog are completely random but it's all connected. Connected, I tell you. Now about JFK and the moon landings...

otherwise engaged

Melcrum have done a survey on employee engagement and guess what comes up as the two most important drivers? Compensation? Recognition? Training? Strategic Direction?

All good guesses but it's a little more simple than that. Your boss. And their boss.

In smaller organisations, senior management are really, really important (perhaps because their impact is felt more directly). In large organisations they are on a par with direct supervisors in terms of their influence. But either way, if you want your people caring it starts with you.

Which kinda supports the previous post really.

So if you are a boss, are you using your employee engagement superpowers for good or evil? The NY Times (via Bob Sutton) has a round-up of some self-assessment quizzes.