Human beings are achievement oriented.  While there must be time for rest and recreation built into our lives, achievement orientation is what has allowed civilizations to thrive and carry on.   In short, achievement and growth are what have sustained the human population over time.

Douglas Mallock said, “Find your joy in something finished and not a thousand things begun.” This insightful statement speaks to the exclusively human need to actually produce results.  Don’t we all feel a sense of accomplishment and excitement when we see a project through to completion?  Once the project is complete, we may rest for a few hours or a few days and then our orientation for achievement begins to generate new ideas.  Thus, creativity and productivity are enhanced for the next round of ideas and implementation.

Here is a list of Ideas to stimulate personal achievement: Continue reading ‘Do You Have an Achievement Orientation?’ »

Before you can reach disengaged workers, it is important to know what a disengaged employee actually is; or…the flip side, which is an employee who is engaged. Engagement is NOT job satisfaction.  Job satisfaction is…. well, job satisfaction.  It measures how satisfied a person is with their job.  Satisfied workers may or may not do a great job and may or may not go the extra mile.

An engaged employee is someone who has zeal for his or her job.  They believe in what they are doing and for whom and with whom they are working.  And when one of the variables change, the engaged worker will set about to make positive changes.  They will reinvent themselves in their job, either with a new company or by taking positive steps by which to continue engagement within their current job.  Or they will have open dialog about their loss of zeal.  But they will do something constructive! Continue reading ‘How to Prevent a Disengaged Workplace’ »

Every manager or C-level executive I talk with tells me how important it is to increase the performance of their organization. They continue to tell me how great it would be if everyone on their staff performed at higher levels. After listening to these common comments about their organization and their people, I ask one question…

So what methods are you currently using to track and measure personal accountability?

Most of the time I get one of three responses: Continue reading ‘Increase Accountability to Increase Performance’ »