Leadership is about mobilizing self and others to attain a common purpose. The actions chosen to accomplish this are guided by a set of core values. Yet many companies lack the…
Abstract
Purpose
Leadership is about mobilizing self and others to attain a common purpose. The actions chosen to accomplish this are guided by a set of core values. Yet many companies lack the investment in establishing a common purpose and set of core values. Effective leaders use the principle of purpose to establish a direction that will motivate and capture the energy of those needed for success. In other words, they build engagement. The key to having an engagement culture is the top team. Organizations that have strong engagement cultures are populated with senior leaders that make everyday – and everyone – count daily. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the four key principles that must be deployed to build an engagement culture.
Design/methodology/approach
There are a wide variety of engagement/culture surveys on the market today, but the real key to having an engagement culture is the top team. Effective leaders constantly seek out new ways to improve. They use the principle of purpose to establish a direction that will motivate and capture the energy of those needed for success. They demonstrate stewardship, provide feedback and consistently inquire into the quality of their plans, as well as the effectiveness of their organizations and their own leadership. The approach of this paper requires four key principles to be deployed to build an engagement culture: align the top team through the development of a core purpose; senior leaders embrace stewardship; senior leaders practice feedback; and senior leaders model caring and listening.
Findings
To build a culture of engagement, leaders must require that developing engaged work teams be a part of the business strategy. This means engagement becomes the way the company operates, not something done in addition to the company’s work. In other words, it is a fundamental tenet of the company that business performance is achieved by leveraging the organization’s human capital. High-performing leaders make employee engagement non-negotiable, by establishing two things: importance and accountability. Organizations that have strong engagement cultures are populated with senior leaders that make everyday – and everyone – count daily. If an organization is to build a culture of engagement, then it must first be modeled by leaders. These leaders are not afraid of tough questions, comments or challenges. They seek out those who will engage in the tough conversations to build their capability and that of the organization.
Originality/value
High-performing leaders make employee engagement non-negotiable, by establishing two things: importance and accountability. The approach of this paper involves leveraging the talents of the organization’s employees and engaging them to produce stronger business performance. The world’s best-in-class organizations understand that human capital yields organic growth and creates brand loyalty. When senior leaders align their top team through the development of an engaged workforce, we then see an engagement culture emerge that drives business performance and creates a true competitive advantage for the organization.
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For Becton Dickinson Japan, talent management meant overhauling its approach to talent from hire to retire. Find out how it created a new culture of accountability and engagement…
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For Becton Dickinson Japan, talent management meant overhauling its approach to talent from hire to retire. Find out how it created a new culture of accountability and engagement that helped the company exceed its target to double sales in five years.
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Jay Romans, Alan Frost and Sharyn Ford
Conducting research into where prospective pools of talent can be found has helped Hughes Supply to identify and attract suitable candidates for leadership. Its “Manager In…
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Conducting research into where prospective pools of talent can be found has helped Hughes Supply to identify and attract suitable candidates for leadership. Its “Manager In Training” program now produces managers who have a deeper understanding of the business.
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Jay Romans, Caryl Lucarelli and Lindsay Graham
When some Hughes Supply employees failed to receive their paychecks, the organization took the opportunity to develop a range of payment choices to suit the needs of its diverse…
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When some Hughes Supply employees failed to receive their paychecks, the organization took the opportunity to develop a range of payment choices to suit the needs of its diverse workforce. Here, the Hughes Supply HR team explain how ePayroll was successfully introduced.
Recruiting and retaining the most talented employees is something all organizations are striving to do. This issue delves into the complex arena of employee retention issues and…
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Recruiting and retaining the most talented employees is something all organizations are striving to do. This issue delves into the complex arena of employee retention issues and discusses a range of positive suggestions for maintaining a strong body of talented employees, who are keen and capable of driving your organization into the future.
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Organizations across the globe are acknowledging that their current managers and leaders‐in‐waiting will one day leave their posts, be it to retire or because a more appealing job…
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Organizations across the globe are acknowledging that their current managers and leaders‐in‐waiting will one day leave their posts, be it to retire or because a more appealing job offer has arisen. With this in mind, many companies are development increasingly effective strategic methods for training their high‐potential employees.
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Corporations are coming round to the fact that people, like other assets, must be managed for the long term. Any company that can’t prove it’s sustainable beyondthe near‐term is…
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Corporations are coming round to the fact that people, like other assets, must be managed for the long term. Any company that can’t prove it’s sustainable beyondthe near‐term is going to have trouble gaining investor confidence. HR professionals need to be thinking in the same way about people by building long‐term talent depth and bench strength within the organization. This issue of Strategic HR Review brings you examples of leading‐edge companies that have faced these challenges and achieved bottom‐line results.
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The late Nancy Jay described a striking feature of animal sacrifice: in many different cultures it functions to establish paternity. This article develops a theoretical framework…
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The late Nancy Jay described a striking feature of animal sacrifice: in many different cultures it functions to establish paternity. This article develops a theoretical framework for understanding just what it is about animal sacrifice that makes it so cross‐culturally well‐suited for establishing paternity. The main premise of this framework is that sacrifice communicates menace – not so much towards the domesticated animals ritually killed, but primarily towards those subordinated humans (children in particular) who are similarly disempowered vis‐à‐vis the class of male sacrificers. By demonstrating their willingness and ability to kill, sacrificing men gain a material basis for claiming credit for human reproduction, namely, that children live only by virtue of the sacrificers’ decision to kill animals in their stead. This framework is explicated through reference to Old and New Testament discourses of sacrifice.
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This essay argues that the teachings and ethos of Jesus are needed in public administration to address a potentially fatal weakness in modern industrial republics. The latter are…
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This essay argues that the teachings and ethos of Jesus are needed in public administration to address a potentially fatal weakness in modern industrial republics. The latter are increasingly prone to domestic tyranny and international imperialism, because the values that once constrained them, and which once were thought to be self-evident, have been traced to Christian doctrines discredited by science. The first half of the essay chronicles the failure of the West either to live well without these values, or to find an alternative foundation for them. The second half of the essay shows that this dilemma can be overcome by differentiating the teachings of Jesus from the doctrines of Christianity