Self-Leadership

The "Inside Out Approach" to Employee Engagement

How much of this can you relate to?...

You get woken up by your alarm clock at 6am...

You get dressed in clothes you buy for work, drive through peak hour traffic in a car you are still paying off in order to get to your demanding job that you need so that you can pay for the clothes and car you are still paying off, and the home you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it.

At work you are constantly asked to do more with less, problems are non stop, if you take lunch you are lunch, there are things that happen that you just can't control - and you ache for the days gone by when Spam was still the thing in a can.

You go home thinking that you can NOW get on with the rest of your life. Realising that in fact the real reason you need to go home is to recover from the day.

So you have a couple of drinks to get 'chemically relaxed', then think "OH No! - its 7 pm, I have kids and they still need to be put to bed and fed"... but, hopefully not in that order.

You do your duty, have a couple more drinks, log onto your computer and return more emails, before you log off to go to bed and end the night exhausted!

RESCUE YOURSELF FIRST!

We are becoming battle fatigued by ordinary life and frustrated that we are not getting where we really want to get.

Psychologically we all want more control of our lives and work. 

How much time do you spend fantasising about the things you are going to do with your life  - once you've got the things you have to do out of the way? Or maybe you don't have anytime to think about these sorts of things because you are just too busy.

So why don't most people get what they want? So why, like 80% of the population are we finding it increasingly difficult to get control and balance in our life? From our years of research at Life by Design® working with 5 of Australia's top 10 companies, we have identified the main reasons fall into these categories (in reverse order):-

• "I feel overwhelmed at work - I could work 24/7 and still have things to do"

• "I've got too many family responsibilities at home with kids and aging parents"

• "With all the work and family responsibilities I feel guilty taking time out for me"

• "I don't have enough money"

And the number one reason most people think they don’t get what they want:-

• "I just don't have enough time to do everything I want to do"

But time is the real human equaliser. We all only get 24 hours in the day, 7 days a week.  So the real reason that most people don't get control and balance in their life is CLARITY!

I've heard many say: "I just don't know what I want"... so if we don't have clarity on our priorities then how can we manage them into the limited hours that we have each day, week and lifetime?

You see most people know what they don't want in life (that's the easy part), but fewer know with real clarity what they really do want. 

A lot of people think they are clear on their vision, but aren't really. So why not check out how clear you are with your future vision (you might surprise yourself) by going to this link and doing the quick self-assessment... Click Here

One key self-leadership understanding is that we never have enough time to do everything we want in life, but we always have enough time to do the most important things. The key is taking out a little bit of time to work out what the most important things really are.

HOW DO I GET MORE CONTROL?

One quick and easy way to get more clarity and control for you and your people is:-

www.meCentral.com 

This innovative web-based system, now used by Best Employers SAP and Vedior, helps fast-track individuals success in work, life, finances and goals. It is uniquely designed specifically to help take more control now! 

This easy to use, step-by-step goal-setting system will identify and manage your life and business goals. Just like having your very own personal coach - meCentral.com even follows you up with friendly automated email reminders and maximises your chance of achieving more.

How Do I Meaningfully Engage Our Workforce,

So We Create A Sustainable Win-Win Culture?

ENGAGEMENT RULES! It's a WIN - WIN

The main business mantra over the centuries has been 'The customer is Number One'. The next major shift in organisational management will be realising that any organisations number one customer should in fact be their employees.

In fact recent research suggests that engagement of employee talent is the number one factor identified by CEO's in achieving success in the future. Similarly 90% of organisations are dealing with this employee issue at board level, because it is now such a critical matter for their survival.

The reason being, if you look after your employees and engage and retain your best talent, then they will be in a better position to look after your end customers. Doing this companies are rewarded for their efforts by reduced staff turnover, improved productivity,

commitment, morale, culture and customer satisfaction ratings.

However, the majority of Australian companies continue to treat the serious issue of balancing competing work pressures and employees' personal life needs with a 'band-aid' effect by offering more benefits or 'perks' to win their loyalty.

Despite the rhetoric of work life policies and self-imposed badges of 'employer of choice', the actions of many Australian corporations translate to gym memberships, lunchtime massages and volunteering programs. These benefits may be generous and well regarded by some employees, but they similarly may alienate others with unaligned personal interests.

True work life balance is achieved when employees have greater clarity around what is

important to them. Through company sponsored Self-Leadership programs employees are then organisationally empowered to support work life balance culturally, thus creating a personal and corporate win - win relationship.

Innovative companies are sponsoring Self-Leadership programs so that individuals can take

responsibility and make the tough decisions around work life balance, job fulfillment and personal financial management themselves, rather than look to employers to always provide solutions.

Employee engagement may be one of the hottest management 'buzz phrases' at the moment, but the underlying social issue which created this concept remains valid:

Australians are working harder and longer than at any other time in our industrial history and want to get back some personal balance and control of their life.

We are in a generation of over-consumption and materialism which has further fueled the

over-work epidemic. Our lifestyle expectations have escalated so rapidly in the past two

decades that working harder and longer is seen as the only way to live the standard of life

we desire. Yet research confirms that despite longer working hours and greater income levels, we are less happy than previous generations. But the backlash against excess has started and the ground swell is expected to gather momentum.

SO, HOW DO WE MAKE OUR TEAM OUR NUMBER ONE CUSTOMER?

Companies who recognise that human capital is their most valuable asset are assisting their employees in achieving greater Self-Leadership.

The three main pillars of Self-Leadership are:  

• Work Life Balance
• Job Fulfillment
• Cash Flow Management

Benchmarking, getting real clarity and taking personal responsibility by focusing on what you can control rather than getting frustrated about what you can't control in these three areas is the key to Self-Leadership. 

Because awareness is the first step to change, let's now benchmark how you are going in each of these three areas:-

Would you like to give yourself a 10% pay rise without having to ask for a pay rise? Well meCentral.com also has your very own 'Cash Flow' resource centre, which helps personally manage individuals financial situation better. 

SO WHY IS SELF-LEADERSHIP BECOMING THE NEW CORPORATE REVOLUTION?

It won't be long before companies without the 'Our Number One Customer is Our Team' focus will have great difficulty in attracting good people. Companies which do not see employees as whole people, who expect them to work ridiculous hours without any regard to the stress this causes them, and the sacrifices they have to make in their lives outside work, will be the ultimate losers, and this will be reflected in share prices.

But the step that goes hand in hand with employee engagement is Self-Leadership. It comes back around full circle. How can we better look after ourselves, so that we are in the best possible situation to best look after our team and therefore clients?

POWER IS IN IMPLEMENTATION

The power of any idea is only in its implementation, so it's now over to you to 'self lead'.  You just need to give yourself permission to us a scalable, flexible system such as meCentral.com now! 

Because hope for your future will psychologically give you much more power in the now.

Finally, there's good news and bad news. Some of these things here are easy to do, the problem is they are easier not to do. The choice is yours! Click Here

The choice is now yours!

For permission to reproduce this article in whole or in part,

contact the Life by Design® office by phone (+ 612) 9979 4949,
fax (+ 612) 9979 4969, or email info@lifebydesign.com.au

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