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Rita B. Allen Associates offers customized and individualized career management consulting and coaching services to individuals and organizations within a variety of content areas including the following:

  • Career Development

  • Career Planning

  • Management Coaching

  • Management Development

  • Leadership Development

  • Executive Coaching

  • Human Resources Consulting

  • Human Resources Coaching

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Rita B. Allen Associates

 

Fall 2009

Dear Colleague,

It is hard to believe we are approaching Q4 of 2009 but I'm happy to see the outlook is one of optimism and energy! Our economy and business community have had an interesting year full of challenges and change. I have observed much determination, discipline and dedication to planning and pro-active strategies towards realizing our goals - personally, professionally and organizationally. As someone who has always been a strong believer of viewing the cup half full rather than half empty, this has been truly an inspiring process to watch! The media focus has finally changed as well, thank goodness, to an upbeat tone!

Many organizations used this time to creatively invest in the development of their staff and did not become complacent during these difficult times. One basic business principle every organization can never lose sight of is the fact that the most valuable asset any organization has is their human capital. The number one threat that can lead to an organization's decline is complacency because it breeds overconfidence and inattentiveness. Today, more than ever, these basic business principles are the foundation for success and growth in all organizations. As the market has begun to turn and the pendulum is on the upward swing, the organizations that will thrive are those that have maintained a strong focus on employee engagement. In my travels and conversations, I have found this is the topic keeping most line and human resource executives up at night. I'd like to offer some information, resources and thoughts:

  1. During the last nine months, highly talented professionals with critical skill-sets and leadership abilities have consistently been recruited. Although the supply has been higher than demand, these talents have been sought after and recruited elsewhere if they were not actively engaged in their current roles. Without a highly engaged workforce, organizations can not drive results and achieve high levels of financial success.

  2. According to a 2007-2008 Towers Perrin Global Workforce Study, only one out of every five workers (21%) today is "engaged" (giving full discretionary effort on the job) and close to four out of ten (38%) are "disenchanted or disengaged" (partly disengaged or disconnected rationally, emotionally and motivationally) with the balance (41%) being "enrolled" (partly engaged and less connected emotionally).

    They continue to report that this "engagement gap" poses a serious risk for employers because of the strong connection between employee engagement and company financial performance. Organizations that fail to engage their employees may be lagging in the market for talent as well as in the broader market for customers, revenues, investors and capital. These are compelling facts and statistics! That is why implementing proven strategies to keep employees engaged is a critical business imperative all organizations want to embrace. Utilizing tools and techniques for assessing levels of employee engagement is an on-going component of this process.

  3. Realizing that education and skills are only prerequisites for getting a job and that the intangibles are what allow people to develop is a concept initiated by Bob Kelleher, a thought leader in the area of employee engagement and CEO of The Employee Engagement Group. In fact, Bob states in his article, "The B.E.S.T. (Behavior, Education, Skills and Traits) approach to both Job Security and Job Advancement", there are common high performing behaviors and traits that highly engaged individuals possess which include enthusiasm, solution-orientation, putting team first, being selfless, optimism, a quest for learning, asking "why not" rather than "that won't work", passing along credit-accepting blame, and an above and beyond persona.

  4. Building and developing leaders is only achieved through deliberate and pro-active employee engagement efforts. I'm excited to share a new tool that allows organizations to measure the intrinsic rewards (psychological rewards that fuel engagement by providing a positive emotional charge) that influence engagement - the Work Engagement Profile by CPP, a self-scoring 24 question assessment that measures four intrinsic rewards - meaningfulness, choice, competence, and progress - and then provides interpretative information, actionable steps to increase levels of rewards and developmental worksheet.

If you would like any further information on any of the resources I've discussed above, please contact me and I'm happy to share more details. I hope this starts the dialogue and would love to hear your thoughts, challenges and/or success stories regarding employee engagement. During the year, I facilitate quarterly roundtable discussions around best practices with senior Human Resource practitioners and welcome your contributions.

Last but not least, I have some exciting news I'd like to share with you about my business. As you already know, I am a big advocate of creating a strong network and continuously building strategic alliances and partnerships. In that spirit, I am very pleased to say that I have formed a strategic partnership with Dale Carnegie® Training allowing me to offer an additional portfolio of talent management solutions!

Dale Carnegie® Training is a global leader in the business of developing people and improving performance for companies and individuals. With offices in over 80 countries and delivery in over 25 languages, our trainers/coaches are ISO certified business professionals and have attained the highest level of quality in the industry. The focus is on delivering results that directly impact the success and performance of your business.

I look forward to talking to you further about this exciting partnership and how it could help your business address its needs and achieve its goals. In the meantime, I would like to share a few additional resources I have found valuable:

  • Beyond Rules of Engagement: How Can Organizational Leaders Build a Culture that Supports High Engagement?, A Dale Carnegie® White Paper

  • Tools of Engagement, iMap: Creating Employee Engagement - The Road That Gets You Where You Want To Go, Dale Carnegie® Training

  • "Employee Reengagement" - Topic of the month at Dale Carnegie® Training www.boston.dalecarnegie.com

  • How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie

I am especially grateful for the opportunities that have come my way this year and feel fortunate to say my business continues to grow within the areas of career management/talent management. My specialty areas with continued demand have included leadership development, executive coaching, management training, career development and organizational development. In addition, my practice has grown at a steady rate with corporate clients as well as individual clients. Please take a moment to visit my website at www.ritaballenassociates.com for details. Here are a few other highlights and upcoming items I'd like to share with you:

  • Rita Allen named one of Boston's Top Ten Executive Coaches by Boston Women's Business Journal, September 2009

  • Upcoming Annual Executive Forum, Best Companies - Best Practices: Keeping the Competitive Edge, Bentley University, 10/16/09 - Featured organizations this year are Bright Horizons Family Solutions and Vistaprint

  • ICON Success Story - Rita B. Allen recognized on CPP ICON Success Page

  • Watch for upcoming article by Rita to be published in Boston Women's Business Journal on the topic of "Mentoring".

In closing, as always thank you for your continued support, business opportunities and referrals. I welcome the opportunity to be of assistance and continuing to provide a variety of career management/talent management and coaching services. I will contact you shortly to set up a time for a quick visit and to hear about your recent updates. I look forward to speaking!

Best Regards,

Rita B. Allen

 

Rita B. Allen Associates | 460 Totten Pond Road, Suite 190 | Waltham, MA 02451
781-890-6803 | rita@ritaballenassociates.com | www.ritaballenassociates.com