The result?  Using checklists has allowed air transportation to consistently grow safer over the past several decades.

Jones, Lang, and LaSalle, a worldwide organization in property and construction management, does not rely on memory in the development and execution of project.  The cost of errors in their industry could mount into the millions of dollars, and with that sort of potential, you cannot put that action to chance.  So, they rely on a step-by-step set of process maps to guide the project manager from design to construction to post construction reconciliation.  In addition, if there is clear documentation over each step executed, and the project manager is promoted, another project manager can come into the role and be up to speed in a matter of hours.

Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital near Chicago, Illinois, uses process maps to guide its surgical teams.  A mistake in the process could mean a life.  MidwayUSA, an online and mail-order retailer, uses 1500 separate process maps to guide its employees.  As Larry Potterfield explained it, “If you want to have quality outcomes, you have to have a consistent process that leads to consistent behaviors.”  Midway USA’s vision is “to be the best-run business in America for the benefits of it customers.”

We found as we developed our book, It’s My Company Too! (2013 Greenleaf), that some of the best-run organizations we studied have very specific process mapping and management.  We focused our book on detailed case studies of eight exceptional organizations that were benchmarks of operational excellence, had superior employee engagement, and employed what we called entanglement, the next step beyond engagement.

A central part of the reasons why these organizations did so well related to having defined their key processes, and then working to manage those processes.  In using processes, the organization developed high operational quality in meeting customer needs, while, at the same time, meeting employee needs.

How did that work?

The whole nature of process mapping is articulating each step of doing an activity.  Quality award organizations, like the national Malcolm Baldrige organization, believe that the best organizations are those that define their key processes and then focus on managing those processes to better meet the needs of customers, and, at the same, strive toward driving down costs.

Measures are used to assess performance of the process including the speed of the process, reliability (number of errors in the process), cost of the process, the capacity of the process, and, if the process interacts with customers, how satisfied the customers are with the process.

Process performance is then aligned to the goals of the organization.  Thompson and Mathys (Organizational Dynamics, 2008) suggest that a matrix be created that would align measures like specific customer requirements (for example, fast service or error-free service) to process performance measures.  Improvements in the process performance should correlate with customer satisfaction.  This can be done with financial outcomes as well.  For example, reducing process costs for the key processes of the organization will support improving profits.  The alignment of measures helps to keep the focus on why process performance levels are important to the desired outcomes of the organization.  This helps organization leadership to keep a focus on that which best meets desired organization outcomes and keeps the focus of the workforce on knowing what is important in their job.

How does this help employee engagement?

A clear, well-defined process with measures of process performance helps to clarify what is important to the organization, and, therefore, what should be important to the employee.  By clarifying the task, it helps to reduce the stress an employee has when their performance expectations are not clarified.  In addition, if employees have input in improving the process, they will obtain greater ownership in that process and have greater confidence in their abilities.

In our book, Jack Stack, CEO of SRC corporation (chapter 1), talks about having each employee realize that their job is 70/30.  Seventy percent of their time is on the specific assigned job, and thirty percent of their time is spent on improving the job and the rest of the organization.  Their incentive system reflects the degree of commitment that employees should have, and it builds one exciting place to work.

So, having a solid set of processes helps to structure the organization and align performance with outcomes.  Giving employees clarity of what needs to be done helps them do a good job, which builds confidence.  Getting the employee involved in decision-making gives them ownership.  All of which creates the culture for an engaged and entangled workforce.

We immediately started the process. Teams were created within departments. Every team read a popular business book on creating culture. An employee council was started with representatives from each team. The team representatives brought to the council their teams culture statements: core values, vision and mission. One meeting was spent creating the values, then the vision and finally the mission.

The resulting culture statement was posted in every public room and in cubicles. It came alive by staff and new hires promising to live by the culture statement, which continues to be read before every meeting of five people or more. The culture statements provide the priorities used in making decisions.

The change to an Employee Driven Culture resulted in the organization becoming extremely high performing with employee engagement scores above the 90 percentile, sales growth and profit above industry norms, low turnover, winning awards for culture, product performance and workplace factors and finally, attracting incredible talent.

The following are some simple steps to create and maintain an Employee Driven Culture that unifies personal and organizational purpose:

1. Let employees create the culture and they will have ownership.
2. Repeat the culture statements often so it travels from conscious, to sub-conscious to sub-liminal.
3. Cite specific statements from the culture when giving praise or providing correction
4. Use numbers in front of the core values, so during a correction the words are minimized and the impact maximized. An example – core value #3 is “Quality in everything we do.” When a staff member produces something below acceptable quality standards, ask the question, “Is that #3?”
5. Hold clients and vendors to the same core values. Life will be so much more harmonious.
6. Market the culture statement on organizational web sites, and use a rotating core value on the signature line of e-mails. Employees will be held accountable by their clients.
7. Have a regularly scheduled meeting with representatives of all teams to discuss tactical and strategic issues. Publish the agenda a week in advance so each team can discuss the items. Then send the minutes of the meeting to everyone in the organization within 24 hours. Everyone will have a say but not necessarily their way.
8. Create a peer-to-peer weekly newsletter that is populated by each team. This document should contain their successes and failures as well as praise and appreciation for other teams. Positive peer pressure will encourage each team to produce more successes.
9. Practice financial transparency. Everyone has a need to know. Share the knowledge with those that create the wealth, and then share a predetermined portion of the wealth with those that created it and wealth will rise!

Peter Drucker once said, “Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you’ve got.” In most cases, that may be true. But with Millennials rising as the largest member generation in the work force, successful companies are adapting to this change.

The two young people that approached my desk have since co-started five sister companies and one stand-alone company. The change they wanted resulted in more success for everyone, including me.

Ask several of your employees what is ethical behavior and you will probably receive a glazed stare. Ask your leadership peers what subsets of their behavior are influenced by ethics and you may receive the same result.

Proper organizational moral and legal behaviors may be understood, but only because of compliancy efforts by human resource and legal department edicts. This is not surprising considering the leadership in business, unions and politics over the past twenty years, but it is certainly a topic that warrants consistent attention, so let’s explore it.
Since defined benefit pensions were replaced by 401(k) plans, there has been an ever increasing pressure on CEOs of publicly held companies to produce profit for the shareholders, which is now an integral part of the retirement plans of shareholders. This has unfortunately led to an increasing compromise of ethics.

This pressure has given leaders a sense of urgency, lest they be replaced for under-performing in the short term, and it’s an urgency that results in making decisions based solely on short-term gains without much regard for long-term growth. True, the rewards can be high, but the dangers are just as high. Employees become productivity units. Produce more and produce faster or be replaced! If a job can be done by a foreign nation at a cheaper price, then let’s offshore! If a part can be produced less expensively by an offshore company, then let’s buy from them! And if ethics have to be compromised for profit, then by all means, let’s do it!

The topic of “ethics in leadership” certainly prompts a series of questions in my mind. Why are these actions tolerated and why aren’t those responsible taken to task? Well, for one, because we are the responsible party. We expect our retirement plans to return high interest rates—after all, if our 401(k) plan returns 10% annually, do we care if the CEO receives a $500 M bonus? Do we care if that the company laid-off 1,000 American workers? Do we care if the product is being prepared in a third world country with child labor? Yes! The answer should be yes. Though some people might not believe they’re related, these issues are “ethics in leadership” subject matters and consequently should matter in our decision making process.

Unions should also own up to some of the outstanding issues created in the workplace today. Unions created safe work environments, protected older workers from being dismissed through seniority programs and provided medical benefits. Today, OSHA, EPA, the Civil Rights Act, Obamacare and many other laws and governmental agencies enforce the benefits that were fought for and won by unions. To keep relevant, unions have increased political pressure on federal policy. Now, however, more and more of union worker’s dues are being used for political lobby efforts when in reality, how much of this increased spending has actually helped the average union employee better themselves? It seems like the union work has destroyed companies by inflated wages and destroyed individuals by rewarding complacency. “Unions first, workers, organization and country after” seems to be a common approach. Is that ethical?

The current political trends also seem to be unethical as well. In fact, the winning strategy in politics seems to be who can be the most unethical. Lying is one of the most unethical things you can do, and our current leaders seem to practice that habit daily. They pass laws without public debate. They exclude states from laws in order to gain those states’ Senators’ approval. They ignore the Constitution. As a result, a select group of special interest parties are satisfied at the expense of the majority.

Immanuel Kant was an 18th century philosopher whose ethical questions asked whether or not an action respected the moral rights of everyone.

Kant recognized four ethical rights:

1. The right to be told the truth.
2. The right to privacy—to do, believe and say whatever the individual chooses in their personal lives as long as they do not violate the rights of others.
3. The right not to be injured unless the individual does something freely and knowingly that deserves punishment or freely chooses to take risks of such injury. Injury can be physical, psychological, financial or social.
4. The right to do what is agreed upon through an implied (such as social) or explicit contract.

According Kant’s views, our leaders are failing us with their unethical behavior. And our country is suffering because of it.

The saddest part of unethical behavior is how acceptable it’s becoming. We need to understand that children are learning unethical behavior at a very early age, and then mature believing it is the norm. It will take a lot to refocus on ethical leadership, but if ethics can become important parts of the workplace again, especially at the leadership levels, then perhaps it’s not too late to teach our children that right from wrong applies to all walks of life, not just the ones outside of the political and professional worlds!

Are you a Gen X-er or a Boomer who just doesn’t like working with the Millennial generation? Understanding the younger generation is a must-do for organizations these days. In just a few short years, believe it or not, we will be the workforce majority. Therefore, if organizational leaders want to learn how to sustain their business long after retirement, you must learn how to capitalize on Millennial employees. And to do that, you must first understand the younger generation.

So here it goes; straight from a Millennial—understand my generation and why we are the way we are. (You might not hate working with us so much after this.)

Understanding Millennials

True or false time. We have a reputation for a few unsightly characteristics. Let’s put a few of them straight.

Millennial Stereotypes:

1. We are lazy—False. While it’s true that maybe we’re uninterested in dressing business professional and sitting in an office from 9:00 – 5:00, that doesn’t mean we won’t put in the work. Ask us what we’re doing at 11:00 at night, and you might be surprised at the amount of typing, reading, coding and brainstorming going on while you’re probably sleeping.
2. We feel entitled—True and false. We typically don’t feel entitled to a certain label or responsibility if we aren’t capable or interested in it. However, we feel that we should be given a fair shot regardless of age. A good idea is a good idea, no matter how young or old the person is sharing it.
3. We think we are superior—Depends. At searching the web? True. At writing code and understanding social networks? True. At leading a Fortune 500 company? False. There are things at which our generation is notably more competent, which can be partially attributed to growing up alongside the dramatic rise in technological innovations. And there are things we know we aren’t—yet.
4. We want immediate gratification—True. You try growing up with the internet at your fingertips and then tell me that you wouldn’t be conditioned to expect the same. It’s not as evil as it sounds, though; we expect to get more work done in less time because of it. (That’s productivity, after all).

We have grown up with the constant reinforcement of “The sky’s the limit,” and “Be all that you can be.” Well, we want to be happy, and happy for us (at least for now) means a few common things. Here are some character traits that tend to define us a bit better than those nasty (sounding) stereotypes.

I want to make money, but I want to be valued

We are definitely motivated by dollar signs and bonus checks—at least to a degree. If we have the opportunity to work for an organization that’s flashing us a big pay day, there’s a good chance we will take it. However, if that same job treats us like we’re interns, undervalues us as human beings, doesn’t think we can contribute, refuses to give us responsibilities, or overlooks us because of our age, gender, etc., then we’re probably not going to stick around very long.

Sure, we might cash in on that big paycheck for a little while, but we will do so with the utmost intention of 1) finding and securing another job or 2) becoming an entrepreneur and starting our own company. Probably one that appeals to the Millennials, too. Either way, your company will hurt in the long run because we become the competition—and if you’re not retaining the Millennials, it’s only a matter of time before your generation breaches retirement, leaving you without the best and brightest of the next generation to take over when you’re gone. What opportunities and responsibilities are you going to entrust to me?

I want flexibility

We’ve spent so much time sitting in classrooms and reading textbooks learning about revolutions—people sticking up for their rights as workers and as human beings demanding better treatment and a better environment. So why would we just grin and bear the conditions we’ve been given, even if they are a lot less extreme and dire than before? There is always room for improvement. After all, your generation and the generations before you taught us that.

Now, we want to continue to stand up for our rights, this time for work-life balance and for increasing the love we have for what we do. We want the right to work from home, the right to finish that report on Sunday afternoon instead of on Friday night and the right to work in our jeans and a t-shirt instead of a suit and tie. We understand that there are some jobs that just won’t work out, but there are so many that could give us the freedom to work how we want, when we want to some degree. Where can we find a compromise?

I want to give back

Having grown up in recent decades, news has pretty much always hit our ears in real time. Between the TV, internet, newspaper, magazines, radio and more… we’ve had more news thrown in our faces than any other generation. And most of that news is bad news. Shootings, crimes, oil spills, melting ice caps, extinction, terrorist attacks… It’s all negative. Hearing that stuff all day, every day from the time we are children to now affects a person. We want to support the opposite of those things; we want to support the good. So, we like to give back.

Giving back can mean making personal donations, but seeing as we are young (and thus have relatively small personal financial portfolios), we like supporting companies that do the donating for us. Think about all the one-for-one companies out there (Tom’s Shoes is probably one of the most famous). We like these brands because we like the give-back mentality. To us, something good comes out of the purchase, and best of all, we get to show off that we support the cause by sporting the shoes amongst our peers.

Of course, we’re much more dynamic than even I give us credit for in this post. We can’t simply be summed up in a few traits, nor would I say that these traits define all of my generation. But these are certainly commonalities amongst a whole lot of us, and this information just might help you reel in (and keep) a Millennial or two to help solidify the future of your organization.

Listen
This is the most important part of communication.  Part of your job as a leader is to optimize your employees’ time at work.  This might mean allowing them to vent for a few minutes to you in the morning if it helps them clear their heads and get on with the rest of their day.  Otherwise, they might have a nagging thought constantly interrupting their work, or worse, they might end up complaining to a co-worker and simultaneously disrupt other people’s work.

Support
Show your employees that you support their decisions.  When your teammates know that you have their backs, they are more empowered to make decisions on their own and challenge themselves to take on more of a leadership role.

Mentor
As a leader with experience, offer your point of view when you see employees faced with certain dilemmas.  Coach them to a higher emotional intelligence and toward greater problem-solving skills, and offer them perspective when their particular dilemma grows out of proportion.

Put yourself in their shoes
Things that might seem minor or unimportant to you could seem to be life and death situations for your employee, depending on what is important to them at their life stage. Not everyone is happily married, happily single, happily dealing with the pressures of children, wanting children, dating, etc… there are hundreds of life situations that rank in various levels of importance to each employee, and each employee can see his or her personal life in drastically different ways.  Don’t underestimate the effect a breakup, a death, a divorce, a move, a birth or other life-changing things can have on a person’s work.

Recognize
Praise and recognition may not seem important to you, but whatever you do, don’t overlook the impact a simple “job well done” can have on your workforce.  Recognizing teams will encourage teamwork and increase healthy competition within an organization, and recognizing individuals will encourage leadership and raise the performance bar.  Nothing inspires or re-motivates team members more (usually) than recognition.  Coming from a leader, any kind words you say will be remembered ten times longer than any negative words you say.

Teach
When appropriate, do not give answers to questions asked by staff.  Ask them to provide three alternative solutions to the question and discuss why.  Over time, they will consistently have the correct decision.  This builds efficacy within all members of the team and lowers the coach’s interruptions.  You can’t call a time out to solve every issue.

Keep calm
The age of the Mike Ditka approach to football management is slowly slipping away.  These bombastic managers are being replaced by cool-headed coaches who understand that “yelling” just creates a negative impact within the majority of the team.  And, if yelling is necessary, then you have the wrong team.

Build self-esteem
Create metrics—call them the RBIs, ERAs, TDs or PPG of the office or floor—with the team and team members that will allow the individual to realize when they are doing well.  Cap this off with recognition and reward for hitting the metrics, and both the employee and the organization grow.  Every major sport has metrics that allows every team member, teammate and fan to know if someone is doing well.

According to the thesaurus with which Microsoft so generously equipped my word document software, the term “manage” is synonymous with words like “govern,” “supervise,” and “administer.” The term “coach” is synonymous with “teach,” “educate,” and “prepare.” Compare the two terms as well as their synonyms. Is it as obvious to you as it is to me? There is a distant, authoritarian connotation radiating from the term “manage,” especially when paired with the gentle, nurturing term “coach.” Which type of leader would you like to work for? And, for those in leadership positions, which word would you like associated with your leadership style?

If the thesaurus doesn’t do it for you, there are always the practices that accompany either term, practices that I would like to argue are the very reasons why adopting a coaching style is more effective (and enjoyable) in the workplace than managing.

Coaches are leaders first. Managers are bosses first.
Ask any great leaders what their job is, and most of the time, they will tell you that they are responsible for motivating, inspiring, teaching, listening to and guiding their employees. They do this because they know that an organization is much more successful when they have thirty brains working on solutions rather than just one or two leaders’ brains working and thirty brains waiting for orders from the top.

Bosses, on the other hand, don’t see thirty brains. They see thirty pairs of hands that are made for completing orders and finishing tasks. By doing that, bosses put a limit on organization potential with each underestimated member of their human capital.

Coaches give advice. Managers give orders.
When you adopt a coaching leadership style, you value certain things. Instead of valuing the ability to issue orders, boss around employees and micro-manage the entire office like a manager might, you value the ability to help employees discover, plan for and then reach their potential. You value guidance, support and encouragement, and you do this because you know that a coached work environment is more enjoyable for all employees. You also know that by coaching employees to think for themselves and make their own informed decisions you save their time, your time and the company’s time. Leaders who coach get more out of each employee every day, which turns into greater productivity and greater success.

Managers have to micro-manage nearly every decision. They rob employees of the freedom to find a solution, and, by doing that, they kill any creativity that might have otherwise saved a company money, found a more streamlined process or earned additional revenue. Employees become worker bees, ants that blindly follow the leader without question. This kind of creatively-dead environment generates boredom, unhappiness and lackluster performance, all things that retract from organizational success.

Coaches promote teamwork. Managers promote hierarchy.
Ask any (good) sports coach, and they will tell you that teamwork is what wins games. With the exception of individual sporting events(such as golf or tennis)—which, in this case, would be compared to a sole proprietorship where you work on your own, and thus is inapplicable—the cohesiveness and bond that exist between co-workers are what keeps them constantly striving for superior results. Teammates hold each other accountable, and once you’ve reached the point in your career where your employees are continuously raising the performance bar on each other—in a healthy way, of course—then you have successfully done your job as a leader.

Managers focus on a hierarchy of task-givers. They value the ability to pass down tasks from the top to the bottom, often times without trying to develop the relationships that occur from level-to-level. Managers tend to value being “above” others, frequently counting how many people work beneath them and striving to increase that number, and often making enemies and burning bridges on their way.

Please don’t confuse this with the need for middle management or a system of promotion. Certainly both are necessary for many organizations. However, good leaders make sure that they raise the performance of all those around them, not just themselves, because they understand that a team or organization can only function as well as its weakest player.

Yes! It is possible, and those organizations that have been fortunate enough to discover how to stimulate discretionary thinking are reaping about 500 more positive thoughts daily. These thoughts from each employee are centered on enhancing the organization, helping to propel it toward performance excellence.

The average human brain produces 60,000 thoughts a day, and according to the Institute for Human Health and Human Potential about 8% of those are used at work. A thought can be as simple as “I need to pick up a pen,” to as complex as “We should alter our monthly tactical plan because…” Simple math tells us that, on average, we use 4,800 thoughts on the performance of our daily work duties. Increasing that number to 10% instead of the normal 8% would give you—and hopefully you guessed it—6,000 work-related thoughts.

Increasing the number of work-related thoughts doesn’t happen with a snap of the fingers, but there are several simple steps you can take to warrant more from your employees. Here are five tips on how to increase organization-related discretionary thinking company-wide:

1) Establish a culture of behavior.
Does everyone know which employee behavior actions are expected? Life is so much more fluid and enjoyable when everyone knows and practices acceptable behavior.

2) Leaders always lead by example.
Leaders are always listened to and always watched. If your organization’s leaders follow the established company culture, then thoughts are not wasted on projecting what those leaders may do in any given situation. No need to expend those questioning thoughts, because the organizational leaders will automatically follow the expected culture of behavior.

3) Screen for skill, hire for attitude.
Only hire and retain employees that follow the organizational culture. You can teach skills, but attitudes are an acquired internal behavior that can rarely change. If all members of your staff share the same emotional approach to life, then creative thinking becomes contagious—and popular.

4) Remove disruptors from the workplace.
Disruptors are those activities that detract from positive organizational behavior. These range from banging doors and uncomfortable work temperatures, to disruptive music and unclean restrooms. These activities result in staff using their discretionary thinking to wonder why leadership allows these patterns or uncomfortable situations to exist. Imagine someone developing a great idea that would enhance the organization, only to have his co-worker in the next cube crank up Hank Williams Jr. That idea is placed on the back-burner (as he instead focuses on the annoyance), is set back, underdeveloped or turned off completely, all because of an undesirable working condition.

5) Recognize and reward those that give maximum effort.
Outcome is not as critical as effort when trying to boost employee engagement. Striving for recognition is part of human nature. Members of an organization quickly learn how recognition is achieved. Staff will often use their discretionary thoughts to pursue ideas that might earn them recognition. In these instances, recognition is primary and rewards are secondary. Leaders should be sensitive to the type of rewards that are dispensed. It can be difficult to monetarily reward anyone that uses their discretionary thinking to utilize cognitive skills in their daily work efforts. A monetary reward might potentially place a price on that specific effort in place of recognition for a job well done. In other words, determine rewards that don’t detract from good efforts—rewards that your staff will appreciate. Ideas for rewards may include a gift card or tickets for a family outing.

These steps are simplified, and there are many, many more strategies to succeed in this venture. Hopefully, these steps can be utilized as a framework for success in increasing the percentage of discretionary thinking your staff uses on work-related matters. Applying these five simple steps will result in a positive, measurable impact on the organization, and when you’re ready, you can take on the next set of steps.

Just to recap, the engaged employee has risen to a level above most other employees.  He has skills, commitment and dedication but doesn’t exhibit the same kind of care for the organization as if it were his own organization, or the coach perhaps, like the collegiate athlete.  The entangled employee, or Olympian, however, lives for the organization… and he likes it.  His goals and dreams are synonymous with the organization’s, and he is constantly thinking about them and acting accordingly.  The entangled employee believes so much in the success of the organization that when the organization achieves something great, he feels fulfilled and happy.

Having a workforce full of entangled employees is like having a team of nonstop problem solvers, go-getters, self-starters and over-achievers.  Employing Olympians means having a highly productive, highly motivated workforce that invests themselves whole-heartedly into each task at hand.

Employees don’t just become Olympians by accident.  They don’t wake up one morning and say, “Hey, I think I’m going to be an Olympian for my organization today.”  They have a special combination of drive and determination mixed with a set of values and beliefs that perfectly match the organization’s values and beliefs.  And, they are cultivated in the right organizational culture and nurtured under the right leadership.

Populating your workforce with Olympians is neither easy nor instantaneous.  The full journey is something that can’t be mapped out in a single blog post, but we will give you several ideas about the process so you can start planning your transition into the big leagues.

How to Hire an Olympian
As with hiring any employee, hiring an Olympian begins with the basics.  Here are some tips to look for during the hiring process that might tip you off that this employee has Olympic potential:

• Look for team activities on the applicant’s resume.  Working successfully in a team is a crucial ingredient to any successful workplace.  Athletes and team competitors know how to motivate others, have leadership qualities and know how (and expect) to sacrifice for the good of the team.  All of these qualities are priceless (and crucial) when it comes to Olympic potential.
• Ask about volunteer roles.  Volunteering shows passion, and it reveals that the applicant has the capability of feeling passionately about something.  Volunteers make the ultimate commitment—doing something completely for free, a characteristic of born Olympians.
• Ask key questions related to culture.  Learn what runs deeper than skills and knowledge with these questions: Describe the culture in which you are most productive and happy; Describe the leadership style that will bring forth your best work and effort; Do you prefer working alone or as part of a team; and, What would your former employees say about you?  Potential Olympians will have good, honest answers to these questions, because they know how they work best and are always striving to improve themselves.
• Note any questions asked of you.  Applicants that ask questions of you—not just those that could have been answered by perusing your company website, but questions that dig deeper—prove they already have an interest in something more than a paycheck.  Look especially for questions about the company’s vision and core values and how those core values are enacted throughout the organization.  This shows they care about what your company is, what it can become, and how it will become that way, all indicators of potential entanglement.

How to Keep an Olympian
Hiring a potentially entangled employee is a great first step, but now you have to work on developing him into the Olympian that he can be.  Here are a few tips:

• Clearly align the organization with a path and direction, and make both known to everyone.  The more you exhibit your company’s clearly stated values, vision and mission, the higher you raise the expectation level for your employees.  The more employees see the values, vision and mission, the more ownership they have over those aspects of the organization.  The values, vision and mission become a part of your employees’ every day.  There is no guessing when it comes to behaviors and actions.  “Will this help me reach my goals?” becomes “Will this help my company reach its goals?”
• Find out employees’ goals and see if, and how, they match up with those of the organization. If the goals don’t align, that doesn’t mean this particular employee can’t reach Olympic status.  It just means you might need to spend some time getting to know what is important to this employee.  If there is something you or your organization can do to help bridge the gaps, then take action.  Whatever you do will go miles in your employee’s eyes, bringing him or her closer to entanglement.
• Give recognition and rewards.  Publically and privately recognizing employees for things they’ve done well is the basis of positive reinforcement.  Making the transition from engaged to entangled requires encouragement, and recognition and rewards are the two largest ways to encourage that an engaged employee to take his or her work to the next level.

How to Build your Olympic Workforce
You’ve built a nice foundation for an entangled organization.  But, just because you’ve built it, doesn’t mean others will come running.  There are some things you must continue to develop to spread entanglement throughout your company, including:

• Applying for culture awards, like Best Places to Work and 101 Best and Brightest.  Olympians like to surround themselves with other Olympians.  Applying for (and wining!) culture awards will gather the attention of other like-minded people and potential employees.
• Asking for employee feedback.  You don’t always have to go outside of your organization to search for Olympians.  You can help your existing employees entangle within the organization by asking for employee feedback.  Find out where improvements can be made, and start a discussion about the concept of entanglement and what it will take to get them there.
• Doing something with your employee feedback.  Act on this great information straight from your employees’ mouths!  Tasty Catering formed a Leadership Team to address employee feedback and concerns.  The Leadership Team is responsible for deciding where the company should go and what actions should be taken with regards to employee feedback.  Acting on employee suggestions is a huge step toward making employees feel valued and appreciated.
• Praising and rewarding continued education and training.  Tuition reimbursement and paid certifications are great ways to encourage betterment, for both the employee and the organization.  As long as the training or education is applicable to the company, rewarding that behavior will urge other employees to better themselves in their job roles and encourage entanglement.  Entangled employees are lifelong learners; they feel at their best when they can constantly improve themselves.

Building an Olympic workforce is no easy task, but it’s one that makes both you and each member of your workforce happier.  When employees are committed to something, they love doing it, and work doesn’t seem like work.  When the organization and employees find that balance in give-and-take between the two parties, they become one whole being, that’s when entanglement really works.

For an extended definition as well as examples, exercises, and methods of achieving real life entanglement, reserve your copy of It’s My Company Too! scheduled for public release on October 23, 2012.

With the book—titled, It’s My Company Too!—slated to release in October, and the Olympics in full swing right now, it’s high time we got cracking on this collegiate athlete-Olympic athlete analogy.

Comparing Olympians and College Athletes to Your Workforce
Think of your workforce as a team of athletes. What level of competition has your workforce reached? At the college level, your organization is certainly quite competitive. Not many athletes make it onto a college team; yet, being a college athlete is not the pinnacle of competition.

The collegiate athlete is comparable to the engaged employee. They show up to work, sometimes arriving early or perhaps staying late, and are fully engaged in the here and now. They apply themselves while at work, and they are productive during working hours. These employees are great. Heck, they’ve earned a scholarship for their talent; they are at practices, competing in games, doing extra training… they deserve recognition. College athletes are by no means commonly found. However, as previously stated, competing at the collegiate level is not the pinnacle of the athletic world. This means there is a level beyond, and, likewise, a level that is even rarer that an athlete can reach.

Olympians, on the other hand, have reached that pinnacle point. The Olympics is about the highest form of competition and performance any athlete can hope to reach. The “Olympic” employees are skilled at what they do, that’s no doubt. But there is something else, something more which elevates them to that next level. Combining their skill level with equally impressive commitment makes these athletes entangled in the team’s—or organization’s—success. It’s that “something more” that turns average sales into record sales, mediocre production into unrivaled production, and so on.

Olympians eat, sleep and breathe their sport. Entangled employees do the same with their organization. We often speak about discretionary thinking when giving public speeches. The concept of devoting thoughts at your discretion to work-related items is what makes the difference between mere engagement and total entanglement.

Think about the lengths to which an Olympic athlete goes to achieve success: constant training, special diets, irregular sleep schedules, weight lifting, running, traveling to compete… the list goes on and on. Simple things that non-Olympic athletes might take for granted, like having a beer at the end of a work day or sleeping in on Saturday don’t exist in the world of an Olympian. They are on the clock 24/7—thinking at their discretion about how they can win—and through all of the hard work and sweat and sacrifice that may take, they’re doing all of these things because they want to! These aren’t “sacrifices” in their minds. They are a way of life because that gold medal is worth missing a thousand drinks after work and losing a full year of sleeping in on Saturdays.

What’s It Like to Employ an Olympian?
Having an Olympian in your workforce is like having a full-time employee that is never off the clock. Entangled employees are constantly thinking about work, about the organization’s goals and about what they can do to help their organization achieve success. And, just like an Olympian, they are thinking and acting upon these thoughts because they want to! Can you imagine an entire workforce of people that arrive to work early, stay late, consciously think about work while they’re not at the office, continuously strive for perfection, engage their teammates, initiate projects, finalize plans and follow through with goals on a regular basis? That’s organizational entanglement, and it is a beautiful thing.

Of course, this sounds terrific on paper. Who wouldn’t want a team of Olympians on their staff? The real trick is how to get there. How can your organization get to this position? That’s something that we uncover entirely in It’s My Company Too! Since the book doesn’t come out until October 23, 2012, we will use the next several blog posts to uncover small pieces. Let’s see if we can’t help you start your journey to organizational entanglement before the book’s release date.

How Can You Build a Team of Olympians?
Now that you know what an entangled—or Olympic—employee is, what he or she does and the commitment and dedication he or she has to an organization, you’re ready to hear the next part. Stay tuned for more on Olympic employees, as the next blog post will deal with how to attract and keep Olympians on your organization’s workforce.