How do you inspire greatness?

Have you checked out Rideau's Facebook page?

Check it out, and feel free to leave us a note on our discussion board, where we ask you, How do you inspire greatness?

The Why of Work: Creating Meaningful Work & Workplaces

According to the authors of “The Why of Work”, Dr. Dave Ulrich and Dr. Wendy Ulrich, we all seek a sense of purpose, contribution, connection, value, and hope through our work, this is what drives us and keeps us engaged.

On next Tuesday's episode of Real Recognition Radio, the Ulrichs will help you unravel the root of what motivates your employees and learn how to create leaders that will change the workplace.

Listen in next week to discover how to become a “meaning maker” and how this helps you improve productivity, customer satisfaction and your bottom line.

Why You Need a Recognition Strategy

Having a well defined recognition strategy is the first and arguably the most important element of Recognition Professionals International’s (RPI) Seven Best Practice Standards.

Why?

Simply put, recognition programs which do not align with overall corporate strategies are impossible to defend and inevitably end up being considered an expense instead of an investment. In hard times, these aimless programs are among the first things to be cut.

Any well thought out recognition strategy that ties into your corporation’s business objectives or mission, vision and values is much more readily defensible because senior management can see the link between your strategy and their business objectives.

Corporations will always try and cut expenses, but most will do their utmost to defend investments they believe will help grow the business and deliver profits to shareholders.

RPI's second Best Standard is to have senior management buy-in and support for your recognition strategy. If your recognition strategy is linked to senior management’s business strategies, it makes it much more likely that someone in the C-Suite will act as your recognition champion.

So here are a few tips… take a hard look at your current recognition programs. Do you have a written recognition strategy? Does this strategy align and link up with your senior leadership’s business objectives? Do your leaders understand the strategy and its linkages? Do your leaders actively support your recognition programs?

If the answer is “no” to any of these questions, you should invest some serious time and effort on your recognition strategy, otherwise, you might find yourself considered an expense… and we all know what happens to expenses!

Philanthro-captialism: Oxymoron or Social Responsibility?

My colleagues Roy Saunderson and Max Brown, hosts of Real Recognition Radio tell me there is a global revolution under way in philanthropy: organizations are finding out that doing good for others mean doing well for themselves too.

Real Recognition Radio's guest, Matthew Bishop is the US Business Editor and New York Bureau Chief of The Economist, and the author of several books including, “Philanthrocapitalism.”

According to former U.S President Bill Clinton, “This is an important book. Our interdependent world is too unequal, unstable, and unsustainable. We have to transform it into one of shared responsibilities, shared opportunities, and a shared sense of community.”

Listen and learn how making the world better makes perfect corporate $ense.

Tune in next Tuesday at 1 PM ET

Creating communities within your organization

My partners down at PollStream create fantastic social networking tools to facilitate employee relationships and increase employee engagement. The networking systems let you use a proven successful social phenomenon to keep the channel of communication between employees open and active. PollStream understands the power of community!

If you're interested in learning more about them and the subject, they've recently launched their blog: http://pollstreamblog.wordpress.com/

So go take a look and discover the power of conversation!

Thank You Thoughts

"The only way to get people to like working hard is to motivate them. Today, people must understand why they're working hard. Every individual in an organization is motivated by something different." -Rick Pitino

What is leadership 2.0?

Bestselling author and leadership advisor, Robin Sharma is this week’s guest on my colleagues Roy and Max's show Real Recognition Radio and will explain how embracing leadership can change the workplace.

Robin Sharma is ranked as one of the Top 5 leadership experts and is the celebrated author of 11 bestselling books on leadership, including The Leader Who Had No Title.

Successful organizations are those that have high emotional intelligence – they encourage innovation, responsibility, relationships and see leaders in all their employees. Join in on this powerful conversation to learn that it doesn’t matter what your title is, you have the power to change your environment at work and at home.

Tune in next Tuesday at 1 PM ET

Past show episodes available on itunes!