The Contented Cow Blog

Building Workplaces That Work

On Thursday of this past week, Richard and I were the featured presenters on a webinar entitled, “Work is Contractual… Effort is Personal” produced by Globoforce, the reward and recognition people. Readers of this blog are welcome to visit the Globoforce site and hear the recorded event.

Though the post-seminar evals turned out okay, during the session, I perturbed at least one audience member, and for sure the “diversity police” in responding to a question with a remark to the effect that diversity (traditionally defined) isn’t a terribly significant factor in determining those things that motivate people to part with their discretionary effort, or what we call, Oomph! Though, as the name of the session implies, we believe that the decision whether or not to Oomph! is personal, the factors that determine whether or not the worker engages are fairly universal. Regardless of their skin color, whether they are from London, England or New London, Connecticut, fat or skinny, religious or not, an individual’s effort level hinges on things like the presence of high standards and expectations, having a clear sense of purpose and direction, and a leader who cares about them as an individual.

I was reminded of the diversity comment the following day when I read a piece entitled, “A son’s wisdom on a post-racial world” in USA Today by Mohammad Ali Salih, a Washington, D.C. based correspondent for major Arabic newspapers and magazines. Salih’s piece, which is well worth reading, tells of his bi-racial son pointedly telling him that his intended vote for Barack Obama, based on some fresh thinking in America, was not about being racial, or bi-racial, but about being “post-racial.” As in, I’m over it.

Not unlike Mr. Ali Salih’s son, I’m all for respecting people’s uniqueness, but at some level, we Homo sapiens have a lot more connecting than dividing us. Let’s be willing to celebrate that a little more.

A thought leader in the areas of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, motivated, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com

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