mikeboyes

Employee engagement matters more than ever during a year as tumultuous as 2020.  What’s your plan for keeping your team engaged with their work?  In this episode, we bring you a special Business On Purpose webinar conversation between Chris Allen and Mike Boyes, both experts in the field of employee engagement and company culture.  Chris and Mike share insights for keeping team members engaged, motivated and productive based on scripture, social science research and their work with business leaders. They address how current conditions disrupt God’s plan for work and how to restore healthy mindsets, relationships and productivity to your workplace.   

Conversation highlights:

--Connections with team members should not be simply about sharing information.  Instead we should also plan to make our connections with team members or employees about connecting on a personal level.

--Isolation causes our ability to personally connect with people to atrophy.  The personal connections we need are what we may be tempted to drift away from as we move more towards virtual connections and less spontaneous personal-level connections.  Leaders are especially tempted to do this, to connect less in order to “get more work done.”

--Can monkeys teach us about how to cope with the stress which leads to disconnection?

--“In the absence of information, people make up stories.”  Keep your teams informed, otherwise they will create an alternative reality.

--Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic motivational factors.  Leaders help employees understand the purpose and meaning of their work both within the organization and within the scope of what really matters in life.

--Helping people find meaning and purpose in their work requires leaders to take on an “inspirational” role.  Keep reminding people of the purpose of their work, even if you did it yesterday or last week or last month.

--Ensure team members know who your customers are.  Some customers are outside the organization, some customers are within the organization.

--When the world is rapidly changing (as it is right now), companies need adaptive employees.  These are people who innovate and solve problems.  But how do we help people become adaptive? 

--Who is responsible for doing the “thinking” in your business?  Does that need to change?

--Sin, shame and blame are active in your organization, whether or not you acknowledge it.  How will you deal with these realities?

--Engaged team members know exactly what it means to win. 

--Anxiety stems from maintaining pre-COVID expectations, even if those expectations are no longer valid. Engaged teams talk about this openly and collaboratively.

--We are wired to look to leaders and model their behavior.  How does that truth inform your leadership of your team?

Books to consider:

Primed to Perform

Winning Now, Winning Later

What’s Best Next

Nonviolent Communication

 

Get connected!

Connect with Chris.

Connect with Mike.

Connect with Aaron.

Is marketing your business inherently worldly? Or can Christian business owners faithfully market, advertise and promote their businesses?  In this episode, the interview tables are turned: Ken Kinard and Mike Boyes of the Workwise podcast delve into this issue with Aaron Groen as the guest.  We examine biblical wisdom for the issue of marketing in a world that has devalued truth and integrity.   We talk about the biblical concept of stewardship and how a framework of stewardship informs our approach to marketing.

Conversation notes:

--Does marketing simply appeal to our vices?

--Can your business be a success if it isn’t growing?

--If you aim to be a faithful steward, could it be malpractice to not have a marketing strategy?

--Good, true and beautiful as a framework for marketing. 

--Before you start marketing you need to know backwards and forwards what problem your business is solving and who you are solving it for.  Part of good marketing is ensuring you have the right audience and that people who you don’t want to target can easily self-identify away from your products and services.

--I Corinthians 15:58: always abound in the work of the Lord.

--The redeeming purpose of your business: not simply profits.  Your labor is not in vain.

--Is the Great Commission a call to marketing?  What’s your conversion rate?  Do you have any brand evangelists?

 

Learn more:

Check out the Workwise podcast.

Connect with Mike or Ken on LinkedIn.

Mike Boyes, the founder and President of Credo Consulting, digs into the foundational question: “What is the purpose of your business?”  Listen in as we discuss why it is vital to articulate and embrace the purpose of your business.   If you haven’t already articulated your company’s mission or purpose, this discussion delves into why this is a problem you need to fix.

Conversation Highlights:

-“Your business is a delivery channel for doing something that God wants done on this earth.”

-What is your unique role in fulfilling God’s mission?

-If your main mission is to make money then your work and your business can quickly lose purpose, meaning and direction.  This is especially true in times of crisis.

-God tells Joshua to “Be strong and courageous.”  Why?  Because the work is going to be hard and filled with challenges and obstacles.   Purpose fuels our progress through challenges and over obstacles.

-If your business doesn’t have a clear and guiding mission statement, consider making the creation of one a top priority.

-One definition of intelligence is the capacity to solve problems. But we first have to define the problem to solve (what’s the mission?) lest we end up with a rudderless organization. 

Connect with Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelboyes/

Credo Consulting: http://www.credoconsulting.us/