Engagement is about having a personal, meaningful relationship that inspires others to give their discretionary effort, attention, and resources. Yes, employers want it from their employees. And, it goes far beyond that. I want it from my wife, my business partners, my friends. As a company, we want engagement from our clients.
What does it take to create relationships that inspire others to give something of themselves? Here are the Three D’s of Engagement that you can apply to any relationship, personal or professional.
Delight in others’ success. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make a profit, influence someone, or generate more followers for your blog. Beneath it all, however, must be a personal passion to improve the lives of those you are connecting with. If you are able to consistently celebrate others’ success with no strings attached, you are on your way.
Declare yourself. Don’t beat around the bush about what you want. Declare your boldest intentions and most lofty aspirations to those on whom your success depends. It will hold you accountable, keep you honest, and drive you towards excellence.
Deliver in every interaction. No matter how small the behavior, you must deliver on what you’ve declared. Whether it’s a memo, e-mail, contract proposal, team meeting, training program, or the simplest conversation, practice what you preach. When it comes to engagement, you are never off the clock and every interaction counts.
When you practice the three D’s of Engagement, you will experience more meaningful and productive relationships at all levels.
(This article was also published by the Wichita Eagle 2/23/12)
Submitted by:
Nate Regier, Ph.D., Owner/Trainer
316.772.6174
We talk a lot about “own your potency” at Next Element. If you are familiar with the 10 permissions that we teach, that were developed by Dr. Eric Berne, then you may be familiar with this concept.
Potency is defined as: efficacy; effectiveness; and strengths. There are a number of things that our parents told us when we were growing up that are not true, things like, “If you do not eat your green beans you will not grow up to be big and strong.” However, one of the many things that they told us that is true is: “You can do anything you put your mind to.”
This is why we like to say: “own your potency,” and this is how we define it: own and acknowledge one’s efficacy, effectiveness and strengths. Owning one’s potency is how we achieve success.
The opposite is how we fail.
I want to break down the three components of potency and share with you how to use and manifest this in all aspects of your life.
1. The first is EFFICACY. Defined as “my ability to believe in my capabilities.” Are you able to say you are CAPABLE?” Ghandi quotes this best, “If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” Efficacy is about believing in yourself internally and externally. Saying to yourself, “I can get 10 new clients by the end of the year.” And saying to others, “I will get 10 new clients by the end of the year.” How many of you have said internally and externally, “I can’t do this.” If so you are not being efficacious. To be successful you must own your EFFICACY!
2. The second is EFFECTIVENESS. Defined as “producing intended results.” Do you do what you say you can do? When you state that you will accomplish a task, are you able to follow through with such a task? This is about getting the results that you say you are going to get. This is absent of excuses. This is about you holding yourself accountable to get results, and asking your peer group to hold you accountable for those stated results. This is done both internally and externally. You saying to your peer group, “I will get 10 new clients by the end of the year,” and you saying to yourself, “I will get 10 new clients by the end of the year.” If you are saying “I will try to get 10 new clients,” or “I will work towards getting as many clients as I can by the end of the year,” you are not being effective. To be successful you must own your EFFECTIVENESS!
3. The third is STRENGTHS. Defined as “skills you have expertise in.” We all have areas of expertise. We are all really good at any number of tasks. Do you share it? Do you ask your team to rely on it? Do you expose it? This is done by taking on what you are good at, and by being assertive with your peer group. Such as, “I will handle the marketing aspect of gaining new clients because that is what I am good at.” This is also done by sharing with your peer group, and your supervisor where you excel and how you want your expertise to be used. Has your supervisor ever assigned a task to a person who was less capable of such a task? Have you ever stayed silent when a peer volunteered to do a task that you knew you could do better? If so, you were not owning your strengths. You must say to your supervisor, “This is what I am really good at and this is where I can best help the organization.” You must say to your peer group, “I am really good at cold calls and will handle the cold calls for this project.” Being passive is not owning your strengths. To be successful you must own your STRENGTHS!
The final piece to this puzzle is to be able to ask for help when you will benefit from it. Success does not exist in a vacuum.
- EFFICACY – I am capable of getting 10 new clients by the end of the year. Will you please help me create a database for the information that I gather?
- EFFECTIVENESS – I am going to get 10 new clients by the end of the year. Will you please share how you been successful in gaining new clients?
- STRENGTHS – I am really good at cold calls, and not so good at creating a database. Will you please show me how to create a database?
We must be able to ask for help if we are going to be successful and grow. The more we put this into practice, the more each of these attributes of POTENCY grows, therefore we become more and more POTENT.
This is how you “Own Your Potency.”
Coming next, “Managing Failure When You are POTENT.”
- JK
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