In this episode of our Strategy and Leadership Podcast, we were joined by Josh Schneider, Director at the Millennial and Employment Engagement Institute. Josh spends his days traveling, writing, and speaking at conferences, and has developed this institute to fund research that matches the stories and examples that were being seen in the workplace, along with topics such as meaningful and fulfilling work.
Throughout our conversation, Josh shared insights and best practices for leaders operating businesses within our current multi-generational workforce that includes many Millennials:
- Employee engagement research has shown us that when organizations focus on their people, from the bottom up, we can develop cultures and environments that encourage engagement and fulfillment in the workplace.
- For leaders to be their best, they need to make sure they look after themselves first, before focusing on developing their employees (akin to putting an airplane mask on yourself first, before your child). Once leaders are inspired and come alive through their work, they can better inspire human behaviour around them.
- Developing this type of culture is important. People come to work wanting to know that their future is brighter than their past, and they’re often looking for clues and reassurance to support this. When they see passion in others, especially their leaders, they'll experience the same feeling and be able to channel that energy.
- It’s human nature to want to succeed, so when culture and strategy are both well developed, employees within a company will have better clarity on how they can “win”. They will understand how their role contributes to the company’s overall direction and will know what is expected of them in order to achieve goals along the way.
Josh’s most recent book is called 5 Days to Your Best Work Yet, where he walks through the employee brain to understand and assess how to truly get inspired at work.
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