Essentia Ltd

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Howard Thurman

Inside your organization are insights, passions and capabilities – people – eager to come alive... how can you help them?

Recent Perspectives on Leadership and Engagement

Bring Your Organization to Life “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman A vibrant and effective business culture creates a palpable energy that you can feel the moment you walk in the door. It’s more than employees who enjoy their work and it’s more than employees with a single-minded focus on execution. What you feel is a sense of purposeful activity, passion and commitment. You feel the dynamic resonance of a group of people with diverse talents and perspectives, joined by a common passion. You feel the energy of a group of people who have come alive. There are ...
Posted Feb 12, 2016, 7:56 AM by Lisa Shelley
The Fundamental Principle of an Effective Organization What if you could focus on just one principle that would dramatically increase the effectiveness of your organization? How would your leadership approach shift if you viewed your organization through a lens of connection?“Let’s just keep asking ourselves this question: ‘Is what I’m about to do strengthening the web of connections, or is it weakening it?’”~ Margaret WheatleyThe concept of connection is central to the definition of an organization. In the simplest form, an organization is a group of people connected to each other, to their work and to a common goal or outcome.When assessing your organization, it’s easy to focus largely on talent. Although talent is certainly important, the strength of the connections ...
Posted Feb 12, 2016, 7:57 AM by Lisa Shelley
Why do so many Women choose different Paths? In large corporations, women continue to be under-represented in executive leadership roles, with many self-selecting out of the running for these jobs by mid-career. What can we learn from this continuing trend? Could it be a call to re-evaluate the corporate culture and potentially even how businesses are managed?The dominant paradigm of today is that the primary purpose of business is to maximize value to the shareholder. This thinking is often coupled with the view that the value available to distribute within a business ecosystem is limited, and therefore, to meet the short-term demand of value to the shareholder, it is necessary and acceptable to trade-off value from another stakeholder – such as the ...
Posted Feb 12, 2016, 6:18 AM by Lisa Shelley
Three Things Your Employees Need From You If you want employees who are passionate and focused on helping your business succeed - and who doesn’t? There are just three things you need to do. 1. Respect them. Do your employees feel like valued and respected members of the team? All of them? Do they feel like their voice and contribution are important and appreciated? Do they feel like you trust them and believe in their ability? 2. Empower them. Do your employees have access to the tools, training and information they need to effectively do their jobs? Do they understand how their work contributes to the success of the business? Are they able to leverage their strengths? Do they go home each day feeling like they made ...
Posted Oct 14, 2013, 7:07 AM by Lisa Shelley
5 Reasons Your Engagement Program Isn't Working As a business leader, why should you be concerned about the engagement level of your employees? Given all of the other burning issues you are faced with, devoting time and energy to work on engagement may feel like a luxury you can't afford. Why Should You be Concerned? "After all, I'm engaged, my staff is engaged. If there is an issue beyond that, it's nothing that additional metrics won't handle. Besides, our engagement efforts never seem to impact the bottom line." Have you heard this, possibly even in your own head? Unfortunately, studies continue to point to disturbingly low levels of engagement within business work forces, 30-40%. Based on the opportunity that these numbers represent ...
Posted Oct 14, 2013, 6:45 AM by Lisa Shelley