The Identity Effect: Learning from the Inside Out

So many companies tout themselves as innovative, learning organizations in the spirit of Peter Senge, who first crafted the idea of a ‘learning organization’ as the way to attract, hold, and develop superior talent in the name of performance.

When it comes to building employee engagement and indeed performance, most companies often look to others for best practices, rather than learn from themselves. For the most part, we’re ‘outside-in’ learners. What new research shows, however, is that having a strong identity is a prerequisite to engagement – and that learning from the inside-out is where to start.

How can you learn from the inside out? Download this free resource today.

Crack Your Identity Code – 8 Essential Questions

Figuring out who you are isn’t some cosmic, unanswerable guru-directed challenge. It is job one if you plan to live a happy, fulfilling life.

Trust me, I’ve been there. Listen up…

Crack your identity code and the contours of your life will shift. You will not only come out stronger, you will come out larger — larger in heart, larger in influence, and larger in your capacity to love and be loved.

Please read this resource and see how these questions can aid you in shifting your life in positive and lasting ways.

Getting to productivity – one human being at a time

Disclosure: This is a promotion, sort of.

I am an unabashed fan of human productivity and the need to marshal it at any and all costs. So, here goes…

Human productivity is ultimately the only thing that allows organizations to achieve and sustain superior performance. Tapping the productive instincts, capacities and drive of human beings is one of the most elusive but important challenges of our time.

Identity Mapping® is a dynamic program for tapping the value-creating power of your workforce. It’s pedigree is not just my own identity consulting experience, but also the experience of The Ken Blanchard Companies, one of the leading leadership development and training companies on earth.

Identity Mapping helps meet the productivity challenge by enabling individuals to clarify the unique, value-creating powers inherent in their identities, and then apply them to their work, their careers, and the organization as a whole.

If productivity matters to you, download this valuable program resource.

The Identity Imperative: Turning Employee Engagement into Value Creation

When Peter Senge wrote about the learning organization years ago, he put his finger on an idea that would have profound influence on the well-being of employees and their ultimate productivity. People needed to learn not just do. They needed to learn about more than their work, or the competition. They needed to learn about the very nature of their organizations; even themselves. Underneath successful learning lurked a vital prize: job satisfaction and commitment. Today, we call that engagement.

The case for employee engagement is compelling: High levels of employee engagement correlate to performance in areas such as retention, productivity and customer loyalty. Companies in every industry seek out engagement…big companies like Google, medium sized companies like Aleris, the aluminum maker, small companies like Mitchell’s in Westport, Ct who runs a highly successful group of high-end clothing stores. The list is endless. Literally.

Still, there is something missing; something which can dramatically accelerate the case for employee engagement. The missing link is a strategic frame of reference that fuses the deepest needs of organizations with the deepest needs of human beings: the need to create value in the world and to be recognized for it in return.

Find out how to turn employee engagement into value creation with this free download.

Reframing the Rules of Value Creation

It’s the clarion call of all investors…value creation! And it’s wrong. What investors want is wealth creation – the result of value creation. Isn’t it time we got these two ideas straight? Facebook’s ability to justify the wealth it will inevitably reap from its IPO later in 2012 is strictly a function of the value it creates; not for investors, but for you and me; it’s users. (Complex equation: lots of value = lots of wealth.)

For all the time and attention paid to sophisticated economic analysis, market trends, competition and technology, creating successful business strategy designed to drive long term value is never a sure thing. Where value creation is the goal, however, managers must begin with a clear understanding of the source of that value — the identities of their organizations — or risk putting their companies on a path to inevitable decline. (Hint: Wealth never precedes value.)

Please download this valuable resource to distinguish value creation from wealth creation and how to re-frame it successfully.

The Identity Code: A Tough Nut to Crack

It’s inevitable. All execs search for the secret sauce that will fuel success. The next big thing is, well, always BIG When I read about what makes great companies great – and lousy ones lousy – I sense that one factor always comes into play; that is, the identity, or lack of identity, of the organization. In short, either you got it, or you don’t. And you can’t make it up.

If identity is at least part of the “secret success sauce” it is because it provides the human model of how a company works, just as economics provides the capital model of how a company works.

In the context of strategy, ‘cracking the code’ on identity is a way for leaders to unleash the unique capabilities of the corporation — and turbo-boost performance in return.

For insight on how to tap identity, please download this free information.

Living leadership (Lessons from the dying)

The idea that life, let alone leadership, can be informed by those who are dying, seems counter-intuitive at first. Of course, it isn’t. People who face death, especially, those who’ve lived long lives, can see things more clearly than those of us who are still running with the herd, whose perspectives may be clouded by the dust storms we encounter as we move furiously forward, every day.

The spark that led me to write my Living Leadership newsletter – the article, Top 5 Regrets of the Dying – also led me to ask myself what regret(s), if any, I would have at 90 (!!), if I chose not to do something in the here and now.

So, in the spirit of commitment (mine) and community (ours), let me share with you one thing I would regret not having done, were I to find myself, 30 years from now, reviewing my life.

i would regret not having worked more with children; not having brought my love, understanding, skills and experience with identity discovery and development into places where children (read teens and college kids) reign … youth organizations, schools, perhaps, even families.

If I can help kids learn a bit more about who they are at, say 15 or 19, then I’ve upped the odds that they’ll make better choices going forward. For me, that’s worth fighting for. Whether, years from now, I’ve touched 100 children, 100,000, or more is less important than the fact that I’ve tried. No regrets.

Is there a “regret” you just won’t tolerate when you’re looking back over your life, decades from now? Feel free to share. You’re probably not alone.

The Power of Identity in Brand Building

Apple, Whole Foods, Alcoa, GE, Ford…all different companies in completely different businesses. What they all share, despite their disparities, is an abiding understanding that their fortunes are intimately tied to the contributions they are capable of making in the world. And that that contribution springs naturally from the identities that govern how each entity creates fundamental value.

A healthy corporate identity comes from building a vital, visible relationship between the institution and the society of which it is necessarily a part. Making this connection clear, promoting it and living it, is how successful companies attract and retain great talent, create sustainable partnerships with valuable customers, and — in the end — are able to keep shareholders happy.

How can you find the connection to identity in your brand building?

Download this free resource to inform your practices.

Who am I? – Mapping your identity

Most people consider the question, who am I, to be some deep, cosmic idea that defies a clear answer. Further, most people think it’s a question one can address only after you’ve got more than a few decades of living under your belt.

Wrong on both counts. Getting to know “you” in a real, articulate and meaningful way, is entirely doable and can start at almost any age. I’ve had lucid identity conversations with 10 and 11 year-olds. Through a process called Identity Mapping, I’ve worked with students, 13-19+, as well as people their parents’ age. Here’s a secret: they all get it.

I recently came across an article by a young girl, Julia R., in Teen Ink magazine that caught my attention. Julia understands a basic tenet of identity development. She writes: I dislike saying “‘I am trying to find myself’ because my identity is not lost, it just needs more uncovering.” Right on, Julia! You’re not inventing you, you’re discovering you. The name of the article is, Who Am I? Here’s the link. http://bit.ly/Abg3yQ

I’ve found that Identity Mapping is a powerful way to uncover one’s unique capacities and then apply those powerful strengths to school, your career, your family, your community and other important relationships.

Imagine being in complete alignment with who you really are. Identity Mapping is designed to tap the creativity, vision and potential that resides in all of us, no matter our age.

For more on how to uncover the potential your identity holds – see this link.

Breaking Your Identity Code

The idea of ‘retirement’ continues to lose currency with so many men and women who have better things to do than spend their days on the golf course or traveling (not there’s anything wrong with these activities).

What people do seem to want is a degree of freedom that just wasn’t possible while working full-time, or in jobs that were less than gratifying.

‘Free to be me’ — finally! — is often the unspoken mantra of people contemplating or entering retirement. The idea that, now, you can be whatever you’ve always wanted to be, or do whatever you’ve always wanted to do, occupies your thoughts and dreams.

But where does true freedom come from? Is it breaking free of external constraints, or is it breaking free from constraints we’ve unconsciously put on ourselves?

If you’re ready to ‘break free,’ start by breaking your own identity code. Please download this free resource.

Kids are people too!

I keep reading about kids who go astray, or who try to be someone they’re not, so they’ll be popular with their peers. All of this makes me a little bit crazy, for I believe that, best intentions aside, many parents fail to help their kids get a handle on who they are as unique human beings; rather, they push their children to “measure up” to the expectations of others, so they’ll be accepted and do well in life. OK, that may be a bit harsh, but you get the point.

As parents, we aren’t naturally conditioned to think about raising children through the lens of identity; that is, deliberately helping them understand themselves and love themselves for who they truly are. Yet, helping a child understand his or her uniqueness and the potential it implies goes a long way towards ensuring that they are well-grounded human beings, that they find the right careers and companions, and are secure in who they are over the course of their lives, despite the challenges they will face.

Here, in brief, are 10 things a parent can do to honor the individual inside their child. Please download this free resource.