Welcome to Embers and Wind!

“Decades ago, I was disengaged when I was a leader, and I was exploring career options. I enrolled in an 8-day course to learn how to help people solve their own problem in one conversation. By participating in this course, I wound up getting a graduate degree. And it was only after I had my graduate degree that I was able to perceive my role in my job differently. And I could see that there was a tremendous opportunity right in front of me. And I chose to stay and seize it instead of leave. I want to help every leader who wants a benevolent advantage to learn how they can do this too with minimal investment of time and effort.  When you do this, you elevate your engagement and performance too.”  

I'm your host, Keith Weedman. In each podcast episode, you will hear stories. These stories will feel like a tender wind blowing on the embers of service that glow within you. In this weekly show, you will learn ideas, kindling for your embers. It will be your choice to utilize the gentle wind to ignite the kindling. 

In this episode, Keith will share how reading the Gallop Report’s State of the American Workforce brought to his attention the need to speak in a different English language, to use the words employee engagement. He shares two engagement stories from decades ago and another from 5 years ago. He asserts no employee aspires to be disengaged from their work. He notes that helping someone who is disengaged become engaged involves helping them change their perception. He notes two ways leaders can elevate employee engagement and performance: 1) express their gratitude for an employee to them; and 2) give an employee sincere positive feedback can help them change their perception. He asserts each time a leader succeeds in elevating an employee’s engagement and performance, that leader also elevates theirs. He closes the episode by inviting you to invest 2 to 5 minutes daily for the next 5 workdays to: 1) Express your gratitude to one person each workday; Do this with the intention that they feel your gratitude by the way you express it; 2) Be attentive to their verbal and non-verbal response; Utilize their response as feedback for continuous process improvement; (Gleaming eyes and a shining face are preliminary indicators your expression of gratitude had the effect you intended;) 3) Watch for any subsequent change in their engagement and performance; 4) Log in a personal journal any significant observations, including stories you can tell to elevate engagement and performance.

To connect with Keith Weedman, you can schedule a 30-minute Zoom chat by clicking on this link: https://my.timetrade.com/book/J1LRC. You can reach him by email at: [email protected]. His company’s website is the website listed for this episode.

If you are a benevolent leader with an employee engagement problem, click on this link to schedule a 30-minute complimentary session to help you elevate employee engagement: https://my.timetrade.com/book/H4W6P. 

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