Excellence at Work : The Six Keys to Inspire Passion in the Workplace

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Sandy Asch is Principal of Alliance for Organizational Excellence LLC and author of Excellence at Work: The Six Keys to Inspire Passion in the Workplace published by WorldatWork press. Sandy's passion is to make the workplace exciting and joyful - a place where people experience pride, satisfaction and fulfillment. She has 18 years success working with companies to build workplace excellence, helping them to gain the reputation as an employer of choice so they can attract, optimize and retain top talent to meet and exceed their goals. Twelve thousand individuals from 350+ companies have participated in her programs as a means to achieve improved results. Sandy holds a Master's Degree in Organizational Management, brings relevant experience with audiences on five continents and has taught Graduate and Undergraduate classes at two universities.

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"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Charles Dickens's words could aptly be applied to today's business environment. Some companies will find innovative and creative ways to meet the challenges that the next two decades present, and they will thrive. Others, especially those that rely on traditional hierarchies and rigid linear thinking, will not.

Some observers point to recent trends and events in the business world and shake their heads. Economist Simon Head analyzed the corporate environment of call centers and managed medical practices in his book The Ruthless New Economy. He found that "reengineering" had demoralized and degraded workers through micromanagement, scripted software and a "Big Brother is watching you" mentality, which--as it turns out--isn't even cost-effective.

The high cost of glamorous but ineffective CEOs and CFOs is also cited as a sign of the decline and fall of American business. And while the scandals of Enron and Tyco made yesterday's news headlines, other scandals that leave investors with empty pockets continue to be uncovered.

It's a New World Companies that ignore the importance of human capital management and fail to develop a comprehensive, integrated "employer-of-choice" strategy will be vulnerable as the United States faces its biggest labor crisis in its history.

In "New Realities in Today's Workforce," Towers Perrin reported figures that are even more alarming: "Workforce demographics are changing by every measure: gender, race, national origin, religion, age and so on. Simultaneously, a shortage of top talent is emerging. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, our organizations will need to fill 55 million positions over the next decade, but only 29 million employees will be available. This 26 million shortfall will affect all employers."

The challenge facing business leaders is to find and retain good employees and then optimize their value and retain them. To succeed, they must inspire those employees to do their very best and to achieve the levels of excellence that will be required to compete in a global marketplace.

Excellence is Values-Based Patricia Aburdene claimed in her book Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism that we are at the dawning of a more conscious capitalism. The flagrant abuses in which some companies have indulged succeeded in awakening others to the need for integrity, strong ethics and spirituality in the workplace. "Today we are birthing a new and wiser version of capitalism, one that reconciles profit with the values we hold dear," she wrote.

The principles presented in this book are "values-based" and will prove vital to those who are striving to achieve conscious capitalism. The principles are a vehicle for transformation of the workplace to a traditional values-based environment grounded in trust, respect and integrity.

We live in a time of extraordinary demand. People are demoralized by layoffs, downsizing, outsourcing and offshoring; they are re-examining their personal values in a search for greater meaning and fulfillment. Business has reached a critical nexus. To renew the spirit of their employees and continue to harness their genius, businesses today look at how the organization's values and consciousness are affecting employees.