Yes, I am on Twitter (@LassiterBrian), and truth be told: I monitor business and leadership tweets to get a pulse on hot topics for this newsletter (I think they call that trending topics). In any event, I have compiled 16 articles from the last 60 days alone on the topic of employee engagement. More precisely: dangerously low levels of US employee engagement.

Heres why I think this is critically important: you simply cannot have engaged customers without having engaged employees. At least not for long. Organizational excellence begins with having an engaged, competent, empowered workforce they serve your customers (stakeholders, patients, students, whatever); they manage and improve your core processes; they find ways to reduce waste or increase productivity. In short, they run your enterprise.

But they arent happy in fact, about 70% are disengaged, which impacts most organizations outcomes and bottom line

Im going to offer 14 tips for improving employee satisfaction and engagement strategies that leaders and managers at all levels can start using today. But first, I culled through those 16 articles to try to quantify the issue. Heres what I found:

Gallup, the preeminent authority on all things employee engagement, reports that only 30% of US workers are engaged. Yes, that means 70% are NOT engaged. Disengagement appears to be fairly widespread: in all sizes of organizations (though smaller organizations generally have higher engagement levels than larger), in all parts of the US (interestingly, the south and southeast US have slightly higher engagement levels and the Mid-Atlantic, northeast, and northwest US have the worst), in all industries (though manufacturing, service, and transportation appear to have the lowest engagement), and with all ages (though Millennials and Gen Xers have generally lower levels of engagement than Baby Boomers and Traditionalists).

In a word, disengagement is pervasive.

The good news: the trend of low engagement has been somewhat stable the last 13 years, aside from a dip from 2008-11, likely attributed to the recession.

But the bad news: low employee engagement is costing US organizations dearly (all according to Gallup):

In fact, Gallups CEO estimates employee disengagement is costing US organizations about a half a TRILLION (with a T) dollars a year.

For further proof of the financial impact of engagement, Fast Company reports that businesses with higher employee engagement have enjoyed a 4% higher return than the S&P 500: the Parnassus Workplace Fund (comprised mainly of stocks of companies on the 100 Best Companies to Work For) has a 9.63% return from April 2005 to January 2013 versus the S&P 500s 5.53% over the same period. Probably not coincidental.

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Workers Are Mad As Hell: 14 Ways to Increase Employee ...

The meaning of the word appraisal is to fix a price or value for something. This is used in finance in terms such as project appraisal or financial appraisal where a value is attached to a project. Similarly performance appraisal is a process in which one values the employee contribution and worth to the organisation. Employees across the entire organisation are appraised of their performance. This could be done annually, twice a year, periodically depending the need of the organisation. Performance appraisal is a systematic and orderly evaluation of performance of employees at work by their superiors or others who are familiar with the techniques of performance appraisal. A performance appraisal is a formal review of employee performance. At a performance appraisal, objectives or targets are agreed between manager and employee. At each subsequent appraisal, current and past performance is compared and targets are reviewed. Performance appraisals are essential for the effective management and evaluation of staff. Appraisals help develop individuals, improve organizational performance, and feed into business planning. Formal performance appraisals are generally conducted annually for all staff in the organization. Each staff member is appraised by their line manager. Performance appraisals are also essential for career and succession planning. Performance appraisals are important for staff motivation, attitude and behaviour development, communicating organizational aims, and fostering positive relationships between management and staff. Performance appraisals provide a formal, recorded, regular review of an individuals performance, and a plan for future development. In short, performance and job appraisals are vital for managing the performance of people and organizations.

360 DEGREEE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL In 360-degree performance reviews, many different types of people are consulted about an employees performance. This includes customers, suppliers, peers and direct reports. In the case of a manager, employees are often asked to give upward feedback on how well they are being managed. If 360-degree performance reviews are performed, a Human Resources manager should coordinate the process, so that subordinate reviewers (i.e., employees) are assured that their performance reviews are kept anonymous.

The aim is to find the gap between ones own appraisal and the perceptions of others. This will in turn enable a professional to analyse his strengths and shortcomings and accordingly improve his performance. While it is true that the system serves as an excellent process since it reduces biases, it is not always successful. It is necessary to create the right culture in the company before introducing the system. If many people are unhappy or their morale is low, the situation can turn disastrous as some staffers will become obvious targets. ADVANTAGES OF 360 DEGREE APPRAISAL

Provides a more comprehensive view of employee performance.

Increases credibility of performance appraisal.

Feedback from peers enhances employee self-development.

Increases accountability of employees to their customers.

The combination of opinions can approximate to an accurate view

Comments expressed by several colleagues tend to carry weight

Some skills are best judged by peers and staff, not by manager alone

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360 Degree Performance Appraisal | MBA Articles

Background

Personal Performance is founded on the principal of providing clients education and training on whole body wellness through alternative methods of nutrition, fitness training and injury rehabilitation. Established in 1994, we have been providing superior training and rehabilitation techniques that produce consistent, progressive results. Our commitment is to provide progressive personalized service and instruction that treats each client as a whole person to help each person achieve optimal wellness.

Founders

Doug Kleberreceived his B.S. in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois. He is a Registered Kinesiotherapist and Certified Massage Therapist. Doug is a former All-American football player, collegiate baseball player and Pro NFL player. His focus in working with athletes is on more than building strength; his treatments and training plans ensure that injured players are not only ready to get back into the game, but that they do so with sufficient strength and recovery to prevent future injury.

Sue Kleberhas a B.S. in Physical Education from the University of Illinois. Sue is a seasoned teacher; she has taught health and physical education and is an experienced Junior and Senior High School volleyball coach, and former Big 10 volleyball player. Sue works with her personal training clients to develop and maintain healthy programs that will build strength and endurance in ways that also prevent future injury.

Staff

Amber Blackfordis a Licensed Massage Therapist.

DJ Homann is a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine, and has a Masters degree in sport science and rehabilitation. DJ received his Masters degree from Logan College of Chiropractic where they teach and practice holistic health care techniques, focusing on exercise, chriopractic care, and lifestyle and nutritional changes to bring about maximal health. As part of this degree, he spent a semester interning as the Strength and Conditioning Coach, overseeing 17 Division 1 sports teams.

DJ focuses on high-intensity training for athletes of all ages, helping clients achieve maximum sport performance. He also does corrective exercise rehabilitation for those clients who need it. DJ enjoys tournament bass fishing in his free time.

Helen Popeis a Nationally Certified Massage Therapist, licensed to practice in the State of Illinois. She is a CertifiedZero Balancer, and aUsui Reiki Master/Teacher.Helen is also pursuing certification in CranioSacral Therapy. She has training in Reflexology, OrthoBionomy and Deep Tissue therapies.

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About | Personal Performance

Motivation is a theoretical construct used to explain behavior. It represents the reasons for people's actions, desires, and needs. Motivation can also be defined as one's direction to behavior or what causes a person to want to repeat a behavior and vice versa.[1] A motive is what prompts the person to act in a certain way or at least develop an inclination for specific behavior.[2] For example, when someone eats food to satisfy the need of hunger, or when a student does his/her work in school because he/she wants a good grade. Both show a similar connection between what we do and why we do it. According to Maehr and Meyer, "Motivation is a word that is part of the popular culture as few other psychological concepts are".[3] Wikipedia readers will have a motive (or motives) for reading an article, even if such motives are complex and difficult to pinpoint. At the other end of the range of complexity, hunger is frequently the motive for seeking out and consuming food.

Motivation theories can be classified on a number of bases.

Motivation can be looked at as a cycle where thoughts influence behaviors, and behaviors drive performance, performance impacts thoughts and the cycle begins again. Each stage of the cycle is composed of many dimensions including attitudes, beliefs, intentions, effort, and withdrawal which can all affect the motivation that an individual experiences.

The idea that human beings are rational and human behavior is guided by reason is an old one. However, recent research (on Satisficing for example) has significantly undermined the idea of homo economicus or of perfect rationality in favour of a more bounded rationality. The field of behavioural economics is particularly concerned with the limits of rationality in economic agents.[4]

Motivation can be divided into two different theories known as Intrinsic (internal) motivation and Extrinsic (external) motivation.

Intrinsic motivation has been studied since the early 1970s. Intrinsic motivation is the self-desire to seek out new things and new challenges, to analyze one's capacity, to observe and to gain knowledge.[5] It is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than relying on external pressures or a desire for reward. The phenomenon of intrinsic motivation was first acknowledged within experimental studies of animal behavior. In these studies, it was evident that the organisms would engage in playful and curiosity driven behaviors in the absence of reward. Intrinsic motivation is a natural motivational tendency and is a critical element in cognitive, social, and physical development.[6] Students who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to engage in the task willingly as well as work to improve their skills, which will increase their capabilities.[7] Students are likely to be intrinsically motivated if they:

An example of intrinsic motivation is when an employee becomes an IT professional because he or she wants to learn about how computer users interact with computer networks. The employee has the intrinsic motivation to gain more knowledge[8]

Advantages: Intrinsic motivation can be long-lasting and self-sustaining. Efforts to build this kind of motivation are also typically efforts at promoting student learning. Such efforts often focus on the subject rather than rewards or punishments.

Disadvantages: On the other hand, efforts at fostering intrinsic motivation can be slow to affect behavior and can require special and lengthy preparation. Students are individuals, so a variety of approaches may be needed to motivate different students. It is often helpful to know what interests ones students in order to connect these interests with the subject matter. This requires getting to know ones students. Also, it helps if the instructor is interested in the subject to begin with![9]

Extrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an activity in order to attain a desired outcome and it is the opposite of intrinsic motivation.[5] Extrinsic motivation comes from influences outside of the individual. In extrinsic motivation, the harder question to answer is where do people get the motivation to carry out and continue to push with persistence. Usually extrinsic motivation is used to attain outcomes that a person wouldn't get from intrinsic motivation.[10] Common extrinsic motivations are rewards (for example money or grades) for showing the desired behavior, and the threat of punishment following misbehavior. Competition is an extrinsic motivator because it encourages the performer to win and to beat others, not simply to enjoy the intrinsic rewards of the activity. A cheering crowd and the desire to win a trophy are also extrinsic incentives.[11]

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Motivation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A performance, in the performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers present one or more works of art to an audience. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience members often applaud. After a performance, performance measurement sometimes occurs. Performance measurement is the process of collecting, analyzing and/or reporting information regarding the performance of an individual, group, organization, system or component.

The means of expressing appreciation can vary by culture. Chinese performers will clap with the audience at the end of a performance; the return applause signals "thank you" to the audience.[1] In Japan, folk performing-arts performances commonly attract individuals who take photographs, sometimes getting up to the stage and within inches of performer's faces.[2]

Sometimes the dividing line between performer and the audience may become blurred, as in the example of "participatory theatre" where audience members get involved in the production.

Theatrical performances can take place daily or at some other regular interval. Performances can take place at designated performance spaces (such as a theatre or concert hall), or in a non-conventional space, such as a subway station, on the street, or in somebody's home.

Examples of performance genres include:

Music performance (a concert or a recital) may take place indoors in a concert hall or outdoors in a field, and may require the audience to remain very quiet, or encourage them to sing and dance along with the music.

A performance may also describe the way in which an actor performs. In a solo capacity, it may also refer to a mime artist, comedian, conjurer, or other entertainer.

Live performance events including theater, music, dance, opera, use sound production equipment and services like: staging, scenery, mechanicals, sound, lighting, video, special effects, transport, packaging, communications, costume and makeup to convince live audience members that there is no better place that they could be right now. This Live Event Support article provides information about many of the possible performance production support tools and services and how they relate to each other. Live performance events have a long history of using visual scenery, lighting, costume amplification and a shorter history of visual projection and sound amplification reinforcement. This article describes the technologies that have been used to amplify and reinforce Live events. The sections of this article together explain how the tools needed to stage, amplify and reinforce live events are interconnected.

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Performance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's been almost ten years since Mike Robertson and I introduced our Magnificent Mobility DVD set. This popular DVD set certainly helped a lot of people, but as with all aspects of the incredibly dynamic strength and conditioning and rehabilitation f

I'm a huge fan of incorporating landmine press variations into strength training programs. These awesome exercises are great for building scapular upward rotation, core stability, upper body strength, thoracic mobility, and a whole lot more. Unfortun

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I hope everyone is having a great week and is excited for a great Thanksgiving. It might be a holiday week, but it's still super busy at the new Cressey Sports Performance facility in Jupiter, FL. Luckily, I've got some great content from around the

Master the King of All Exercises

Deadlifting Secrets 101

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Eric Cressey | High Performance Training, Personal ...

performance appraisals purpose - and how to make it easier

Performance appraisals are essential for the effective management and evaluation of staff. Appraisals help develop individuals, improve organizational performance, and feed into business planning. Formal performance appraisals are generally conducted annually for all staff in the organization. Each staff member is appraised by their line manager. Directors are appraised by the CEO, who is appraised by the chairman or company owners, depending on the size and structure of the organization.

Annual performance appraisals enable management and monitoring of standards, agreeing expectations and objectives, and delegation of responsibilities and tasks. Staff performance appraisals also establish individual training needs and enable organizational training needs analysis and planning.

Performance appraisals also typically feed into organizational annual pay and grading reviews, which commonly also coincides with the business planning for the next trading year.

Performance appraisals generally review each individual's performance against objectives and standards for the trading year, agreed at the previous appraisal meeting.

Performance appraisals are also essential for career and succession planning - for individuals, crucial jobs, and for the organization as a whole.

Performance appraisals are important for staff motivation, attitude and behaviour development, communicating and aligning individual and organizational aims, and fostering positive relationships between management and staff.

Performance appraisals provide a formal, recorded, regular review of an individual's performance, and a plan for future development.

Job performance appraisals - in whatever form they take - are therefore vital for managing the performance of people and organizations.

Managers and appraisees commonly dislike appraisals and try to avoid them. To these people the appraisal is daunting and time-consuming. The process is seen as a difficult administrative chore and emotionally challenging. The annual appraisal is maybe the only time since last year that the two people have sat down together for a meaningful one-to-one discussion. No wonder then that appraisals are stressful - which then defeats the whole purpose.

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performance appraisals and sample appraisal form templates ...

No matter how well trained people are, few can sustain their best performance on their own. Thats where coaching comes in. Credit Illustration by Barry Blitt

Ive been a surgeon for eight years. For the past couple of them, my performance in the operating room has reached a plateau. Id like to think its a good thingIve arrived at my professional peak. But mainly it seems as if Ive just stopped getting better.

During the first two or three years in practice, your skills seem to improve almost daily. Its not about hand-eye cordinationyou have that down halfway through your residency. As one of my professors once explained, doing surgery is no more physically difficult than writing in cursive. Surgical mastery is about familiarity and judgment. You learn the problems that can occur during a particular procedure or with a particular condition, and you learn how to either prevent or respond to those problems.

Say youve got a patient who needs surgery for appendicitis. These days, surgeons will typically do a laparoscopic appendectomy. You slide a small cameraa laparoscopeinto the abdomen through a quarter-inch incision near the belly button, insert a long grasper through an incision beneath the waistline, and push a device for stapling and cutting through an incision in the left lower abdomen. Use the grasper to pick up the finger-size appendix, fire the stapler across its base and across the vessels feeding it, drop the severed organ into a plastic bag, and pull it out. Close up, and youre done. Thats how you like it to go, anyway. But often it doesnt.

Even before you start, you need to make some judgments. Unusual anatomy, severe obesity, or internal scars from previous abdominal surgery could make it difficult to get the camera in safely; you dont want to poke it into a loop of intestine. You have to decide which camera-insertion method to usetheres a range of optionsor whether to abandon the high-tech approach and do the operation the traditional way, with a wide-open incision that lets you see everything directly. If you do get your camera and instruments inside, you may have trouble grasping the appendix. Infection turns it into a fat, bloody, inflamed worm that sticks to everything around itbowel, blood vessels, an ovary, the pelvic sidewalland to free it you have to choose from a variety of tools and techniques. You can use a long cotton-tipped instrument to try to push the surrounding attachments away. You can use electrocautery, a hook, a pair of scissors, a sharp-tip dissector, a blunt-tip dissector, a right-angle dissector, or a suction device. You can adjust the operating table so that the patients head is down and his feet are up, allowing gravity to pull the viscera in the right direction. Or you can just grab whatever part of the appendix is visible and pull really hard.

Once you have the little organ in view, you may find that appendicitis was the wrong diagnosis. It might be a tumor of the appendix, Crohns disease, or an ovarian condition that happened to have inflamed the nearby appendix. Then youd have to decide whether you need additional equipment or personnelmaybe its time to enlist another surgeon.

Over time, you learn how to head off problems, and, when you cant, you arrive at solutions with less fumbling and more assurance. After eight years, Ive performed more than two thousand operations. Three-quarters have involved my specialty, endocrine surgerysurgery for endocrine organs such as the thyroid, the parathyroid, and the adrenal glands. The rest have involved everything from simple biopsies to colon cancer. For my specialized cases, Ive come to know most of the serious difficulties that could arise, and have worked out solutions. For the others, Ive gained confidence in my ability to handle a wide range of situations, and to improvise when necessary.

As I went along, I compared my results against national data, and I began beating the averages. My rates of complications moved steadily lower and lower. And then, a couple of years ago, they didnt. It started to seem that the only direction things could go from here was the wrong one.

Maybe this is what happens when you turn forty-five. Surgery is, at least, a relatively late-peaking career. Its not like mathematics or baseball or pop music, where your best work is often behind you by the time youre thirty. Jobs that involve the complexities of people or nature seem to take the longest to master: the average age at which S. & P. 500 chief executive officers are hired is fifty-two, and the age of maximum productivity for geologists, one study estimated, is around fifty-four. Surgeons apparently fall somewhere between the extremes, requiring both physical stamina and the judgment that comes with experience. Apparently, Id arrived at that middle point.

It wouldnt have been the first time Id hit a plateau. I grew up in Ohio, and when I was in high school I hoped to become a serious tennis player. But I peaked at seventeen. That was the year that Danny Trevas and I climbed to the top tier for doubles in the Ohio Valley. I qualified to play singles in a couple of national tournaments, only to be smothered in the first round both times. The kids at that level were playing a different game than I was. At Stanford, where I went to college, the tennis team ranked No. 1 in the nation, and I had no chance of being picked. That meant spending the past twenty-five years trying to slow the steady decline of my game.

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Personal Best - The New Yorker

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3chkYKboFM

CHERYL MALANUM ROCK IT IN COURTICE
YOUNG FILIPINO SINGER/PERFORMER CHERYLL MALANUM SINGS HER COVER SONG #39;I WILL SURVIE #39; AT A CHARITY DINNER IN COURTICE, ONTARIO. CHERYLL IS ONE OF THE MEMBERS ...

By: Li ERON

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CHERYL MALANUM ROCK IT IN COURTICE - Video

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqfAnH-5xcE

Plex on the Seagate Personal Cloud and New Firmware Performance Improvements
Buy it on Amazon - http://lon.tv/em0n8 (affiliate link) Seagate made some firmware improvements to their Personal Cloud since we last looked at it, including a new option to load a Plex server...

By: Lon Seidman

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Plex on the Seagate Personal Cloud and New Firmware Performance Improvements - Video