We conclude our conversation with Anne-Claire Broughton. She is Principal of Broughton Consulting, LLC, Durham, NC. Her many publications include the Business Action Guide Series of innovative employee engagement practices (with The Hitachi Foundation). Anne-Claire is active with efforts to educate retiring business owners and their advisors about the possibility of employee ownership as an exit strategy. She also shares innovative employee engagement practices to help business owners thrive. In addition, she is President of EarthShare North Carolina’s Board of Directors, an active amateur musician, and parent of a teenager.
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Some of the insights we’ll hear:
- Seeing employees as a fixed cost vs a variable cost.
- What are companies doing to differentiate themselves from the business as usual crowd.
- The importance of training the culture of the company, not just the hard skills.
Questions
- Anne-Claire shares several practices of leaders who are running business differently:
Careful hiring
Extensive (intentional) training
Setting up career ladders/paths and promoting from within
Clearly communicating core values and using them as a guide to action
Smart incentive systems that align to the interests of the organization and the employees
Transparency and Open-Book management
Which one of these could you consider to begin using to move your organization forward?
2. Are you ready to consider your employees as a fixed cost vs a variable cost? If not what parts of this principle could you consider for your business?
3. How could you begin training your team on your culture?
4. What books will you assign to your team to read to begin the move forward?
5. Where’s your heart on this issue?
I would love to see your answers to these questions. You can leave them in the comments below or on Twitter @toddareed, LinkedIn @ToddAReed, or on Facebook, search for the Inspired and Intentional page.
https://www.facebook.com/Inspired-and-Intentional-1658283491074728/?ref=hl
https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddareed
Resources that Anne-Claire Mentioned
Resources
King Arthur Flour
NCEO National Center for Employee Ownership
Hitatchi Foundation Business Action Guides made available to my listeners:
Effective Profit Sharing Marlin Steel
Non Financial Recognition and Rewards: New Belgium Brewing
Innovative Scheduling Practices for Workplace Stability: Cooperative Home Care Associates
Communicating Company Values Clearly: Tasty Catering
Books
The Good Job Strategy by Zeynep Ton
Profit at the Bottom of the Ladder by Jody Heymann
Great Game of Business by Jack Stack
The Idea-Driven Organization by Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder
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The inspired and Intentional podcast is copyright 2016 by its owner. The music is Funk Game Loop, Kevin MacLeod Royalty Free from Incompatech. Thank you for sharing your talent.
Gallup reports 70% of employees are disengaged from their work. This leads to high and expensive turnover, poor productivity, and what Ari Weinzweig calls an energy crisis in the workplace. There are companies and organizations out there bucking this trend. By talking with these inspiring leaders, the goal of the Inspired and Intentional podcast is to help you know that you’re not alone. There are others that, not only, want to run a financially solid organization, but also one that intentionally inspires those on their team and in their community to significance and purpose.