ARTICLE 1
How to Create Superstar Employees: Beyond Work-Life Balance
Robert Pagliarini
What does Tiger Woods have to do with your happiness and productivity at work? Surprisingly, quite a bit. Tiger Woods recently dropped out of golf's top 10 world rankings for the first time in 14 years. His descent has shocked the golf world, but it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. As much as we try to separate work from life, they are inextricably linked in powerful ways that we are just now realizing. If you have a job, or if you are responsible for managing or hiring employees, you need to understand the Tiger Effect.
Most companies are operating in the dark ages when it comes to supporting their employees, and they are missing a huge opportunity. There are three kinds of employees: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. What kind of employees do you want? Your goal should be to discover how to create superstar employees -- the not-so-technical term for those employees who are more productive, creative, loyal, satisfied, entrepreneurial, who call in sick less often, stay with the company longer, provide greater discretionary effort and who are able to leap over ordinary employees in a single bound.
But isn'ts this what organizations have been trying to do? Of course. They invest billions of dollars and spend countless hours teaching their employees how to become better leaders and managers, how to be more efficient and productive, while also providing training in work-flow processing and organization. Like Dr. Phil famously asks his intractable guests, "How's that workin' for ya?" Survey says ... not so good.
The relationship between employees and employers is at a breaking point. The latest research suggests employees are becoming increasingly dissatisfied and disengaged. The Corporate Leadership Council offers