On Tuesday I had the pleasure of hearing Laura  Huckabee-Jennings speak to my local SHRM chapter. She did a fantastic presentation titled Leaders Have Followers, and I took a page full of great notes. I had to laugh though. I was thinking to myself that my manager should have attended, because there were some things in there that she would be interested in implementing. Then I looked up and she was sitting two tables away looking right at me! Be careful what you wish for!

Below you’ll find my tweets/notes from the event. Because they’re chronologically ordered, you’ll have to start at the bottom and read up to get them in the right sequence. If you see one that stands out for you, mention it in a comment below. I’d like to know which ones really resonate with you.

• @incentintel The #NASHRM speaker was Laura Huckabee-Jennings from http://bit.ly/b7nuGb about 14 hours ago from in reply to incentintel
• And that’s all she wrote. Pretty good one today. I think it was useful and interesting. Now to hike back to the car. Blarg. #NASHRM
• Okay, I’ve stopped taking notes because some of us have to actually work today. Let’s move this #NASHRM meeting along.
• CEOs can influence the process, but every manager from top to bottom must be involved or it won’t work.
• If you’re going org-wide on engagement, start at the top, make your execs get involved, start with small work teams.

If you’re going to stop sucking @ engagement, start with small groups. Bigger is exponentially harder.

• Some of this sounds like the US Cellular culture surveys I mentioned in my Pursuit of Something Better review.
• If you bought an expensive piece of machinery, would you pay for maintenance? Why don’t you provide maintenance on people?
• Gallup’s Q12 survey is industry standard for measuring engagement.

Oldie but a goodie-you have 2 ears and 1 mouth. Use ’em in that proportion.

• Managers should listen, help staff to develop, and actually CARE. (sounds like my Do Amazing Things article)
• Engagement Pyramid-What do I get? What do I give? Do I belong? How can I grow?

I think people underestimate the power of shared values in the workplace.

• How to drive engagement: walk the talk, provide interesting work, show career growth, have accountability (top to bottom!)
• She’s promoting #undercoverboss at #NASHRM
• Engagement is not about… Pay, hours, or promotions. It IS about appreciation, being valued, and making a difference.
• How do you really measure engagement?

What shows an engaged employee? Passion, productive, energized, loyal, *contagious*

• What about struggling groups in your org? What’s the difference in the two groups?
• Who are top 5 stars in your org? Why do people follow them?
• Leaders-commit to a vision, communicate it, inspire others to commit to the same vision.

Really good stuff this month at the NASHRM event. Anyone else been to a good event lately?