10 Steps to Enchanting Your Employees (3): The Elements of Enchantment

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The Elements of Enchantment

Embracing these principles and making a sincere, ongoing effort to enchant your employees has many happy side effects: you’ll continually improve as a boss, and the virtuous circle completed by you and your employees will make the world a better place. And it is important to remember that there is more to enchantment than how it applies to your employees and your relationship with them. I’ve explored the idea in greater depth in my book Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions. To consistently enchant people and achieve your goals and what you want to accomplish in the world, it also takes:

1. Likability. You’re not going to be enchanted by someone you dislike.
   
   
2. Trustworthiness. If you don’t trust someone, you won’t be enchanted.
   
   
3. Preparation. You’ll enchant people with great communication and well-developed attention to detail.
   
   
4. Ability to launch. Get immersed in your cause, and get it out there. Become inspired by the actions of superstar enchanters like Virgin’s Richard Branson and Apple’s Steve Jobs.
   
   
5. Overcoming resistance. How can you enchant the influencers? People won’t automatically gravitate to your cause.
   
   
6. Endurance. Enchantment should lead to a change that lasts, not a brief interaction. People need to internalize and believe in the values of your change efforts.
   
   
7. Effective use of push technology. We are blessed with many technological tools that can further our cause and aid in creating enchantment. Using Twitter, presentations, e-mail, and the like gets your message into the world. They allow you to engage many people, fast and often.
   
   
8. Effective use of pull technology. The flip side of push technology lets you enchant through use of websites, blogs, and social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
   
   
9. Enchanting your boss. This takes a bit of a mindshift. Reorient your efforts to making your boss successful, before yourself. If you’ve properly enchanted your boss, the rewards can be plentiful.
   
   
10. Resisting enchantment when necessary. Lots of people can be enchanting, but their cause is not your cause. Sometimes you’ve got to avoid tempting situations, think long-term about your decisions, or even create a checklist of critical factors to consider before making a decision.
    
    Finally, to enchant your employees and get an even better sense of what it means to be an enchanter, create your own personal Enchantment Hall of Fame. It’s a great way to consider what enchants you, and how that can inspire you to create and further your cause. Here are some of my categories and choices: after reading them, compare and provide your own and you are well on the road to enchantment:
    
    

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Benefits of Gratitude Series
Benefits of Gratitude (1): Savoring Life’s Good Times
Benefits of Gratitude (2): Builds Self-Esteem
Benefits of Gratitude (3): Helps Us Deal With Stress And Trauma
Benefits of Gratitude (4): Encourages Good & Giving Behavior
Benefits of Gratitude (5): Builds and Strengthens Relationships
Benefits of Gratitude (6): Inhibits Keeping Up With The Joneses
Benefits of Gratitude (7): Deters All Negative Emotion
Benefits of Gratitude (8): Keeps You from Taking Good Things For Granted