Monday, February 9, 2015
Good morning,
Where does a winning team get its mojo? When we think of sports, we often attribute success to wildly inspirational leaders. These are the coaches whose legendary speeches inspire teams to break down doors and win championships. However, while we can all appreciate these high-octane, “this is our moment message, inspirational leadership need not be so over-the-top. In your company, fist pumping and a roaring voice aren’t necessary to engage your team and inspire it to reach new heights. What is necessary? Authentic, honest communication from leadership. Employee engagement means that workers are enthusiastic about and dedicated to a company’s goals. It means there’s an emotional commitment that leads an employee to go the extra mile, whether the boss is watching or not. When companies rank high in employee engagement, a 2014 Gallup study found, they also rank higher on nine performance outcomes, including customer rating, productivity, and profitability. Yet only 13 percent of employees worldwide are engaged at work, according to the Gallup study. Here are a few tips for engaging employees in a meaningful and inspirational way (no pads or helmets required).
SHOW THEM THE PLAN. Your company’s or department’s short- and long-term goals shouldn’t be information reserved for senior management. All your employees should be aware of them, and of exactly how their particular job fits in. A call center we worked with started pulling reps off the phone once a month for 15-minute huddles. In these meetings, management reinforced company goals—a major one was increasing customer satisfaction scores by 10 percent—and explained how individual employee roles played a part in meeting these goals. At first, it felt counter-intuitive to take performance-based employees away from their tasks. Over time, however, individual performance stats relating to customer satisfaction increased, company-wide.
SHARE THE “WHY.” Author Simon Sinek, says, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” One regional bank, understanding this, defined its why as “helping people regain their financial footing to afford their dreams.” This concept was shared by leaders at employee meetings and posted throughout their offices. Yes, loan officers still evaluated and processed loan applications, but feedback indicated that they looked at their job more positively and better appreciated how much they were helping their customers. Getting to the why can be difficult. (I highly recommend reading Sinek’s book Start with Why or watching his YouTube TED Talk of the same name.) But if you can define your why and share the story with your employees, you will see the significant employee engagement that is enjoyed by Apple, Patagonia, Harley-Davidson and many others who evangelize their purpose, their meaning, and their worth.
PAY ATTENTION TO EMOTION. People are full of emotion; they are guided and motivated (or demotivated) by their emotions. You can use a survey to gauge emotional issues, but be sure the data you collect is relevant. Asking an employee to rate how likely he or she is to recommend the company to a friend gives us little direction. But ask employees if and how their supervisor inspires them—well, then we have a wealth of information to mine and act on. A manufacturing company dedicated a portion of its quarterly employee reviews to simply asking how employees felt about their jobs and what would make them emotionally more satisfied. More than 70 percent of the employees said they liked their jobs and felt appreciated, and then answered the question about emotional satisfaction by saying they wanted to see more clearly the value they brought to the company. Leadership built and executed a department-by-department communications plan that connected the dots, so all could see how their efforts led to achieving company-wide goals. Over time, department managers reported higher employee satisfaction scores across the board.
TELL STORIES. From the beginning of human history, we’ve been telling stories to help us understand the world around us, to build history, and to provide perspective. Companies are no exception. Ask one of your front-line managers if she remembers the specific performance metrics from last year or the ROI from 2013. The answer is likely to be no. But she will probably recall a story about the company—for example, that the company started with five employees and now has grown to a profitable organization that donates money to local schools for new library books. Companies like Microsoft have even employed a Chief Story Teller to share the company’s goals and expectations in story form. (You can see some of these at www.microsoft.com/stories.) Another excellent resource is Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins by Annette Simmons.
BE AVAILABLE, BE PRESENT, AND BE YOURSELF. Leaders don’t inspire others by simply saying the right words. It’s obvious to everyone when we’re being inauthentic or not true to ourselves, and we know it, too. So while it might not be natural or comfortable for you to deliver a rousing half-time speech to your entire team, I’m certain you have authentic strengths and skills that will produce the same results. Inspiration can be delivered to an employee with a smile and a heartfelt “Good morning!,” or a spontaneous call for an all-employee chili cook-off competition on Friday afternoon, or even a 30-minute walk around the office to ask employees how they’re doing. As leaders, we have to find our voice and our areas of strength and confidence, and then put the above steps into practice. That’s when we’ll find our “inner Vince Lombardi”—and our championship team.
You can expect employees to be loyal and care about their job when you show loyalty and care about them.