With Employee Engagement at new lows... What can be
done??...
In my prior career, my 12
years of people management and leadership experience was focused on a singular
pursuit, which was how to give the best
to my people so I can get the best out of them on behalf of my employer?
Finding that balance will always be key in my eyes! My adoption of a form of
‘servant leadership’ called consultative leadership drove two way interaction, defining
positive impact, giving respect to my subordinates and peers alike along with
asserting an air of fairness through good times and bad. In reflection, it
garnered respect from good people and contempt from bad ones, whom thought it
an opportunity in waiting.
It appears that the challenges
I faced as a management professional don’t seem to have abated any, so why
can’t employers get THEIR people to believe in them?
Here are my top reasons
why:
Hierarchical/Dictatorial
Dominance -
If organisational modelling, leadership style dominance and company
culture are all tailored to chain communication (downwards only communication),
than in practice any dissenting opinions and feedback will be put down by ‘the
management.’ It often leads to a culture of do what i say, not what I do…
People learn to be timid, submissive or face expulsion from the organisation.
With them goes creativity, innovation and ability.
Conflicting
Leadership Styles - Too
often a company will advertise for staff with a rose tinted set of policies on
employee engagement, company culture and how they treat employees. The employee
will go into a company and be initially greeted with smiling faces and what
they expected from their research into the company. After the honeymoon period
is over, the initial phase of enthusiasm by the employee candidate fades. The employee
comes to realise that their manager’s leadership style and resulting office
politics do not match the collaborative utopia sold to them by the company.
Feeling betrayed, they quietly find another job and and undoubtedly, the company’s
brand name will incrementally take a beating. People matter, there is only so
much room under the carpet for the consequences of bad management.
Bad
Boss : Good Employee -
One of my top taboos in management is captured in this question. Who wants to
work for a manager that puts them down at every opportunity to control
them, feeds them half truths to keep them “on board” and shamelessly takes
credit for their achievements? As the old saying goes “people leave bad
managers, not bad companies”. There is an unhealthy amount of bad bosses out
there who are masters of self preservation parasitically living of a company,
churning staff and deflecting blame to others for their ineptness as a leader.
When arrogance is treated as a virtue, bad bosses flourish at the cost of employee
engagement!
So having a taste of bad
management like we all have had at some point, what can be done to improve
employee engagement. Here is my list of priorities for management:
Leave
your comfort zone -
Don’t expect employees to do it for you, if you want to harness the power of
people and not treat them as part of the business transaction, you need to
understand them, what they can do and embrace them as a key attribute to any
success providing the feedback and recognition to them for such. Also, leaders
need to deliver positive credit to staff and not “hog the spot-light”. The
leader is only the spokesperson for the group that deserves the credit!
Remodel
your business to place people at its heart - If you model your business to control the (payroll)
“biggest cost code” at all costs, then in addition to what transactions you
insist on, you will also get only new transactions for new hires, opportunity
cost in lost revenue, cost savings and internal collaboration on new business
opportunities. You need to give the best to get the best so place your people
organisationally in a position of trust, where they are recognised as a vital
part of its success!
Hire
to admire, not to fire - If you do a good brand assessment finding out what kind of personalities
your company brand (& company culture) attracts, along with a personality
assessment of the candidate, then you will have a better level of insight into
that person and be better able to hire a good cultural fit for what you want
your organisation to be.
Communicate
to collaborate -
“Do as I say, not as I do” should be thrown into the bin permanently to be
replaced by “This is what I want you to do and why...” Allow two way
interaction and encourage constructive dissent.
Leaving
the past behind - If
“it’s always done that way” and staff come up with a newer better way, then do
it! Don’t pass over ideas because of a busy schedule. Crushing an idea for
convenience is crushing the company’s future on a whim. Document ideas, brainstorm
them in group/team sessions and record them as potential projects with rankings
for project slots that should feed into a company project management programme
for innovation. Let staff into innovation, you would be surprised at how many
would enjoy it!
Don’t
fear change, embrace it - Creative people love change, always carve out a portion of the week
for creative stimulation even if it’s a project review, problem solving
session, corporate briefing. If you don’t bring staff with you on your journey in
change, you will arrive at your un-embraced destination alone.
Management synergy - Another pet peeve of mine in addition to conflicting management styles is senior management ordering something to be done like a ‘give respect/get respect’ policy for a company and then not standing by the sentiment of their instruction. HR is not immune to office politics and thus should not be the catch all for this type of bad behaviour. The responsibility to embrace, believe in, instruct and deploy such strategic policies lies with senior management only. The goal always should be one company, one vision! As Richard Branson said "I truly believe that if you take care of your employees, they'll take care of your business."
The good news for those who want to make changes and engage with their employees is also in that same Gallup survey. On 2011-12 period, the percentage of those who were not engaged (but not actively disengaged) was at 63%, up 1% from 2009-10. This tells me that a competitive edge exists for senior leaders with vision who can construct a company, which both embraces its people and develops them into the best version of themselves so that they can contribute to their extended ‘company’ families making it not only sustainable but also the best version of itself through each and every day!
Sources/Credits:
Pics;
Credits
Lilli Popper on unsplash.com for her
feature pic
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