You can't fake engagement

Quick Tips

“Engagement” may just be a fresh word for a familiar idea: Employees are more productive when they're happy and committed to your goals than when they're miserable and just trying to get by. But whatever you call it, you can't ignore the challenge. Here’s how to drive engagement in your team:

• Set clear expectations. Tell employees where your team is headed—its mission—and how you plan to get there. A clear sense of direction helps people see the connection between their daily work and their employer’s long-term success.

• Pay attention to your culture. Engagement can’t thrive in an environment that ignores employees. Listen to your workforce; ask employees what resources and training they need to do their best work; and support them in developing their skills so they feel that you’re all on the same side. Provide simple, clear and regular feedback.

• Inspire your workforce. Employees want to know that their work is about more than making money for the executives or shareholders. Tell them why their work is important and how it helps customers, the community, and the world. Just be sure to back up your inspirational talks with decisions and actions that demonstrate you’re not just mouthing slogans.

• Be authentic. Your employees won’t feel passionate about their work if they think you’re faking it. Express your own feelings about why the work is important. Celebrate successes, and be honest about setbacks. Sincerity is the foundation of engagement.

All the success!

Peter Mclees, MS LMFT
Principal

Smart Development, inc

From the Leader's Digest Mail Bag: Managing Mediocrity:

Dear Leader’s Digest:

I am struggling with some employees who are just not cutting it. Their performance is mediocre at best, but there is not enough cause to terminate them. Other employees have complained about them. Customers have not complained about them but they never receive compliments either.

I feel as though I am stuck with these people who are not up to par. How can I better handle employees who just skate by doing the minimum?

Dear Managing Mediocrity:

We hope you're sitting down because our answer is going to suggest more work than you might have hoped. But we can assure you that if you really want to raise performance for not only these low performers, but for the entire employee, this is an approach that may help.

First, let’s agree on the real problem. The issue you're facing is not low performers. The issue is low expectations. If these two employees are truly low performers and yet “there is not enough cause to terminate them,” then you are operating in a culture with mediocre norms. And if that’s true, then the work you have to do is not first and foremost with the low performers, it is with chronically bad group norms. If your team was crystal clear on high performance expectations, mediocrity would be painfully apparent and you wouldn't have to make a tough call when it came time to coach, counsel or redeploy.

So, how do you reset norms? How can you set a high performance standard that makes dealing with mediocrity much clearer?

1. Confirm the Company/Region/HR Standard. You, your peers, your supervisors, and HR need to have a uniform and explicit understanding about the kind of performance you expect from employees, their position and the duties they are performing in your store.

2. Go Public. Once you have sufficient support from the people identified in step 1 for the hard decisions involved with a higher performance standard, you'll have to go public. Let people know the bar is being raised. Let them know of any implications for jobs, for development, and any other consequences people will need to understand so there are no surprises. Acknowledge that the norms-expectations were different in the past, without sounding self-righteous and judgmental of past leadership. Frankly state how things will be going forward and why this is right for the store and good for those involved. Sell the vision as a way of instilling pride and ambition. Let people know that there will be ample and just opportunities to upgrade their contribution, as well as how you'll support that with candor, coaching, and development.


3. Coach, Coach, Coach—Redeploy. Now live the standard. If someone performs below the standard, coach them—have the “content” conversation to let them know the gap between what they did and what you expected. Three factors set those who are adept at talking about mediocre behavior apart from the rest of the pack: research, homework and connection. First, you need to gather data. Have a talk with the marginal employees about what they like and don't like about their current work situation. What are their frustrations, aspirations, and concerns? Approach your “research” conversation with a genuine desire to discover underlying barriers and then see if you can find ways to resolve them.

Next, scrupulously gather facts—from memory and observation—that will allow you to describe in illuminating detail the difference between mediocrity and excellence. This is crucial. Many managers are so vague about the difference that they end up using the feel-good, mean-nothing terms that typically pepper pregame speeches, such as “We need you give 110 percent.” This advise may make sense to those giving it but it only confuses and insults the people who are supposed to change. Ask yourself, what actual behaviors can I describe to make this distinction clear?

Finally, connect your homework with your research. Explain how your recommendations will not only bridge the performance gap but help them achieve their aspirations. When you make this link your influence will increase enormously. Also, this would be a great time to use goal setting to engage the employee in identifying and resolving the performance shortfall.

If it continues, coach again—but this time have a “pattern” conversation—let them know this is now a chronic concern, not an isolated concern. If needed, this escalation is documented and any necessary support in the form of training, mentoring, work process change, etc., is offered. If it happens again, it’s time for a “relationship” conversation. At this point the person must know that redeployment is an option. This must be put in writing to allow no wiggle room in understanding.

In conclusion, the greatest challenge you'll face in coaching is not the individual's performance, but your own clarity. Far too few managers know how to articulate the difference between mediocre performance and good performance. And if you can't describe it you can't expect it. You must do the hard work of detailing the behaviors and results you expect to see and contrasting those with typical mediocre performance. Every minute you spend more expertly articulating expectations will save you an hour in debate and resentment later.

All the success,

PM in the AM

The #1 Leadership Problem

http://www.bnet.com/blog/business-strategy/the-1-leadership-problem/1104?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

Building Engagement and Profits in Tough Economic Times

In good times, employee engagement is the difference between being good and being great. In bad times, it’s the difference between surviving or not. In good times and bad, low engagement reduces performance and profit. In good times, consumer demand can disguise the lapses in productivity that disengagement causes. But in bad times, there isn’t any way to hide the performance problems of disengagement.

There are several levers leaders can pull to help employees stay positive and engaged:

• Clarifying expectations.
• Providing information, materials and resources needed to do work right.
• Granting opportunities to do what your crew does best every day.
• Giving frequent recognition and praise for doing good work..
• Caring about your crew as individuals.
• Planning, enabling and encouraging development.
• Asking for opinions from your employees.
• Communicating the company’s vision/mission.

Recognition provides employees with a personal, positive indication that they are valued and are necessary contributors. This can be incredibly powerful when the economic news is unrelentingly negative. Managers shouldn’t reserve recognition only for big wins; they should applaud small victories too. Also, when it comes to recognition individualization matters.

WOW point! Research reveals that proper employee recognition has a significant impact on operating margin. Operating margin shows how much a company makes from each dollar of sales before interest and taxes. In general, businesses with higher operating margins tend to have lower costs and better gross margins. This gives them more pricing flexibility and an added measure of safety during tough economic times. According to the data, companies in the highest quartile of recognition of excellence report had operating margin of 6.6 percent, while those in the lowest quartile report 1 percent.

It helps morale to focus discussions on employees’ strengths. Tom Rath, author of Strengths Based Leadership, recommends spending 80 percent of time talking about your employees’ strengths and 20 percent on things they should improve.

What your company’s vision or purpose? To some, that might seem like a pre-recession question, one that no longer resonates when businesses are focusing on survival. Well it isn’t. In fact, it’s essential in this climate. Mission or purpose is the strategic structure that pulls organizations through the worst of times. While nearly everyone in corporate America is cutting costs and trying to stimulate revenues organizations that have a clear vision won’t be looking for silver bullets or grasping at straws or just cutting costs with no clear focus. Instead, they will have more clarity in their cuts and more certainty on how to stimulate revenues.

·    To run an organization effectively, leaders must set visions and priorities, plan, build relationships, influence others, and make things happen. But if you ask followers what they need from leaders, the clear answer is INTEGRITY, STABILITY, CARING and HOPE.

·    INTEGRITY: trust is primarily built through relationships, and it’s important because it’s the foundational currency that a leader has with his team or his followers. Trust is built by being honest with people about the realities of the business and the realities of their performance.

·    STABILITY: In these rough economic times, leaders can’t entirely quell the fears that people feel. But they can promote a feeling of stability from day to day, and that creates a sense of security and engagement. The leader’s biggest short-term problem can be the distraction and even paralysis that comes from anxiety that employees may feel about their own jobs and the jobs of their friends and family members. Predictability is a good antidote for feelings of insecurity. Try to exude as much of a ‘business as usual’ feel and meet people’s need for stability and security so that while they may be hearing bad economic news and while everything else is changing there are some predictable elements in work and life.

·    CARING: The lifeblood of employee engagement is caring—the feeling that your boss or someone at work cares about you personally, that someone encourages your development, and that the people around you care about the work they do. While caring is always an essential aspect of engagement, when employees, feel (Whether their perceptions are real or not) insecure about their jobs, knowing that someone cares is enormously important—and individualization is implicit in caring. You can’t show people you care if don’t know them, so you have to spend with people one on one.

WOW point! Even in the best times, many leaders may be hesitant to show that they care about their employees. They may think that expressions or demonstrations of caring will undermine professionalism, make difficult decisions harder, or have a negative impact on employees’ performance.

In fact, THAT’S WRONG! Gallup research shows that the more leaders about their individual employees, the higher those workers performance will be. Yet when companies are cutting jobs, hours or raises, retreating from personal connections is a natural self-protective instinct. How can you ask a worker about her kids today when you suspect you’ll be cutting her hours tomorrow? But cutting people off can make them more insecure—and make bad news harder to hear too.

Showing you care can keep engagement alive!

·    HOPE: Hope creates an aspirational factor among all the things you are trying to do in your company, and gives people a reason to commit. Hope suggests that the future will better (if not the past) than the present, and that what we’re doing as a company now will contribute toward creating the future. You can’t build hope without trust. You can’t build hope without security and caring. But trust, security and caring aren’t enough. You do need hope to draw people toward a better future and give them aspirations. And it’s a critical aspect of leadership right now. The challenge today is managing fear, then building hope about goals that we can all believe in.

WOW point! Hope requires initiative but according to the Gallup research, leaders are far more likely to react than to initiate—even though leaders will more often than not say they are proactive and not reactive.

Reinforcing the Importance of Using Positive Reinforcement to Motivate Others

Using Positive Reinforcement to Motivate Others

In these uncertain economic times, it is easy for employees to become negative. To make sure employees do not become negative, all managers must help ensure their employees are engaged.
Engaged employees are more likely to be productive and less likely to leave as the economy continues to improve. One of the most overlooked and simple ways to engage employees is by expressing honest, sincere appreciation for their efforts. By expressing appreciation for the positive other people contribute, you will benefit as much as they will. The way you treat others is a direct reflection of the way you think about them. Train your brain in a positive direction, and you will find it increasingly easy to work cooperatively with others - even if they are negative.

Acknowledging other's strengths can also go a long way towards helping you get along with difficult people. Each individual's social effectiveness is rooted in his or her self-concept. When he or she is critical, hostile, or unkind, it is almost always because his or her self-concept is threatened. As a manager, you are responsible for fostering positive environments. This environment can require managers to work with employees and challenge them to change their attitude. So next time you give a compliment, instead of just saying "good job," offer a sincere strength comment that has the following attributes.

• Identifies a trait that you respect, admire, or appreciate in the individual.
• Expresses your admiration for the trait.
• Supports your opinion about the trait with specific evidence - something you have observed the person doing.

By making strength comments, you can build or alter a person's self-concept for the positive. Your work environment will be filled with most positive and engaged employees.

In Uncertain Times, Provide Steady Leadership

Leadership is challenging even during good times, but when business takes a downturn it can become especially difficult. Here’s some advice for keeping morale healthy even when the business environment is looking sick:

• Share some good news. Tell employees the honest truth about what’s happening, but be on the lookout for any signs of hope you can share—an unexpected sale to a big customer or a money-saving idea. A little bit of positive news can have a big impact when everything else seems dark.

• Coach more. Spend more time with your employees on improving their skills and performance. Concentrate on what they do well so they don’t view your attention as “punishment.” Emphasize how coaching and training benefits them, not just your organization.

• Look for something new. Don’t keep repeating the same old strategies, no matter how well they worked in the past. Embracing new venues like Twitter and FourSquare may lead to new sources of revenue and growth, and learning them will give your employees something to distract them from their worries.

• Renew your focus on customers. Stop obsessing about your own problems, and look outside your company for ideas and opportunities. Talk to customers about their problems, and you may find new business opportunities you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.

Big Ideas for the 21st Century Leader

Creating a New Corporate Value Proposition

  

·   Rather than trying to get more out of people, organizations are better served by investing more in them and meeting their multidimensional needs in order to fuel greater engagement and more sustainable high performance.

·   It’s not how much time we invest into our work that determines our productivity but rather the value we produce during the hours we work.

·   We must learn to embrace opposites. By celebrating one set of qualities and undervaluing another—courage or caution, confidence or humility, tenacity or flexibility—we lose access to essential dimensions of ourselves and others.

·   Because all virtues are interconnected, any strength overused ultimately becomes a liability. Honesty without compassion, for example, is cruelty. We create the highest value not by focusing solely on our strengths or ignoring our weaknesses but by being attentive to both.

·   The mind-set shift leaders need to make is from focusing too much on competency, the skills necessary for a given job and too little on capacity, the fuel people need in their tanks to bring their skills fully to life.

·   The best leaders strike a balance between challenging their people to exceed themselves and regularly recognizing and rewarding their accomplishments.

·   Leaders who default to negative emotions to motivate others may get short-term performance they’re seeking, but the costs over time are high.

·   Because the impact of “bad” is stronger than “good,” the first rule for an effective leader is the same as it is for doctors: above else do no harm. That means avoiding devaluing emotions such as anger, intimidation, disparagement, and shame.

·   Leaders who avoid conflict often cause even more harm than those who are more direct. The key for leaders is to balance honesty and appreciation, always keeping in mind the value of the other person, even when being critical of a particular behavior.

·   The best evidence of an organization’s values and purpose is to consider the behavior of its leaders. Transactional leaders focus narrowly on the “what”—how to get things done. Transformational and servant leaders are more focused on the purpose of their action and on meeting the needs of their employees.

·   Most employees are less inspired by a leader’s personal charisma than by a compelling purpose to rally around everyday. The most admired and effective leaders are those with the most inspiring vision and the greatest humility about themselves.