What is your most important asset?

“People are our most important asset.”  That is the slogan, right?

If they are, then why the rush to reduce headcount when the economy hits a tough spot?

Consider the plight of the airline industry following 911.  In the Newsweek  article, “Lay Off the Layoffs” Jeffrey Pfeffer writes about business overreliance on downsizing and the effect it is having.  Consider these excerpts:

On Sept. 12, 2001, there were no commercial flights in the United States. It was uncertain when airlines would be permitted to start flying again—or how many customers would be on them. Airlines faced not only the tragedy of 9/11 but the fact that economy was entering a recession. So almost immediately, all the U.S. airlines, save one, did what so many U.S. corporations are particularly skilled at doing: they began announcing tens of thousands of layoffs. Today the one airline that didn’t cut staff, Southwest, still has never had an involuntary layoff in its almost 40-year history. It’s now the largest domestic U.S. airline and has a market capitalization bigger than all its domestic competitors combined. As its former head of human resources once told me: “If people are your most important assets, why would you get rid of them?” 

Managers also underestimate the extent to which layoffs reduce morale and increase fear in the workplace. The AMA survey found that 88 percent of the companies that had downsized said that morale had declined. That carries costs, now and in the future. When the current recession ends, the first thing lots of employees are going to do is to look for another job. In the face of management actions that signal that companies don’t value employees, virtually every human-resource consulting firm reports high levels of employee disengagement and distrust of management. The Gallup organization finds that active disengagement — which Gallup defines as working to sabotage the performance of your employer—ranges from 16 percent to 19 percent. Employees who are unhappy and stressed out are more likely to steal from their employers—an especially large problem for retailers, where employee theft typically exceeds shoplifting losses…

Companies that behave humanely—by providing generous severance packages and allowing displaced employees to say goodbye to colleagues rather than marching them out the door—are likely to see a smaller hit to morale…

The facts seem clear. Layoffs are mostly bad for companies, harmful for the economy, and devastating for employees. This is not news, or should not be. There is substantial research literature in fields from epidemiology to organizational behavior documenting these effects. The damage from overzealous downsizing will linger even as the economy recovers…  (Emphasis added)

Personal Reflection

If people are your “most important assets”, how do they know that to be true?

What do you think?

Please encourage the discussion by posting your thoughts.

How will you move your engagement to the next level?

Whether you lead the company, own your business, manage a department, or “work for…” — employee engagement matters. 

Reality check: employers & employees, leaders & teams, managers & staff – you are in this together, or not. 

In light of the fact that the “or not” path is very expensive, it pays to give attention.  Yes, there is a reduction of pain and an increase in profit with every percentage point increase of…engaged people. 

Quick Review:

What do we know about people engagement at work?

• Chronic employee disengagement is very costly to business and people
• Relationship concepts:
  • Connecting
  • Respecting
  • Valuing
  • Having Voice
• Step One of engagement is in your court: how engaged are you?
• The 3 levels of employee engagement:
  • “Engaged” – a contributor
  • “Not engaged” –  a wait-and-see attitude
  • The “actively disengaged” – consistently against virtually everything
• Disengagement is an emotionally painful way to work and live for everyone
• Gallup suggests 55% of all U.S. workers are not engaged while another 16% are actively disengaged
• There is some good news…the opportunity for growth
• Commitment and passion are basic to long term employee engagement 

Note: For more information, visit my previous posts starting with Employee a.k.a. People Engagement

What are the keys to engagement?

In the book Closing the Engagement Gap, Julie Gebauer and Don Lowman share Towers Perrin’s groundbreaking research and knowledge around employee engagement.  They draw on stories from CEOs, managers and employees at eight extraordinary organizations in technology, health care, retail, manufacturing, consumer goods and entertainment.

Here are the five keys that they suggest will unlock employees’ potential:

Know Them. Be as familiar with employees as you are with customers. Use that knowledge to shape workplace programs that win people’s hearts and minds.

Grow Them. Challenge and develop the workforce. People want to learn and excel in their jobs, and they commit to companies that help them.

Inspire Them. Establish an emotional connection. When people’s work has meaning, they are more inclined to do whatever it takes to ensure success.

Involve Them. Communicate clearly with employees, gather their input, and let them act. Knowledgeable, valued workers add more value.

Reward Them. Deliver a “deal” that is fair and meaningful. When people believe they are treated right and appreciated, they give more of their time and creative energy.

These five keys are from an employer’s perspective.  If you are an employee, how could you re-frame these five keys? 

For Personal Reflection:

How would you rate your experience with the five keys?

How do you think you could “manage up” to close the gap?

What do you think?

Please encourage the discussion by posting your thoughts.

What is the cost of low people engagement?

The reality is this: chronic employee disengagement is costing businesses plenty today.  In Part 2 of this series, I suggested that the growing disconnection, detachment, and disengagement of today’s employees demands that leaders focus on core (people) skills.

Part 1 of this blog explored four key words associated with engagement: Connecting, Respect, Value, and Voice.

These core concepts are really about how you, as a leader, engage your people.

As Kerry Sulkowicz’s points out: “…if employees don’t feel that their (boss) isn’t the real McCoy on a human level, they won’t respond very well. They react with distrust, disengagement, and even despair at the prospect of an automaton at the helm.”  (Emphasis added)

The good news is that Step One of employee engagement is in your control: how engaged you are as a leader.  However, there is a shared responsibility in this matter.

Levels of Engagement

An engaged leader faces three levels of employee engagement as outlined in Gallup’s review: engaged, not engaged, or actively disengaged.

The “engaged” employees are builders. They use their talents, develop productive relationships, and multiply their effectiveness through those relationships. They perform at consistently high levels. They drive innovation and move their organization forward.

The employees that are “not engaged” aren’t necessarily negative or positive about their company. They basically take a wait-and-see attitude toward their job, their employer, and their coworkers. They hang back and don’t commit themselves.

This brings us to the “actively disengaged” employees — the “cave dwellers.” They’re “Consistently Against Virtually Everything.” We’ve all worked with an actively disengaged employee who is not just unhappy at work; he acts out that unhappiness. Every day, actively disengaged employees tear down what their engaged coworkers are building.  (Emphasis added)

 

Engagement and Pain

In terms of relationship, the act of “breaking off” an engagement – canceling the wedding plans and managing the return of gifts received – is not on an engaged couple’s list.  Not only is it expensive in terms of lost deposits and time, disengagement is an emotionally painful process.

According to Curt Coffman, Global Practice Leader for Q¹² Management Consulting and coauthor of Gallup’s best-selling book on great managers - First, Break All the Rules – a large portion of the work force is disengaged.  That means they are living with the emotional pain of disengagement.

Gallup suggests 55% of all U.S. workers are not engaged while another 16% are actively disengaged. This means over 70% of American workers are disengaged on the job.  The estimate of what actively disengaged workers cost the American economy is up to $350 billion per year.

This is sobering, to think that 71% of our working population lives each day with the emotional pain and frustration of disengagement at work.  Furthermore, American businesses are operating at one third of their capacity.  Think about it; what if only one third of a bank’s branches opened today?  What does this look like in your company?

This is the human capital bad news; is there any good news in this reality check?

The good news has to be this: the opportunity for growth.

What will happen with an increase of engaged people in your operation? 

Step One: live as an engaged leader and embrace this opportunity for growth.  

How to tap into this “opportunity for growth”? 

Returning to the analogy of our engaged couple, beyond their commitment level, what do we find?  What must a couple have to move forward in a lifelong relationship?

To stay the course requires commitment and passion.  For a couple, this intense emotion is the result of liking each other.  They are “enthusiastic” about the each other.  They are passionate about the “love of their life”.

To stay engaged, as an employee, requires commitment and passion, too.  Being passionate about one’s work is basic to employee engagement.  People who love what they do will make a difference in their world.

Even when you are an engaged leader, if your employees are not passionate about their role it will be difficult for them to remain engaged and committed.  Living life with purpose and passion, while serving others is the key to a satisfying work life experience.

For personal reflection:

When it comes to levels of people engagement, how do you stack up against Gallop’s statistics? 

What would happen in your organization with an increase of engaged people? 

What do you think?

Please encourage the discussion by posting your thoughts.

How important is engaged leadership?

When it comes to relationships, we understand the implications of a certain agreement between two people before marriage.  A couple’s engagement tells everyone of their commitment to each other and to the rugged journey of marriage which starts sometime after the honeymoon.

Commitment gets at the heart of what employee engagement is about.  The commitment is between you, the “employee”, and involves this rugged journey of “working together”.  The honeymoon will last less than six months.  (Let’s save that for another time).

As you know, creating a team of responsible, loyal, and dedicated people who keep their word and you can count on is vital to your success. What happens to your world, your business, and your profit when you have an engaged team? What is the affect on customer satisfaction, employee retention, productivity, and profitability?

The reality is this: chronic employee disengagement is costing businesses plenty today.  This growing disconnection, detachment, disinterest, and disengagement demands leaders focus on core (soft) skills…people skills.

Last week’s blog could have been entitled: “Leadership Engagement”.  We explored four key words associated with engagement:

• Connecting
• Respect
• Value, and
• Voice

These core concepts are really about how you, as a leader, engage your people.

Consider a recent Wall Street Journal article in which David Enrich writes about Citigroup’s CEO front runner.  

Mr. Medina-Mora has carefully tended his personal image. Several years ago, he hired an assistant to help overhaul his appearance, shed his eyeglasses, bought a wardrobe of expensive suits and started working out with a personal trainer, according to colleagues.

The executive also devoted himself to becoming a better speaker. He carefully rehearses speeches and important phone calls. At employee meetings, Mr. Medina-Mora tends to arrive a few minutes late so his deputies can make sure participants are seated before he enters. He is known for delivering elaborate, intricately choreographed PowerPoint presentations. 

“He’s a complete show,” one longtime associate said, “and there’s a whole apparatus behind putting the show together. He prepares for everything.”

This does not discount the value of image, public speaking, and preparation. The question is this: what do the employees want in their new leader, “a complete show” or someone that is engaged with them?

I appreciate Kerry Sulkowicz’s observation when he writes about Mr. Median-Mora and the need for authenticity at the leadership helm of Citigroup.

Will the real Mr. Medina-Mora please stand up?

Your own staff can sniff out an overly orchestrated persona long before the Wall Street Journal writes about it. And, if employees don’t feel that their CEO (or any boss, for that matter) isn’t the real McCoy on a human level, they won’t respond very well. They react with distrust, disengagement, and even despair at the prospect of an automaton at the helm.

Just as children require emotional attunement from real, caring, nurturing adults, employees need something akin to the same from their CEOs.   (Emphasis added)

What is the first step toward increased engagement of employees?  

 How well do you engage your people?  

How has the pressure of the economy, the bottom line, and “doing more with less” affected your level of engagement?  How are your relationships?

How well do you Connect, Respect, Value, and Raise the Voice of your employees?  How effectively are your leaders engaging employees at all levels? 

Perhaps a few minutes of reflection on these core skills will pay off…

1.      Connecting

A good connection with the people in your organization will help you arrive at your destination.  Remove the connection to your people and you can forget achieving your desired outcome. How is your capacity to get along with people and connect them to others? 

2.      Respect

In simplest terms, respect is showing consideration and thoughtfulness to another person. A deep appreciation of others is required for collaboration. Failure to earn the respect of others greatly hinders loyalty and commitment to you and the success of the organization.  Would people say your focus is on self or others? 

3.      Value

A rigid bottom-line focus makes it is easy to lose sight of the person. Once a person begins to feel viewed like an object, disengagement is sure to follow.  Do you care enough to acknowledge the worth and importance of people beyond their usefulness as a human being?

4.      Giving Voice

When we connect, respect, and value people enough to listen and notice them as individuals we will not only hear them speak but learn what excites them.  How well do you listen? How well do you know the strengths of your team?  How open are you to their input?  How well do your create opportunity for them to use their strengths?

The good news is this: step one is in your control, it is about how you and your leadership team engage your people.

For personal reflection:

What core, people skill have you identified as one to give attention to? 

How will you sharpen this skill?

What do you think?

Please encourage the discussion by posting your thoughts.

How do you support employee engagement?

“Wow, you know my name!”

That was the response Jennifer* in the “home office” received from a front-line employee.  All she did was respond to his request by saying, “Your name is Mark*, right?”

Why do think Mark gave such an emotional response?

“Wow, you know my name!” reveals a lot to the discerning leader of people. What do you see or hear in his words? 

Here are a few key concepts around engagement; not exhaustive just simple thoughts.  The four words are: Connecting, Respect, Value, and Voice.

1.   Connecting

When it comes to employee engagement, we know it is not about the exchange of time for money.  It is about connecting.  A connecting flight allows you to arrive at your destination.  A good connection with the people in your organization will help you arrive at your destination, as well. 

Nature makes the performance value of connecting easy to understand. Consider the tomato plant and notice all the connections that allow it to create one of my favorite fruits. 

In general, the plant uses its roots to extract water from the soil, its leaf absorbs carbon dioxide from the air, energy from the sun…the stem transports the water and nutrients producing both oxygen AND the delicious tomato. 

Remove the connections and we can forget the desired outcome.

The ability to connect or join people together in a common cause – too often called a “soft” skill – is actually a core leadership skill. Your capacity to get along with people and connect them to one another, as a “team”, is vitally important to results.  

“You know my name!”  

2.   Respect

Beyond connecting, support of employee engagement can occur when we meet the human need for respect. In simplest terms, respect is showing consideration and thoughtfulness to another person.  

For collaboration, a deeper appreciation, admiration, and deference toward others is required.  To expect a team member to give their best while withholding respect is unrealistic and unnlikely.  If a leader fails to earn the respect of others, loyalty and commitment will be absent.

This basic respect goes a long way in human relationships allowing us to get things done.  When we re-direct our focus from self to others and truly care about them, performance will come, too.  

3.   Value

A rigid bottom-line focus makes it is easy to lose sight of the person. Once a person begins to feel like an object, disengagement follows.  We value a person when we care enough to acknowledge their worth and importance as a human person more than their usefulness as a human being.

From Gallup’s research, originally released in First, Break All the Rules and then, 12: The Elements of Great Managing, you probably know the concepts.  Jennifer’s story prompts this friendly reminder.

Do you re-call the question associated with the Top 5 in the list of 12 great managing elements?

Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?

Yes, the intent of Question 5 goes beyond just knowing an employees’ name. People want to know – Do you care about me…are you interested in my story…do you have concern beyond the job I do…do you care about my working conditions?

Whether the new reality show Undercover Boss is all that it appears to be or not, I see one consistent message: these CEO’s are relearning the value of their front line people and the work they do.  “You know my name!”

There is one more concept I want to suggest: giving voice to others.

4.   Giving Voice

Our leadership influence is limited if our ability to connect, respect, and value others does include giving voice to others.  To evaluate how well you give voice to others consider these questions:

• How open are you to other’s ideas and opinions? 
• Do you finish other’s sentences for them? 
• Do you take credit for work others accomplished? 
• When you “delegate” do you also tell them how to do complete the assignment, beyond stating the desired outcome?
• How well do you listen? 

Now, how do you know your answers are true…?

Stephen Covey, in answer to the question, “How can we help someone find his or her voice?” responds:

 I think if you care about people genuinely, you listen to them and observe them; because this is more than just hearing them speak, it is observing them – observing where their excitement is, where their enthusiasm is; observing where you sense they have potential.

Sometimes it is very powerful just to say to them in sincerity, “I believe you have great potential in this area. I see real strengths in you that you may not see in yourself, and I would like to create an opportunity for you to use those strengths and to develop this potential. Would you be interested in that?”

What is the biggest problem a manager faces today?

During a Gallup Management Journal interview, Rodd Wagner, a principal at Gallup, and James K. Harter, Ph.D., chief scientist for Gallup’s international workplace management practice were asked, “What is the biggest problem facing managers today?” 

There are actually two primary problems facing managers.

First is the idea that almost anyone can be a manager, when in fact, it requires certain talents and really ought to be viewed as a specialty. This view often puts the wrong people in management jobs and creates too little focus on improving the quality of managing.

Second is the contempt for what are sometimes dismissively called the “soft skills” of working with people compared with the “hard skills” of understanding numbers and processes. Great managers are incredibly perceptive about human nature. It’s a rare and typically undervalued ability.

There is more to employee engagement than these four core people skills – connecting, respect, value, and giving voice.  Using these core skills to build relationships will encourage high performing teams.

For personal reflection:

Which of these four core skills do you use effectively?

What do you think?

Please add to the discussion by posting your comments.

*For privacy purposes, this is not the person’s name.