Perks = Employee Engagement (NOT)
Many of today’s leaders cling to the time worn idea that, because they offer incredible benefits to their employees it naturally follows that employees will enthusiastically engage in the work of the organization. Perks are seen as part of a quid pro quo—I scratched your back, now you scratch mine. Maybe it should be that way, it seems right, and yet it’s not, primarily due to human nature.
You see, we humans very quickly become used to having something and, once that happens, it is no longer seen as “special”.
Think of the last new car you purchased. Before you got it, weren’t you incredibly excited? You thought, “Once I get this, I won’t ask for anything more. It will be enough to make me happy.”
Then you got the car and for awhile you were over the moon, enjoying the feel of driving it, exploring all the new features, boring friends and family as you waxed poetic about it… and that new car smell! Nothing beats that!
But gradually, over time, you got used to it. And eventually it became…well, just a car.
So it is with benefits and perks. When employees are in the process of being hired, they become very enamored with the benefits your organization offers. They go home and tell their families about them. They think, “If I get this job, I won’t ask for anything more. It will be enough to make me happy.”
Your existing employees, when presented with new benefits your HR department has worked to acquire for them get excited. Unfortunately, just like the new car, over time, they get used to having these things. And now they’re just…well, benefits. Ho Hum. If you’re the owner of the company, this likely makes you a bit angry. But if you’re a leader within the company, you probably have the same attitude. You quickly got used to having all these wonderful perks.
Alas, Employee Engagement is not about money and perks. Wouldn’t it be great if it were? It would make the job of leadership so much easier! Of course, if your organization is limited as to how much money it can pay and how many perks it can provide, it would be bad news. But study after study places money surprisingly low in employee rankings of what’s important to them. For example, a 2015 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found 72% of employees ranked “respectful treatment of all employees at all levels” to be the most important factor in job satisfaction. The other factors in the top 5 were trust between employees and senior management (64%); benefits (63%), compensation/pay (61%); and job security (59%).
So what’s the answer? Employee engagement most often occurs when workers have opportunities every day to use their creativity. If you want engaged employees, if you want them to own their results, you’re going to have to do something to inspire that ownership which, by the way, every one of them wants but may not know how to produce on their own. It has nothing to do with their intelligence; it’s more about whether they feel they have permission to be creative. Can they apply their own style or are they simply supposed to do the job as they were taught?
One way to allow your team to use their creativity is to build a culture of continuous improvement. Let each team member know he’s in charge of improvement for his specific job. I promise you, they have ideas. Your role, as their leader, is to create a culture in which their voices can be heard. Build a culture in which the motto you exemplify is: there are no stupid ideas. And watch as your people become more engaged.
Are we there yet?
In my last blog we discussed the 3rd of four key action components of leading your team:
- You know and completely understand what the team destination/goal is,
- You clearly communicate that destination to your team,
- You solicit their input for how to get there, and
- You are a walking, breathing scoreboard!
Today let’s tackle the 4th and final component – You are a walking, breathing scoreboard!
When I was Manager of Marketing Intelligence for a software company, every leader went through an annual 360o feedback process, which, by the way, is key if you have any hope of improving employee engagement.
One of the more important pieces of data I heard from my team is that, while I was skilled at providing direction, I was lacking when it came to letting them know what happened during and after the project or task was complete.
What I learned from that is twofold: (1) we all want to know where we stand in relation to each goal; and (2) we want to clearly understand the impact of our work.
Yes, we all want to know where we stand; Millennials insist on it. If your leadership style is, “I told you once you’re doing well. If it changes, I’ll let you know,” you likely have issues with your team’s productivity and ownership of their work.
We are a society deeply entrenched in keeping score, whether it’s in sports, competition-based reality shows, or political polls. Imagine watching a basketball game where they’ve changed the rules and, instead of revealing the score as the game unfolds, you don’t find out who won until the game is over! That’s what it feels like to your employees when you assign goals and don’t let them know the score as they forge ahead.
There is the argument that employees should know where they stand in relation to the goal. That might be possible if the goal remained fixed but you and I both understand that the goal/deliverables of nearly all projects are adapted as they move forward. If we forget to pass those changes along to those who are doing the work, they end up working toward a goal that no longer exists; they tend to become demotivated and less productive. This is one of the more compelling reasons for you to be a walking, breathing scoreboard, And even if the goal remains fixed and they do know where they stand, your employees want assurance that you agree with their assessment of where they stand in relation to the goal.
When employees know where they stand, they get more motivated. And here’s the interesting part: they get more motivated even if they find out they’re behind. If they’re on track, it feels good and they want to do more. When they know they’re behind, they become more determined to catch up. Could there be a better reason to keep them informed of the status?
Employee Engagement (and leaders are employees, too) is all about having opportunities every day to use your creativity. When you and your team know where you stand in relation to your goals you know where your creativity is most needed, you become more engaged as you apply it.
Whaaaaat? Ask my TEAM for input?
In my last blog we discussed the 2nd of the four key actions to lead your team effectively:
- You know and completely understand what the team destination/goal is,
- You clearly communicate that destination to your team,
- You solicit their input for how to get there, and
- You are a walking, breathing scoreboard!
Today let’s tackle #3 – Solicit your team’s input for how to get to the destination/goal.
If you follow my work at all, you know how little I think of Command & Control as a delegation tool (except in cases where safety is threatened). In fact, it’s not a tool at all; it’s a method of trying to control the uncontrollable—other people’s actions.
Command and control is unquestionably faster at the front end for the “commander” but too often causes lots of time-consuming “clean up” at the back end for the entire team. Haven’t you ever wondered, “Why is it we never have time to do it right in the first place but we ALWAYS have time to fix it?” Tasks or projects that get done incorrectly are the inevitable result of not soliciting input from your team on how to get to your destination/goal.
Motivation occurs when the entire team wrestles with the question, “Who do we need to be and how do we need to behave to reach our destination/ goal?” If the leader is the only one looking for answers to this question, then it will always be up to him/her to achieve the milestones to get there. If, instead, the entire team is pondering this question and coming up with action items, then they are motivated to forge ahead.
Let’s take the focus off your team for the moment and place it on you so you can fully grasp the problem with command-and-control.
When your boss or a customer shares with you a result s/he’d like you to produce, what is the first thing you begin doing?
When I pose this question in my programs, the answer I most often get is, “I start thinking about how I’m going to do it.” If the requestor then starts telling you precisely how he wants you to do it, are you listening fully? No! At best, you’re hearing only half of what he’s saying because you and your mind are busy planning how you’re going to give him what he wants. This is why command-and-control doesn’t work. You could be the Yo-Yo Ma of giving good directions and it won’t matter if they don’t hear what you’re saying!
On the other hand, if you share a result you’d like them to produce and then you solicit their input by asking, “How do you think we should approach this,” they will reveal to you what’s in their heads. You will be privy to their plans for achieving what you’ve asked for and you can work with them to fine tune those plans.
The $100,000 question then becomes: what is the likelihood that the plans they came up with, and that you helped tweak, will be done as agreed? That’s right. The chances are well north of 95% because the plans were their idea in the first place! THAT is the strongest argument for soliciting your team’s input for how to get to the destination/goal.
If your team continually needs specific instructions from you on what to do in their areas of responsibility, then your leadership needs work. The first step is to stop using command-and-control. It’s not effective.
Employee Engagement is all about having opportunities every day to use your creativity. Input for how to do things is just another opportunity for creativity. Figure out where you want your team to go and then solicit from them the plans to get there. You’ll be amazed by their energy and motivation to get it done!
FOLLOW me to…um..where was it again?…wait, I know this…
In my last blog we discussed the first of four key action components of leading your team:
- You know and completely understand what the team destination/goal is,
- You clearly communicate that destination to your team,
- You solicit their input for how to get there, and
- You are a walking, breathing scoreboard!
Today let’s tackle #2 – Clearly communicate your destination to your team.
Tony Robbins, the world-class success coach is famous for saying, “Repetition is the mother of mastery.” And so it is. Continually communicating the destination to your team in ways that get them re-ignited is the mark of a true leader. Assuming they know the destination because you told them once or twice does not work, nor will it ever. They will forget. Heck, YOU and the rest of the leadership team forget half the time!
What does this have to do with basketball?
I use basketball teams as examples because, having grown up cheering for my hometown Boston Celtics, I love the game.
You don’t have to tell basketball players that the goal is winning each game; they know that and are behind it 100%. What they are likely to forget is that meeting that goal is not reaching the destination. The destination is creating a world-class team capable of winning the top competition whether it’s the WNBA Finals or the NCAA Championship.
Applying this to YOUR area of responsibility
If the final destination for your Customer Service Department (as an example) is 100% customer satisfaction, that end has to be reinforced continually, just as those basketball players have to be reminded in between games that there is more than the immediate game. How do you keep your team pointed in the right direction when the destination seems out of reach? It’s always about “acting as if” you’ll reach the destination. Motivation lies in answering the question, “Who do we need to be and how do we need to behave to reach this destination?” In my next blog we’ll discuss why it doesn’t work for only the leader to answer this question; the entire team needs to be involved.
How do we do it?
What I would like you to wrestle with today is this question: How can we keep the final destination uppermost in our minds as we go about our work each day? You get more of what you focus on. If you can find some clever ways to keep you and the rest of the team focused on where you’re headed, the work will not only be more enjoyable, it will be more meaningful
Employee Engagement (and you are an employee) is all about having opportunities every day to use your creativity. Unless you know what it is you are trying to create, you will simply be doing busy work and where’s the engagement (or fun) in that?
If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going…
…Any Road Will Get You There
In my last blog (see below) I asked if you know where you’re taking your team and whether your team is clear about the destination. We identified four key action components of leading your team:
- You know and completely understand what the team destination/goal is
- You clearly communicate that destination to your team,
- You solicit their input for how to get there, and
- You are a walking, breathing scoreboard!
Before we can tackle each of the four components above I asked you to complete some pre-work. If you didn’t do it, take some time now to complete it:
- Identify the destination/goal to which you are leading your team
- Why are you leading them there?
- How does your destination/goal fit into the larger organization’s destination/goal?
- How does it fit in with the overall Mission/Vision of the organization?
Today we’re going to talk about the first component:
Know and completely understand what the team destination/ goal is.
This might seems obvious and yet often, when you try and articulate it, it becomes confusing. Did you discover that to be true when you did the pre-work?
Here’s why. Let’s take the example of a Customer Service Department. The goal, of course, is to provide a level of service that results in satisfied customers. But what’s the final destination? How do you know when you’re there?
The final destination for any Customer Service Department is 100% customer satisfaction. And that can be frustrating because, based on human nature, it seems impossible. Nevertheless, that’s where any Customer Service Manager worth her salt is leading her department.
Unrealistic? Sure it is but that’s the thing about destinations in the business world. They ARE unrealistic. Who could have envisioned Facebook, Apple or Amazon? Could our great-grandparents have imagined flying to Europe let alone the moon? Well, someone did and today the impossible becoming reality is no longer surprising.
So wherever you are leading your team, understand that if the destination is easily reached, it’s not challenging enough for them to become engaged in its achievement. Remember, Employee Engagement is about your team having opportunities every day to use the creative parts of their minds. Our creative minds kick in when we have problems to solve, not when we are tasked with maintaining the status quo. Create a very big challenge for your team and watch them flourish.