Employee Engagement Is Not A “Target”
Several companies think of Employee Engagement as an end-goal – a number – a target – a KPI. And we chase this elusive target. Endlessly at times!
Dov Seidman wrote an interesting piece in Bloomberg BusinessWeek on “Why We Cannot “Motivate” Employee Engagement”. Here are some excerpts which I found very interesting:
WHAT MASQUERADES AS ENGAGEMENT
This problem was illustrated in a recent IBM television commercial, in which a motivational speaker decked out in an “Innovation Man” costume struts in front of a line of office workers standing at attention. Innovation Man singles out one of the professionals and peppers him with repeated taunts and questions as to whether he is “fired up” to innovate. The worker dutifully responds, “Sir! Yes, sir!” Innovation Man then questions the employee’s commitment: “Why are you fired up?!” The befuddled employee pauses before replying, “I don’t have any idea.”
We cannot “motivate” engagement (or innovation, growth, or succession for that matter); instead, we must inspire the kind of outcomes we want by rooting ourselves in a set of values, being in the grip of an idea worthy of dedication and commitment, connecting around a meaningful and shared purpose, and aligning around a common, deep, and sustainable set of human, societal, and environmental values.
A VALUABLE, AND VALUES-BASED, ALTERNATIVE
This is the new frontier, where companies work in a systemic manner to ensure alignment of their purpose and mission to their business strategies and vision, and then cascade this inspiration through their core values into specific leadership behaviors. Only when observable leadership behaviors are identified, communicated, measured, tracked, managed, and integrated into business processes and talent-management systems can an organization evolve on its cultural journey.
Improving employee engagement does not require executives to don their motivational capes and work on improving employee engagement. Instead, the process begins with a simple question about the workforce, a query whose answer leaders should act upon: Are our employees inspired?
I agree with the viewpoint. While we still need metrics and conventional approaches to build accountability and ownership, sometimes we focus excessively on them and lose sight of the essence of the matter. A more intrinsic approach is called for.
A Lesson in Communication From Zappos
Even though I never brought anything from Zappos, I am fascinated by the company. I have heard so many good things about the organization, their culture and customer service. I even brought myself the book “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh (Zappos CEO) and it is “next” on my book shelf.
Apparently, Zappos just completed their 1st anniversary of their merger with Amazon and Tony posted the email he sent to all Zappos employees when the merger was announced (highly recommended for reading). The communication instantly struck a very positive note with me. It was:
- The message and the details are crisp and clear.
- He explained the rationale for the decision by highlighting the top 3 reasons, which are easy to understand.
- He clearly assured people about the incoming change at multiple points in the email. And, his assurance was complete, not guarded.
- Every change brings forth a lot of questions in the employees’ minds and Tony tries to answer them. But, very cleverly, the most burning questions are a part of the body of the main message, while the remaining are parked at the end of the message. It is so important not to overwhelm people with information overload.
- Tony comes across as extremely transparent in his communication. For instance, he handles the departure of a senior executive very transparently. And by the way, the very act of publishing an internal company email on the internet sets a very high standard of transparency!
- Values are important. They set the norms. And it is critical for leaders to communicate, clarify and live the values. They really define the culture. In explaining his decisions, Tony makes references to Zappos’ values such as “Embrace and Drive Change” and “Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication”. This is a beautiful way to talking to people with your actions centered around defined, accepted anchors.
- And finally, for most of it, he keeps the language “Human”. I cannot emphasize enough on this and several leaders and companies miss this mark. Tony clearly says that he is sticking to a formal tone in some instances because of legal requirements. But, for most parts, his tone, flow and words are very human and not traditional “business-speak”. I mean – one of the most commonly used phrases in business is “We would like to thank you for your patience and apologize for any inconvenience caused”. Why can’t we simply say “We are sorry. We are terribly sorry. We are so, so sorry”! Isn’t that more powerful?
As a leader, what are your communication mantras? What should be done to connect better with people?
Top 25 Online Influencers in Leadership
There is certainly an extreme sense of satisfaction to see this blog getting great response from people. I started this blog as a collection of my thoughts on everyday things and gradually made it focused on areas like employee engagement, HR, management, people, technology and the ideal enterprise.
Very recently, I found that I am on the List of Top 25 Online Influencers in Leadership. This list was drawn by the HR Examiner – a magazine focused on people, technology, ideas and careers of senior HR leaders. John Sumser is the editor of the magazine and is very well-known in the HR community. To me, the list is very prestigious, full of great people, including Tom Peters! I feel honoured and humbled at the same time.
I would like to thank YOU – for visiting my blog, leaving comments here, retweeting my blog posts and all your support.
