Turning Your People On (And Off)
by Miki SaxonAre the people you manage productive? Are they innovative? Do they outperform comparable teams?
Do you struggle to learn the latest leadership and employee engagement techniques only to find they have little or no real effect?
Steve Roesler did a great post on the subject of focusing and directing people’s passion in which he says,
“Employee engagement implies that there are vast numbers of workers malingering on the job–and we have to “get them engaged.”
I would suggest that there are vast numbers of managers who don’t know their people well enough to orchestrate work in ways that lift people’s desire to engage.”
The italics are Steve’s, the bold is mine.
The great difference between learning management, leadership and employee engagement techniques and learning about your people is in the focus—’I’ vs. ‘them’.
Too many managers focus on improving ‘I’ instead of knowing ‘them’.
Managers guilty of this are either blindly unaware of the consequences, haven’t learned that there is nothing they can learn or do as a manager that will offset an under-performing team or a combination thereof.
All that studying may bulk up their resumes, provide great talking points when interviewing and may even help land them their next job, but it’s unlikely to increase their retention rate, salaries and promotions in the current one.
Image credit: raichinger on sxc.hu
Your comments-priceless
Don’t miss a post! Subscribe via RSS or EMAIL
Subscribe to MAPping Company Success 