Engaging Actions
by Miki SaxonTerms come and terms go, but their meaning stays fairly constant.
Managers used to strive for employee buy-in, ownership, commitment, involvement; today it’s engagement.
Management has worked to develop that behavior for decades, whereas the way to achieve it is as old as humanity.
Disengagement is costly, “Gallup estimates it costs the US economy about $300bn a year and that 17 per cent of employees are “actively” disengaged. These employees each cost their employers $13,000 a year in lost productivity.” That was last year and I’d bet that 2009 will be worse.
Managers of organizations with a high level of engagement know that achieving that is as simple as 1, 2, 3—4.
The 4 acts of engagement are
- respect;
- encouragement;
- support; and
- rewards.
This isn’t exactly secret management knowledge. There are thousands of books, hundreds of classes, dozens of blogs and forums all teaching variations on this theme.
So if it’s that simple, why isn’t it put into practice more often?
MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) is the reason. MAP shapes a person’s actions.
If you don’t really believe in the value or numbers 1 or 2, you can talk all day and your people will hear what you say as hollow, i.e., no authenticity.
Number 3, support, includes skills training and career development, but how do you provide these when money is tight or, even in good times, when your company doesn’t believe in it?
Ingenuity—not just yours, but your group’s.
Your people aren’t dumb, they know when the company can’t/won’t fund training, but there are tons of ways to work around that, such as building up a broad departmental learning library and sharing their own expertise with each other during organized brown bag lunch sessions.
Number 4 also usually involves money, as it should. But when there’s an authentic, provable lack of funds to provide significant rewards, every company can find enough, monetary and otherwise, to prove that they value their people’s contributions.
Again, people aren’t dumb. If the CEO, execs or their boss fly first class or receive a bonus after telling people that the company can’t afford raises or rewards, it shouldn’t be a surprise when they disengage and eventually leave.
That’s it; not rocket science, but you must do it consistently, sincerely and with great enthusiasm—no matter what else is going on.
Image credit: arte_ram on sxc.hu
