Leading the ENGAGED Company
Over the last 18 months, there has been truckloads written on the importance of employee engagement during this recession and keeping focused on it as we crawl out of the recession.Our company believes that engagement is NOT a program but it is an integral part of the culture and leaders should encourage and reward “engagement” behaviors. We also believe that you must look at employee engagement along with customer engagement due to the relationship between the two, known as the Service Mirror or Spillover Effect.
So, if engagement is not an event or a program, but an integral part of the culture of the company….How do you LEAD an ENGAGED company?
1) You must understand what engages YOUR workforce because although there are many simlar engagement drivers from company to company, your strategy and culture are different. The order of those drivers may also be different. In other words, clearly defined expectations may be number one in your company and number six in another.
2) You must measure those drivers making sure you are delivering on those to your employees.
3) Understand what drives your customers engagement and align your deliverables around those.
4) You must measure those drivers making sure your are delivering on those to your customers.
5) Design rewards and performance management systems with engagement in mind, making sure engagement of employees and customers are a component of both.
6) Engagement is EVERYONE’S job. It’s not just HR’s job, it is not just management’s job. Everyone is responsible for both employee and customer engagement.
7) Allow employees to make customer recovery decisions at the point of service failure. This gives the employee the authority (influences engagement) and potentially saves a dissatisfied customer from telling all their friends about the experience.
Leaders must communicate and behave in a way that lets employees know that the customer is first and is the center of everything you do….the KEY is walking the talk. Employees know the difference. They can sense a service culture.
This list is not exhaustive by any means, please help me add to this list from your own experiences in leading engaged companies.
2 Comments on “ Leading the ENGAGED Company ”
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Yes! It is definitely not just HR or Management’s job to create and maintain engagement. One thing I’ve struggled with as an HR executive was the lack of integrated programs for achieving engagement. We could put in place an environment that was conducive to engagement – much as you’ve outlined above and we could provide individuals with insight into their “styles” and “types” and opportunities for empowerment but nothing truly tied it all together.
The more we can align each individual with the business goals relevant to him or her, the more engaged the organization will be as a whole. I’ve had success with this approach when we:
1. articulate clear objectives and expect discussion and decision about how those objectives will be achieved (success metrics)
2. Discuss and address the things in our way of achieving those objectives. (What can we fix, do differently, work around, or let go)
3. Take the time for a bit of emotional intelligence – how do we work together most effectively
4. Identify the unique talents and skills each individual has to bring to the goal – regardless of position, level, etc.
5. Incorporate the objectives, the expectations for collaboration, and recognition of strengths into a fluid, day to day performance conversation.
Easier said than done, for sure, but there are some really fantastic methods being developed based on recent brain research, motivation theory, and neuropsychology that will give us some cool frameworks to build on.
Thanks for a great post!
Posted on 5. December 2009 at 11:06
Thanks for reading and your comments. I agree with your points above. I especially like 5 a “day to day: performance conversation. Great stuff!
Posted on 7. December 2009 at 06:12