Employee Engagement is More than Just Rewards

At the beginning of May, Kelly Graves published a compelling new book titled The Management and Employee Development Review: Competitive Advantage through Transformative Teamwork and Evolved Mindsets, which helps managers build a motivated an engaged workforce. I spoke to Kelly this past week, and I asked him: What are the common mistakes managers make when trying to motivate employees? What can managers do to successfully engage and motivate employees? Here is his detailed answer:

It is human nature for managers to take the path of least resistance, and this choice often leads to only temporarily solving symptoms -- not the core problems. When motivating employees, however, it is wise to look to behavior modification techniques to guide you. First, let’s look at what most managers attempt to do to motivate employees -- Often, they want to prove they have all the answers or simply short-cut the process due to time constraints, so they follow what they have seen or read what other managers have done to motivate employees. 

Many managers rely on what they think employees want using short-term rewards -- such as money, pizza parties, gift cards, or a fun-oriented team-building event with no long-term follow-through, which can often cause more harm than productivity if not handled by someone educated in cultural dynamics. These are all fun ideas and may provide short-term excitement but they will not create lasting motivation. In fact, employees may not want some of these because they involve spending more time away from their families and more time with people at work, with whom they feel they already spend too much time. In addition, one-time financial rewards doesn’t directly equate to long-term motivation.

As a manager, it is imperative above all else to provide that “why” to your team -- why are they here and why they should embrace the company goals.In other words, you must give them something to believe in that is bigger than themselves.  Provide them with a clear destination, and make sure they understand that this goal is paramount for the success of the organization, the department but more importantly, how it directly impacts their lives. The central objective of a great manager and motivator of people is to touch your employees at their core so they see and believe in your vision as fervently as you. To achieve this higher state, one must climb inside the mind of their employees and tap into their intrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is the desire to seek out new challenges, to analyze one's capacity, and to observe and to gain knowledge. It is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than relying on external pressures or a desire for reward. Intrinsic motivation is a natural motivational tendency and is a critical element in cognitive, social, and physical development. Employees who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to engage in the task willingly as well as work to improve their skills, which will increase their capabilities. Employees are likely to be intrinsically motivated if they:

•    Attribute their results to factors under their control, also known as autonomy.

•    Believe they have the skills to be effective agents in reaching their desired goals, also known as self-efficacy beliefs.

•    Are interested in mastering a skill, not just in achieving it for some outside force.

Try these 10 steps to motivate your employees: 

1. Provide a healthy environment: As the manager, it is your responsibility to provide the environment that enables members of your team to feel challenged and engaged by the work they perform.  
2.  Create a trusting environment: Trust is a powerful motivational element and managers that are more transparent with their employees will create employees who return that trust. Once trust is part of the culture, innovation, creativity and performance follow. 
3. Involve them: Asking what  would make their jobs easier, more productive and more fulfilling. In essence, people want to feel valued and acknowledged for their expertise.
4. Encourage responsible risk taking: Encourage your employees to exceed expectations by taking responsible risks. If they succeed, reinforce the effort and the ability to take responsible risk. If they fail, ask what parts went well and what parts didn’t. Help them to learn and utilize critical thinking skills so they can learn how to learn to take responsible risk. 
5. Anticipate failure and normalize it: Coach your employees that responsible risk taking comes with a certain amount of experimentation or adjustment also known as short-term failure. This type of thinking must be coached or all you will have on your team are drones following your lead or “doing it the way we have always done it” due to fear to step out of their comfort zones, which will result in continuous mediocrity. 
6.  Challenging Work: People simply want to improve at their jobs. Overcoming a challenge or finding a creative solution to a problem is a characteristic that strongly motivates employees. 
7. Career Advancement: One of the most forgotten yet powerful motivators are helping employees outline their careers. Employees are extremely motivated when they know what the next rung on the ladder looks like and what they need to do to achieve it. 
8.  A clearly defined goal. First the manager needs to outline what the department goals are. Next, spelling out specific tasks and behaviors which support the department goals help employees understand how they contribute to the greater organizational objectives. This helps the employee understand the organizational objectives, how the departments goals directly support’s the organizational objectives and how their specific tasks and behaviors directly support the department goals. This concept transcends work for the sake of work and teaches them how they directly contribute to the success of the company. 
9. Give regular, direct and supportive feedback: Both positive and performance enhancing feedback is vital to continuous improvement and when done well it provides the motivation to move employees continually on the path toward success. Feedback needs to be timely, specific and presented in such a way that the employee is clear about what behaviors they need to modify or continue using in order to improve performance.  
10. Recognition and increased status when the goal is achieved: People not only want to be recognized for doing a good job, their emotional well-being depends on it. Similar to involving them in the process is recognizing them in front of others, which increases their status among peers. This simple tip will jump start a poor performer or catapult an already strong performer to superstardom.

What do think of Kelly's advice? As a manager, what do you think works best regarding work culture and employee engagement?

How Do You Engage, Involve, and Motivate Employees?

Any Lean or performance-improvement initiative cannot survive on tools alone. Leaders must cultivate learning environments and develop the shared values that serve as the foundation for  dynamic culture. This month, Janis Allen and Mike McCarthy published an interesting book called How to Engage, Involve, and Motivate Employees: Building a Culture of Lean Leadership and Two-Way Communication that shows just how important it is to motivate and excite employees to take ownership of their roles.

When I spoke with Mike recently, I asked him, "Why do current employee-engagement programs fall short?” Here is his complete answer:

When asked, “Do you have an employee engagement program?” many managers answer, “Sure! Look at these engagement survey scores.” Beware! Quite often, people tell us what we want to hear on engagement surveys. If you really want to know about engagement, gemba gembutsu (go to the shop floor and see for yourself). Ask questions. Ask operators what ideas they have for improving the work. Then: 1. listen, and 2. help them test their ideas. You are now engaging people in improving their own work.

“Engagement” is a noun. Nouns are names of objects. Engage is a verb. Verbs are action. So, instead of asking your company’s managers “Do you have engagement?” say “Let’s go walk the shop floor and engage with our operators by asking what improvements they are making.” It’s the difference between saying “I have a stapler,” (the name of the object sitting on the desk doing nothing) and saying “I’m stapling these papers” (stapling is a verb, action, and you are doing something).

Engaged = observable actions by employees working on improvements. So, when a visitor comes into your workplace and asks, “Are your employees engaged?” say, “Let’s go talk to them. Then you tell me.” Take that visitor to the work area and introduce him to an employee. Say, “Allie, would you show our visitor the changes the team made on the shop floor?” If your employees can do this, they are actively engaged. The purpose of engaging employees is to inspire them to make improvements they can be proud of.

Survey Scores Vs. Go Engage. My new automobile monitors oil level, tire pressure, and other indicators electronically. I get an email with a link once a month that shows me if the tire pressure etc. has been low during the past month. What’s wrong with this picture? After all, I “have” a tire pressure report. Here’s what’s wrong: If I’m about to go on a long trip, I need to know right now if the tire pressure is low. I need to go to the garage (gemba gembutsu) and measure the psi in my tires by pressing (action verb) my tire pressure gauge to each valve stem and see for myself. When your focus is on a measurement tool rather than the actions you want, you get off track. If you steadily gazed at the speedometer while driving, you’d run off the road!

“What do you want me to say, Boss?” Many employees don’t tell the truth on engagement surveys; they say what they think management expects them to say. And in case this so-called anonymous survey isn’t really anonymous, who wants to be the one who says, “I’m not engaged?” This is another reason survey data is not an accurate indicator of actual engagement.

At an airline departure gate, we heard the announcement, “Please complete our customer survey when you receive the email. We want you to rate us a five, not a four. Five is alive; four is out the door. Ha ha. Just to help you remember to rate us a five, we have this basket of snacks here on the counter for you. Help yourselves. It’s not a bribe or anything.”

We saw a half-dozen people help themselves to the snacks. We wonder how many completed the survey, and even if they all rated the airline “Five is alive,” if it was an accurate indicator of their customer experience, whether they would fly with that airline again, and what they tell their colleagues about that airline. Often, people say what they think someone wants to hear. Why not? The person giving the score has nothing to lose. So beware of surveys. People have all kinds of wrong motives for the ratings they give.

Leaders can show people how they can take actions to make improvements they can be proud of. You can help them to do it. The most important results for your organization are the real actions taken to make improvements. But a positive side-effect of those engagement actions is that answers on engagement surveys will also improve. The survey improvement will be based on employees’ actions, their good results, and the satisfying feeling of being on a team. With action-focused engagement, your survey results will be based on actions and their real experience, not just words! And your company will be growing and prospering. 

Does your company have an employee-engagement program? Does it commit many of the mistakes Mike McCarthy mentioned here?

Will Independent Contractors, Free Agents, and Freelancers Dominate the Marketplace?

There is a valuable new book out on the market titled Free Agent: The Independent Professional's Roadmap to Self-Employment Success, and it addresses the seismic shift occurring with employer/employee relationships. Katy Tynan authored the book, and she believes that success in the changing marketplace -- independent contractors now represent more than 20% of the workforce, and that number is expected to reach nearly 50% within the next 10 years -- requires a pragmatic action plan.

I spoke with Katy recently, and asked her: "Why are people choosing to work independently rather than looking for a job with benefits?" Here is her response:

It is true that being an employee comes (usually) with access to benefits and safety nets, such as unemployment insurance. For many working professionals, however, a full-time job comes with drawbacks too. Despite numerous high-profile efforts by companies to implement workplace flexibility programs, most businesses still require the average employee to adhere to a strict schedule, and to travel to the office regularly rather than working from home or wherever they are most productive.

In fact, employee satisfaction numbers are at an all-time low, dipping below 50% in a recent survey by The Conference Board. Moreover, research experts at Gallup report that less than 30% of U.S. workers report being actively engaged with their work, leaving over 70% of the employees in the workforce to simply go through the motions and collect a paycheck. 

It is no surprise if people find work so uninspiring that many are looking for alternatives. Elance, a freelance industry job board, found in its survey of freelancers that 70% were happier on their own than when they were working as employees, and 80% said they were more productive. An increasing number of professionals are choosing to opt out of working for an employer, both for the enjoyment of the work and the flexibility that freelancing offers. 

Do you see this shift in your industry? What are the benefits and drawbacks? I'd surely like to hear from those who have made the transition from salaried employee to full-time independent contractor.

Creating Productive Conversations Among Conflicting Employees

During a recent conversation with Steve Dinkin, president of the National Conflict Resolution Center and co-author of the recently published book The Exchange: A Bold and Proven Approach to Resolving Workplace Conflict, I asked him if he had any tips on how one can transform a meeting with conflicting employees into a productive conversation. Steve had quite a detailed answer, so I thought I'd include his complete response in this blog post:

Start with an icebreaker. Most people will be ready to complain, debate, or argue at the beginning of any conflict-based conversation. They have marshaled their most compelling arguments and are ready for battle. If you go straight to the topic of controversy, most people will quickly get stuck in defending their positions and attacking their opponents.

That’s why you need to do something different. You should begin with an icebreaker, but this is not just a light introductory activity. It is a way to non-confrontationally initiate a conversation about difficult issues. An ideal icebreaker asks for a person’s own take on something that’s both work-related and positive. For example, if the conflict involves two employees involved in the same project, you might break the ice by asking each of them how they became involved in the project and what they hoped to achieve.

It is important to listen. Conflict resolution is tricky because too many managers ignore the fact that sometimes what they aren’t saying is more important than what they are saying. Often the best resolutions come from listening carefully to what the other person has to say. Being an active listener sends the message that you are genuinely concerned about him or her and the dispute. Put plain and simply, it’s the best way to get good information.

Ask an open-ended question. It can be as simple as, ‘So, tell me, what’s going on?’ Then listen carefully to that person’s side of the story. You’ll know it’s time to insert yourself into the conversation when the discussion turns negative.

You can acknowledge someone’s emotions without seeming like you are taking his or her side. Especially at the beginning of talking about a conflict, you’re building rapport, even if it’s with an employee you’ve spoken with millions of times before. When there’s a conflict, you’re treading on new ground, and showing that person you are willing to see his or her side of the story is how you will set the foundation for working toward a solution.

Use and encourage positive language. This one might seem like a no-brainer, but any frustrated manager knows how easy it can be to slip into negativity after a conflict has affected a work group. Always think before you speak. Use positive, easy-to-understand language. Don’t fall into repeating, verbatim, paragraphs from your company’s HR manual.

Remember, you’re having a conversation, not a trial. If you keep the language positive, whoever you’re addressing will likely mirror what you’re doing. Even referring to the department’s needs can be stated in very positive terms, which will lead to a more collaborative (rather than punitive) tone in the discussion. For example, if the manager says, ‘This has increasingly affected the entire team, and we need to address it so we can get everyone focused back on the project goals and having a comfortable working environment. I am looking forward to establishing a good working relationship between the two of you and improving morale for everyone on the team,’ it will set a constructive atmosphere. When you keep things positive, you can work toward great solutions efficiently and effectively.

Work toward SMART solutions. Sustainable solutions are SMART solutions. That means they’re:

Specific -- Be clear about who will do what, when, where, and how.
Measurable -- Be clear about how you will all be able to tell that something has been done, achieved, or completed.
Achievable -- Make sure that whatever solution you agree on fits the situation; that it complies with both the law and organizational policy; that everyone involved has the ability and opportunity to do what is required of them. Don’t set up anyone to fail.
Realistic -- Check calendar dates for holidays and vacations; look at past performance to predict future actions; allow extra time for glitches and delays; don’t assume that the best-case scenarios will come true.
Timed -- Create reasonable deadlines or target dates; include a few ideas about what to do if something unexpected occurs; be willing to set new dates if necessary.

Once you have your SMART solutions in place, immediately put them in writing. Putting solutions in writing is very important, and not just for legal reasons (and for covering your back). It’s a way to honor the work that you and your employees have accomplished. It’s also a way to keep people’s memories from diverging from the agreed-upon solutions. Verbal agreements have a way of being remembered very differently by different people—and then becoming the subject of another conflict. It’s safer and easier for everyone to have the solutions written down, in order to be able to easily verify them later.

Do you agree with Steve's advice? Have you ever been in a meeting that's turned unproductive because the focus has been on bickering instead of achieving goals? Do you have any suggestions to add to Steve's response?

HBR Writers Are Rediscovering Some Lean Ideas

I always smile a little bit when I see business writers singing the praises of supposedly newly discovered truths that, in fact, have been known for some time to people familiar with lean concepts. The most recent examples are a couple of articles I came across on the website of the Harvard Business Review.

One is by author and economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett, discussing research related to her most recent book, Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business Is Down (Harvard Business Press). She talks about the importance of having employees engaged.

It's impossible to understate the importance of having a sense of community at work, especially in these turbulent times. After enduring wave after wave of job cuts, plant closings, and corporate bankruptcies, employees uniformly say that what enables them to keep going is being able to talk to others who listen to and understand their concerns.

As an example, she talks about technology company EMC and its use of social networking tools to create an online forum for collaboration and discussion – which led to a wide range of successful cost-saving ideas.

I have no argument with anything Hewlett is saying or with her use of EMC as an example. But I’m not surprised. For years, lean advocates have known the value of employee engagement and how it can be encouraged through cross-functional teams, the sharing of information and other tactics. EMC’s use of social networking is relatively new, but that’s just a tool to support a well-established strategy.

The other article is by Vineet Hayar, CEO of IT services company HCL Technologies. He champions the need for collaboration rather than competition with supply chain partners, particularly customers, to achieve success in today’s marketplace.

Where have I heard this before? Oh yes, I wrote about it recently in regard to hospitals learning to deal with engaged patients. (That wasn’t exactly what Hayar discusses, but it is a form of collaboration with customers.) And my post was not groundbreaking, but discussing concepts that have been around for a long time.

Hewlett and Hayar promote sound ideas, and that’s a good thing. It would be nice if their work didn’t treat those ideas as new, but gave credit to the thinking – particularly lean thinking – that preceded them.